Building a culture of peace and nonviolence : enhancing Shona Traditional Court Systems

Abstract

In traditional Shona culture, as in other Ubuntu societies, gender roles are given and traditional leaders have no other way of knowing than hegemonic discourses which draw on dominant cultural, traditional and religious value systems which produce patriarchal norms and rules of behavior that are internalized as beliefs and customs. Without conscientisation, Shona traditional leaders remain bonded to the hegemonic construction of traditional masculinities and contrary to their peacebuilding role, they may unconsciously participate in the oppression of women and other vulnerable groups who may not belong to the dominant cultural groups. The problem forms the major motivation behind the study which aimed to train a critical mass of Shona traditional leaders in Ward 3 and Ward 11 of Murehwa District under Chief Mangwende in Mashonaland East Province of Zimbabwe for transformation into gendersensitive active nonviolent role models. Through a participatory action research design, Kemmis et al. (2014), the thesis developed and tested an integrated framework for the analysis and design of a discursive intervention in oppressive gender relations. The analytical framework was informed theoretically by Connell and Messerschmidt’s (2005) concept of hegemonic masculinities and Bell’s (2013) four I’s of oppression and methodologically by Fairclough’s (2013) dialectical relational approach. The action framework was informed theoretically by Bajaj’s (2019) critical peace education (CPE) and methodologically Freire’s (1964, 2005) transformative learning. At the philosophical level, the study combined Bhaskar’s (1979, 2016) transformational model of social activity, (TMSA) and applied this to European Commission’s (2013) definition of gender education (GE) to develop a transformational model of peace education (TMPE) which I shall term, gender transformative education (GTE) Furthermore, the study combined Connell and Messerschmidt’s (2005) concept of hegemonic masculinities, Freire’s (2005) transformative learning and Kolb’s (1983) learning cycle to develop the attendant learning cycle which I shall term critical masculinities learning cycle (CMLC). The models explicitly identified conditions in which traditional Shona masculinities were not be compatible with peace and justice and, simultaneously, the possibility for transforming gender relations in traditional Shona culture. As regards peace research, a key innovation of the study was to critique some of the premises and the constructs underpinning mainstream studies in gender, violence and peacebuilding and the need of these sub-disciplines to constantly reflect on issues of hegemony and ideology in a historically and dynamically informed manner, while at the same time insisting on action to transform asymmetrical gender power relations. A gender training manual has been produced from the findings of the study: it is intended to serve as a template for traditional leaders to acquire gender transformative values and knowledge and to develop gender transformative skills and attitudes that are necessary conditions to live in harmony with themselves, others and their environments.