Keeping a foot in the village: Masvingo urban women

Abstract

A complex give-and-take relationship characterizes the way female heads of household in Masvingo balanced their relationships in town and countryside. My respondents employed a double-rooted strategy that entailed the use o/urban kin to gain afoothold in town and at the same time the use o.lrural kin to help maintain thefamily, children and the elderly in the village. The women :\'strategy lvas also characterized by less instrumental considerations such as supporting rural kin and maintaining ties 0/ ajJect and culture. However. because survival in town is difficult, the women expected to return to the village when their working lives were over and they therefore made strategic moves that ensured easy entry into the village when the time finally arrived. In view o/the choices made by the women heads o/households in this study, it is imperative for policy makers to arrive at policies that take into account double-rooted strategies.

Self-concept, self-organization and cross-border trading (CBT) behavior among females in Uganda

“…The uncertainties and undignified portrayals of cross-border female traders are many. They are viewed as witches, who sell human parts as muti (medicine) charms for ritual murders (Jawando and Adeyemi, 2020;Muzvidziwa, 2015). They were portrayed as inhuman and ridiculous moneygrabbers who prostitute themselves with haulage truck drivers and linked to the problems of spreading HIV/AIDS.…”

“…This finding suggests that the conditions surrounding FCBTs such as the unique barriers in many societies which limit their entrepreneurial capacity, the lack of informal trade platforms, exposure to physical and financial abuse require FCBTs to self-organize in order to navigate through them. FCBTs are also viewed as economic saboteurs, unpatriotic and defying the expected subservient roles of limited mobility and immobility (Muzvidziwa, 2015) by society. These females need to self-organize by having adaptability, team working and interactive behavior in order to meet the changes in the business environment.…”

“…They were labeled unpatriotic economic saboteurs and portrayed as smugglers of all sorts of wares. They were titled as criminals and distinguished from those operating legitimate, male-dominated businesses and inferred that CBT was not a legitimate or skilled occupation (Jawando and Adeyemi, 2020;Muzvidziwa, 2015). Additionally, social roles act as resources for change and co-create value with different FCBTs (Archpru Akaka and Chandler, 2011).…”

“…It's evident that through FCBT, the females have developed local and regional economies by using creative and dignified responses to the uncertainties that society creates around them (Desai, 2009;Manirampa, 2014;Habinshuti, 2019;Livani and Solotaroff, 2019). These uncertainties vary from financial, limited formal trading platforms, expected subservient roles of limited mobility to immobility imposed on them by society (Muzvidziwa, 2015). Women in CBT face continuous harassment by customs officials, confiscation of their goods, corruption, sexual abuse, exploitation of their inadequate knowledge, inadequate public and private Self-concept, self-organization and CBTB…”

A Framework for Implementing Positive Learner Discipline in Public Secondary Schools from the Context of the Mpumalanga Province

“…Ubuntu is a virtue that is common among most African communities. Muzvidziwa and Muzvidziwa (2012) Similarly, Mugumbate and Nyaguru (2013) mention that in Botswana, the word "botho" carries the same meaning as Ubuntu, while in Tanzania, it is "bumuntu." Other countries such as the Congo, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, and Uganda use the terms "bomoto," "gimuntu," "umunthu," "vumuntu," and "umuntu," respectively (Mugumbate & Nyaguru, 2013).…”