Abstract
In the last two decades, “the Zimbabwean Crisis”, an intersection of domestic national political and economic instability, has initiated extensive migration of Zimbabweans to different destinations including its neighbour South Africa as well as elsewhere in the region and beyond. In addition to increasing numbers of people migrating there is more diversification in terms of who migrates as well as shifts to more extended stay. Included in this current wave of migrants to South Africa cities are an increasing number of women who unlike the historically more visible Zimbabwean female cross-border trader are often locating in this host space for indefinite periods. Drawing from research carried out with a sample of young Zimbabwean women located in the periphery of the city of Cape Town, this chapter considers the ways in which migrant women are constructed and positioned within the new social environment they are located, pointing to the assumptions, gendered expectations and stereotypes which govern this current wave of Zimbabwean women’s migration experiences. The chapter considers the dense networks of everyday life in the ‘community’ of Zimbabweans, which are fostered by proximity, shared backgrounds, and multifaceted, multi-purpose migration networks, looking in particular at the complicated relationship between reproduction of ‘community’ and the construction of gendered migrant identities. I point to the assumptions, gendered expectations and stereotypes which govern this current wave of Zimbabwean women’s experiences as they negotiate households, neighbourhoods, and community in the ‘working class’ townships on the Cape Flats. I discuss the ways in which ‘community’ and within it, social gendered norms are produced and reproduced, exploring in particular how young women position themselves within these socio-cultural structures and the implications for their day-to-day interactions and overall migration experience.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Notes
- 1.
Young man indicating to one of my informants that he had identified her as Zimbabwean even before he had heard her speak in Shona, 14 May 2009.
- 2.
Muzvidziwa (2001).
- 3.
Consequently, many Zimbabwean businesses have closed, leading to retrenchments, which has contributed to high rates of unemployment which have often been reported to be above 90 percent. The suspension of the Zimbabwe dollar and introduction of the multi-currency system as well as the signing of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) in February 2009 and its subsequent consummation through the formation of the shortlived Government of National Unity (GNU) among other key events, have shaped the state of the Zimbabwean economy but have failed to halt the increasing impoverishment of the Zimbabwean populace.
- 4.
Given the circulatory migration process, the high level of undocumented and ‘unauthorised’ cross-border entry as well as the reliance on deportation figures. The media and advocacy group estimates of three to five million people, contrast with the approximately one million legal and illegal migrants suggested by the few scientific studies that have been carried out (see Makina 2007), as well as with the estimate that three to four million Zimbabweans have left the country in the last decade for different destinations (Sisulu et al. 2007).
- 5.
Matshaka, N.S. 2007. Marobot neMawaya—Traffic Lights and Wire—Migration Experiences and Gendered Identities: The Case of Young Zimbabwean migrants living in the city of Cape Town (Unpublished research project for partial fulfilment of BsocSc Honours degree), African Gender Institute: University of Cape Town.
- 6.
The formal fieldwork period for the research focusing on young Zimbabwean migrant women stretched between October 2008 and July 2009 while field work for the previous research on gender, migration and masculinities was carried out in 2007.
- 7.
Participant observation activities involved long visits and ‘hanging out’ (Bernard 1994; Bhavnani 1994) with the young women. I not only spent several hours at a time observing activities and interactions and having casual conversations in the young women’s home spaces, but in the case of the women who were located in Harare and Litha Park, I came to share their neighbourhood as I moved around the area in their company getting to know their networks. I became a regular at the market area at the Khayelitsha Station, where I often stopped by to make conversation with one of my key informants and in time became acquainted with other Zimbabweans (male and female) operating in this space. In the process of engaging in the lives of the research participants, I was able to access the discursive (what people say in public), what they do (the practice) and internal realities (attitudes and beliefs) of these young women.
- 8.
Along which vendors line up and display their wares to people who have disembarked from the trains or are leaving the adjacent Khayelitsha shopping mall.
- 9.
This surprised me, as this was not my usual experience of Cape Town. Sisulu et al. (2007) point to how in the last few years there has been a change in the ethnic composition of the Zimbabwean ‘community’ in South Africa with a massive increase in Zimbabweans of Shona ethnicity. A few years ago, it was not common to hear Shona being spoken in many South African cities. Nowadays it is rare to move around without hearing snatches of conversation in Shona.
