Youth, parental absenteeism and political bases in Mazowe district

ABSTRACT

The study sought to establish the effects of parents and guardians' absenteeism from homes on the dependents especially the youth in the rural villages of Chiweshe in Mazowe district committing time to political bases' activities. Data for the exploratory study was collected from narratives gathered from interviews and observations that were held with 40 youth purposefully sampled from the participants based on age and exposure to circumstances of living with parents/guardians who often manned political bases. The findings did to some extent confirm that elders' absenteeism from the children has various negative effects on the children. However, there were also isolated positives that were recorded.

KEYWORDS:

• community violence
• parents
• political base
• vigilantism
• youth violence

Notes

1 An earlier study was published as Political Bases as the Epicentre of Violence: Cases of Mazowe and Shamva, Zimbabwe, Journal of Applied Security Research, Vol. 11(2), 2014.