Zimpapers Logo

Elliot Ziwira @ the Bookstore
“Cowards die many times before their deaths, but the valiant oft taste of death but once”, says the Roman general Julius Caesar in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, boasting that, for “danger knows that I am more dangerous than he.”

Though this may be said to be an arrogant disposition of a warped mind, it is in no way out of sync with the reality that if fear is allowed to take control of one’s better judgment, it becomes claustrophobic, leaving one in perpetual imprisonment.

Life is a controversy whose tragic nature is not compounded by the fear of losing it, but living it through the whims of others. Like a snail which will never stick out its head as long as it presumes the presence of adversity, or a millipede which coils into a ball at the slightest indication of danger, the human mind is not a victim of fear itself, but the knowledge of its existence. Inasmuch as acrimony, danger and fear are real, imagining them to be always on the lookout specifically for one makes one a prisoner; a permanent one.

On the background of the Presidential Amnesty extended to more than 2 000 prisoners across the country by President Mugabe on May 23, 2016 in terms of Section 112 (1) (a) and (d) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, it is interesting to examine the tragic nature of imprisonment, as quite a number of the pardoned prisoners have somehow found their way back to the long fences and high walls.

It is also against this backdrop that the reading of “A Tragedy of Lives; Women in Prison in Zimbabwe” (2003) edited by Chiedza Musengezi and Irene Staunton is made a unique experience

The book is a collection of former prisoners and prisoners who re-live their experiences before, during and after imprisonment. It gives a fresh insight into the nature of imprisonment in both literal and metaphorical terms. Divided into nine sections, the collection examines the vulnerability of women, their aspirations, disillusionment and despondency as they seek vents of escape from their situations mired by lack of opportunities. Because of the precarious nature of their situations, the only possible elixir is crime. Through the use of real life experiences of female prisoners and former prisoners in their own simple and plain language Musengezi and Staunton take the reader on a whirlwind voyage of poverty,suffering ,hopelessness and despair as womanhood is portrayed as vulnerable and prone to all forms of oppression and at the same time remaining resolute and responsible.

It is worrisome to note however that imprisonment is deeper than physical incarceration behind the high walls of the so called prisons. Women, as explored in “A Tragedy of Lives” are imprisoned in a plethora of ways.

Primarily, the very nature of their being exposes them to all forms of fear. Womanhood itself may be a form of imprisonment, inasmuch as it creates an element of inadequacy physical, social or otherwise. The responsibilities that burden a mother in a seemingly careless patriarchal and cosmopolitan world create anxiety and fear, leading to psychological and emotional imprisonment. She has to fend for the children as Memory, one of the characters says of her mother: “My mother worked hard in the fields and raised enough money to buy me school uniform and books.”

Martha, also exposed herself to the vagaries of AIDS by engaging in prostitution as she says; “I think to myself; what disease could be worse than starving my children to death?” Women therefore remain psychologically imprisoned as their actions are mostly driven by their nature — motherhood is a form of incarceration they can never escape from.

Even after raising their own children they remain burdened as they are expected to raise grandchildren as is the case with Rhoda.

Poverty, which according to the late anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela is a human creation in the mould of slavery, is also claustrophobic. Most of the characters in the book suffer the shackles of poverty which they try to endure but to no avail. The needy are never given opportunities as their lack is often used against them.

Memory tells us that, “I ran away from home to live with my boyfriend” because “he gave me money to buy food and pocket money , about two to three dollars a day” which she thought “was a good beginning.” Elizabeth honestly tells us that;“I married young for I was running away from poverty.” Marriage seems to be attractive as it offers a form of security. However, as is the case in most marriages, especially those premised on convenience, disasters always lay in wait. When the inevitable happens either by design or by default, the woman is left even more desperate as is the case with Memory,Viola, Lillian, and Chipo. Because they can not think beyond the presumed limitations of their sex, they continue to seek comfort in men, not in marriage per se but in mere relationships and prostitution.

Therefore, as long as they remain clinging to male ego as a way of escaping from poverty and fear,which keeps on whispering in their ears, women will remain not only impoverished but imprisoned. As women escape from poverty and ignorance which seem to be synonymous, the matrimonial vent, they find themselves in yet another form of imprisonment which does not only scald, but break them. Maureen’s story makes a sad reading, not only because it ends in arson and murder like Beti’s, but because it exposes the voyeur in man which seems to draw excitement from trauma, suffering and disaster.

After realising that she could not stand he husband’s rules, she decided to break out with fatal consequences. Maria and Beti also found themselves in situations where they had to either shape up or ship out and they chose neither. Maria “had serious disagreements with (her)husband. . .took a pole and hit him on the head and he was unable to wake up again.” And Beti poured boiling cooking oil into her husband’s ear which led to his death. The crimes of passion explored in minute detail here by the victims- perpetrators themselves are not only sad and unfortunate, but chilling and boggling, because yet other forms of imprisonment crop up.

The media is awash with horrendous, indignant and spine chilling crimes which lacerate the moral flesh of society leading to the malaise, neurosis and paralysis of the family unit, community and nation. This is especially so as innocent pawns are dragged into the mire and suffer as a result of the follies of others. This is evident in Rhoda’s story, who in a moment of madness spurred on by irrational fear of witchcraft “swung the machete in any direction with the intention of hurting whoever was in my way. Two people died; the six –year- old nephew and his father.” Yet the two were only innocent relatives of the woman she suspected of killing her son through witchcraft. She is now serving a life imprisonment term for the crime. She is probably one of the only two women who could not benefit from the Presidential Amnesty because of the gravity of their crimes.

Society with its norms and values also thwarts individual aspirations and expectations and places a burden on the individual psyche. Society expects a woman, especially a married one to behave in certain ways and if she does otherwise she is stereotyped and ostracised. She is expected to bear children because as pointed out by Elizabeth who was jailed for stealing a baby;“A proper wife should have children and make her husband a father.”

Society also instils fear into individuals and at the same time expects them to be brave. Culture creates phobias and excessive fears through its subscriptions to the supernatural, but society still expects rational thought to remain intact in the individual. In the presence of the fear of witchcraft rational thought cannot be counted on as is the case with Rhoda, Ellen and Tabeth.

All the metaphorical forms of imprisonment examined above lead to literal imprisonment as individuals find themselves escaping from one form of imprisonment to another. Poverty seems to pervade all the experiences explored in “A Tragedy of Lives” as aptly summed up by Ollyn Rudo Nzuma, a regional magistrate who also contributed as an interviewee in the collection:

“The offences which women commit are generally those petty offences like theft, shop lifting, or going to someone’s fields and stealing some maize or something during a funeral.”

It is really a tragedy that after committing crimes to fend for their families as they strive to locate themselves in the different sites of the walls of the prisons that pervade their experiences, women find themselves incarcerated.

The nature of the prison system destroys women emotionally and physically. Emotionally they suffer the pangs of denial and normlessness. And after serving their terms, they find their husbands gone with the wind. Like their male counterparts,they have to face an uncompromising society and the vicious cycle begins again; their dreams remaining mirages etched on the horizon and the monstrous prison gates beckoning them.