Oppressive and liberatve: A zimbabwean woman’s refectons on ubuntu

Abstract

Ubuntu as an African ethic has been embraced in Africa as one that defnes an individual’s African-ness. Its infuence has gone beyond the African borders with other continents pondering how it can be embraced in their contexts. Scholars from Africa and beyond have eulogised the indispensability of ubuntu. However, it is a fact that most academic writings on the concept by various scholars have neglected to look at ubuntu and how it intersects with gender – especially with a particular focus on its ambivalence in the lives of women in Africa. This article, therefore, seeks to make a critical refection on the ambivalence of the concept focussing mainly on the cultural traditions of the Shona of Zimbabwe from the perspective of a womanist.