Abstract
Scholarship on women and gender issues in Africa has moved from “footnotes” to exploring gender as a veritable area of research. The question of women’s position in society remains a subject for debate across human societies and cultures. This chapter attempts rewriting the history of the Shona people from the Chihera women’s point of view. The chapter uses Africana womanism for its theoretical framework. Despite Chihera’s strategic significance within the debate on gender in Zimbabwe, there is a dearth of scholarly research on the concept. The chapter therefore contributes to the gender debate in Zimbabwe by analyzing Chihera women’s position among the Shona. It traces the history of Chihera women from pre-colonial to colonial and post-colonial Zimbabwe and contends that in Shona society and culture, where womanhood is often associated with submissiveness and even being understated, Chihera is visible and assertive. The chapter concludes by positing that although her critics accuse her of upsetting the “order of nature,” Chihera is the epitome of confidence and the prototypical liberated Zimbabwean woman.
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Zvingowanisei, S. (2023). Chihera: Renegotiating the Status of Women in Shona Indigenous Culture in Zimbabwe. In: Chitando, E., Chirongoma, S., Nyakudya, M. (eds) Chihera in Zimbabwe . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12466-2_4
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