“A CASE OF CULTURE GONE AWRY”

Masters in Women’s Law Programme, Southern and Eastern Africa Regional Women’s Law Centre, Faculty of Law, University of Zimbabwe. (2008)

“A case of culture gone awry”: An investigation of female initiation ceremonies and Nyau dance vigils on the rights of teenage girls to education and sexual reproductive health amongst migrant communities in Norton, Zimbabwe

Thabethe SN

ABSTRACT

This dissertation focuses on the harm suffered by teenage girls who, often forced into early marriages by poverty, must first engage in the customary practices of initiation ceremonies followed by participation in highly ritualized dance vigils. Evidence from a wide range of sources analysed in the context of various methodologies, in particular the Women’s Law Approach, testifies loudly to the serious harm caused, primarily, to their health and education as a result of the growing abuses of these practices. In order to protect and realize the human rights of these vulnerable young women in terms of local and international HR instruments which bind Zimbabwe, the writer does not suggest abolishing the practices, but rather reforming them internally by educating their adult overseers.

This Master Thesis Dissertation can be accessed in this LINK