- 10.
It is, however, not always deemed safe to do so as I learnt during my fieldwork through anecdotes about incidents of foreigners being thrown off the train along the Cape Town—Khayelitsha train line.
- 11.
Zimbabwean-led congregations of these popular prophet-healing groups have mushroomed in many of South Africa’s informal settlements and townships where Zimbabweans have relocated (http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/zionist+church; Muzondidya 2008).
- 12.
The social networks that are central in these Zimbabwean women’s migration experiences are not limited to nationality or ethnic-based networks but also involve cooperation with Xhosa-speaking neighbours and landlords with whom they share childcare responsibilities, for example.
- 13.
In times of illness, responses appear to be varied depending on the extent of illness and the closeness of the relationships. Migrants who are ill for a long period or ‘diagnosed’ to be terminal are often encouraged to travel back to Zimbabwe ‘before it is too late’.
- 14.
Muzondidya (2008) points to how burial societies have become an established feature in some parts of Johannesburg and Pretoria, which have become home to many Zimbabweans. However, at the time of the study in the Cape Town context, I did not find any of my informants to be members of similar groups. The few stokvels that the women reported to have heard of were described as unsuccessful due to the uncertainty of the length of people’s stay with people returning to Zimbabwe at any time and at times absconding with group funds. The women I spoke to indicated that they preferred not to be members of such groups due to the perceived complications, which include some degree of undesirable monitoring of one’s financial situation and behaviour, preferring in most cases to limit their associational life to church membership or casual interactions. As one woman put it, “this congregating [for anything] with other Zimbabweans poses problems. It leads to a lot of talk” (Mutsa, Individual Interview, 14 November 2008).
- 15.
D.M. Individual Interview, 27 August 2007.
- 16.
Informant speaking to a local Xhosa-speaking man in reference to me the researcher, Participant Observation, 10 August 2007.
- 17.
Muzvidziwa (2001) points to how in the Zimbabwean state media, “stories about cross-border traders prostituting themselves with haulage truck drivers, and spending long periods in South Africa selling nothing but their bodies were rife” and how these traders “were charged with resorting to illegal abortions during their trips as ‘shoppers’” (Muzvidziwa 2001: 69).
- 18.
L, Informal Group Discussion, August 2007.
- 19.
A totem is a natural object (animal, vegetation) serving as the emblem of a family or clan, passed from one generation to the next (Moser et al. 1996).
- 20.
Agali, Individual Interview, 27 August 2007.
- 21.
Which over time has come to be associated with the older generation of cross-border trader women who suffer deplorable conditions such as sleeping in the open air at border posts or market places, working hard to support and improve the situation of families at home.
- 22.
Mapoto literally translates to cooking pots. A mapoto relationship is often a temporary set-up which does not involve the payment of lobola [bride price] from the man to the woman’s family. According to Barnes (1999) this type of relationship became common in the urban centres of Rhodesia due to the colonial system which precluded women from getting housing by asserting that only men could register for housing (Barnes 1999; also see Barnes and Win 1992). This meant that for accommodation, single women had to rely on relationships with men living in town without their ‘married’ wives.
- 23.
Also see Mupotsa (2005) for a similar discussion.
- 24.
When she initially arrived in 2007, Enniah had stayed with her estranged husband, but efforts to revive their relationship were not successful. She and her old school friend were stuck for a place to stay when kicked out of the ex-husband’s place of residence.
- 25.
At the time Enniah shared a one-room informal structure with a male friend who stayed with an older brother and male cousins.
- 26.
Although the young women were later accused of stealing a cell phone which had disappeared from the rented room and then using the money from the sale of the phone to buy the groceries.
- 27.
Zimbabwean feminist writers (Gaidzanwa 1995; Hungwe 2006; Mupotsa 2005) have pointed to how, in contemporary Zimbabwe, the term ‘prostitute’ is used not only to refer to women who sell sexual services but also as an umbrella term to insult and censure any woman who displays an array of behaviours that is disapproved of or considered defiant of the hegemonic patriarchal order.
- 28.
A key role of the paternal aunt was (and continues to some extent) to provide guidance and to be a confidante for her brother’s children before and after marriage .
