Lindokuhle – wait for the beautiful; the beautiful awaited Mandlakazi – the strength of a woman. See page 47 for further discussion (the University of Cape Town and locally in Zimbabwe) before conducting fieldwork in the village of Sikelela.
INTRODUCTION
T HE PROBLEM OF POOR MENSTRUAL PREPAREDNESS
- Menstrual hygiene management methods and materials & dichotomies
- Menstrual preparedness in Zimbabwe
The study identifies this minimization as a legacy of the historical pathologizing of menstruation in the West. Therefore, Bhebhe (2018) challenges the erroneous but widespread belief that “it is taboo to discuss sex issues with teenagers” in Zimbabwe.
N DEBELE GIRLS & GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT
Recognizing the turn towards advocacy for girls' rights in international development discourse (cf. page 1), it is worth considering the status of women and girls in Zimbabwe. Matabeleland South accounts for 4.6% of the total MICS sample population and within Matabeleland South province, 2.1% of girls and women aged 15-49.
T HE Z IMBABWEAN POLICY LANDSCAPE : G IRLS , EARLY UNINTENDED PREGNANCY ,
- Girl-centred policy in Zimbabwe
- Zimbabwe’s education system
- Seventh grade transition rate crisis for Zimbabwean girls from primary and secondary
38 Section 4 of the Education Amendment Act of 2020 [chapter 25:04] states that "The State shall ensure the provision of sanitary articles and other menstrual facilities to girls in all schools to promote menstrual health." But in the subsequent 5-year national action plans for 2011 and 2016, the girls zoomed out of focus.
LITERATURE REVIEW
M ENSTRUAL PREPAREDNESS
- The state of menstrual preparedness globally
- Global approaches to improve menstrual preparedness
- The Indian case study
- Menstrual preparedness in sub-Saharan Africa
A study by Yücel et al. 2018) in Turkey shows how emotional support is part of menstrual preparedness. Therefore, menstrual readiness is not only information about menstruation at the time of the first menstruation.
M ENSTRUATION AND INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE
- Theoretical framework: Reproductive labour-work
- Research objectives
- Contribution to scholarship
But several of the most common sexually transmitted diseases have no signs or symptoms in most infected people” (ASHA, 2020). There is literature on SRT that attributes the neglect of women's work to Marxist capitalism (Vogel, 193; Bhattacharya, 2017; Čakardić, 2017). Duffy attributes the original concept of reproductive labor to “the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who distinguished between the production of goods in an economy and the reproduction of the labor power necessary to sustain that productive economy.
METHODOLOGY
M ETHODOLOGICAL CHOICES : NARRATIVE RESEARCH DESIGN
- Investigating childhood experiences: sociological theorisations
Rousseau's (1915) work creates a binary between childhood and adulthood that seems to suggest that children are incapable of reasoning. More recently, James (2009) emphasizes that until the 1970s childhood and children were understood from the perspective of adults. Hill explains that "The question of how far research with children differs or is similar to research with adults is related to wider perceptions of childhood and adulthood and the relationships between generations" (2005:62).
E THICAL CONSIDERATIONS
- University ethical approval protocols
- Local research approval protocols
The research participants suffered no harm as a result of their participation in the study. According to the voluntary participation clause on the information sheet and consent forms, participants can also withdraw their consent to participate in the research at any time before the end of the data analysis. As a social researcher in Zimbabwe, I was exempted from submitting an application to the Research Council (RCZ)2 for approval to conduct social research in the country.
R EFLEXIVITY & RESEARCHER POSITIONALITY
This vertical power structure is further complicated by my involvement in the sanitary wear intervention in the village. Certain experiences in this field have shaped my theorization of this concept, which I explain on page 113. Villagers know me as a menstrual activist and development worker through my initiative to provide free sanitary clothes to girls in this area and other parts of Zimbabwe.
