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A
Zimbabwean feminist speaks
Shereen
Essof, Extracted from Pambazuka News 300
April 20, 2007
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/40853
Shereen Essof is a Zimbabwean
feminist and revolutionary activist currently based in Cape Town.
She is known for her role in the women-s movement in Zimbabwe.
Ronald Wesso spoke to her on 18 March following a week of unashamed
and escalating brutality visited on the opposition by the Mugabe
regime, a month before Zimbabwe's 27th year of independence.
RW:
Shereen, where do we begin if we are talking about Zimbabwe
today?
SE: I think
that today I would begin with a woman by the name of Grace
Kwinjeh, the deputy secretary for international relations in
the Tsvangirai MDC, but also a women who is part of the broader
women-s movement in Zimbabwe. A women who was beaten, tortured
and denied medical assistance. That is what freedom has translated
into in Zimbabwe, and that is where I would begin.
RW:
Does her experience mean women have been specifically targeted in
the spate of state violence we have seen?
SE: Women are always
targeted. They are targeted differently depending on what the political
economic and social context is. Our society is deeply patriarchal
and misogynistic. During the liberation war, women's bodies were
used as part of the struggle. That struggle was by no means equitable.
In the 1980s when the
state went into moral panic about the freedoms women had gained
after independence they targeted 'women as prostitutes' in something
known as Operation Clean Up where any women out after 6pm was arrested.
Now 27 years later, women are being targeted for being women and
political activists. The violence is sexualised, that is why they
can be called 'Tsvangirai's whores'.
Gender-based violence
against women is more acute where, as in Zimbabwe, traditionalist
patriarchal values persist. This is not only due to a value system
which treats women as being in some way lesser people than men,
and thus not worthy of the protection of the law. It also arises
directly from a certain proprietal attitude.
As male 'property' women
are not treated as actors in their own right. Hence the epithet
'Tsvangirai-s whores' directed at female members of the opposition
by state agents and Zanu PF supporters, implying that they are merely
acting on behalf of a man, motivated by considerations other than
their own desire for change or political activism.
Furthermore, sexual violence
perpetrated upon women is perceived not so much as an assault on
the woman herself, but an attack on the 'property' of the 'owning'
male. Combined with traditionalist attitudes towards sexuality and
virginity, there is a perception that sexual violence perpetrated
upon women members of the opposition is viewed by the perpetrator
as a particularly effective way of attacking and humiliating male
members of the opposition. The resultant social disruption is extensive.
RW:
I take from what you are saying that the clampdown is on
the opposition but that it-s also important to understand
it as a clampdown on women specifically. Let's talk about Gukurahundi,
which can also be understood as a clampdown on opposition with an
ethnic dimension - the targeting of the Ndebele people. Would you
argue that it was also a violent attack on women?
SE: Gukurahundi was an
early example of the extent Zanu PF would go to in order to stifle
dissent and opposition. Gukurahundi means 'the early rain which
washes away the chaff'.
And yes, gukurahundi
is the euphemism used for the actions of Mugabe's fifth brigade
in the Zapu areas, the Ndebele provinces of Matabeleland and the
Midlands during the 1980s. An estimated 20,000 civilians, mostly
Ndebele, were killed or disappeared and have not been accounted
for to this date. It was vicious and violent.
As Yvonne
Vera-s Stone Virgins testifies, it was played out across
women-s bodies in very particular ways: rape, brutality, the
ripping apart of women, of people and families and communities.
Gukurahundi is part of the same continuum that leads us to the events
of the last month.
RW:
Speaking about Murambatsvina.
You spoke about how today and in the past violence was deployed
to demobilise and repress women. In the public discourse on today-s
events and on Gukurahundi this aspect is played down or left out.
It is seen respectively as an attack on Ndebeles and the MDC. Murambatsvina
is understood as an attack on the urban poor. Was there a dimension
of targeting women?
SE: Look. Murambatsvina
was specifically aimed at 'cleaning up the filth- and
in this instance the filth was people staying in structures for
which there had been no legal permission to build. The way this
thing played itself out was that the majority of people in the front-line
of feeling and dealing with the effects of Murambatsvina were women
and it saw the displacement of an estimated 700 000 people.
Women and children are
the most common victims in situations where organised violence and
torture become prevalent and are frequently the first victims in
civil conflict. They are also the most greatly affected in cases
of internal displacement. Mrambatsvian was no different.
RW:
What is the purpose of all this violence from the state-s
side?
SE: The purpose of this
violence is about clinging to state power at all costs.
RW:
Okay, so given all that, can you see a positive purpose
and role for state power?
SE: As long as a minority
make decisions on our behalf then we cannot be free. The decision
making and enforcing apparatus this minority uses is the state.
The state apparatus and way it is conceptualised needs to change
radically.
I-m going to go
back to women. If one looks at the experience of women in Zimbabwe
and one looks at the role of the state in relation to women-s
lives the state has never had the interests of women at heart. Women
have actually never been considered full citizens of Zimbabwe. They
are only considered citizens when the state has something to gain.
