1,720,974 research outputs found
African Feminist Theories and the Gendered Dimensions of Climate Change in Africa
Full text linkThis paper analyses how African feminist theories can provide nuanced insights into the gendered dimensions of climate change across the continent. African feminist theories provide important insights into the everyday lived experiences of women within African spaces, allowing for a contextual analysis of the impacts of climate change. There has also been a growing recognition of the need to identify gender-differentiated impacts of climate change (Tuana 2013). The main argument is not only that climate change will be experienced by men and women differently but also that women will be more severely hurt by the impacts than men (MacGregor 2010). Yet this theorisation still needs to employ theoretical lenses that place African women at the centre of analysis. African feminist theories will be utilised to provide a theoretical account of embodied gender differences grounded in the complex realities of African women’s everyday experiences. African gender theories argue that research on women’s realities should be fully grounded in and informed local realities. African feminist theories are neither unitary nor homogenous but represent a radical rethinking of women’s experiences on the continent. The theories, however, speak directly to two concepts which will be key to this study: positionality and intersectionalities. By positionalities, the study will analyse how experiences of climate change depend on where women are situated and the conditions within which they exist that shape access and control of resources for resilience. The paper will thus focus on highlighting the intersectional complexities characterised by generational, class, identity, racial schisms and ethnic coalitions, as well as contradictions that define every day for women in different conditions on the continent
Women and the Emergence of Grassroots Institutions on Post-Fast Track Farms in Zimbabwe
Full text linkThe Fast Track Land Reform Programme in Zimbabwe led to the emergence of new communities on formerly white-owned land. The Zimbabwean government initiated two schemes: A1 (smallholder farming units of an average six hectares, each geared mainly toward household consumption) and A2 (large land sizes, at times over 400 hectares, geared toward commercial agriculture). This paper focuses on communities on A1 farms in Mazowe. These communities were born out of a chaotic and often violent process that precipitated economic and political crises. The new farmers found themselves faced with a myriad of social and service problems on the farms with a government that did not have the capacity to meet their needs. The farmers used various forms of social organization and farm-level grassroots organization to meet these challenges. This paper provides a gendered analysis of these organizational formations. It highlights that whilst social capital is important in building new farming communities, it can also lead to exclusion along gender lines. The paper thus focuses on the inclusion and exclusion of women from key productive institutions at the farm level. Findings also show that women act as active agents by forming their own groups (which, however, are not necessarily involved in governance on the farms). Through the use of qualitative methodologies on six purposively-sampled farming schemes in Mazowe, the paper argues that male domination of organizations affects women’s (particularly female heads of households) livelihoods. Women are largely excluded from decision-making in key productive institutions, which in most cases affects their access to communal productive assets. The paper concludes that romanticizing social capital hides how it can lead to gender-based exclusion
Social networks as anti-revolutionary forces: Facebook and political apathy among youth in urban Harare, Zimbabwe
Full text linkThe much celebrated Arab Spring has championed social media as an organizing force. This led to the celebration of a new revolutionary force for people seeking more justice and accountability from their leaders. Maghreb became the example to follow for others across Africa especially given the central role youth played in the revolts. This article questions the ability of social media to galvanize, organize and bring together youth in other parts of Africa to be actively involved in political processes within their own spaces. Using the example of urban youth in Harare, the article show that the most popular social networking site, Facebook, is anything but a site of deep political engagement. Rather, youth spent hours on the site discussing anything from fashion, gossip, sport, sex, relationships, religion and music. By removing youth from serious engagement with issues that affect their lives, social media is cultivating political apathy among Zimbabwean youth. There are little, if any, serious policy debates and discussions online. Social media alone is thus not a panacea to address youth political apathy in Africa
