Gendering roles, masculinities and spaces: negotiating transgression in Charles Mungoshi’s and other writings

This article discusses perceptions of Shona dominant masculinities in Charles Mungoshi’s and other writings. The texts analysed in this article are set in different socio-historical contexts – during the colonial and stretching to the contemporary times; in rural, urban and diaspora spaces. Collectively, the texts offer the reader textual spaces to trace the strategies used by heteropatriarchal dominant masculinities to maintain dominance within families. The article demonstrates that the selected texts call attention to how Shona women have always challenged patriarchal hegemony – subversion that has resulted in the formulation of social discourses, especially within men circles that some men are dominated by women (anotongwa nemukadzi). I read Mungoshi’s selected texts alongside Kabwato’s ‘The breadwinner’ and Sigauke’s ‘African wife’ to think through how discourses such as anotongwa nemukadzi, are persistently invoked in contexts where anti-patriarchal successes might have provoked significant shifts in gender roles. Such power-based masculinities, in the modern contexts, provoke dramas that play out when husbands lose the breadwinner status, that happens simultaneously with wives becoming sole breadwinners in their families. This article draws from Ratele’s thoughts on toxic masculinities, Adichie and Enloe’s feminist perspectives to show how gendering of roles ties seamlessly with gender stratification and inequalities

Counter-discourse in Zimbabwean Literature

Counter-Discourse in Zimbabwean Literature is a study of specific aspects of counter-discursive Zimbabwean narratives in English. In discussing the selected texts, my thesis is based on Terdiman’s (1989) the postcolonial concept of counter-discourse. In Zimbabwean literature challenges to a dominant or established discourse are not just limited to those of the imperial culture, but go beyond to include challenges to the established/dominant discourse in the post independence state. Such other counter-discursive narratives include anti-nationalist, anti-‘patriotic’ and anti-patriarchal narratives. The study is arranged such that in chapter 1I trace the history of counter-discursive narratives in Zimbabwean literature in English, in chapter 2, I study Vera, Nyamubaya and Hove’s selected texts as feminist challenges to masculinist narratives of the liberation struggle. In chapter 3, the state-sponsored Gukurahundi is discussed as one of the crimes that, as Soyinka argues, “constantly provoke memories of the historic wrongs inflicted on the African continent by others” (1999: xxiv). In chapter 4, I focus on how Chinodya’s “Queues”, Chinyani’s “A Land of Starving Millionnaires”, Hoba’s “Specialization”, Chingono’s “Minister without Portfolio” and Tagwira’s The Uncertainty of Hope re-imagine the Third Chimurenga in ways that clearly subvert the state discourse on the Third Chimurenga.Modern and Contemporary Studie

Personal Names, Naming and Identity (Re)negotiation among Zimbabweans in the Diaspora

This article discusses how Zimbabweans in the diaspora name their children to think through the dynamics of diasporic identity negotiation. Using qualitative data gathered through virtual ethnography, I grapple with the question how names and naming strategies allow Zimbabweans in the diaspora to imagine and negotiate what it means to belong to home and being in the diaspora. I make two conclusions from this study. First, I argue that there is a tendency among first-generation Zimbabweans in the diaspora to name children in ways that are symbolic of how they remain attached to their homeland’s ways of knowing the world. Second, I observe that others negotiate the balance between retaining their naming cultures and working towards the integration of their children into host cultures. This they do through a bestowal of names that highlight the children’s intercultural and hyphenated identities – that is, a simultaneous connection to homeland and host country

Multiplexed and scalable super-resolution imaging of three-dimensional protein localization in size-adjustable tissues

