Chihera in Zimbabwe

Ezra Chitando is Professor of History and Phenomenology of Religion and World Council of Churches Theology Consultant on HIV and AIDS in Africa. Sophia Chirongoma is a senior lecturer in the Religious Studies Department at Midlands State University, Zimbabwe. She is also an academic associate/research fellow at the Research Institute for Theology and Religion (RITR) at UNISA.  Munyaradzi Nyakudya is a senior lecturer in the History, Heritage and Knowledge Systems Department at the University of Zimbabwe. He has research interests in, among other areas, history, ethnomusicology, and human security.

• Introducing a Radical African Indigenous Feminist Principle: Chihera in Zimbabwe.- Part I Chihera in the Spiritual Hierarchy: Traversing Patriarchy.- 2 Chihera in the Ancestral Realm: Exploring Female Ancestry Among the Hera People in Buhera, Zimbabwe.- 3 VaChihera: A Profile of Ndakaziva.-  4 Chihera: Renegotiating the Status of Women in Shona Indigenous Culture in Zimbabwe.- 5 Chiheras’ Twenty-First-Century Profiling: Re-converging from Past Divisions in Monolithic Defying of Traditional Patriarchal Culture.-  Part II From the mouths of Chiheras and Mhofuyokuno: Disrupting Patriarchy.-  6 Ndini Chihera (I Am Chihera): An African Womanist Perspective on the Chihera Identity in Zimbabwe.-  7 Ndini Baba vaChihera (I Am Chihera’s Father): A Narrative of the Chihera Persona.- 8 “Please Understand Me, I Am Chihera”: Issues of Character and Traits Among the Indigenous Zimbabwean Women of the Chihera Totem.-  9 Chihera’s Story: Keeping Ubuntu Alive Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic.-  10 Revisiting Totemic Praise Names: Chihera as Metaphor of Addressing Gender-Based and Sexual Violence in Post-colonial Zimbabwe.-  Part III Subverting Patriarchy: Chihera Persona in the Film Industry and Advocacy for Gender Parity.-  11 Chihera in Film: The Subversion of Patriarchal and Customary Laws of Inheritance as Depicted in the Zimbabwean Feature Film Neria (1991).-  12 Genderising the Social Media: Analysing Chihera’s Antics in the Zimbabwean Context.- 13 Socially Constructed Discourse on Chihera: An Asset or Liability in Zimbabwe’s Envisioned Gender Equal Society.-  Part IV Chihera Prototype Navigating the Zimbabwean Genderised Economic Sector.- 14 “If only it wasn’t for me” Chihera as Head of the Family in a Time of Economic Crisis.- 15 Patriarchy and Disability: A Culture of Ubuntu, African Women with Disabilities and Sustainable Livelihoods in Matetsi Community, Zimbabwe.- Part V Confounding Chihera: Patriarchy Fights Back.-  16 The Chihera Mystique in Selected Writings by African Women Theologians.- 17 Chihera as a Game Changer in the African Churches’ Masculine Leadership Hierarchy: A Case Study of the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe.- 18 Chihera’s Matriarchal Traits: A Mirror of Reverse Patriarchy.- 19 Implications of Consolidating Patriarchy Through Exploitation of “Better” Ways of Conveying Disagreeable Practices to Chihera, the Epitome of Empowered Women in Zimbabwe.-