Abstract
The focus of the thesis entailed that I engage with the ‘excavation of women’s voice’, a gendered
process I carried out in Masvingo district in the development of new knowledge in the subdiscipline
of the sociology of gender. In that way, the thesis allowed for the interrogation of
connections and linkages of theory and methodological practices within a broad feminist
framework. An extensive literature review on Zimbabwe, the African continent and global level
have shown the systematic marginalisation of women in various settings and that little has been
documented from women’s world view, particularly in the context of land and agrarian reform.
Hence, my thesis was motivated not only by a need to fill the gaps but to contribute to the
enhancement and strengthening of African feminist scholarship which has been on the ‘margin
of the margin’ for some time. My thesis thus drew its feminist epistemological ideas from
extensive feminist scholarship and was guided by the qualitative narrative inquiry, exploring the
experiences of widows, divorcees and single women beneficiaries of the land reform programme
which highlighted land reform realities through an exploration of women’s challenges and
opportunities. Based on field work which was carried out from June 2016 to March 2017 in
Masvingo district A1 and A2 farms, chapters five, six and seven, through an in-depth data
analysis, describe and interpret women’s land ownership derived from narratives and short life
histories that brought to the fore their experiences. The argument that has been carried
throughout the thesis is that mainstream research ignored women’s voices, hence, the compiled
women’s narratives become a counter narrative not only to the ‘male-stream’ scholarship but
also to the Eurocentric and Western feminist perspective that fall short in explaining ‘other’
people’s experiences. The thesis starts by agreeing with traditional scholarship that women,
particularly in rural settings, experience exclusion in land ownership, but goes further to show
how women navigated the political, cultural, and economic terrain to eventually become land
owners. Widows in Masvingo rural district deployed the acceptable cultural practice of honorary
husband and female husband upon the death of the husband as a mechanism of protecting their
land. This is demonstrated in chapter five in which a number of widows deliberately were
‘inherited’ by their sons or by the aunt (powerful lineage daughter), practices which can only be
explained from an Afro-centric feminist stand point. Chapters six and seven show women
manipulating the political and economic terrain as they become participants in the system of...
D.Litt. et Phil. (Sociology)