Women, State Law, And the Crisis of Chieftaincy: The Case Of Nswazi Village In Zimbabwe

Abstract

Increasingly, post-colonial African states have been grappling with the issue of the gender- gap within traditional leadership institutions, resulting in contestations between state laws and traditional customary laws. Using the landmark succession of Indunakazi Sinqobile Mabhena of Nswazi in Umzingwane district, Matabeleland South, Zimbabwe as a case study, the dissertation provides a new perspective on female traditional leadership through studying the in-depth the negotiation of the legitimacy of Mabhena’s chieftaincy. The study is a “feminist ethnography” of the daily life of Chief Mabhena in a Nswazi community to establish how the governance strategies of women chiefs are configured in practice, with a focus on debates and contention regarding the succession and legitimacy of Indunakazi Mabhena. Drawing on more than one year of fieldwork and making use of a qualitative narrative ethnographic research methods, the Zimbabwean case shows how African women play a significant role in the reconceptualization of legitimacy in traditional leadership and the perceptions of the people of Nswazi on the legitimacy of Indunakazi Mabhena in particular. A key finding of the thesis is that the legitimacy of traditional leaders primarily lies with the community accepting the rulership of the appointed leader through celebrations, ceremonies, and commitment to the well-being of the people that preserve their heritage and lineage. To that end, the naturalization of male chieftaincy primogeniture is put to question.