Zimbabwe: Celebrating Womanhood Through Song

"THIS business of womanhood is a heavy burden," moans Tsitsi Dangarembga as she examines the struggle of the fairer sex in a patriarchal world. It is indeed burdensome to be a woman, when everything seems to be skewed in her disfavour, as she is alienated from a society that expects her to lick its wounds at the same time spewing in her open palms. Motherhood is a kind of imprisonment that a woman finds herself trapped in as she juggles between societal whimsicality and individual satiation. The tug-of-war between societal expectations and individual aspirations pit the woman at the deep end, because the whirlwind that swirls at the marital base as a culmination of patriarchal pressure rocks her.

However, instead of sinking as society expects, her motherly instincts refuse to be suffocated as she is all too aware that she will not only be letting herself down, but her sex and offspring. She knows that society will never give her an ear if she shouts, and that screaming is an indication of defeat; so she finds a vent out of her predicament through song.

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