Thesis (M.A. (Sociology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2014 / The problem investigated in this study relates to the socio-economic outcomes that the Fast-Track Land Redistribution Programme (FTLRP) produced. The study focused on the voices of the newly resettled farmers because the socio-economic outcomes of the FTLRP have been analyzed at a high level (government, NGOs and international organisations), thus ignoring the voice of the people at the grassroots. For example, scholars like Moyo (2004) asserted that the land question has generated a lot of emotional debate and there is a general consensus that it represents the dimension to the crisis the country is going through. On the other hand according to Mukamuri (2000) land is a very crucial factor in the eradication of insecurity and rural poverty. The study focused on the socio-economic outcomes of the Fast-Track Land Redistribution Programme (FTLRP) in Kippure-lram Resettlement Scheme, Masvingo province, Zimbabwe. The research employed qualitative research methods which were descriptive. The population of the study was constituted by the beneficiaries of the Kippure-lram Resettlement Scheme. Data collection in this study was done through the use of focus group discussions and secondary data was collected from government (Zimbabwean Government, 2003 and 2005), NGOs (FAO, 2003), international organisations (Oxfam International, 2002 and 2003) and literature from various scholars. The population comprised of all the newly resettled farmers of the Kippure-lram Resettlement scheme. Thirty (30) out of forty (40) respondents were interviewed and the researcher made use of non-probability sampling, which was purposive. Ten (10) of the farmers were not interviewed because they were not true representation of the beneficiaries of the FTLRP because they were not active in the programme. iii The researcher divided the participants into five groups. Each group had six participants. Each group of participants was interviewed on three different sessions; each session had its own thematic question. Totally, fifteen sessions were conducted during the focus group discussions. The discussions were carried out at Kippure-Iram Resettlement Scheme from the 10th to 15th of December 2010. Each session of the interviews lasted for two hours. The researcher made use of pseudo names during the interviews, a way of protecting the identity of the participants. Analysis of data in this study was carried out through the use of content analysis. Seventy-six percent (76%) of the participants observed that the FTLRP’s outcomes in Kippure-Iram Resettlement Scheme were positive to a larger extent, mainly because they can now practise various farming projects to earn a living on their new land and the programme has managed to distribute land to its rightful owners. On the other hand, twenty-four per-cent (24%)) of the participants indicated that the results of the FTLRP were negative because after the FTLRP they were left unemployed.

Thesis (M.A. (International Politics)) --University of Limpopo, 2014 / Debate on GNU centres around whether or not as a tool/plan/strategy it promotes, cultivates and fosters democracy in situations where there is lack there-of. In other words does a GNU create the conditions or environment necessary for the establishment of democracy? Various studies have shown that GNU is popular as a conflict-resolution tool and that in countries where it has been employed, it has resulted in the successful cessation of violent conflict. This study explores GNU to find out how successful it was in democratic entrenchment in Zimbabwe. It revealed through interviews and secondary sources that in Zimbabwe GNU managed to bring together antagonistic political contenders to work together for the restoration of peace and democracy and nation-building. GNU did not however, guarantee permanent solution of the crisis. In other words there were other significant issues which could not simply be resolved through a GNU. Finally the study further explored the different reasons for GNU inability to resolve those issues in Zimbabwe.

