Discoursing women, Christianity and security: The framing of women in the Gumbura case in Zimbabwean media

abstract

Robert Martin Gumbura is the convicted leader of the Robert Martin Gumbura (RMG) Independent End Time Message Church. He was sentenced to 40 years in jail for the rape of four women in his congregation and possession of pornographic material. The media sent mixed messages on Gumbura’s wives and victims as consenting adults and as victims of religious indoctrination and brainwashing. Thus, the article seeks to analyse the framing of women in the Gumbura case in Zimbabwean media towards dialogue on women, religion and security in the Zimbabwean public sphere. The article utilises the method of framing analysis and Clenora Hudson-Weems’ Africana womanist theory to unpack the dynamics through which sexuality, traditional gender norms and religious beliefs intersect to produce extreme meanings of piety and religious identity.

keywords:

• gender
• religion
• framing analysis
• Africana womanism
• Robert Martin Gumbura Independent End Time Message Church

Notes

1. Ropafadzo Mapimhidze, NewsDay, February 4 2014.

2. Daniel Nemukuyu and Tendai Rupapa, The Herald, January 17 2014.

3. Phyllis Mbanje, iHarare, December 21 2013.

4. Tendai Rupapa, The Herald, October 18 2013.

5. Phillip Chidavaenzi, NewsDay, December 11 2013.

6. Tendai Rupapa, The Herald, February 6 2014.

7. Tarisai Machakaire, ‘Gumbura’s secretary acquitted’, Daily News, 9 March 2014.

8. Ropafadzo Mapamhidze, ‘Gumbura trial timeline: Relief as rapist pastor is locked away’, NewsDay, February 4 2014; ‘Pastor Gumbura's 11 wives speak out, we are sister wives and very happy we spend 200 dollars a day and eat 20 loaves of bread, 20 chickens for a meal’, iHarare, December 10 2013; see also Phyllis Mbanje, ‘Arduous trial takes toll on Gumbura’s wives’, The Standard, January 26 2014.

9. See Phyllis Mbanje, ‘Gumbura’s wives go shopping’, Southern Eye, February 2 2014.

10. The Herald Reporter, ‘No kind words for Gumbura’, The Herald, February 4 2014).

11. Zaniest Zimbabwean ‘Gumbura’s wives would apply for permission to sit in the lounge and watch TV with Daddy’, iHarare, December 21, 2013).

12. Roselyn Sachiti, The Herald, February 8 2014.

13. Phillip Chidavaenzi, ‘Sex orgies, indoctrination in Gumbura’s church’, NewsDay, December 1, 1 2013.

14. ‘Shocking conversations and confessions about having sex with Pastor Gumbura leak’, iharare. February 8 2014.

15. Phillip Chidavaenzi, ‘Rapist pastor Gumbura owns every woman in his church’, NewsDay, December 13 2013.

16. Tendai Rupapa, ‘Gumbura’s videos played in court’, The Herald, December 19 2013.

17. See Maggie Mzumara, ‘Women’s movement put Gumbura in jail’, The Financial Gazette, March 13 2014.

18. Daniel Nemukuyu, ‘Lawyers ditch Gumbura’, The Herald, January 27 2015.

19. Zaniest Zimbabwean ‘Gumbura’s wives would apply for permission to sit in the lounge and watch TV with Daddy’, iHarare, December 21 2013. See also, Tendai Rupapa, ‘Gumbura’s wives applied to watch TV, court told’, The Herald, December 21, 2012.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rosemary Chikafa-Chipiro

ROSEMARY CHIKAFA-CHIPIRO has been a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe in the Department of English and Media Studies since 2010. She holds a Master of Arts Degree in English. Currently she is a final year Doctor of Philosophy candidate – studying film, with a special focus on representations of Black womanhood. Her research interests include film, gender, media and communication and literature.