For example, in March 2007 the state held a celebration for international
women-s day under the theme of 'stop violence against
women', on the grounds that they had passed a domestic violence
bill. This is interesting and intriguing, given that at the exact
same time you had women being detained and tortured by the very
same state.
RW:
Let-s talk a bit about the MDC that has been placed
so centrally in these events. What do you think of the MDC?
SE: The MDC was born
out of a dynamic process of social justice activism. Many of the
people who are in the MDC came out of the trade unions and civic
structures, when people realised that the prevailing energy could
be turned into some kind of power, some kind of counterforce to
the Zanu regime. That is how the MDC was born. The MDC came to prominence
on a wave of popular support in that they provided an alternative.
But I think things did
not continue in that spirit, with a commitment to true democracy,
to a struggle that is guided by principles of freedom and alternatives.
There is no sound articulated strategy to fight for change. True
change. In very real ways the MDC have adopted the political culture
of Zanu.
So it would seem that
we are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Does the MDC offer
a viable alternative? We should be clear about what the MDC is and
what its policies are. While the word 'democratic' in the opposition-s
Movement for Democratic Change evokes pleasant feelings, some of
the party-s policies are rooted in neo-liberal ideology.
In fact, what needs to
be happening now is the building of a mass movement, linking the
struggles by women, workers, residents, traders, Aids activists,
students, disability rights activists, debt cancellation activists,
the rural poor to start defining the content of the change we want.
That means a movement that fights for a new political, economic
and social order.
RW:
Shereen, let us move the discussion away from the dramatic
events of the last few days, as well as the drama of Murambatsvina
and Gukurahundi. Let us talk a little bit about what some call the
normalcy of everyday life in Zimbabwe. Life expectancy for men in
Zimbabwe is now 37 and for women 34. What does it say about normality
and everyday life?
SE: I read something
about Zimbabwe the other day:
'Yes there is tension
in some places, but for the majority life goes on normally. And
unfortunately within that "normality" is a gross amount
of struggle.'
What is normal? And what
is abnormal?
I think that in Zimbabwe
right now the lines are incredibly blurred. People find ways to
continue and to survive, brutally. Perhaps surviving is resistance.
Is that normal or abnormal? What does everyday life look like given
life expectancies of 37 and 34?
Inflation is at 1700
per cent at the moment. If you go into the shop today and pay 40000
Zimbabwean dollars for something, the next day it could cost 65000
dollars. Not many people are earning salaries that keep up with
inflation. The strikes by teachers and doctors are indicative of
that. Everyday life in Zimbabwe is for many a life of struggle,
hardship and deprivation. A life of brutality, without the basic
things that you need to be human.
But there is something
else that is very interesting about everyday life in Zimbabwe. You
can arrive at Harare international airport and drive into town and
you will see luxury cars everywhere. You will see BMWs. You will
Mercedes Benz-. You can go to restaurants and have the best
seafood. In the face of all this deprivation you have the consolidation
of a very small elite. There are flows of money outside of the formal
economy that means that people are making money from the current
situation. And for such people it is not in their best interests
that anything should change.
RW:
All of this happens against a backdrop of a Zimbabwe that-s
actually at war in the DRC. What is the importance of that?
SE: It-s interesting
that you pick up on the DRC because I think that Zimbabwe-s
involvement in the DRC was yet another watershed in the spiral downwards.
In 1998, the war veterans under the leadership of Chejerai Hilter
Hunzvi basically held Mugabe hostage and demanded a pay out for
war veterans, which the budget of the country could not sustain.
In the same year Zimbabwe sent troops into the DRC even though financially
it was not viable. But it is common knowledge that the elite network
of Congolese and Zimbabwean political, military and commercial interests
seek to maintain their grip on the main mineral resources, diamonds,
cobalt, copper, germanium.
RW:
Which of course raises the question of Zimbabwe-s
place in the continent and the world, its political and economic
relations with other countries. Let-s approach this through
South Africa-s role. What do you think South Africa's role
is? And what do you think of the many calls on SA to intervene?
SE: It is imperative
for the South African government and SADC to take action to hasten
an end to the oppression of the Zimbabwean people. The existing
softly-softly policy of quiet diplomacy to encourage internal dialogue
has failed. One needs to listen to the call by Desmond Tutu and
civil society organisations in southern Africa for intervention.
The Mugabe regime needs to know that it can no longer rely on the
unconditional support of the South African government.
RW:
What would an intervention from SADC and South Africa look like?
SE: Mugabe must be called
to task. He must be called to account. If he is not, all African
leaders are as guilty as Mugabe.
For a start they need
to explicitly condemn the violent actions being undertaken in the
name of Zanu PF and the Zimbabwean government. End all defence force,
security and intelligence collaboration. Cease supplies of all military
hardware. Cease to roll over all loans. Respond sympathetically
to asylum requests. The argument that it is wrong to intervene in
the internal affairs of a sovereign country is no longer sustainable.
Without international intervention against apartheid, the struggle
for liberation in South Africa would undoubtedly have taken longer
and been even more bloody.
RW:
I want us to talk about art and culture. Zimbabwe still
has the highest literacy rate in the SADC region. The Harare International
Arts Festival (HIFA) is in the world-s top ten. And the recurring
theme of Zimbabwean art through the ages is the transformation of
a human being into a beast. I just want you to reflect a little
on that side of Zimbabwe.