The objective of the Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) initiative is to enhance biodi versity conservation through approaches which balance the needs of local communities reliant upon natural resources, with national and international needs in conservation. This is achieved by addressing the imbalances in the distribution of costs and benefits in natural resource man~gement (NRM). So those who live with natural resources should receive benefits for their effort in conservation. Once there is a benefit stream associated with a resource, communities can then be involved in NRM as a long term strategy. In this way sustainable use of resources is promoted. For successful CBNRM, there has to be a vehicle for eliciting community participation and involvement through planning and decision making. In a communal property management regime, there exist sanctions and rewards for conserving/managing the resource. For community management to be successful there has to be an authority which protects the local rights and ensures that duties are fulfilled . This authority has to be local and national. Within the national context, the authority defining rights and duties in NRM is determined by the institutional framework in which the CBNRM initiative operates. At the community level, community leadership institutions are the authority protecting the rights and enforcing duties. Local leadership gains legitimacy from the wider institutional structures and from the community. How community leadership functions determines largely the structure and functioning of the CBNRM initiative locally. The case study of Kanyurira Ward, a community involved in a CBNRM initiative, namely CAMPFIRE in Zimbabwe, attempts to find out the role of leadership within the evolving institutional structures in shaping the functioning and structuring of the initiative. Analysis of the historical progression of leadership within the community and the community perceptions on leadership selection, monitoring and evaluation, legitimacy and the distribution ofcosts and benefits between the community and the leadership were used to identify the salient factors for effective and efficient local leadership in CBNRM. 11 The study showed that local leadership effectiveness and community expectations of leaders influence performance based on understanding of the leadership role and objectives of the CBNRM initiative. The environments in which CBNRM programmes operate have forced the community to change its leadership selection and monitoring criteria over time. External agencies have their own role expectations for local leaders based on their organizational goals and objectives. These different leadership role expectations place undue pressure on leaders. Community perceptions on cost -benefit distribution within CBNRM programmes affect the sustainability of the programme as they can be an incentive or disincentives to follow NRM rules. Changes in the institutional structures within the communities due to government policies have resulted in overlaps and conflicts in roles of traditional and modem political leadership. Though traditional leadership does not have formal legitimation, it has community acceptance and has persisted over the years. Approaches within CBNRM, need to be evaluated within the community's and leaders world view so that they can address any imbalances and mismatches in role, status and benefit expectations before negating on the CBNRM objective of community participation with benefits for sustainable NRM and development. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1998.

In 1998 I conducted a series of interviews with Zimbabweans who recounted, often using English, their memories of Albert Sumbo-Ncube. From these I have selected and transcribed five interviews with ZIPRA ex-combatants in which they tell the story, as they remember and elaborate on their memories, of Sumbo's escape from Rhodesian police custody at the Victoria Falls in 1977 during the Zimbabwean liberation struggle. The interviews represent Sumbo as a hero and reveal the folk hero creation process at work. This hero figure was created by people who needed an effective figure of oppositional propaganda and who did not have access to the technology and resources of the Rhodesian government. Their narratives were communicated orally and they fused material found in the Rhodesian government-controlled newspapers with an amaNdebele oral tradition. I shall draw on Hobsbawm's (1972) notions of the social bandit and Robens's (1989) study of the folk hero creation amongst post-slavery African-Americans in order to understand the ZIPRA guerrillas' hero creation. The Sumbo folk hero creation served to promote an ideal self for the Zimbabwean guerrillas and their recruits. Sumbo's daring and his ability successfully to defy authority evoked admiration amongst the guerrillas in the 1970s, and in 1998 revives for them the idealism of the struggle. In Zimbabwe the 'hero' has become a contested category, because of the government's will to control the historical representation of the liberation struggle by promoting an official history with official categories of heroes. Working with Barber's notion of popular African arts (1987 and 1997), I argue that a folk hero can be redefined as a 'popular hero' when created by a proletariat and expressed by means of a popular art form. The interviewees use a specific form, the oral historical narrative, to preserve and transmit the Sumbo hero figure. I argue that though this oral historical narrative is less fixed in form and occasion than praise poetry, songs and genealogies, it nevertheless possesses identifiable and recurrent characteristics and I have established a number of criteria for identifying oral historical narrative as a genre. In order to avoid taking a generalised and essentialising approach to the notion of 'African culture', I have drawn on theory that is as specific as possible to the understanding of oral historical narratives within the context of siNdebele speakers in Zimbabwe. I have drawn on research published by Hofmeyr (1993) and Scheub (1975) because they focused on Nguni-speaking societies. Their research is further supported by my own research conducted in the rural area of Tsholotsho in Zimbabwe. The analysis of the oral historical narrative genre used by the interviewees demonstrates that significant formal and performance skills occur in this type of narrative which takes place within apparently informal conversations. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2000.