Of goals and whores: Football fandom and misogynistic songs at the Rufaro Stadium in Zimbabwe
No full textThis chapter focuses on the creation and recreation of women’s bodies through songs and chants among football fans in Harare. It offers an analysis of how stadiums are arenas for the celebration and reinforcement of hegemonic masculinities. Football fandom has proved a fertile ground for the display of masculine identities and the stadium has proved a readymade arena for the playing out of these identities. Fandom is a bastion of hegemonic masculinity. Football stadiums provide an arena in which masculinity is constructed around a clear and distinct set of defining norms. Exaltation of manhood is part of football in Zimbabwe. Patriarchal views on women are played out in the game of football through songs and chants. Hegemonic masculinity is performed and reinforced within the stadiums. Vulgar and misogynistic language ensures that watching football in Zimbabwe remains a male domain. The following discussion endeavors to offer a critical analysis of the songs and chants at football matches in Zimbabwe. Such songs and chants have become an important part of football fandom and are expressions of hegemonic masculinities. The chapter offers an analysis of the creation and recreation of woman’s body and its portrayal within the stadiums
Understanding social and solidarity economy in emergent communities: Lessons from post-fast track land reform farms in Mazowe, Zimbabwe
No full textThis paper deals with the emergent and evolving forms of social organization in Zimbabwe's post-Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP). It highlights the way in which these institutional formations show the emergence of a social and solidarity economy in which self-help and grassroots organizations surface as a viable alternative to state or capitalist interventions. In 2000 Zimbabwe experienced a major shift in its rural landscape when land occupation and government-initiated land reform saw the emergence of new communities of black farmers on formerly white-owned farms. The government of Zimbabwe had neither the funds nor the capacity to provide social amenities when the fast track programme began. This paper shows how small-scale farmer communities ensured service provision through their own initiative. The government did not have the resources to monitor, let alone force, people into functional communities. It is through informal farm level institutions built up through interaction and negotiation, and based on trust, reciprocity, unity of purpose and communality, that these communities have sustained their existence and are part of an emerging social and solidarity economy
Intersectional analysis of women human rights defenders’ lived experiences under COVID-19 lockdowns in Zimbabwe
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This paper focuses on providing a nuanced understanding of how COVID-19 lockdowns in Zimbabwe exacerbated the vulnerability of women human rights defenders (WHRDs). It utilises a desk research approach to narrate the lived experiences of WHRDs in a context where historically they have faced abuse, exclusion, and social and political stigma. COVID-19 evolved from a public health crisis to a sociopolitical and economic crisis that affected multiple groups. Government responses to COVID-19 exacerbated the ‘hostile environment’ specifically for WHRDs in different social and virtual spaces, and they had to grapple with the multi-dimensional crises of livelihoods, health, state repression, and everyday survival. Civil and political liberties came under severe attack in Zimbabwe after March 2020. The most apparent were the violations of the right to freedom of movement and the right to freedom of association (including the right to religion) through curtailment of population mobility as well as postponement of political and elections-related activities on 25 March 2020. In all these spaces WHRDs were targeted by government and their activities curtailed by the curfews imposed within communities. The soaring economic crisis and the effects of COVID-19 are intertwined with police brutality, abduction of political and media personalities including WHRDs, and harassment of press and silencing of WHRD voices. State-sponsored attacks against women have come in the form of beatings by the police and army, and arrests under the guise of enforcing COVID-19 restrictions. This paper also highlights the agency of WHRDs to continuously create spaces and ways to keep fighting for improved service delivery in the face of increased state repression, by confronting institutionalised impunity, risking jail to protect and promote civic and political rights, and challenging oppressive traditional practices.