The biology of multicellular organisms is coordinated across multiple size scales, from the subnanoscale of molecules to the macroscale, tissue-wide interconnectivity of cell populations. Here we introduce a method for super-resolution imaging of the multiscale organization of intact tissues. The method, called magnified analysis of the proteome (MAP), linearly expands entire organs fourfold while preserving their overall architecture and three-dimensional proteome organization. MAP is based on the observation that preventing crosslinking within and between endogenous proteins during hydrogel-tissue hybridization allows for natural expansion upon protein denaturation and dissociation. The expanded tissue preserves its protein content, its fine subcellular details, and its organ-scale intercellular connectivity. We use off-the-shelf antibodies for multiple rounds of immunolabeling and imaging of a tissue's magnified proteome, and our experiments demonstrate a success rate of 82% (100/122 antibodies tested). We show that specimen size can be reversibly modulated to image both inter-regional connections and fine synaptic architectures in the mouse brain.United States. National Institutes of Health (1-U01-NS090473-01

Independent and combined effects of improved water, sanitation, and hygiene, and improved complementary feeding, on child stunting and anaemia in rural Zimbabwe: a cluster-randomised trial.

BACKGROUND: Child stunting reduces survival and impairs neurodevelopment. We tested the independent and combined effects of improved water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), and improved infant and young child feeding (IYCF) on stunting and anaemia in in Zimbabwe. METHODS: We did a cluster-randomised, community-based, 2 × 2 factorial trial in two rural districts in Zimbabwe. Clusters were defined as the catchment area of between one and four village health workers employed by the Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care. Women were eligible for inclusion if they permanently lived in clusters and were confirmed pregnant. Clusters were randomly assigned (1:1:1:1) to standard of care (52 clusters), IYCF (20 g of a small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplement per day from age 6 to 18 months plus complementary feeding counselling; 53 clusters), WASH (construction of a ventilated improved pit latrine, provision of two handwashing stations, liquid soap, chlorine, and play space plus hygiene counselling; 53 clusters), or IYCF plus WASH (53 clusters). A constrained randomisation technique was used to achieve balance across the groups for 14 variables related to geography, demography, water access, and community-level sanitation coverage. Masking of participants and fieldworkers was not possible. The primary outcomes were infant length-for-age Z score and haemoglobin concentrations at 18 months of age among children born to mothers who were HIV negative during pregnancy. These outcomes were analysed in the intention-to-treat population. We estimated the effects of the interventions by comparing the two IYCF groups with the two non-IYCF groups and the two WASH groups with the two non-WASH groups, except for outcomes that had an important statistical interaction between the interventions. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01824940. FINDINGS: Between Nov 22, 2012, and March 27, 2015, 5280 pregnant women were enrolled from 211 clusters. 3686 children born to HIV-negative mothers were assessed at age 18 months (884 in the standard of care group from 52 clusters, 893 in the IYCF group from 53 clusters, 918 in the WASH group from 53 clusters, and 991 in the IYCF plus WASH group from 51 clusters). In the IYCF intervention groups, the mean length-for-age Z score was 0·16 (95% CI 0·08-0·23) higher and the mean haemoglobin concentration was 2·03 g/L (1·28-2·79) higher than those in the non-IYCF intervention groups. The IYCF intervention reduced the number of stunted children from 620 (35%) of 1792 to 514 (27%) of 1879, and the number of children with anaemia from 245 (13·9%) of 1759 to 193 (10·5%) of 1845. The WASH intervention had no effect on either primary outcome. Neither intervention reduced the prevalence of diarrhoea at 12 or 18 months. No trial-related serious adverse events, and only three trial-related adverse events, were reported. INTERPRETATION: Household-level elementary WASH interventions implemented in rural areas in low-income countries are unlikely to reduce stunting or anaemia and might not reduce diarrhoea. Implementation of these WASH interventions in combination with IYCF interventions is unlikely to reduce stunting or anaemia more than implementation of IYCF alone. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UK Department for International Development, Wellcome Trust, Swiss Development Cooperation, UNICEF, and US National Institutes of Health.The SHINE trial is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1021542 and OPP113707); UK Department for International Development; Wellcome Trust, UK (093768/Z/10/Z, 108065/Z/15/Z and 203905/Z/16/Z); Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; US National Institutes of Health (2R01HD060338-06); and UNICEF (PCA-2017-0002)

Female bodies, agency, real and symbolic violence during the coronavirus pandemic: The experiences of women politicians and activists in Zimbabwe

