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Sifelani Tsiko Agric, Environment & Innovations Editor

Rebecca Dube (30) of Mlomolihoto village in the Ward 5 of the Mzinyathini area of Umzingwane district and other gender champions in her area are tapping into the traditional cuisines of the Ndebele people to motivate men to embrace the fight against gender based violence.

She and other gender activists in her community are now giving sufficient attention to the meticulous preparation of ‘inhloko’- the head of a beast, commonly referred to as ikhanda but when it is to be consumed is called – inhloko.

“We realised that most efforts to raise awareness and empower women to stand up against gender violence need us to engage men in a dialogue to mobilise them to take action and change their attitudes towards women and girls,” she said.

“One way to make men our friends in the fight against GBV is to cook inhloko in much the same way our ancestors used it to bring men together. When we gave the men inhloko to eat, they in return gave us their ears and heart on problems to do with domestic violence, child marriages and respect for women and girls.”

The inhloko cuisine, is a central part of the Ndebele people and has since time immemorial brought men together to become friends, nurture relationships, celebrate milestones, mend conflicts and feel gratitude for life.

“Under the Spotlight initiative we were taught that we should engage men positively to help us fight GBV in our area,” Dube said.

“Cooking inhloko for men has helped us to win them over and mobilise them to take action against violence on women and girls in our area.”

Traditional cuisines, she said, have had the most enriching experience in their work to raise awareness on GBV issues in Umzingwane district.

“Inhloko means a lot for men and when they gather to eat it, we then share information and knowledge on GBV issues. Men are now more open and they are embracing the importance of respecting women’s and girls’ rights in our area,” Dube said.

Said Nqobani Dube, a pastor and gender champion at Mlomolihoto”Inhloko – our traditional Ndebele cuisine has been an important unifying food marker for us as men. When women cooked it for us, it was more than just food for us.

“Through the inkudla yamadoda sidla inhloko – in a male gathering we eat inhloko. It’s easy to get messages to men through food and football tournaments. This has helped us a lot to join campaigns against GBV in our area.”

The pastor said to improve action and community-based gender violence interventions, it was important to engage both men and women.

“Men too, are quite important in all efforts to end GBV in our district. We should not leave them behind. I am happy that men here are embracing the fight against GBV together with women,” he said.

“We need more campaign materials on GBV issues. We need some uniforms to help people identify us as gender champions. Some allowance or support with some income generating projects will help gender activists to remain focussed on their work.”

To address problems related to early child sexual abuse and child marriages in Umzingwane district a consortium comprising the Government, ZWLA and other NGOs is spearheading programmes to raise awareness of the impact of GBV on young women, girls and boys.

The programmes running under the Spotlight Initiative supported through a partnership between the European Union (EU) and United Nations Women are aimed at ending violence against women and girls and harmful practices.

Zimbabwe is among the 20 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia-Pacific and the Caribbean which are participating in the four-year programme which started in 2019 and ends next year for the first phase.

The country was supported by the EU to the tune of US$30 million for the first phase to help Zimbabwe meet some of its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 3 and 5) on empowering women and girls to realise their full potential in a violence-free, gender-responsive and inclusive environment.

Edmore Dziwa, a village head at Chinyami in the Sherukuru area of Mutasa District and his wife Eva, says the Spotlight Initiative has been beneficial to his community.

“This project has been very beneficial to us,” said Martin Ncube (55), a disabled person from Sipaba village in Ward 5 of the Mzinyathini area of Umzingwane district.

“ZWLA trained us a lot on human rights issues. We were taught movement building in the fight against GBV. I am happy that I now have the confidence to approach the police, courts, clinics and other important government agencies which are important as referral pathways.”

Poverty, poor parenting, lack of awareness of gender-based violence referral pathways and the heavy presence of artisanal miners had pushed up GBV cases in Umzingwane.

But a rural public campaign to raise awareness and end sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) in public spaces has helped to reduce the cases.

Most women are now aware of GBV referral pathways – that guide all services that are required by survivors.

“There is a great change in behaviour by men towards women and young girls. This was not a food hand-out project, but a knowledge hand-out project that has helped us a lot to fight violence against women and to keep our girls in school,” said Ncube.

“Men now value women’s and girls’ rights more. Women are now free to work and earn income. Some here have bought cattle registered in their own names without problems with their husbands. All this shows change is happening.”

Sidalubuhle Donga (36) of Sipaba village, a GBV survivor said she was now aware of her rights and channels for reporting abuse.

“I survived abuse and I am now aware of my rights. I now support and counsel other victims. Men now appreciate the issues more and cases of abuse are going down. Girls are staying in school and men now fear the consequences of abusing young girls.”

The gender activists say they need mobile phones, bicycles, motorbikes and campaign materials to sustain the fight against GBV in Umzingwane.

“The distances we walk are long. The ward is big and we need mobile phones to help report and take action against GBV perpetrators. Without phones and transport, it’s not easy to attend to all the cases,” Donga said.

Pollet Dube (53) said men are changing and now embracing doing household budgets together with their women.

Budgeting and planning together had also lessened violence against women.

“I am now free to speak with my husband on any issues. In the past, I could not. Now, we do budgets together and I am now even free, to openly tell him, ‘I love you,” she said.

“The inhloko dish helped us a lot to bring our men on board in the fight against GBV. Good food is the one thing that never fails to bring people together.”