Family Planning in Rhodesia and Zimbabwe
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A matter of difference? Family planning and gendered discourses on sexuality and reproductive decision-making among Black and White Zimbabweans Ph. D. Dissertation Ane M. Ørbø Kirkegaard Department of Peace and Development Research Göteborg University A matter of difference? Family planning and gendered discourses on sexuality and reproductive decision-making among Black and White Zimbabweans © Ane M. Ørbø Kirkegaard Ph.D. Dissertation Department of peace and development research, Göteborg University (PADRIGU) Box 700, SE-405 30 Göteborg, Sweden ISBN: 91 87 380 609 Key index words: (title), Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, fertility, reproductive behaviour, reproductive decision-making, gender, population policy, racialised sexuality, HIV/Aids, family planning, feminism, Africa, discourse, masculinity, patriarchy, contraception. Front page illustration: Family planning poster on the door of a village bottle store, Eastern Zimbabwe, 1995 (photo: Ane M. Ørbø Kirkegaard) Layout of front page: Silje Ørbø Kirkegaard, AD Printed by Kompendiet, Göteborg, 2004 Typeset: Palatino 10 2 A mysterious marriage Once upon a time There was a boy and a girl Forced to leave their home by armed robbers. The boy was Independence The girl was Freedom. While fighting back, they got married. After the big war they went back home. Everybody prepared for the wedding. Drinks and food abounded, Even the disabled felt able. The whole village gathered waiting. Freedom and Independence Were more popular than Jesus. Independence came But Freedom was not there. An old woman saw Freedom’s shadow passing, Walking through the crowd, Freedom to the gate. All the same, they celebrated for Independence. Independence is now a senior bachelor Some people still talk about him Many others take no notice A lot still say it was a fake marriage. You can’t be a husband without a wife. Fruitless and barren Independence staggers to old age, Since her shadow, Freedom hasn’t come. Freedom Nyamubaya 3 4 Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.....................................................................I INTRODUCTION................................................................................... 1 The research problem................................................................................ 2 Objective and research questions.............................................................. 5 Outline of the thesis................................................................................... 5 The context: Population policies as development intervention................. 6 (Re-)presenting Zimbabwe and the locations of study ............................ 10 CHAPTER 1 THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS ................................................................................. 16 The acrobatics of theoretical triangulation............................................. 17 Acknowledging the constructed-ness of reality ....................................... 20 It takes one to know one: The hybridisation of patriarchies ................... 26 The major theoretical schools of fertility change and their policy implications ............................................................................................. 30 Some reflections on methodology............................................................ 35 Power and research ................................................................................ 37 Text based and secondary data ............................................................... 38 Selection of methods, interviewees and locations of fieldwork ............... 40 Research techniques and instruments ..................................................... 42 Assistants and interviews......................................................................... 46 Interpreting data ..................................................................................... 47 Doing fieldwork....................................................................................... 51 CHAPTER 2 PRACTICING A WHITER SHADE OF PALE: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF RACE, SEXUALITY AND REPRODUCTION IN COLONIAL ZIMBABWE .......................................................................... 54 5 King Solomon's Mines or the creation of a settler colony ...................... 55 Women of the Empire and the political economy of colonial reproduction............................................................................................ 59 Searching for work in the Empire ........................................................... 60 The Empire within................................................................................... 62 Ethnic consciousness among the settlers ................................................ 64 The self-image of Rhodesian-ness........................................................... 66 The domestication of African women...................................................... 69 The political economy of racialised sexuality......................................... 71 Change by colonialism: The political economy of racialised sexuality .................................................................................................. 77 CHAPTER 3 THE WAR AND/OF WOMEN’S BODIES: FAMILY PLANNING IN RHODESIA AND ZIMBABWE........................... 81 ‘Exterminating us, is that the idea?’ The impossibility of debating family planning in a colonial setting....................................................... 82 African population discourses in conflict................................................ 88 Your women/our women.......................................................................... 92 Sex(uality) and violence: The liberation war, population policy and racialised sexuality.................................................................................. 96 A not so hidden agenda: RF interests in African population reduction ................................................................................................. 99 Coming to terms with family planning .................................................. 107 Becoming an internationally reliable and ‘progressive’ partner................................................................................................... 110 CHAPTER 4 ‘IT’S NOT JUST LIVING TOGETHER PLAYING HOUSE-HOUSE’: WO/MEN AND THE MARRIED FAMILY ............................................... 114 Making family in Zimbabwe.................................................................. 115 ‘The men are the greatest problem!’ The bio-logic of Zimbabwean masculinity ............................................................................................ 122 The successful transplantation of a family discourse?.......................... 129 Individual or community: Changing images of the African family..................................................................................................... 134 Family as dependency........................................................................... 137 6 CHAPTER 5 ‘ITS PART AND PARCEL OF EVERY MARRIAGE’: THE POWER OF AND OVER PLEASURE................................................ 139 Social change and cultural threats........................................................ 140 Masculinity and sexual pleasure ........................................................... 145 Extramarital sex and “prostitution” ..................................................... 149 ‘The disease’ or the re-making of sexual danger .................................. 155 CHAPTER 6 FERTILITY CONTROL: MASTERS OR MISTRESSES OF REPRODUCTION? ................................................................................. 161 Knowledge and use of contraceptives in Zimbabwe.............................. 161 Different views and different methods of fertility control ..................... 163 Eugenics and technological fertility control ......................................... 170 ‘They are dangerous’: Opposition to technological contraceptives........................................................................................ 178 Stratified contraception......................................................................... 183 CHAPTER 7 ʹTHERE SHOULD ALWAYS BE CHILDREN IN A MARRIAGEʹ: THE CHANGE AND CONTINUITY OF REPRODUCTIVE IDEALS .................................................................................................. 186 Reproductive imagery............................................................................ 189 Dependencies ........................................................................................ 190 Planning a family .................................................................................. 198 ‘As an adult I will do as I want’: Changing perceptions of family size......................................................................................................... 202 The cost of children ............................................................................... 208 ‘Your children make you’: The differing meanings of children ............ 210 CHAPTER 8 DEPENDENCY AND CONTROL: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SEXUALITY AND REPRODUCTION....................................................... 217 History, politics and change: Understanding the connections.............. 218 Complicating the theories of reproductive change ............................... 222 A battleground of wills .......................................................................... 227 7 APPENDIX 1: List of interviewees...............................................................................