This study explores the social ‘vision’ of three Shona women writers vis-à-vis their Zimbabwean society, attempting to ascertain whether this vision is entrenched in the post-independence context or has been shaped by the whole canvas of colonization and its impact on Shona society. For this purpose, Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Nervous Conditions (1988), Yvonne Vera’s Why Don’t You Carve Other Animals (1992) and Freedom Nyamubaya’s Dusk of Dawn (1995) have been selected to explore the representation of Zimbabwean society in different artistic genres. The approach is mainly socio-historical, examining the selected texts in the context of Zimbabwean history and paying attention to how the socio-political dynamics in both colonial Rhodesia and post-independence Zimbabwe influence the creative output of Zimbabwean writers, in general, and of the selected writers, in particular. In addition, this study refers to other aspects of literary theory, especially African feminist theories, since all three writers discuss the plight of black African women. This study consists of four chapters arranged according to the historical period in which the texts are set, which coincides with publication date. Chapter One provides a general background to Zimbabwean writing in English to root the study in the socio-historical experiences of the country. This chapter thus considers the works of both white and black writers. Chapter Two discusses Nervous Conditions, critiquing it as a women’s narrative in a social realist mode, because it portrays the social and political forces as significant shapers of human lives. Chapter Three analyzes Why Don’t You Carve Other Animals as a text in the fabulist mode, which re-imagines cultural and literary politics. Nyamubaya’s poetry, discussed in Chapter Four, is autobiographical and ideological. It revisits the Zimbabwean liberation war, situating it within both the private and national spheres, and arguing that such a standpoint emanates from Nyamubaya’s need to make sense of her own experiences during the war and in post-independence Zimbabwe. In conclusion, the study summarizes the major findings of the research, analyzing these against the background to Zimbabwean writing in English given in Chapter One. / Dissertation (MA (English))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / English / unrestricted

This dissertation is an attempt to analyse and investigate ways of responding to the poor UPCSA missional approach to Zimbabwean society. The desire to write this dissertation was born out of the experience of working for the past six years as an ordained minister of this denomination in the Presbytery of Zimbabwe, there are six congregations with the right to call a minister, thirty grant receiving and fifteen preaching stations in the whole country which is serviced by thirteen ministers, including probationers. The UPCSA has a total of four thousand five hundred and ninety seven members not counting Sunday school children. The dissertation seeks to survey the history of how the people in the Presbytery of Zimbabwe came to be some of fewer memberships as compared to other denominations in the country. It will focus on colonial and post –colonial events, which led to evangelizing the nation. The spiritual weakness which the people of Presbytery of Zimbabwe (POZ) experience is a product of the evangelism mode of missional approach to society and the failure to contextualize the Good-News. This dissertation considers the possibility of how to correct this state of affairs. Spiritually weak people have been destroyed precisely because they have reduced them to products. How to understand the context and achieve that change is the central issue which the writer addresses in this dissertation. / Dissertation (MA Theol)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Church History and Church Policy / unrestricted