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Naming, Identity and Gender Constructions: a Phenomelogical Study of Zezuru Names in Buhera South

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Naming, Identity and Gender Constructions: a Phenomelogical Study of Zezuru Names in Buhera South NAMING, IDENTITY AND GENDER CONSTRUCTIONS: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF ZEZURU PERSONAL NAMES BY MARADZE VIRIRI 214584201 A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal Thesis Supervisor: Prof. N. Hlongwa SEPTEMBER 2018 i ABSTRACT Names given to individuals among the Zezuru are not arbitrarily given but are rather carefully given to individuals based on one’s gender status. Personal names among the Zezuru do carry gender connotations. This study focused on how names reflect the gender status of the name bearer and obtained most of its insights from semantics, the critical discourse analysis theory, the backing theory, and the gender theory. Sources which included school registers, questionnaires, interviews, and focus group discussions were used to collect personal names which werein turn used for this study. The names that were used were from the period before Independence (1975-1979 to 1980 to date). This study recognized the already existing naming categories used by previous researchers, and went on to come up with new or alternative naming categories best suited for the study. The study found out that gendered names have far reaching effects on the bearers of the names. The descriptive backing, critical discourse analysis,and semantic and gender theories were found to be the best theories in coming up with the gendered meanings of the personal names used in this study. This study argues that it will make significant contributions to the body of knowledge in disciplines such as onomastics, semantics, pragmatics, anthropology sociology and others. ii KEY TERMS Identity Gender Culture Patriarchy Socialization Personal Name Anthroponyms Stereotyping Stigmatisation Critical Discourse Analysis iii DEDICATION I dedicate this thesis to my wife, Eunitah Viriri, who inspired me to continue with my academic career. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor Prof Nobuhle Ndimande-Hlongwa, for your significant role in my academic career. Your support, patience, guidance and encouragement have been of great value throughout my studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. I will always treasure your mentorship. I am indebted to the University of KwaZulu Natal for enrolling me for my Doctoral studies. I am grateful for your financial support through the UKZN Doctoral research scholarship. To all the respondents in this study, your involvement was of significant value and I am very grateful for the sacrifices that you made. I appreciate the motivation I got from my family members; namely my wife Eunitah, our daughter Tanyaradzwa Sharon, and our sons Tavonga Kelvin and Nyasha Malvin, who missed my company most of the time as I worked on this research to make it a success. I also appreciate the moral support I got from my mother, a family-centred woman who sacrificed a lot for my good.To my late father, thank you for the selfless sacrifices you made to send me to school. A special thank you to my editor for going through this thesis over a short period of time. To him I say – “Thank you for the splendid job.” I am also greatly indebted to the Ministry of Education for giving me the permission to use the school registers in this study. I also want to thank the school heads in Buhera South for creating a pleasant research environment during my data collection process. To all the people who participated in interviews and focus group discussions, I thank you for your patience and co- operation. Above all, I thank the Almighty God for granting me the power to overcome all the challenges that militate against progress. v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CDA – Critical Discourse Analysis ZANU – Zimbabwe African National Union vi LIST OF TABLES Table 5.2.1 Sex of respondents …………………………….……………………………. 132 Table 5.2.2 Age range of participants……………………………………………………... 132 Table 5.3.1 Level of education of the participants………………………………………... 133 Table 5.4.1 Names per source……………………………………………………………... 134 Table 5.5.1 Category of names……………………………………………………………. 136 Table 5.7.1 People who are responsible for naming………………………………………. 141 Table 5.9.1 Gendered personal names which are common to girls………………………... 146 Table 5.9.2 Personal names common among boys………………………………………... 147 Table 5.9.3 Names which are unisex………………………………………………………. .148 Table 5.10.1 Factors which influence personal name choice……………………………… 153 Table 5.18.1 Conflicts associated with naming……………………………………………. 161 vii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ..................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... ii KEY TERMS .......................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined. DEDICATION .......................................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................................... v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1 .............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1 PREAMBLE ....................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY .............................................................................. 3 1.2.1 ZEZURU ................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined. 1.2.2 PERSONAL NAMING ............................................................................................. 3 1.2.3 GENDERED NAMES ............................................................................................... 4 1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT .............................................................................................. 5 1.3.1 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES ...................................................................................... 6 1.3.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ....................................................................................... 6 1.4 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................................... 6 1.5 PROBLEM AND RESEARCH QUESTION .................................................................. 8 1.6 MAJOR RESEARCH QUESTION ................................................................................. 9 1.7 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................... 9 1.8 SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUES ............................................................... 10 1.9 DATA COLLECTION METHODS .............................................................................. 10 1.10 QUESTIONNAIRES ................................................................................................... 11 1.10.1THE QUESTIONNAIRE ....................................................................................... 11 1.10.2 THE INTERVIEW ................................................................................................ 11 1.11 FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSIONS ................................................................................ 12 1.12 DOCUMENT ANALYSIS .......................................................................................... 12 1.13 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ............................................................................. 12 viii 1.14 LIMITATIONS ............................................................................................................ 14 1.15 DELIMITATIONS ....................................................................................................... 14 1.16 DEFINITION OF TERMS ........................................................................................... 15 1.17 STRUCTURE OF THESIS .......................................................................................... 16 1.18 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................ 16 CHAPTER 2 ............................................................................................................................ 16 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................... 17 2.1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................... 17 2.2 WHAT IS NAMING ...................................................................................................... 18 2.3 TRENDS IN ANTHROPONOMASTICS ..................................................................... 24 2.3.1 WORLD TRENDS IN ANTHROPONOMASTICS ............................................... 24 2.3.2 AFRICAN ANTHROPONOMASTIC TRENDS ................................................... 27 2.3.3 ANTHROPONOMASTIC
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