Browsing by Subject "Shona"

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    An investigation into the progression of premarital fertility since the onset of Zimbabwe's fertility transition
    (2021) Ngwenya, Chantelle Linda; Moultrie, Thomas
    Premarital fertility, that is, childbearing before first marriage, is an important yet under researched demographic topic in sub-Saharan Africa. In Zimbabwe, the distinction by marital status in fertility research is hardly drawn. Hence, a gap exists in the knowledge of premarital fertility levels. This research aims to investigate levels of, and factors associated with, premarital fertility since the onset of Zimbabwe's fertility transition in the mid-1980s. The research employed direct fertility estimation techniques to effectively compare premarital, marital, and overall fertility trends between 1988 and 2015. Cox proportional-hazards regression and forest plot analyses were then used to explain changes in factors associated with the timing of premarital first births over the same period. Data quality assessments were carried out using the method of cohortperiod fertility rates to provide explanations for any erratic results. The results showed that premarital fertility was constant and moderate, with an average of 0.7 children per woman, between 1988 and 2015. While most premarital first births consistently occurred to younger women, from 2005 onwards, they increased among women aged above 24 years and decreased among adolescents. An increase in age, commencing sexual activity after adolescence, and improved socio-economic status including level of education decreased the relative risk of having a premarital first birth. However, delaying marriage past young womanhood, history of contraceptive use, Ndebele ethnicity, and residence in regions other than Manicaland and Masvingo, especially Ndebele dominated regions, increased the same risk by 465.0%, 45.5%, 136.0% and up to 135.0% respectively. The stagnation of premarital fertility between 1988 and 2015 while both marital and overall fertility first declined and then stalled indicates that there is insufficient evidence to suggest that premarital fertility had contributed to the stall of fertility decline in Zimbabwe from the mid-1990s. The timing of premarital first births since the start of the fertility transition in the 1980s has had a strong ethnic and cultural bias. Due to evidence of the effect of migrancy and tourism on premarital fertility in border and tourism towns, an extension into the theory of migrant premarital sexual behaviour to detail the risk of premarital fertility among border town residents who interact with but are neither migrants nor tourists is recommended.
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    The morphology of central Shona : with prefatory chapters on the phonetics and phonology
    (1950) Fortune, George; Lestrade, G P
    The following work consists of a study of the morphology of some of the Central Shona dialect-groups, with two prefatory chapters which deal with Central Shona phonetics and phonology. Of the Central Shona dialect-groups I have taken Zezuru as my standpoint. It is true that the main differences between the dialect-groups lie in phonetics and vocabulary and not in morphology; nevertheless the work has a Zezuru slant to it while applying very largely to the Karanga and Manyika dialect-groups as well. I think I may claim to present here a Central Shona morphology. Where special forms exist peculiar to a single dialect-group or to a single dialect, I have indicated their incidence. For my Zezuru information I have relied, in the main, on the Shawasha and Mbire dialects. The Karanga which I present is that of Govera, (e.g. the form found in Mrs. C.S. Louw's Manual of Chikaranga) with some Mari which is presented as an extreme form of Karanga. The Manyika presented is that of the Unyama and Guta dialects. I have not used Karombe which is termed by Professor Doke the peak form of Manyika.
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    States, agency, and power on the ‘peripheries': exploring the archaeology of the later Iron Age societies in precolonial Mberengwa, CE 1300-1600s
    (2021) Nyamushosho, Robert Tendai; Chirikure, Shadreck
    In southern Africa, as elsewhere, the tendency of Iron Age (CE 200-1900) researchers has been to focus on the more prominent places on the landscape, especially those believed by pioneering archaeologists to have been centres of big states. Consequently, most research foci were accorded to Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe, Khami, Danamombe and many other places considered as centres (mizinda) of expansive territorial states. However, landscapes away from, and in-between these states and their centres are traditionally viewed as ‘peripheries' where resources that made them prosperous were extracted. The inhabitants of such ‘peripheries' are presented as if they possessed little or no agency. One such area is Mberengwa, a gold-rich area situated between the edges of Mapela, Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe, Danamombe, and Khami. This thesis explores the archaeology of Chumnungwa, a drystone-walled muzinda located in Mberengwa. Because of abundant gold, and a landscape optimal for cattle production and crop agriculture, Chumnungwa is often marginalised as a docile ‘periphery' of the more powerful and territorial states that surrounded it. Stratigraphic excavations were performed in different parts of the site to recover artefactual and chronological evidence. Indications are that the inhabitants of Chumnungwa exploited locally acquired resources such as gold, iron, and soapstone, but mixed these with resources from distant areas. Cumulatively, this evidence, when assessed in relation to chronology, suggests that Chumnungwa flourished more or less at the same time as Mapela, and the later phases of Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe, Khami, and Danamombe. As a powerful actor in Mberengwa, Chumnungwa also networked and was therefore entangled not only with local, but also with regional, and inter-regional politicoeconomic processes. This suggests it is only a historical invention that can marginalise some landscapes as ‘peripheral', especially in the absence of research, but once attention is directed to them, multiple layers of agency and entanglement emerge.