Phallic Scripts of Ubuntu (mukadzi chaiye/a “Real” Woman): Confronting the “De Jure Powers” That Undermine Progress in Selected Literary Texts

The manifestation of female policing by patriarchy takes nuanced forms and subtle dynamics that include references to sociocultural scripts and moral principles. Generally, the repression of the female gender has been condemned across the world, but such intriguing intellectual debates and calls have made little progress in altering the gender binary thinking and practices. The subject of gender remains a tenacious challenge because in some cases, even the undermined gender subscribes to lop-sided notions of femininity and masculinity. However, this scenario is not odd because in a patriarchal society (such as among the Shona of Zimbabwe), women are culturally and socially “wired” to fit into the phallic scripts of mukadzi chaiye (a “real” or cultured woman). Similarly, the discourse of Ubuntu\Unhu in the hands of both patriarchy and de jure powers, functions as an instrument to muzzle subversive voices from the side-lined subaltern classes. This illuminates the ambivalence of Ubuntu/Unhu philosophy when it is fashioned as a male-controlled or dogmatic concept. In this study, I closely read Valerie Tagwira’s The Uncertainty of Hope and Tsitsi Dangarembga’s She no longer weeps as salient prisms to call for a reflective feminist interrogation of Ubuntu/Unhu philosophy that reveals the entrenched phallic quest for domination. While the perpetuation of patriarchy through misconstrued Ubuntu/Unhu muzzles women who are supposed to take an active role in the survival and development of the entire ecosystem, those in the corridors of power exploit its ethics to reconstruct differentiations that only serve their political interests. As I conclude, I reinforce the argument that Ubuntu can only be a liberative doctrine if systemic powers desist from the habit of scheming its selective use or application to gratify egotistical interests by suppressing those perceived to be the second-class inhabitants on the basis of their gender and class.