T OOLS FOR DATA COLLECTION
- Pilot
- Revisiting the field
- Sampling strategy
There was another ethical issue I had to consider, which would have implications for reporting my dissertation research. However, it became clear to me that the study participants did not need to be girls at the time to recount their Ndebele menstrual narratives from girlhood. There is a huge range of categorization of women in literature where women appear as 'generic women', 'poor women'.
D ATA COLLECTION
This brought to light the heterogeneity of the group.20 Batisai reminds us that, "it is worth noting that 'women' is not a term of consensus (see Anthias, and Yuval-Davis, 1989:1&7). Some of the IDIs were in the presence of Gogo Betty, especially those with grandmothers. This ensured confidentiality as I was aware that age mixing in the data collection methods could cause complications and tension outside of the interviews and my research.
D ATA ANALYSIS & STORAGE
- Analytical reflections
The women and girls in the study used kushina and ukengena maksuna (to enter this time) to denote menstruation. All the older women in the study are called gogo35 (grandmother/grandmother) because rural life in particular is a fabric woven from the fine threads of community and family. A grandmother is also a mother, so sometimes I call some of the older participants Gogo Na[..] (Grandmother, mother of [insert firstborn's name]) or Gogo Ma [insert family name].
L IMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
Ecofeminists in the Global North may also advocate reusable sanitary napkins as part of a (third wave) menstrual activism (Bobel, 2007; . Lorber, 2010). The interconnectedness of the globe means that people in the global north and the global south have common experiences. 46 See details on COVID-19-related poverty in the UK at https://therealistwoman.com/reported-shortages-of-menstrual-products-amid-pandemic/.
MENSTRUAL PREPARATION AS REPRODUCTIVE LABOUR-WORK
R E - INTRODUCING THE FIELDSITE
- The Village of Sikelela
Although there is a primary school in the village, girls transition to secondary school. In Sikelela, there are 4 wells with manual operation, where the villagers obtain water for household use (e.g. drinking, bathing, cooking) and for their livestock. There is also what is commonly referred to in Zimbabwe as a "growing point" with a butcher shop, grocery stores (amagrosa/izitolo4) and a bottle shop (shebeen) all 24-30 kilometers from the village depending on the location of the homestead within Sikelele .
M ENSTRUAL PREPAREDNESS : FIRST ENCOUNTERS WITH MENSTRUAL KNOWLEDGE
- Menstruation as a reproductive arena
- usukhulile: an introduction into the ecosystem of ‘growing up’
- Wawubaleka ngasekhaya: ‘running away’ from home to get menstrual
- babakazi: the patrilineal menstrual knowledge gatekeeper
- Menstrual literacy – the end of childhood?
- Relational maturity
- SUM(Menstrual preparedness – sexual socialisation) = Danger?
- Ndebele MHMMMs
- Iporridge eyophoko as a MHMMM
- Umbondo: willow bark as a MHMMM
It took place when she was on holiday in the city of Bulawayo visiting her mother8. 8 Denise lives in a rural Umzingwane and not in the city of Bulawayo with her mother. It is reproductive work done in the aforementioned intangible ways and through the tangible procurement and delivery of sanitary clothing and underwear.
They are also involved in the reproductive work of protecting girls and promoting reproductive success. It is important to note that Sinikiwe has his first term in the community and not in the more private confines of the household.
C ONCLUSION
Mahomoodally argues that “[African] systems of knowledge are worth preserving and reviving, rather than erasing them through studies such as these that compile the fragmented knowledge into a written record. The extensive use of traditional medicine in Africa, consisting mainly of medicinal plants, has been argued to be related to cultural and economic reasons” (2013:1). This chapter is written in the spirit of promoting the preservation and resurrection of African indigenous knowledge systems. This chapter describes organic Ndebele MHMMMs as colonial antecedents of the modern biomedicalized menstrual markets, but also shows that the indigenous knowledge around us is gradually becoming more fragmented.
