Identity and Exclusion in the Post–War Era: Zimbabwe's Women Former Freedom Fighters (original) (raw)
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Zimbabwean women have been a force in the political evolution of the country before and since its independence in 1980. They have affected and been affected by the various political conflicts which the country has witnessed. Their political activism stretches back to the important, albeit insufficiently acknowledged, role as combatants and ‘mothers of the revolution’1 in the Second Chimurenga. In the 1990s, Zimbabwean women mobilized themselves into a strong movement, but their capacity to influence effective collective action towards adoption of a new constitution and other issues was constrained by the combined political and economic meltdown of 2000 to 2008. In the constitutional review process in 2012, Zimbabwe’s women have, once again, demonstrated their ability to join forces on issues of common concern. Throughout the ensuing political transitions in Zimbabwe, women have been engaged in a parallel struggle for equal rights, seeking to overturn the negative effects of a deep-seated colonial and patriarchal order. In addition to fighting colonialism, some women joined the liberation struggle to fight for equality with men to establish a more egalitarian society. The different levels of political, intellectual and ideological maturity the women gained during the liberation struggle prepared them for further struggles for women’s emancipation from oppression with which they were to engage in post-independence Zimbabwe.
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