Dress and women's self-fashioning in Makonde, Zimbabwe

This study examines dress and women's self-fashioning in rural Zimbabwe. The main research question relates to how Korekore women experience, understand and interpret their dress choices to express their identities. Deploying social constructionism as theoretical frame, I build on decolonial feminist scholarship to interrogate the dominant discourses on womanhood and fashion. The study adopts a qualitative methodological approach comprising in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, observations and personal stories to explore Korekore women's experiences, choices and aspirations regarding fashion and identities. The study finds that Hunhu, a Shona philosophy centred on dignity, respect, and communal values, serves as a guiding principle for self-fashioning among Korekore women. While Hunhu traditionally promotes collective well-being, its principles have been manipulated within patriarchal contexts to regulate women's dress as a form of control. I question such distortions, showing how Korekore women navigate these norms using dress to assert individual identity and to express a sense of collective belonging. Notably, the relationship between rural women and fashion remains under-researched. Acknowledging fashion and womanhood as performative acts, I explore how women's dress constitutes specific subjectivities, revealing the political, cultural, economic and sexual ideologies shaping identity and social norms. The study demonstrates that while fashion is fluid, leading to shifts in dress choices, the values that Korekore women attach to their clothing have remained consistent with their identities. This enables them to embody identities engrained in Hunhu, surpassing mainstream representations of African women shaped by dominant Western feminist perspectives. Dress thus becomes a critical element in this construction. Korekore women are both fashion creators and consumers who position themselves as ‘real' (vakadzi chaivo) and dignified (vane chiremerera/vakatsiga) women. They use fashion to navigate various notions of autonomy, confidence and selfexpression. Their interpretations of dress and self-fashioning blend contemporary and traditional roles, demonstrating their embodiment of and play with hybrid identities. Overall, the research calls for a decolonial approach to studying African women's fashion, questioning dominant assumptions about gender roles that may limit creativity, agency and self-expression. I evaluate views on gender-based inequalities that, though crucial, may obscure the relational aspects of women's lives and the role of Hunhu in Korekore women's self-fashioning. A key contribution is the idea of dress and self-fashioning as a manifestation of and underpinned by Hunhu, pushing for an interrogation of the relationship between patriarchy as a control mechanism and Hunhu as a philosophy that strengthens communal well-being and mutual care. The study recognises fashion's pivotal role in how rural women (re)define womanhood and society, addressing a gap in the scholarly representation of African womanhood.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Sociology

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Mashonganyika, Emely Shungu

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Fuh, Divine
• Matose, Frank

• dress choices
• fashion
• rural women
• womanhood
• Hunhu

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/42431

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/42431