Female initiation practices : their influence on the social life and status of women among the Chikunda community of Zambia

Abstract: Framed within the feminist theory, this study seeks to gain an understanding of how chinamwali, the female initiation rite of the Chikunda community of Zambia, influences the social life and status of the women concerned. The central arguments within the study reflect a preoccupation with feminist central categories of gender and sexuality, which are key to understanding the structural relationships between women, and between men and women. After reviewing the historical eras of feminism, and western originating feminisms namely: Liberal, Radical, and Marxist feminisms, this study adopts an African feminist ideological framework to examine the chinamwali. Specifically, African feminism challenges the public/private dichotomy of the first wave of feminism by scrutinising all areas of human social life previously thought of as private, such as the institution of marriage, motherhood, heterosexual relationships, and sexuality which are critical elements in chinamwali. Furthermore, this theoretical framework, unlike the second wave of feminism which is believed to contain certain different theoretical frameworks such as Liberal, Radical, and Marxist feminisms, argues like the third wave of feminism, that women’s experiences are not universal, but contextual. Hence, I found that the African feminist ideological framework has the capacity to engender certain African traditions, a goal to which the chinamwali is well suited, as it is an institution through which African experiences can be examined. The ways in which the initiation rite shapes the lived experiences and self-conceptions of the Chikunda is examined by incorporating scholarly insights from the global North and global South. Feminist research methods were used in order to generate an in-depth understanding of the women’s experiences (Reid 2004: 9; Neuman 2014: 118), and to enable participants to describe their experiences and thoughts of chinamwali in their own words. The method of data analysis was a qualitative thematic analysis of transcribed data which Braun and Clarke (2006: 79) describe as a method for “identifying, analysing, and reporting themes within the data”. The findings revealed that chinamwali is a traditional means through which education on cultural mores and tradition is passed on to the initiate. However, the rite has the potential to influence the social life and status of the women concerned in such a way that they accept notions of inferiority in relation to men throughout their lives and can lead them to accept a lower position in the community. The findings also contribute to feminist scholarship on gender and sexuality, and the dominant academic discourse on initiation, by pointing to the potential role of the initiation rite in empowering women through practices such as labia elongation, and also its positive potential role to sexuality education. Furthermore, the findings on the coercion effected by maternal presentation of the initiate to the rite suggest some degree of tension and partial distancing on the part of the initiate. In addition, the findings on Chikunda masculinity give impetus to feminist scholarship regarding a new focus on women’s sexuality as a source of legitimising men’s dominant position over women.D.Litt. et Phil. (Sociology