In May 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Joana Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova, all members of the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance, participated in a demonstration to draw attention to escalating poverty among vulnerable communities during the COVID-19-induced lockdown. Immediately after the demonstration they were allegedly abducted, tortured and sexually violated by State security agents. In response to these allegations, the State accused the women of taking part in an ‘illegal’ demonstration. The experiences of these three women are an appropriate entry-point for discussion of the vile – in the sense of the objectionable – treatment of women in the national politics of Zimbabwe. In this article it is noted that the coronavirus crisis experienced in Zimbabwe is inextricably linked with the country’s political crisis, which continues unabated. For instance, the Government’s heavy-handedness in enforcing COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, especially in the early days of the pandemic (March/April 2020), appears to have had a clear agenda: to limit democratic space and participation by crushing all forms of dissent. The overarching argument made in this article is that citizens’ experiences of the convergent political and coronavirus crises in Zimbabwe are deeply gendered. In particular, I draw on the experiences of women in politics and civil society in Zimbabwe in order to allow for deeper understandings of women’s agency during the coronavirus pandemic, and of the extremely gendered use of violence by the State to contain what it essentially views as political ‘dissent’. I discuss women’s participation in the aforementioned protests as emblematic of a vocal public presence which, however, exposes their bodies to real and symbolic gendered State violence

Narratives of women in politics in Zimbabwe’s recent past: the case of Joice Mujuru and Grace Mugabe

This study analyses media narratives of Joice Mujuru’s fall from Zimbabwe’s political hierarchy and Grace Mugabe’s speeches during the “Meet the People” rallies that were held in Zimbabwe’s ten political provinces between 2015 and 2017. Media texts about Joice Mujuru’s political demise are analysed as reproductions of gender stereotypes used to justify women’s marginalisation in politics, while Grace Mugabe’s speeches are read as political performances of her power(lessness) as the wife of the then president (the late Robert Mugabe) and leader of the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)’s Women’s League. Drawing on ideas of female political representation, this paper discusses representations of the political experiences of Joice Mujuru and Grace Mugabe between 2014 and 2018 to highlight the gendered aspects of politics, and explores whether women’s presence in political leadership in Zimbabwe translates into substantive representation of women. Cette étude analyse les récits médiatiques de la chute de Joice Mujuru de la hiérarchie politique du Zimbabwe et les discours de Grace Mugabe lors des rassemblements « Meet the People » qui se sont tenus dans les dix provinces politiques du Zimbabwe entre 2015 et 2017. Les textes médiatiques sur la disparition politique de Joice Mujuru sont analysés comme des reproductions des stéréotypes de genre utilisées pour justifier la marginalisation des femmes en politique, tandis que les discours de Grace Mugabe sont lus comme des performances politiques de son pouvoir (ou absence de pouvoir) en tant qu’épouse du Président de l’époque, feu Robert Mugabe, et leader de la ligue des femmes du Front patriotique de l’Union nationale africaine du Zimbabwe (ZANU-PF). En s’inspirant des politique féminine, cet article explore les représentations des expériences politiques de Joice Mujuru et de Grace Mugabe entre 2014 et 2018 pour mettre en évidence les aspects genrés de la politique, et examine si la présence des femmes dans le leadership politique au Zimbabwe se traduit par une représentation substantielle des femmes

The golden opportunity: Recruitment of “foreigners” into the Witwatersrand by mining corporations, 1913-1933

In this article the strategies used by mining corporations to facilitate the illegal entry of mine-workers into South Africa between 1913 and 1933 are discussed. In 1913 the government banned the outsourcing of mine-workers from areas that were located north of the 22 degrees line of latitude, but despite this, mining corporations devised ways of sourcing cheap labour to maximise their profits. These workers were referred to as “tropical migrants” and were brought in from neighbouring British colonies and the Portuguese East Colony. Through the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association (WNLA)’s efforts to provide stable workforce and maximise its profits, the prevalence of illegal recruiters bringing in tropical migrants was discouraged. In this article I discuss how the mining corporations facilitated the illegal entry of workers into the country and investigate the role played by WNLA, which benefited immensely from the cheap labour provided by foreign mine-workers