- 29.
Gelfand (1979) points to how for a period some urban-based Shona continued to send their children to stay with grandparents in the rural areas during school holidays or for a few school terms during which time they were socialised into appropriate behaviour.
- 30.
The older women in this space are often engaged in cross-border trade activities and only come for short periods, often returning home to attend to school-going children and other gendered domestic roles.
- 31.
- 32.
This expectation is one that is not unique to this context but becomes more pronounced in this migration space where the need for a male partner to ‘provide’ gains importance in the absence of family or other usual support. The expectation not only positions young women as dependent but allows young men to play the masculine role of ‘provider’, which among some Zimbabwean male migrants was referred to as “kuhoster vasikana” (hosting the girls) (Matshaka 2007).
- 33.
In a conversation she indicated that she had recently begun attending masowe (prayer sessions) with one of the Zionist sects where she received prayer guidance and prophetic revelation (which is one of the common features of this church) about her future and prospects regarding making a good marriage .
References
Ahmad, N. (2006). Gender, culture and migrant masculinities: Pakistanis in Europe. Chapter presented at the History/Gender/Migration conference, Paris, March 2006.
Babbie, E., & Mouton, J. (2001). The practice of social research. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
Baines, E. K. (2003). Body politics and the Rwandan crisis. Third World Quarterly, 24(3), 479–493.
Barnes, T. (1999). “We women worked so hard”: Gender, urbanization, and social reproduction in colonial Harare, Zimbabwe, 1930–1956. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann; London: Currey.
Barnes, T., & Win, E. (1992). To live a better life: An oral history of women in Harare, 1930–70. Harare: Baobab Books.
Bernard, H. R. (1994). Research methods in anthropology: Qualitative and quantitative approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA and London: Sage Publications.
Beyene, J. (2004). Gender, migration and the household: The case of Ethiopian and Eritrean migrant domestic workers in Lebanon. Retrieved April 16, 2009, from http://webfea-lb.fea.aub.edu.lb/proceedings/2004/SRC-ArD-03.pdf
Bhavnani, K. (1994). Tracing the contours: Feminist research and feminist objectivity. In H. Afshar & M. Maynard (Eds.), The dynamics of “race” and gender: Some feminist interventions. London: Taylor and Francis.
Bolzoni, M. (2009). Refugees and asylum seekers in Cape Town. Situation, challenges, perspectives. In F. Barbera & E. Ochse (Eds.), A game of mirrors: Economic development and social cohesion in Piedmont and South Africa. Torino, Italy: COREP—Regione Piemonte.
Bozzoli, B., & Mmantho, N. (1991). Women of Phokeng: Consciousness, life strategy and migrancy in South Africa, 1900–1983. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Budlender, D. (2003). Women and men in South Africa: Five years on. Pretoria: SA Stats.
Cheater, A. P. (1998). Transcending the state? Borderline constructions of citizenship in Zimbabwe. In T. M. Wilson & H. Donnan (Eds.), Border identities: Nation and state at international frontiers. Cambridge: CUP.
Cheater, A. P. and Gaidzanwa, R. B. 1996. Citizenship in Neo-patrilineal states: Gender and Mobility in Southern Africa, Journal of Southern African Studies, 22(2).
Chitauro-Mawema, M. (2003). Mvana and their children: The language of the Shona people as it relates to women and womens’ space. Zambezia, 30(2), 135–153.
Crush, J. (2000). The dark side of democracy: Migration, xenophobia and human rights in South Africa. International Migration, 38(6), 103–134.
Curran, S. R., & Saguy, A. (2001). Migration and cultural change: A role for gender and social networks. Journal of International Women’s Studies, 2(3), 54–77.
Dodson, B. (1998). Women on the move: Gender and cross-border migration to South Africa. Cape Town: Institute for a Democratic South Africa.
Gaidzanwa, R. B. (1995). Women, democratisation and violence in Southern African experience. Paper presented at a Seminar on Women and the Democratisation Process in Africa, University of Pretoria, South Africa, April 7–11.
Gelfand, M. (1973). The genuine Shona: Survival values of an African culture. Gweru: Mambo Press.
Gelfand, M. (1979). Growing up in Shona society. Gwelo: Mambo Press.
