Health Impact of Participation in the Liberation Struggle of Zimbabwe by Zanla Women Ex-Combatants in the Zanla Operational Areas
by
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The study of the women’s war experiences of the liberation struggle revealed that post traumatic stress disorder is a phenomenon that can be buried but can break through the defences and memories after many years.
Twenty three years after the liberation struggle,the female ex-combatants believe that they did not only suffer from the direct physical and psychological ‘wounds’ of the war. The physical and psychological scars of the liberation struggle also indirectly affected their ability to good parenting. An ex -combatant described ways she thought would help her parent her children well, as the children do not understand her
“I don't know, like therapy I think, because even my children do not understand me…They say 'mamma watanga”(mum has started again)
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About the Book
This book examines the long term health impacts of participation in the liberation struggle in the period 1975 to 1990 by women in general and specifically by ZANLA women ex-combatants in the ZANLA operational areas which are predominantly Shona culture areas. It further looks at the Post Conflict attempts that have been made to heal the trauma, physical wounds and the illnesses that women have suffered as a result of their war experiences.
About the Author
The author, a Zimbabwean Shona female who could have joined the liberation struggle was a participant as well as an observer. The phenomenological approach requires the author to look at her own ontology and challenge herself to put aside or ‘bracket’ preconceptions so that she can work inductively with the data to generate entirely new descriptions and conceptualisation. The author’s position meant that she had to try as much as possible to be objective by putting aside her own values, prejudices and preferences. It is important for the author to try as much as possible to see things through the eyes of the women she is studying, as the author may not have the same focus, may not see the same things as important, or evaluate things in the same way