SE: Interesting. Zimbabwe
is rich in cultural production, pottery, textiles, jewellery, carvings,
baskets, sculpture, music, theatre, writing. There-s some
really amazing work that is being done. I think that the transformation
of human being into beast in something that in some ways Zimbabweans
know about intimately. If cultural production is about a critique
of what is happening at a socio-economic and political level, then
that is what is going to be woven into cloth or chiselled out of
stone. Human to beast.
HIFA is an annual international
arts festival that encompasses five main disciplines: music, theatre,
fine arts, dance and the spoken word. HIFA began in 1999 and since
then has taken the Zimbabwean and Southern African arts scene by
storm. The Festival showcases the best of Zimbabwean performances
and fine arts while at the same time staging and exhibiting the
most exciting and creative international and regional performances.
HIFA 2007 is dedicated
to artistic expression that has meaning and purpose for a community
that is facing challenging balancing acts every day. It is a time
to show that in Zimbabwe in 2007, the arts express our desire to
make life better for ourselves as individuals and as a diverse community;
a time to show that HIFA and artists recognise the paradoxes faced
by Zimbabweans each day as we step out on to our own personal tight
rope.
Most of all, it is a
time to show that creativity surrounds us and makes us smile each
day- HIFA 2007 is a celebration of all the small-scale acts of creative
heroism that give magic, enchantment, existentialist ideals to ordinary
things.
RW:
So Shereen, how do we get from beastliness and brutality
to humanity and tenderness?
SE: Chirukure Chirukure
in his poem 'Smoke, Dust, Tear-gas' hints at this:
'in the heavy, belching
clouds of dry dust there in your tired, barren patch of rocky land
you could still tender the grey, shrivelled crops, weeding the way
to the starving family-s future...in the crude, suffocating
thunder of tear gas, there in your tense neighbourhood turned into
battlefields, you could still see the damp, blood-soaked secret
paths, tenderly shuttling to give direction and inspiration to the
cause ... in the perfume, tobacco, alcohol and laughter fumes, there
in the extensive, excited victory celebration parties, your eyes
could stretch beyond the beaming rainbow knowing that out of the
brutality, there is the humanity, that this is only but a seed germinating...'
RW:
Are there such spaces for the creation of this humanness
in Zimbabwe, or at least in the process of creation?
SE: I think the spaces
have to be created. They are not just delivered to you on a platter.
People are creating the spaces. Women are creating the spaces. There
have been a number of women who have been very involved in the 1980s
and the 1990s who because of political and social and economic reasons
are now scattered around the region. Who have reached out to each
other in order to create those spaces to see what possibilities
can spring from that. So spaces have to be created, and they will
be.
RW:
Is this the Feminist Political Education Project?
SE: Yes
RW:
So tell us a bit more about it.
SE: The Feminist Political
Education Project in some ways was born out of shared experience
and friendships. Shared experience within the women-s movement
and within the National Constitutional Assembly [NCA] across the
MDC and friendship, in that the women who came together to form
the project were friends.
They understood the urgent
need for something. In 2003 we didn-t know what that something
was, but we agreed that as an alternative to the way that the mainstream
malestream works we would come together as a very loose network.
We would not consolidate as an organisation. We would pool our skills
and resources and come up with interventions based on what was happening
at a particular time in the country and create spaces for women
to come together both to share and reflect but also to think through
ways of doing even in the limited room that exists in Zimbabwe right
now to organise and to do. And so we have been working since 2003.
The Feminist Political Education Project is a space of hope.
RW:
Apart from the Feminist Political Education Project are
there any other projects or groups or movements that you would urge
people to join and build?
SE: I think the Zimbabwe
Social Forum is an important space in the struggle against globalisation
and in building mass based resistance on the ground. You know, that-s
important. I think Zvakwana is important. SW Radio is important.
Many formations that are contributing to the dreaming of a new dispensation.
RW:
What are the prospects for Zimbabwe Shereen?
SE: This last week has
been a watershed. Things may get worse before they get better but
things are going to come to a head either way. People outside and
inside the country are preparing for that. They are consolidating
networks to come with strategies and I think that the pressure is
now on. It-s a different game.
RW:
What would true freedom and democracy look like?
SE: A Zimbabwe that confronts
its various pasts and names the violations its peoples have suffered;
freedom would look like a space to look at the militia in the eye
and say, 'you violated me-. It would be a chance to
talk back to the commercial farmer, for all those years of exploitation
and abuse. To be able to point a finger at the minister and the
war vet and ask: 'why?' It would allow for a woman to define the
Zimbabwe she wants to live in. Is that not what democracy is about?
A chance to be listened to. And be heard. An acknowledgement of
the pain endured? A piece of land to call one-s own would
go a long way. Space to be a citizen. Speaking on our own behalf.
Defining our own futures. Ukuba ngumuntu - muntu. To become
people. Our personhood restored.
* "Shereen
Essof is a Zimbabwean feminist and activist. Please
send comments to editor@pambazuka.org
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