This dissertation is an ethnographic expository of how Tavirima Traditional Dance Group uses chinyambera traditional dance as a copying mechanism for marginalised communities in Gweru, Zimbabwe. This study contextualises and analyses how Tavirima’s performances of chinyambera reflect the socio-political environment in Zimbabwe and how the music works to bring about social change. It gives further insight into and analysis of how traditional songs metaphorically speak out against the authoritarian government of Zimbabwe led by Robert Gabriel Mugabe, and how dance embodies dissent against the same. The dissertation provides transcriptions and contextual interpretations of chinyambera songs which Tavirima uses as agents for social change focusing on how the songs reflect, contest, resist and mediate in the prevailing socio-political crisis in Zimbabwe. The research also discusses how chinyambera’s roots, expressiveness and energies influence Tavirima to choose the dance over a myriad of other Zimbabwean traditional dances. The theoretical framework for this study is underlined by the African Popular Culture Theory, Alternative Cultural Theory and Positive Deviance Approach creating a vantage point through which the study is framed to analyse the ability of popular arts in bringing about social change and how subalterns take charge of their destiny by defying restrictive and oppressing systems through a metamorphosis of traditional music and dance.

The study investigated the knowledge levels of clients on long-term tuberculosis (TB) treatment at Kwekwe General Hospital, Zimbabwe. A quantitative, descriptive research design was chosen and data was collected using a structured questionnaire with a convenience sample of 60 clients on TB treatment and 10 professional nurses. The major findings of the study were that although clients had some knowledge about their condition, there was a lack of knowledge regarding critical aspects such as information on drug-resistant TB and the Directly Observed Therapy Short Course. The professional nurses experienced constraints such as insufficient time for appropriate health education and home visits. Based on the study findings and conclusions, several recommendations were made. / Health Studies / Thesis(M.A(Health Studies))

Women throughout the world are suffering the brunt of HIV/AIDS. They carry the unenviable tag of being the suffering group who are at risk. Women's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS is a subject that has not received adequate attention to date. This empirical study examines the socio-cultural factors and practices that impede upon behavioural change of Zimbabwean women in an era of HIV/AIDS. Firstly, a sample of 1002 women respondents is purposefully drawn from the six major Zimbabwean ethnic groups to participate in this research study. A survey questionnaire is administered to respondents in the age group 18 to 59 years to quantify the levels and magnitude of the HIV/AIDS problem among women. Secondly, fifty in-depth interviews with key informants are conducted to assess the nature of the problem confronting and impeding upon women's quest to attain good reproductive health. Thirdly, six focus group discussions for each of the respective six ethnic groups are conducted with forty-eight mature women to understand broadly the concepts of the study. This study employs a combination of mainly qualitative and some quantitative methods of data collection and analysis, which is called triangulation. Underlying the methodology of this study is an overarching functionalist theoretical perspective, also referring to gender development theory which serves as the basis for data analyses. The main findings of this study include the view that power dynamics, gender roles and cultural practices have impacted negatively on women's quest to attain safe sexual behaviour. The problem of HIV/AIDS remains a complicated and awesome one among Zimbabwe's ethnic groups. For Zimbabwean women the HIV/AIDS problem begins with a total lack of control over sexual lives and behaviour of their husbands especially outside marriage. The women have noted that the majority stay faithful to their husbands and partners according to cultural prescriptions and roles, while their husbands do not comply. Women noted that cultural prescriptions in their various ethnic settings condone male infidelity but expect women to stay faithful to their partners. As a result it is found that women sometimes contract HIV/AIDS straight on their matrimonial beds. / SOCIOLOGY / Thesis (D. Phil. (Sociology))

