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The depoliticization of feminist movements across the globe has been intensifying for decades. Zimbabwe is generally going through a crisis of democracy and continued authoritarianism. The fragility of women's movements is even more profound in the face of increasing religious and cultural conservatism and backlash. Despite many successes, feminism in Zimbabwe has been depoliticized. The struggle's continued existenc,e as key for most women's movements, is dependent on foreign donor funding. This piece notes the history and process by which feminist constructs have come under assault, even from those who ought to be working within the confines of feminism, and its replacement with gender activism, supposedly a more moral, neutral and acceptable approach.
I highlight the profound implications for the movement, such as the overlooked, silenced or half-heartedly addressed agendas and the accompanying divisions amongst those who should be promoting women's agency and confronting neo-colonial agendas, increasing militarism and the neoliberal establishment. I argue for re-politicization through various transformational strategies. My article contributes to the re-reading of feminist activism in Zimbabwean spaces, and repositions feminist activism towards a transformational pathway.
History of women's struggles in Zimbabwe
Gender inequalities existed in many pre-colonial African societies in customary/kinship arrangements. Violence against women was largely uncensored, women had no legal rights under customary law, and were taught to be subordinate. Under colonial rule, patriarchy and gender inequalities were institutionalized, suppressing women. Patriarchy under settler-colonialism severely limited women's economic power, made them legal minors and enforced their domesticity.
Discrimination was pervasive mostly in relation to property (land). For instance, women lost access to land that was once guaranteed (albeit limited) under kinship systems in pre-colonial times where they would grow 'female crops'. As Africans were pushed into reserves (demarcated for Africans), women became the major victims of land dispossession. Land was commodified and the land allocated to Africans was solely registered under the name of the male head of household. With the colonial male migrant labour system, women left in reserves became overburdened as farm labourers whilst also engaging in caring for the sick, elderly and children, and managing households. Discriminatory criminal legislation, such as the Vagrancy Act, curtailed women's spatial mobility - for instance, they were disallowed on motorized vehicles (if unaccompanied by men). However, colonial patriarchy was dynamic and its treatment of women varied across time and space.
Women's agency and activism
Black Zimbabwean women's resistance to colonial patriarchy was not homogenous across time and space. They resisted and reshaped colonialism in various ways. These women were resisting double forms of patriarchy: colonial and African. Even before colonialism women challenged local patriarchal systems, for instance by refusing arranged marriages. The earliest women's groups in Zimbabwe were linked to missionary activities and the church, such as the Wesleyn women's group and Methodist women's Ruwadzano. They challenged forced polygamous marriages and bride wealth. Some young women got into mission schools to subvert forced marriages as well as gain access to formal education. Some women moved into urban areas and started operating underground businesses such as shabeens (illegal beer breweries) and to seek employment.
During postcolonial times, little has changed as Zimbabwe retained its entrenched patriarchal character. Leaders of nationalist movements were mostly men favouring the racial struggle, while blind to the intersectional gender struggles that women faced. Still, women were able to assert their agency to organize and resist both African male control and colonial domination.
In 1923 women joined the Rhodesian Bantu Voters Association, forming a Women's League within the male dominated Association. Wives of mine workers actively participated in labour protests such as the famous Shamva mine strike of 1927. Women entrepreneurs also successfully organized a Boycott of Beerhalls in 1934. This was a women-led national campaign to boycott municipal beerhalls in protest against colonial ordinances that forbade women from brewing traditional beers. The activism of working-class and self-employed women has been applauded for its role in the success of the 1948 general strike. In the 1950s, at the height of nationalism, urban women organized marches for the release of imprisoned nationalists and some, including Sally Mugabe, the wife of the late president of Zimbabwe, active in urban spaces like Salisbury and Bulawayo, were arrested.
Post-independence in 1980, a Ministry for Women's Affairs and Community Development was established as a space to tackle women's issues. However, women's access to paid employment, land and housing, issues of maintenance, and inheritance were not taken up by the ministry. Yet it was these issues that needed to be faced head on if women were to see any real change in their status. Elite women, especially in the Women's League of the ruling party, simply became appendages of patriarchal ruling classes without any fundamental changes in their conditions or those of other women. Welfare-orientated organizations, such as the Women's Bureau, rallied behind the Ministry of Women Affairs, building gender consciousness and the exploration of feminist issues. At this point, women activists in civil society realized that the state was not interested in taking the necessary steps to overcome women's subordination in Zimbabwean society, as was noted by Zimbabwean feminist, scholar-activist Shereen Essof.
