Page 22 - Windhoek Graduation (20 May)(SESSION 2)(PhDs, Masters)

Executive Dean: Dr Alfonse Mosimane
Faculty of Education and Human Sciences
SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES, SOCIETY AND DEVELOPMENT
Associate Dean: Dr Martha Akawa

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH STUDIES

CANDIDATE: MIDZI Penelope T

CIRRICULUM VITAE

Penelope Midzi was born in Kwekwe, Zimbabwe, and relocated with her
parents to Namibia in 2009. She completed her high school at Karibib Private
School in 2012, after which she enrolled for tertiary studies at the University of
Namibia. Her qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts in English and Clinical
Psychology honours degree from the University of Namibia, as well as a Master of Arts in English Studies degree
from the University of Namibia, which was conferred to her in April 2019, the same year she enrolled at the same
institution for her PhD in English Studies.

CANDIDATE’S DISSERTATION

THE FEMINISATION OF POVERTY AND VICTIMHOOD IN DANGAREMBGA’S PRINT OEUVRE: CYCLICAL EVOCATIONS
OF NERVOUS CONDITIONS, SURVIVAL, AND AGENCY

The doctoral study was undertaken and completed under the supervision of Dr Nelson Mlambo (University of
Namibia) as the Main Supervisor and Dr Agnes Simataa (University of Namibia) as the Co-Supervisor.

Feminisation of poverty is a term that was coined by Diana Pearce in 1976 after observing an increased
concentration of income poverty among women in America. This is the term that was applied in the analysis of
Tsitsi Dangarembga’s print oeuvre, mainly focusing on the victimhood, cyclical evocations of nervous conditions,
survival strategies and the forms of agency that Zimbabwean women experienced and are still experiencing
as presented through this print oeuvre. The study employed a qualitative desktop literary research approach in
the examination of three novels, Nervous Conditions (1988), The Book of Not (2006), and This Mournable Body
(2018), which make up a trilogy spanning over 30 years; and She No Longer Weeps (1987), a play. The candidate
employed Africana Womanism, STIWANISM, and Nego-feminism literary theories to underpin this study, by
examining the complex position that African women face in the light of the detrimental effects of colonisation
and its impacts, as it integrates with traditional patriarchal structures as articulated in Dangarembga’s texts.

Africana Womanism as a concept was used to accommodate the characteristics of the African society which
are uniquely different because of the exclusive cultural, political, historical and social backgrounds, as the other
feminisms are peculiar to their place of origin. STIWANISM understands the female struggles from the perspective
of African feminism which is dependent on the commitment from both sexes, and not simply a ‘woman affair’
as emphasised by other feminisms. Nego-feminism places both genders side by side as men and women, to
try and negotiate their places in life, and establishing harmonious co-existence, with the negative patriarchal
structures melting away.

The study analysed how the author used the texts to expose issues related to post-colonial conditions, gender
inequalities, cultural limitations, female self-definition and struggles for survival. The findings of the study revealed
that the women in the Shona society are presented diversely depending on their specific socio-cultural
background. Dangarembga strategically captured a world before and after independent Zimbabwe (1980s),
where her main themes were her two protagonists’ struggles to reshape women’s heterosexuality and femininity
in a religiously and culturally conservative society. The shared themes of womanhood that are depicted in all
the texts are the need for a shift of women from the margins of the society to becoming priorities economically,
socially, and culturally. This is the recurring theme whether the setting is in the 1980s or the 2000s, rural or urban;
Shona women are still victims of the nervous conditions surrounding them, and it is through their agency that
they can innovately navigate through the challenges they face on a daily basis.

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