Gluckman, M. (1963). Papers in honor of Melville J. Herskovits: Gossip and scandal. Current Anthropology, 4(3), 307–316.
Hungwe, C. (2006). Putting them in their place: “Respectable” and “unrespectable” women in Zimbabwean gender struggles. Feminist Africa 6. Subaltern Sexualities. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=gendersociety
Makina, D. (2007). Profile of migrant Zimbabweans in South Africa: A pilot study. Pretoria: University of South Africa.
Masade, I. (2007). Where is home? Transnational migration and identity amongst Nigerians in Cape Town. In S. Field, R. Meyer, & F. Swanson (Eds.), Imagining the city: Memories and cultures in Cape Town. Cape Town: HSRC Press.
Matshaka, N. S. (2007). Marobot neMawaya—Traffic lights and wire—Migration experiences and gendered identities: The case of young Zimbabwean migrants living in the city of Cape Town (Unpublished research project for partial fulfilment of BsocSc Honours degree). African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town.
Matshaka, N. S. (2009). “Marobot neMawaya”—Traffic lights and wire: Crafting Zimbabwean migrant masculinities in Cape Town. Feminist Africa, 13, 65–86. Body Politics and Citizenship.
McDowell, L. (1997). Undoing place?: A geographical reader. New York: Wiley.
McLaren, M. (2007). Dancing with dangerous desires: The performance of femininity and experiences of pleasure and danger by young black women within club spaces. M.Soc.Sc. Thesis (Gender Studies), University of Cape Town.
Merry, S. E. (1997). Rethinking gossip and scandal. In D. B. Klein (Ed.), Reprinted in reputation: Studies in the voluntary elicitation of good conduct (pp. 47–74). Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Mupotsa, D. (2005). Zvimwe Hazvibvunzwe: On the politics of being a black Zimbabwean women and a sexual being (Unpublished research project for partial fulfilment of BsocSc Honours degree). African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town.
Muzondidya, J. (2008). Majoni-joni: Survival strategies among Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa. Chapter presented at International Conference on the Political Economies of Displacement in Zimbabwe, Wits University.
Muzvidziwa, V. (2001). Zimbabwe’s cross-border women traders: Multiple identities and responses to new challenges. Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 19(1), 67–80.
Nhongo-Simbanegavi, J. (2000). For better or worse? Women and ZANLA in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. Zimbabwe: Weaver Press.
Parrado, E. A., & Flippen, C. A. (2005). Migration and gender among Mexican women. American Sociological Review, 70(4), 606–632.
Pigou, P. (2004). From the frying pan into the fire: A report on Zimbabwean political refugees in South Africa. Themba Lesizwe; Southern African Trauma Coalition.
Pitt-Rivers, J. A. (1971). The people of the Sierra (2nd ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Polzer, T. (2008). South African Government and civil society responses to Zimbabwean migration. Migration Policy Briefs, 22. Cape Town, South Africa; Ontario, Canada: Southern African Migration Project.
Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. (1933). Social sanctions. In Encyclopedia of the social sciences (Vol. 13, pp. 531–534). New York: Macmillan.
Ramphele, M. (1993). A bed called home. Cape Town: David Phillip.
Salo, E. (2003). Negotiating gender and personhood in the new South Africa: Adolescent women and gangsters in manenberg township on the Cape Flats. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 6(3), 345–365.
Salo, E. (2004). Respectable mothers, tough men and good daughters: Producing persons in Manenberg township, South Africa. Unpublished PhD thesis, Emory University.
Schlyter, A. (2003). Multi-habitation: Urban housing and everyday life in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.
Sisulu, E., Moyo, B., & Tshuma, N. (2007). The Zimbabwean Community in South Africa. In S. Buhlungu et al. (Eds.), State of the nation: South Africa 2007. Cape Town: HSRC Press.
Tamale, S. (2005). Eroticism, sensuality and “women’s secrets” among the Baganda: A critical analysis. Feminist Africa, 5, 9–36.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Matshaka, S. (2018). Mobile Women: Negotiating Gendered Social Norms, Stereotypes and Relationships. In: Hiralal, K., Jinnah, Z. (eds) Gender and Mobility in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65783-7_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65783-7_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-65782-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-65783-7
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)