Abstract
Drawing on narratives of rurally based Zimbabwean older women, this article analyses
experiences of motherhood in relation to the country’s shifting economic and socio-political
landscapes. The narratives of these older women, who have nurtured their children and
continue to do so way into (their children’s) adulthood, push scholars to grapple with
questions of motherhood in respect of “intensive mothering” (Bell 2006: 232; Hays 1996).
Intensive mothering points at the exclusivity of motherhood which frames the responsibility
to provide and care for the children during their formative years as virtually the mother’s
(Bell 2006: 232; Glenn 1994: 3). Older women in this article are second and third generation
mothers whose narratives challenge constructions of motherhood which limit intensive
mothering to the formative stages of children’s lifecycle.