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ABSTRACT
Reflecting on young women involved in violence/peace, the dominant views present them as victims. This is understandable, as young women constitute the majority of those who are at the receiving end of violence. Further, young people are generally regarded as a threat. However, this paradigm glosses over the contribution of young women to peacebuilding in their communities. Despite the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 calling for women’s equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security, major challenges of its implementation in Africa remain. Therefore, this study sought to establish young women’s understanding of peacebuilding, activities they undertook to contribute to peacebuilding in Mashonaland East in Zimbabwe, and the challenges they encounter. The study prioritised the agency of young women in contributing towards peace in Mashonaland East, Zimbabwe. The research was based on the qualitative method as it sought to establish how women participate in peacebuilding. Findings of the study showed that young women are contributing to peacebuilding, although they face some challenges.
Notes on contributor
Anna Chitando is an Associate Professor in the Department of Languages and Literature, Faculty of Arts, Culture and Heritage Studies at the Zimbabwe Open University. She holds a Doctorate of Literature and Philosophy (English) from the University of South Africa. Her research interests include African literature, children’s literature and gender studies. She is the author of Fictions of Gender and the Dangers of Fiction in Zimbabwean Women’s Writings on HIV and AIDS (2012). Anna co-edited The Art of Survival: Depictions of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwean in Crisis (2015). She has also published articles in refereed journals and chapters in books. She is a recipient of the African Peacebuilding Network Individual Research Grant (2018), the Nagel Institute Research Grant (2016), the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa Multinational Working Group on ‘Youth and Identity in Africa’, Research Grant (2008) and the Nordic Africa Institute Research Programme on ‘Post Conflict Transition, the State and Civil Society in Africa’, Research Grant (2007).
Notes
1 European Parliamentary Research Service, Fighting Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, 2. f.
2 Lwambo, ‘Before the War, I was a Man’.
3 Pankhurst, ‘What is Wrong with Men?’.
4 Braithwaite and Ruiz, Female Combatants, Forced Recruitment and Civil Conflict Outcomes.
5 Ekiyor, Female Combatants in West Africa; Magla, ‘Women Combatants and the Liberation Movements in South Africa’; Coulter et al., Young Female Fighters in African Wars.
6 Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU), Women as Perpetrators of Political Violence in Zimbabwe.
7 Sachikonye, When a State Turns on its Citizens.
8 Manyange, Women and Domestic Violence in Mashonaland East Province 2000–2017.
9 See for example, Laderach, Building Peace; Lederach and Lederach, When Blood and Bones Cry Out.
10 Shulika, ‘Women and Peace Building’.
11 Angom, Women in Peacemaking and Peacebuilding in Northern Uganda.
12 Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security: Understanding the Implications, Fulfilling the Obligations.
13 Machakanja, Is UNSCR 1325 Empowering African Women to Negotiate Peace? 2.
14 Hendricks, ‘Progress and Challenges’.
15 Garba, ‘Building Women’s Capacity for Peace Building in Nigeria’.
16 Sultana, ‘Patriarchy and Women’s Subordination’, 7.
17 Alaga, Challenges for Women in Peacebuilding in West Africa, Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA), 3.
18 Hudson, ‘“Doing” Security as Though Humans Matter’.
19 Chitando, Fictions of Gender and the Dangers of Fiction in Zimbabwean Women’s Writings on HIV and AIDS; Kamau, Perceptions of Feminism and its Effects on Voter Consciousness; Kaboré, ‘Differentiating African and Western Feminisms through Room Symbolism’.
20 Lederach, “Conflict Transformation: The Case for Advocacy.”
21 Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU). Zimbabwe – Political Violence and Elections, 4.
22 Lawless, ‘Women’s Life Stories and Reciprocal Ethnography as Feminist and Emergent’.
23 Chikafu, Usahwira.
24 England, ‘Getting Personal’.
25 Chitando, Imagining a Peaceful Society.
26 Gatwiri and McLaren, ‘Discovering my Own African Feminism’.
27 Sangster, ‘Telling Our Stories’.
28 Fogiel-Bijaoui, ‘The Cosmopolitan Future’.
29 Edwards and Mauthner, ‘Ethics and Feminist Research’.
30 Tamale, ‘Eroticism, Sensuality and “Women’s Secrets” Among the Baganda’, 13.
31 Sosulski et al., ‘Life History and Narrative Analysis’, 34.
32 Vestal and Jones, ‘Peace Building and Conflict Resolution in Preschool Children’. See also, Cardozoet al, Literature Review.
33 Isike and Uzodike, ‘Towards an Indigenous Model of Conflict Resolution’.
34 Kenge, ‘Towards a Theology of Peace-Building in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’.
35 Moyo, ‘Religion and Peace’.
36 Masunungure and Mbwirire, ‘Women’s Participation in Resolving Church Conflicts’, 41.
37 Jordan, ‘Women and Conflict Transformation’.
38 Chari, ‘Electoral Violence and its Instrumental Logic’.
39 Compare with Chivasa, ‘Efficacy of Informal Peace Committees to Peacebuilding’. Chivasa identified peace challenges as peace challenges in ward 8 including, but are not limited to ‘hunger and food insecure households, unavailability of finances to pay school fees, rape cases involving the girl child, domestic violence, stock theft, robbery, theft, fighting and disputes over land boundaries’ (p. 2 of 11).
40 Del Felice and Wisler, ‘The Unexplored Power and Potential of Youth’.
41 Tellidis and Kappler, ‘Information and Communication Technologies in Peacebuilding’, 86.
42 Kahl and Larrauri, ‘Technology for Peacebuilding’, 2.
43 Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat), Census 2012, 11.
44 UNOY Peacebuilders, ‘Youth and Peacebuilding’.
45 Zanoni, ‘Kenyan Girls as Agents of Peace’.
46 UN Women, Zimbabwean Women in Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding, 18.