4 - Women's Perceptions of Revolutionary Participation: Understandings of Agency & Consciousness

Summary

Overview

Mapping the context of revolutionary participation for women in Chiweshe and the parts they played in the liberation struggle begins here, with the discussion of how and why they became involved in an anticolonial war. A central theme emerges of overt revolutionary resistance and the dynamics and differences exhibited by women participating in such resistance.

The first aspect of participation refers to women's performance of guerrilla-defined roles; the types of participation required for the military effectiveness of the guerrilla war. These roles included the part played by women as fighters and providers of food. Yet an explanation of the gendered divisions of revolutionary labour only takes us so far, as what emerges is a much richer and complex rendering of participation by women. Their testimonies reflect the conflicted nature of participating through particular roles; these differences occur between women and can also be found within individual women who were ambivalent about how and why they participated in the war. In particular, there was positive consensus amongst many of the women about their important contribution in feeding the guerrillas. However, women participated in this revolutionary act in a context that was also shaped by their differing motivations, their conflicting and consenting relations with the guerrillas (support, fear, promises and threats), the government soldiers and DAs (collaboration, protection and intimidation) and, finally, their own mixed perceptions of participating in a revolutionary war.