DOMESTIC LIFE & REPRODUCTIVE LABOUR-WORK
F AMILY & ITS ROLE IN REPRODUCTIVE SUCCESS : OMALUME & UKUCOLA
Gogo Nkosazana contributes to our understanding of the role of malume in the Ndebele family. In a similar way, the maternal uncle (umalume) stands in as a kind of 'male mother' in the absence of a mother. This study reveals that, like female family members; peer group; and teachers, there are men – especially male family members such as ubaba (the male father), umalume and usibare, who are involved in the menstrual preparation of Ndebele girls.
R EPRODUCTIVE LABOUR - WORK & THE SECOND SHIFT
- Menstruation: an initiation into the world of gender & women’s work
For example, "if there is no boy in the family, the girls herd the animals," says Gogo Betty. In this way, pastoralism is visible even in the daily rhythm of rural life, unlike the largely overlooked reproductive work performed by girls and women. The Ndebele people are not unique in their flexible way of "gendering" in terms of the division of domestic labor and reproductive labor.
L OBOLA & THE CHANGING SHAPE OF THE Z IMBABWEAN FAMILY
Batisai, who also looks at the Zimbabwean context, explains that this heteronormative rights discourse “refers to the 'institutionalisation of exclusive heterosexuality in society'. Furthermore, Guy argues that “among the Sotho, the source of political power is more immediate—appropriation by chiefs. This is because among patrilineal peoples such as the Shona and Ndebele, “the purpose of marriage is to produce children for the husband's line” (Meursing, 1997:141).
C ONCLUSION
Therefore, the young Gogo NaKitty and Gogo Betty are slowly socialized to be (re)productive through the reproductive work of motherhood. This reproductive labor is further obscured by the general prevalence of informal employment in Zimbabwe. I now conclude this chapter with a diagram (on the next page) summarizing some of the different types of invisible Ndebele reproductive work.
DISCUSSION
D ANGEROUS CHILDHOODS
- The (hyper)sexualised body of the black girl
- Normalising the black female body
- The dangers of adolescence: transitions from childhood into adulthood; womanhood,
Because of the obvious signs of reproductive maturity that I have described above, it is widely recognized that "[a]dolescents are obviously sexual but not obviously adults" (Bailey, 2004:743). To contextually nuance this reproductive part of protecting the Ndebele girl, I will touch on the vocabulary of the vernacular. Rural Ndebele reproductive labor resonates transcendentally with international development discourse, as each strives to and effectively influences the experiences of (school) girls as they transition into adulthood.
I NTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE CONSTRUCTIONS OF CHILDHOOD VS
I will now demonstrate, drawing on my personal experience in the field, the role of maternity6 in indexing social age among the Ndebele. She explains that "In the process of empowering a child, child sponsorship dissipated parents' purchasing power and thus their authority" (Bornstein, 2001:614). The involvement of funded NGOs such as 'mother-field workers' who are part of my village development initiative collapses the boundary of labor work as they do the work of community mobilization to distribute sanitary napkins voluntarily but sometimes receive and the salary for it.
CONCLUSION
- R EPRODUCTIVE LABOUR - WORK : THE SCOPE OF N DEBELE MENARCHEAL & MENSTRUAL
- usukhulile: menarcheal reproductive labour-work
- ukukhula: an entanglement of State, school & the family
- imisebenzi yamankazana: pre- and post-menarcheal reproductive labour-work
- T HE SIGNIFICANCE OF REPRODUCTIVE LABOUR - WORK AS A FRAMEWORK
- F INAL CONCLUSION
- S UGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER FUTURE RESEARCH
This reproductive labor cuts across development issues – gender, health and education in the process of equipping girls with certain specialized 'literacies' (education) that affect future fertility (health) and school completion as it socializes them into their reproductive roles (gender ) in society as healthy, well-educated and productive proxy adults; expectant mothers and wives. Sex Will Make Your Fingers Thin and Then You Die": The Interplay of Culture, Myths and Taboos About the African Immigrant. Deep in the Digital Age; Contemporary Ways of Doing Online and Offline Ethnography.
