WOMEN, WEALTH GENERATION AND PROPERTY OWNERSHIP IN TRADITIONAL SHONA CULTURE IN ZIMBABWE

Feminist scholarship is awash with literature that strives to vindicate its position that women in general have never enjoyed status and platforms equal to those of their male counterparts in the social, economic, religious and political spheres in life. The literature bemoans the invisibility of women in matters to do with economics and property ownership. The literature further posits that women neither wielded any power nor had any platforms for the generation and accumulation of wealth or the ownership of property. Leaning on Africana Womanist theory, this paper contends that such a perception is the antithesis of what actually takes place in the Shona milieu where, traditionally, women have, not just platforms to generate and accrue personal wealth, but have also authority over the use and disposal of such wealth. Avenues for the generation and accumulation of wealth and other property by Shona women range from marriage negotiations, the institution of marriage itself as well as the family, working using one’s hands and commanding positions of leadership.