Abstract
Inside the bare building that served as a village hall, the women of Ntamba sat on benches waiting for me. They were straight-backed, their faces lined and expressive. In front was a table, with a cloth and small vase of flowers; next to it were two chairs, one for the interpreter and one for me. The sunlight fell in sharp shafts from tiny windows high up in the walls. I was daunted by the formality of the occasion, I hadn’t expected to address a meeting and I wasn’t sure my Portuguese was up to it. Nor was I confident I’d be able to get the women talking in such a situation. But they soon did: ‘we get up before sunrise’; ‘all of our day is work, there is no time for rest’; ‘the well in the village is almost dry, we have to go to the river for water, it takes three hours there and back, we make two trips a day’; ‘women can’t go to literacy classes, all of our day is occupied’.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
I. Casimiro, A. Loforte and P. Sitio, O Estato da Mulher em Mozambique (Maputo: OMM/UNICEF, 1988).
UNICEF, Situation Analysis of Women and Children in Zimbabwe (Harare, 1985) p. 77.
MCCDW/UNICEF Report on Situation of Women in Zimbabwe (Harare: UNICEF, 1982) p. 31.
See for example I. Amadiume, Male daughters, Female husbands: Gender and sex in an African society (London: Zed, 1987) for a detailed discussion of women’s position in patrilineal societies in a particular area of West Africa.
S. Jacobs, ‘Women and Land Resettlement in Zimbabwe’, Review of African Political Economy, 27/28 (1984) p. 33.
See for example, Y. Merafhe, ‘Research and its implications for women’s full and effective participation in national development’, in Report on the National Conference for Women in Botswana — strategies for Change (Gaborone, 1984) and
L. Fortmann, Women’s Agriculture in a Cattle Economy, Centre for International Studies, Cornell University/Rural Sociology Unit/Ministry of Agriculture (Gaborone, 1981).
Ministry of Finance and Development Planning, Central Statistics Office, Rural Income Distribution Survey in Botswana 1974/75 (Gaborone, 1976).
Ministry of Agriculture, Water Point Survey (Gaborone, 1981).
Zimbabwe Women’s Bureau, We Carry a Heavy Load: Rural Women of Zimbabwe Speak Out (Harare, 1981) p. 32.
R. Gaidzanwa, Promised Land: Towards a Land Policy in Zimbabwe (The Hague: Institute of Social Studies, 1982), p. 147.
ZWB, op. cit., pp. 21–22.
Ibid., p. 23.
Ibid., p. 23.
Samora Machel, ‘The Liberation of Women is a Fundamental Necessity for the Revolution’, in Mozambique: Sowing the Seeds of Revolution (London, 1974) p. 24.
quoted in S. Urdang, ‘Women and Development’ in J. Saul (ed.), A Difficult Road: The Transition to Socialism in Mozambique (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1985) p. 363.
S. Urdang, And Still They Dance: Women, War and the Struggle for Change in Mozambique (London: Earthscan, 1989).
Quoted in J. Hanlon, The Revolution Under Fire (London: Zed, 1984) p. 110.
Copyright information
© 1992 Chris Johnson
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Johnson, C., Campling, J. (1992). Rural Women. In: Women on the Frontline. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12022-2_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12022-2_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-12024-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-12022-2
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)