Nonetheless, it was during the early post-independence period that a different kind of women's organizing was born. The new activism took place outside the state and brought women together from different sections of Zimbabwe. Women's civil society organizations such as Musasa emerged, introducing radical change in the women's agenda. Musasa defied the paternalistic and patriarchal structures of the state and demanded radical change in the situation of women. Musasa, founded by Sheelagh Stewart and Jill Taylor, was concerned with the long-standing problem of sexual and domestic violence. Its objective was to address the visible and growing issue of gender-based violence (GBV).The Women's Action Group (WAG) was formed shortly after in 1983 when a small group of Harare-based women called a series of public meetings that brought women workers (rural women farmers, factory workers, university teachers and nurses) together to discuss the violations perpetuated under Operation Clean-Up.[1] Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Education Trust was established in 1989 in Harare to contribute to the sustained well-being of women and girl children through action-oriented research in the socio-legal field. In 1990 Women in Law and Development in Africa was established by six women in Harare, after attending the World Women's Conference held in Nairobi to advance justice for women.
For the first time since colonial rule, the period 1985-95 saw black and white women working together in a post-independent society to challenge the patriarchal precepts of a society that tolerated the abuse of women by men, and the increasing invocation of tradition to validate discriminatory behaviour. The racial alliance was therefore necessary, partly triggered by the realization that some white women had lost the privileges and protections (such as freedom of movement and access to employment) they enjoyed under colonial rule. They were also subjected to violence and the same betrayal by the male dominated post-independent government. Both black and white women were excluded from the negotiations of the 1987 Peace Accord following the genocide that affected women and girls exposed to sexual violence. Regardless of race, women were also excluded from leadership positions in the newly formed post-independence government. Hence, by 1995, there were over 25 registered women's organizations addressing various aspects of women's lives in urban and rural areas. All these organizations were formed by women human rights defenders.
The activism of these women's organizations registered many successes. For example, in 2003 Jenni Williams formed another feminist organization called Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA) to raise women's awareness on democratic governance, observance of human rights and citizen participation. WOZA responded to the fast diminishing participatory space and the degeneration of the democratic institutions within the country, the enactment of restrictive legislation, coupled with an unprecedented economic meltdown. There were laws against freedom of assembly, free speech and press freedom that curtailed the women of women activists. WOZA also got involved in the constitutional reform debate led by the Women's Coalition of Zimbabwe (WCoZ) formed in 1999 to bring women into the then ongoing constitution-making process and peace-building. Their efforts, albeit taking a long time, resulted in the elaborate enactment of pro-women clauses in Zimbabwe's new constitution of 2013. From a feminist perspective, the need for a new constitution sought to get rid of discriminatory clauses in the Lancaster House Constitution, in particular Section 23 that permitted discrimination against women regarding property and the elevation of customary law in matters of inheritance and other issues.
WAG's efforts have contributed to the enactment of the Domestic Violence Act, input into the process of the development of the National Gender Policy, contributed to the Sexual Offences section of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, and engaged traditional leaders in HIV prevention and the reduction of gender based violence. Musasa's efforts culminated in the passing of the Domestic Violence Act in 2007 and continue to impact the policy direction of Zimbabwe in the area of GBV. Other major successes for women's activism through women's organizations were the Sexual Offences Act of 2001; the Women Parliamentary Quota system based on the liberal feminist ethos of affirmative action; and the increase in the legal age of sexual consent from 16 to 18 years old in 2022.
Gender activism versus feminist activism
The Zimbabwean women's movement has been hailed for several successes. Understandably, because women's organizations have been operating in a context of institutionalized patriarchal dominance, state violence and cultural backlash. In particular, after the 2000 Constitutional Referendum, violence against women's rights defenders increased as they were blamed for corrupting women into rejecting the proposed new constitution. The Zimbabwean state was characterized by political authoritarianism, e.g. in the 2000, 2001 and 2005 elections, and unprecedented economic decline, in which the violation of civil, political, social and economic rights increased dramatically. Hence the human-rights volume was turned down. Emphasis was put on rights for development, since this was safer, less threatening, and less divisive. This was the solid foundation of the depoliticized feminist movement currently found in Zimbabwe.
In the past, the women's movement seemed to have a clear ideological framework and grounding for interventions, both in liberal and radical feminism. Liberal feminism allowed them to push for Affirmative Action and Parliamentary Quotas which, analytically, seemed to be safe feminist politics because it simply integrated women into already discriminatory systems of education and leadership spaces. Still, over the years, a number of actors in the women's rights movement have moved away from acknowledging and/or owning the feminist and women's rights narrative. In fact, some of them do not wish to be publicly known or labelled feminist, sometimes despite the fact that their interventions may be feminist in ideology and strategy.
Other perspectives show that from the beginning, women's movements never really identified as feminist, possibly to avoid identifying with mainstream Western feminism. Nonetheless, women's organizations could still have articulated clear African feminist politics that resonated with some of the imperatives of African state building. But rather, most chose the label activist over feminist. Given the varied strands of African feminism, this could have provided an opportunity to work within feminist politics, But there seemed to be a sentiment, mostly influenced by the writings of Buchi Emecheta (1974) that the word feminism itself is not fit for Africans. The identity of woman/gender activist seemed more politically correct (conforming to prevailing opinion) than feminist. This trend speaks to the depoliticization of feminist struggles in Zimbabwe. It is strongly related to concerns about the loss of political identity. Many women's organizations over the years have become depoliticized in the sense that most of the actors in the movement do not readily accept radical or liberal feminist labels.