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Farm level institutions in emergent communities in post fast track Zimbabwe: case of Mazowe district
Full text linkThe thesis seeks to understand how emerging communities borne out of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme in Zimbabwe have been able to ensure social cohesion and social service provision using farm level institutions. The Fast Track Programme brought together people from diverse backgrounds into new communities in the former commercial farming areas. The formation of new communities meant that, often, there were 'stranger households'living next to each other. Since 2000, these people have been involved in various processes aimed at turning clusters of homesteads into functioning communities through farm level institutions. Fast track land reform precipitated economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe characterised by a rapidly devaluating Zimbabwean dollar, enormous inflation and high unemployment figures. This economic crisis has impacted heavily on new farmers who find it increasingly difficult to afford inputs and access loans. They have formed social networks in response to these challenges, taking the form of farm level institutions such as farm committees, irrigation committees and health committees. The study uses case studies from small-scale 'A1 farmers‘ in Mazowe district which is in Mashonaland Central Province. It employs qualitative methodologies to enable a nuanced understanding of associational life in the new communities. Through focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, narratives, key informant interviews and institutional mapping the study outlines the formation, taxonomy, activities, roles, internal dynamics and social organisation of farm level institutions. The study also uses secondary data collected in 2007-08 by the Centre for Rural Development in the newly resettled areas in Mazowe. The major finding of the study is that farmers are organising in novel ways at grassroots levels to meet everyday challenges. These institutional forms however are internally weak, lacking leadership with a clear vision and they appear as if they are transitory in nature. They remain marginalised from national and global processes and isolated from critical connections to policy makers at all levels; thus A1 farmers remain voiceless and unable to have their interests addressed. Farm level institutions are at the forefront of the microeconomics of survival among these rural farmers. They are survivalist in nature and form, and this requires a major shift in focus if they are to be involved in developmental work. The institutions remain fragmented and compete amongst themselves for services from government without uniting as A1 farmers with similar interests and challenges
Analysis of Land-related Corruption in Zimbabwe
No full textThis paper provides an analysis of land-related corruption in Zimbabwe. It uses document analysis to highlight the emerging patterns, scope, scale and impacts of land-based corruption. Corruption has become an intrinsic part of everyday life in Zimbabwe, and this corruption is a manifestation of political power. This analysis moves beyond simply naming political actors involved in land-related corruption and highlights how corruption is not an individual act, but rather has to be understood as a function of systems and relationships. The paper focuses on communal areas, land reform programmes and urban land to indicate the existence of corruption through an extensive review of literature. It also provides an overview of the challenges facing various initiatives instituted to combat corruption. The paper concludes that land corruption is a function of power in its various guises; therefore, dealing with land corruption requires combating political powe
African Feminist Theories and the Gendered Dimensions of Climate Change in Africa
No full textThis paper analyzes how African feminist theories can provide nuanced insights into the gendered dimensions of climate change across the continent. African feminist theories provide essential insights into the everyday lived experiences of women within African spaces, allowing for a contextual analysis of the impacts of climate change. There has also been a growing recognition of the need to identify the gender-differentiated impacts of climate change. The main argument is not only that climate change will be experienced by men and women differently but also that the impacts will hurt women more severely. Yet this theorization must employ theoretical lenses that place African women at the center of analysis. African feminist theories will be utilized to provide a theoretical account of embodied gender differences grounded in the complex realities of African women’s everyday experiences. African gender theories argue that research on women’s realities should be thoroughly grounded and informed by local realities. African feminist theories are neither unitary nor homogenous but represent a radical rethinking of women’s experiences on the continent. However, the theories speak directly to two concepts critical to this study: positionality and intersectionality. By positionalities, the study analyses how experiences of climate change depend on where women are situated and the conditions within which they exist that shape access and control of resources for resilience. The paper thus focuses on highlighting the intersectional complexities characterized by generational, class, identity, racial schisms, and ethnic coalitions, as well as contradictions that define every day for women in different conditions on the continent
Efficacy of top-down approaches to post-conflict social coexistence and community building: Experiences from Zimbabwe
Full text linkThis paper provides an assessment of the work done by the Organ on National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration (ONHRI) in post- 2008 Zimbabwe. ONHRI was employed by the Zimbabwean government (precisely as Government of National Unity) to ensure national healing and integration. The efficacy of top-down approaches to social cohesion in post-conf lict contexts is questioned. The paper outlines how political expediency, mistrust and polarisation debilitated the work of ONHRI. There was little consultation done in creating ONHRI, especially with communities affected by political violence. Academics, civil society, smaller political parties and private entities were left out of the process of creating social cohesion mechanisms. For the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), the Organ was a concession on their part to the demands of the MDC and this led to problems in implementing its mandate. What transpired became a political cat and mouse game in which actors at the national level frustrated the process of uncovering the truth and the promotion of healing. ONHRI’s work has to be understood within a context of political competition in the Government of National Unity (GNU) in which self-interest overtook the mandate of the Organ. The paper therefore argues that Zimbabwe lost an opportunity to entrench grassroots social cohesion and healing processes.Keywords: National healing, social cohesion, Zimbabwe, Global Political Agreement, transitional justic
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