Zimbabwean social media has been awash with images of a woman character, spirit, or concept called Chihera. Traditionally, a woman descending from the Mhofu (Eland) lineage/totem is known as Chihera. In the cumulative tradition of the Shona (a Zimbabwean ethnic group), Chihera is a fiercely independent, assertive, free spirited, and no nonsense woman. This volume seeks to deepen reflections on the Chihera phenomenon in the context of the search for gender justice in Zimbabwe and Africa. The authors reflect on how this radical indigenous feminist ethic circulating on social media can animate the quest for Zimbabwean and African women’s full liberation from patriarchy and all oppressive forces. They grapple with the issue of generating culturally sensitive theories and approaches to galvanize the struggle for African women’s liberation in post-colonial settings. Second, they locate the Chihera mystique in the context of the practical struggle for women’s empowerment. Third, the volume illustrates how the Chihera phenomenon could be utilized for gender justice in Zimbabwe and beyond.

‘One of the best works of narrative non-fiction to emerge from the country in years. Quite simply brilliant.’ – NIREN TOLSI Amid evictions, raids, killings, the drug trade, and fire, inner-city Johannesburg residents seek safety and a home. A grandmother struggles to keep her granddaughter as she is torn away from her. A mother seeks healing in the wake of her son’s murder. And displaced by the city’s drive for urban regeneration, a group of blind migrants try to carve out an existence. The Blinded City recounts the history of inner-city Johannesburg from 2010 to 2019, primarily from the perspectives of the unlawful occupiers of spaces known as hijacked buildings, bad buildings or dark buildings. Tens of thousands of residents, both South African and foreign national, live in these buildings in dire conditions. This book tells the story of these sites and the court cases around them, which strike at the centre of who has the right to occupy the city. In February 2010, while Johannesburg prepared for the FIFA World Cup, the South Gauteng High Court ordered the eviction of the unlawful occupiers of an abandoned carpet factory on Saratoga Avenue and that the city’s Metropolitan Municipality provide temporary emergency accommodation for the evicted. The case, which became known as Blue Moonlight and went to the Constitutional Court, catalysed a decade of struggles over housing and eviction in Johannesburg. The Blinded City chronicles this case, among others, and the aftermath – a tumultuous period in the city characterised by recurrent dispossessions, police and immigration operations, outbursts of xenophobic violence, and political and legal change. All through the decade, there is the backdrop of successive mayors and their attempts to ‘clean up’ the city, and the struggles of residents and urban housing activists for homes and a better life. The interwoven narratives present a compelling mosaic of life in post-apartheid Johannesburg, one of the globe’s most infamous and vital cities.

Focusing on the work of contemporary African women researchers, this volume explores feminist perspectives in relation to African Indigenous Religions (AIR). It evaluates what the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians’ research has achieved and proposed since its launch in 1989, their contribution to the world of knowledge and liberation, and the potential application to nurturing a justice-oriented world. The book considers the methodologies used amongst the Circle to study African Indigenous Religions, the AIR sources of knowledge that are drawn on, and the way in which women are characterized. It reflects on how ideas drawn from African Indigenous Religions might address issues of patriarchy, colonialism, capitalism, racism, tribalism, and sexual and disability-based discrimination. The chapters examine theologies of specific figures. The book will be of interest to scholars of religion, gender studies, Indigenous studies, and African studies.

This report presents the results of the evaluation of the Zimbabwe Livelihoods and Food Security Programme (LFSP) (GCP/ZIM/025/UK), implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) between 2013 and 2021. The programme sought to contribute to poverty reduction by actively addressing the specific constraints that smallholder farmers, particularly women, faced in raising the productivity of their farms and participating in markets.

This volume explores the multiple meanings and implications of lobola in Southern Africa. The payment of lobola (often controversially translated as ‘bridewealth’) is an entrenched practice in most societies in Southern Africa. Although having a long tradition, of late there have been voices questioning its relevance in contemporary times while others vehemently defend the practice. This book brings together a range of scholars from different academic disciplines, national contexts, institutions, genders, and ethnic backgrounds to debate the relevance of lobola in contemporary southern African communities for gender equality.

Zimbabwe has invested in women’s emancipation and leadership while articulating a strong Pan-Africanist ideology, providing a valuable entry point into understanding the dynamics relating to women’s leadership in Africa. It is also characterised by radical religious pluralism, thereby facilitating an appreciation of the impact of religion on women’s leadership in Africa more generally. This volume reflects on the role of Zimbabwean women in religio-cultural leadership. It opens with an expansive literature review on leadership, with a specific focus on African women’s leadership in the context of global studies on leadership. The chapters then discuss the unique Zimbabwean women’s leadership roles in ecological conservation. Topics include disaster management, the SDGs, and ecological stewardship. The book closes with examining women’s leadership among adherents of African Indigenous Spirituality, such as among the Shona and Ndau ethnic groups. It will appeal to scholars across management, women’s studies, religion, and cultural studies contemplating on African women’s leadership in religion as well as other areas of life.

This is not a conventional book because the seed comes from the depth of the volcanic cauldron that awaits silently underneath the Lake Ilopango, the umbilical cord of our Humanity and yours. It is a scream, it is an offering, it is pain and it is love. It is a collective offering to those who are responding to a call of Liberation based on Indigenous Principles to protect and defend the land beyond theories, beyond rhetorical and metaphorical questions. This is a tiny-tiny glimpse into Lak'ech. A living testament that today, there are people buried on sand, on water, on air, on blood, among carcasses of bodies eaten by vultures—literally and metaphorically—a living testament of open wounds that heal and are traumatized again and again because you, the reader, the listener, the writer, the transcriber, the colonizer, the upholder of patriarchy and caste and class, the translator and the guardian of the door of the Master's House refuse to listen politically.

Covering India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Nepal, Rethinking New Womanhood effectively introduces a ‘new’ wave of gender research from South Asia that resonates with feminist debates around the world. The volume conceptualises ‘new womanhood’ as a complex, heterogeneous and intersectional identity. By deconstructing classification systems and highlighting women’s everyday ongoing negotiations with boundaries of social categories, the book reconfigures the concept of ‘new woman’ as a symbolic identity denoting ‘modern’ femininity at the intersection of gender, class, culture, sexuality and religion in South Asia. The collection maps new sites and expressions on women and gender studies around nationhood, women’s rights, transnational feminist solidarity, ‘new girlhoods ’, aesthetic and sexualised labour, respectability and ‘modernity’, LGBT discourses, domestic violence and ‘new’ feminisms. The volume will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including gender studies, sociology, education, media and cultural studies, literature, anthropology, history, development studies, postcolonial studies and South Asian studies.