The feminist movements have chosen political correctness over coalescing around feminist political identity and confronting the state; hence they have been infiltrated, neutralized and de-politized. In the period from independence in 1980 to the early 1990s, it is clear that the discourse of national development enabled the women's movement to mobilize collectively around the project of the moment. State tolerance and co-optation of civic voices ensured that there was little opening of space or opportunity for dissent or debate. The language and ideology of development was attractive to the women's movement, and was a useful tool for organizing, providing a pull factor around which groups coalesced especially framed in liberal feminist language. However, radical feminist politics were not tolerated as it posed an existential threat to masculine domination and patriarchal order. Even today, the approach to empowerment has the power element taken out of it. That is why after the radical work by the WCoZ in 2000 to influence women to vote no in the referendum to endorse the new constitution, the state descended on women's rights activists with violence and imprisonment. Economic empowerment today mirrors the Women in Development approach of the past where women are integrated into disempowering neoliberal economic spaces but are not allowed to challenge or transform patriarchy and the entrenched masculine neoliberal economic order. Women's organizations continue to be trapped in the depoliticized discourses of national development.
In the global South, feminist activism has become increasingly NGO-ized, too often focusing on project-based work rather than broad-based criticism and action against the patriarchy in all its manifestations. Donor funding plays a crucial role in supporting feminist initiatives in Zimbabwe by providing financial resources for organizations and projects that aim to advance women's rights and gender equality. However, foreign donor funding can both empower and constrain feminist's movements. It is imperative for organizations to maintain their autonomy and independence.
Funding in most cases is directed towards implementing specific projects. Hence, actions of women's organizations have been affected by the expectations and standards imposed by donors. For example, a number of women's organizations have been encouraged to work collaboratively and receive basket funding. While this is convenient for funding partners and donors, it has compromised the individuality and therefore the mobilizing strengths of the different organizations. Organizations have also been pushed to work on issues that they may not necessarily prioritize because that is what donors will fund, at the expense of their mandate and therefore their opportunity to mobilize stakeholders. The other challenge is that programmes feminist organizations are funded to work on tend not to question or challenge patriarchal norms, but rather focus on piecemeal activities such as small livelihoods projects. Women are hardly found in the main economic spaces such as large scale farming and mines. Frankly, these so-called economic projects do not transform patriarchy.
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Women's organizations are even indirectly supporting neoliberal reforms in the name of 'economic empowerment' programmes. Feminist action has become less focused on broad-based activism against the patriarchy and has shifted to project-based work, creating a gap between feminist theory and feminist activism. Win argues that donor funding can create power imbalances and can be used to undermine grassroots activism. This has impacted on the efforts to nurture common ground amongst the actors in the women's movement. Together with the failure to fully embrace feminist political ideologies, the ever existing political instability in the country has affected the apparent unity of the women's movement, and has brought into sharp focus the need to go beyond female identity as the lowest common denominator unifying factor between individuals and organizations in the movement. The apparent unity in the women's movement has been exposed as an illusion.
Imagining the future: the re-politicization of women's struggles
Feminist alternatives are badly needed in Zimbabwe. Backlash, violence, harmful traditional practices and religious conservatism have grown. At the same time, patriarchal nationalism continues to consolidate, alongside authoritarianism. Patriarchy has been further consolidated in all political parties as shown by the reduction in female candidates. This should be a paradox because there has been widespread political activism since 2018 with the emergence of cyber-activism and young women's organizations arguing for women's political inclusion. What is required is an internal reengineering of feminism and the women's movement to push for fundamental electoral reforms.
The women's movement needs to reinstate its revolutionary and highly political position against the patriarchy and all the systems that uphold it. There should be non-negotiable feminist principles guiding the movement because patriarchy is never pro-feminism. There is need for women's organizations to re-claim their agency and also reduce dependence on donor funding. In any case, donor funding for women's struggles around the world has been shrinking. Feminist organizing needs to claim new spaces, for instance in cyber-spaces which do not necessarily need a whole donor budget. Young women are willing to engage in radical feminist politics in online spaces. These can sometimes be safer spaces considering the increasingly shrinking civic space in Zimbabwe. Building intergenerational alliances is also important so as to re-politicize the struggle and create blended feminism.
End Note
[1] Following endless media reports of schoolgirl pregnancies, prostitution, divorce, and baby dumping, all of which blamed women for moral decadence and attributed 'feminism' to undesirable foreign influences, the state authorities carried out large-scale raids all over the country known as Operation Clean Up in 1983. In this operation, the police and soldiers arbitrarily rounded up thousands of women, subjecting them to humiliation and abuse, and detaining them in subhuman conditions. Over 6,000 women were arrested, including older women, schoolgirls as young as 11 years old, young mothers with babies on their backs, nurses coming off duty, and thousands of others.
Sandra Bhatasara is a feminist scholar-activist. She is currently a Research Associate at Women and Law in Southern Africa (WLSA Zimbabwe), Rhodes University and Marondera University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology.