This thesis is an investigation of the significance of Mhande song-dance in two performance contexts: the Mutoro ritual of the Karanga and the Chibuku Neshamwari Traditional Dance Competition. In addition, I undertake comparative analysis of the structure of Mhande music in relation to the structure of selected genres of Shona indigenous music. The position of Mhande in the larger context of Shona music is determined through analysis of transcriptions of the rhythmic, melodic and harmonic elements of chizambi mouth bow, karimba mbira, ngororombe panpipes, ngano story songs, game, hunting, war, and love songs. Mhande is an indigenous song-dance performed for the mutoro ceremony, the annual rain ritual of the Karanga. The Mhande repertoire consists of distinctive songs and rhythms used for communicating with the majukwa rain spirits. The rain spirits in turn communicate with God (Mwari) the provider of rain, on behalf of the Karanga. Mhande song-dance is performed exactly the same way in the annual Chibuku Neshamwari Traditional Dance Competitions as in the ritual context of the mutoro ceremony. However, in the context of the Competition, it is used for the expression of joy and as a form of cultural identity. The Competition is a forum in which Karanga songdance traditions such as Mhande, compete with other Shona song-dance traditions such as mbakumba, shangara and chinyambera. I contextualize and analyse Mhande song-dance by using the ‘Matonjeni Model’, which in terms of Karanga epistemology, is culture specific. This Model is grounded in description, interpretation and analysis; the primary methods in my research process.

Gender-based violence is a global problem that affects women and girls of all races, colour and creed. This study locates gender-based violence within the development agenda, explores related theories and points out how culture, patriarchy and tradition influences gender-based violence perpetration and can also contribute to positive behavior change. This dissertation provides an analysis of gender-based violence globally, in the Southern African region and in Zimbabwe through secondary and primary research. The research focused on women and girls because they are constitute the majority when one looks at the victims of gender-based violence statistics and issues that come out on different communities. This research contributes to an increased understanding and knowledge of gender- based violence by interrogating the statistics of gender-based violence, response mechanisms and the role civil society organisations play. The primary research utilised guided interviews with the use of questionnaires with individuals and representatives of organisations. Findings indicate a need for greater awareness on the provisions of the Zimbabwe Domestic Violence Act, increased economic empowerment of women and more male inclusion in raising awareness as part of prevention. Key informant discussions with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) representatives highlighted the need for programme synergies so that gender-based violence initiatives are holistic. The case study of Musasa is key in assessing the role civil society organisations play in complementing Government actions and strategies. / Development Studies / M.A (Development Studies)

This study addresses the factors that assist families towards family adaptation during adversities and contribute to family resilience. The study aimed to identify, describe and explore family resilience factors that enable urban Shona Christian families to withstand life crises in the midst of a society facing economic hardships and manage to bounce back from these challenges. The study also sought to reach out to families facing challenges and who are struggling to adapt and recover from their challenges. The Resiliency model of Family Stress, Adjustment and Adaptation was used as a theoretical framework for this study (McCubbin, Thompson & McCubbin, 2001). A quantitative method was employed. A total of 106 participants including parents and adolescents from 53 families independently completed 6 questionnaires including a biographical questionnaire. The questionnaires measured family adaptation and aspects of family functioning in accordance with the Resiliency model of Family Stress, Adjustment and Adaptation. The data collected was subjected to correlation regression analysis which was computed using SPSS to identify family resilience factors that assisted families in family adaptation. The results showed that family adaptation was fostered by first, the family’s internal strengths; affirming and less incendiary communication; passive appraisal; and control over life events and hardships. Secondly, the family’s external strengths; seeking spiritual support; social support from within the community; and mobilising the family to acquire community resources and accept help from others. These findings could be used to develop interventions that promote family resilience and establish the potential of family members within a family when facing adversities. / Psychology / M.A. (Social Science)