‘Death and Belongings’: A History of Shona Women, Spirits and Deceased Estates in Southern Rhodesia, 1896-1953

The proposed project investigates inheritance laws and practices concerning Shona-speaking women in colonial Zimbabwe from 1896 to 1953. Focusing on the complex and dynamic interplay between precolonial conventions, the emergence of “customary law” under colonial rule, and European legal traditions, it seeks to shed light on Shona women’s position and maneuverings in their attempts to protect, distribute, enjoy, and acquire belongings and rights. Our aim is to analyze understandings of inheritance among Shona communities and the extent to which these were reshaped by colonial interventions while investigating Shona and colonial forms of patriarchy and the ways in which women navigated these two patriarchal settings.
Based on extensive archival research in Zimbabwean and British archives, as well as oral history, the project will offer fresh approaches to scholarship on legal history and inheritance. This case of Shona communities under colonial rule allows us to challenge the dominant notions of “property,” which have often been taken for granted in the existing literature. It also enables us to draw out the importance of spiritual agency, the agency of the deceased, and the significance of not only material, but also immaterial inheritance. Thereby, it nuances and historicizes current debates on women’s unequal access to property in Africa and elsewhere. The perspectives and findings of this project will be made productive beyond academia by collaborating with women’s-rights-focused NGOs and traditional healers’ associations.