‘Is Mugabe Also Among the National Deities and Kings?’: Place Renaming and the Appropriation of African Chieftainship Ideals and Spirituality in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe

Mamvura, Zvinashe

doi:10.1177/0021909621992794

Cited by 10 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…She has had roads named after her. For example, in Harare, the road which was formerly named Victoria Street in the colonial period was named 'Mbuya Nehanda' (Mamvura, 2021). In addition, formerly Lady Chancellor Hospital was named Mbuya Nehanda Maternity Hospital after independence.…”

Section: Mbuya Nehanda: Zimbabwe's Legendary Religio-political Heroinementioning

confidence: 99%

Daring Patriarchy? A Biblical Engagement with Gender Discourses on Political Participation in Post-colonial Zimbabwe

Manyonganise¹

2023

Bible in Africa Studies

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This volume (coming out from a Humboldt Research-Fellowship) critically engages with gender discourses on political participation in Zimbabwe, focusing on how the Bible has been used to deny women political offices in the land. The study’s reference to political office needs to be understood broadly, that is, to include women participating in decision-making in their homes, religious institutions, local government, political parties to mention but a few. Dominant religio-cultural discourses on political participation have deployed biblical texts in ways that have shaped Zimbabwe’s political terrain to be gendered space. The study uses gender as a category of analyzing political participation in Zimbabwe. The study argues that the challenges women face in their endeavor to participate fully in politics in Zimbabwe are not only embedded in culture, but have also been reinforced by the way biblical interpretation pertaining to women’s public roles has been done. It is against this background that this volume seeks to examine the utilisation of the Bible by church leaders who find support from male politicians in a bid to safeguard the space from women perceived as ‘dangerous’. In other words, the study endeavours to examine how the Bible has been deployed to control gender discourses on political participation in Zimbabwe. To a large extent, this study shows the centrality as well as the influence of the Bible in shaping gender relations, even in those areas that have to a large extent been perceived as non-religious. This volume, therefore, seeks to open up more political space for women by examining how the everyday is suffused with politics, that is, politics as affecting interactions between individuals and groups thereby facilitating women’s participation in politics at all levels. It is envisioned that such a study would contribute greatly to social transformation. Molly Manyonganise holds a PhD in Biblical and Religious Studies from the University of Pretoria. She is a senior lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy at the Zimbabwe Open University. She is a research associate of the Department of Religion Studies, Faculty of Theology and Religion of the University of Pretoria. 2020-2023 she was a Georg Forster Postdoctoral research fellow, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany. Her research interests comprise religion and politics, gender and religion, religion and sexuality, African Indigenous Religion(s) as well as African Christianity.

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Section: Mbuya Nehanda: Zimbabwe's Legendary Religio-political Heroinementioning

confidence: 99%

Daring Patriarchy? A Biblical Engagement with Gender Discourses on Political Participation in Post-colonial Zimbabwe

Manyonganise¹

2023

Bible in Africa Studies

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“…Revisionist scholarship argues that Zimbabwe is not yet a nation as it is in the process of becoming one (Mlambo, 2013; Ndlovu‐Gatsheni, 2011). First, a misconception exists that the liberation struggles developed a nation out of an ethnically diverse state (Mamvura, 2021). If anything, the liberation struggles clearly indicated the fissures that exist between ethnic groups.…”

Section: Zimbabwe and National Identity‐work In Progressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negotiating national identity in postcolonial Zimbabwe through a national dress

Chitima

2022

Nations and Nationalism

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A national dress is a reflection of national consciousness towards the nation and its cultural heritage. Instead of simply being functional, a national dress is also a script that exhibits people's identities. This study examines how Zimbabweans identify with the national dress as a facet of achieving national identity. Qualitative research methods and Gramscianism were employed in the study. It is revealed that the majority of Zimbabweans fail to identify with the national dress due to political, cultural and economic reasons. The national dress is perceived as a campaign strategy being used by the state to achieve political expediency and to be seen as champion of moral as well as cultural regeneration. Some participants associate the dress with cultural imperialism and waste of resources. Very few participants take the dress as a positive step towards the decolonisation of cultural spaces and identities. Conclusively, the majority of Zimbabweans find the dress insignificant in their lives and in national identity construction.

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“…Language and culture are intertwined; a language is a medium through which a culture is transmitted. From an ethnopragmatic point of view, a language reflects people's worldviews and their thoughts about life in general (Cliff & Wierzbicka 1997;Mamvura 2021). It is the authors' view that if the issue of classification of languages is approached from this angle, a better result could be arrived at.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lexical similarities between Khelobedu dialect and Tshivenḓa and Sepedi languages

Rakgogo

Mandende

2023

Literator

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This article endeavours to argue from a linguistic point of view for the ‘independence’ of Khelobedu, to be recognised as an additional official language in the Republic of South Africa. The speakers of Khelobedu speak neither Sepedi or Tshivenḓa as some linguists claim. From the wide range of literature on this phenomenon, some Sepedi and Tshivenḓa linguists claim that this language (Khelobedu) is their dialect. This indecisiveness leaves Khelobedu speakers in limbo. As a result, Balobedu learners end up performing poorly academically because they learn the Sepedi language as their second language instead. The purpose of this article is to argue on linguistic grounds against such a classification by the earlier linguists and missionaries as the findings succinctly provide evidence in support of this position. In attempting to dispute this classification, the content analysis method was employed for data gathering purposes. A comparative lexicostatistic approach was used to undergird the study. In terms of data, Khelobedu, Tshivenḓa and Sepedi lexical items were collected and compared to corroborate the claim. Nevertheless, Khelobedu strongly shows its ‘independence’ as do Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana and isiZulu, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and Siswati. Furthermore, Khelobedu and Sepedi differ greatly in terms of their pronunciation. The issue around mutual intelligibility, we argue, should not be put into this equation. The article recommends that Khelobedu be regarded as an official language that Balobedu learners and students could use as a medium of teaching and learning; furthermore, Balobedu’s identity should also not be compromised.Contribution: The significance and contribution of this article to scientific knowledge resides in its contention that the classification of Khelobedu as one of the dialects of the Sepedi or Northern Sotho language lacks linguistic justification. The article further argues that this misclassification was due to the partnership that existed between the missionaries and the colonial government in consultation with their informants who only recognised varieties where the missionaries settled and operated. Therefore, it is postulated that Khelobedu should be considered a fully fledged language since it shows its own linguistic repertoire.

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‘Is Mugabe Also Among the National Deities and Kings?’: Place Renaming and the Appropriation of African Chieftainship Ideals and Spirituality in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe

Cited by 10 publications

References 35 publications

Daring Patriarchy? A Biblical Engagement with Gender Discourses on Political Participation in Post-colonial Zimbabwe

Daring Patriarchy? A Biblical Engagement with Gender Discourses on Political Participation in Post-colonial Zimbabwe

Negotiating national identity in postcolonial Zimbabwe through a national dress

Lexical similarities between Khelobedu dialect and Tshivenḓa and Sepedi languages

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