SUBVERTING THE NATURE OF THING: GENDER AGENCY IN SPIRITUAL SYSTEMS AND CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCES OF ZIMBABWE\u27S SHONA PEOPLE

Gender, ritual and performance in the Shona cultures of Zimbabwe, are inexorably linked. They demonstrate how the flexibility of the Shona spiritual systems offers agency to ritual leaders and practitioners. The story of Murumbi Karivara, a Shona rainmaker from the 19th Century, provides the inspirational imagery for the researcher’s Masters of Fine Arts thesis concert DE RERUM NATURA - the way things are (performed on September 2 and 3, 2018). The researcher positions herself among contemporary Shona artists living in Zimbabwe and abroad who negotiate the spaces they occupy during ceremonies, on concert stages, and in institutions; to find autonomy through a variety of resistance practices and cultural performances. Additionally, this dissertation illustrates how the presence of black African performing artists, on concert stages and in academic institutions, dislodges age-old sexually and racially charged notions of Africanist dance practices, originated by the anthropological and historical accounts of colonizers and missionaries