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get automatic Zimbabwean citizenship if they married a male citizen. This right was not extended to Zimbabwean women. Sekai, a black Zimbabwean woman married to white Australian Jim Holland, is one person who suffered a bitter struggle at independence when, she says the government wanted to deport her husband back to his home country despite the constitutional provisions against such an act. “For 16 months we fought battles in the courts to have my husband allowed to stay in Zimbabwe and at last we won the battle and my husband was allowed to stay in the country,” she explained. “Mixed marriages under the colonial period were rejected and the government did not do much to reconcile citizens not to segregate each other on racial lines, says Holland. Sekai feels that both the government and non-governmental organizations have failed to invest in racial harmony. As a result, some colonial practices that perpetuate racial discrimination still exist in Zimbabwe, she says. “This piece of legislation (Citizenship Act) was both unlawful and unconstitutional because it violated women’s rights. It did not have any space in a democratic society which respects human rights and gives equal opportunities to all people irrespective of their sex,” Madhuku says. 54 The discriminatory nature of the Citizenship Act forced women and human rights campaigners to wage a bitter campaign against it. Their efforts forced President Robert Mugabe’s government to persuade Parliament to amend the Constitution. The amendment became famously known as Amendment number 14 of 1996. The new law took away men’s rights to have their foreign wives gain automatic citizenship. It now requires both Zimbabwean men and women who have foreign spouses to apply to the Immigration Office
for registration of their unions. Zimbabwe is considered as having one of the best Bill of Rights when it comes to race relations and mixed marriages in particular. The Declaration of Rights Section 11 of the Constitutions says, “… every person in Zimbabwe is entitled to the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual, that is to say, the right whatever his race, tribe, place of origin, political opinion, colour, creed or sex but subject to the respect for the rights and freedoms of others and for the public interest.” Although these strides have been made on the legal front, women married to men of other races continue to face an uphill struggle socially and culturally. Although interracial marriages are quite acceptable among sections of the elite, there is still a lot of stigma associated with such relationships at other levels of the society. A lot of the women married to men of different races are ostracized by friends and family. Black women married to white men or those of other races are labeled prostitutes and accused of being disrespectful of culture. Tendai, a black Zimbabwean woman married to a Dutch national Clemens Westerhoff says she has often borne the brunt of this discrimination. “Some people do not approve of such kind of relationships (interracial). One can see an element of disapproval among both blacks and whites if say we (Clemens and I) go together to a restaurant. The divide can be seen from the way people look at you.” A white businesswoman who is married to a black man and who preferred annonymity says she also has not been spared the disapproving glances:. “While other powerful groups in Zimbabwe, like politicians and businesspeople see nothing wrong with interracial marriages, typical traditional and conservative men in our country do not approve these unions,” she explains. She says that she has numerous problems when she visits her husbands’ rural 55
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Contents Overview 2 Impact of Apart
Page 3 and 4: “How do I hold hands with my sist
Page 5 and 6: during colonialism. In their silenc
Page 7 and 8: towards achieving a democratic, non
Page 9 and 10: African women make up 39.94% of the
Page 11 and 12: Access to piped water in dwellings
Page 13 and 14: Black women are either concentrated
Page 15 and 16: access resources through their rela
Page 17 and 18: Bibliography Albertyn, C. and Zylic
Page 19 and 20: Asian women caught in the middle By
Page 21 and 22: say of how it is used or disposed o
Page 23 and 24: women who have been cheated out of
Page 25 and 26: To be a racist By Hope Chigudu We h
Page 27 and 28: upbringing instilled in me a sense
Page 29 and 30: As time went on, most of us were fo
Page 31 and 32: At the end of six years in the same
Page 33 and 34: Religion, Racism and Gender By Dr M
Page 35 and 36: again? Why does the Lord command a
Page 37 and 38: approaches Abraham with a plan, nam
Page 39 and 40: tively. But before we turn to these
Page 41 and 42: Lord my God of Shem; and let Canaan
Page 43 and 44: Conclusions The Time is Now These t
Page 45 and 46: Dube, M. W, Other Ways of Reading:
Page 47 and 48: All major newspapers, magazines and
Page 49 and 50: Those black women who have ventured
Page 51 and 52: “..promote women’s full and equ
Page 53: Women in Interracial Marriage Still
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