‘A Child is Born’ – Gender,Remittances and Patrimony: The Case of Chivi District in Zimbabwe

Study area

The study area is Chivi District. This district has a total population of 166,049. Women are the majority at 95,170, compared to men who are at 75,879. The district is 97.4% rural. In terms of size, the district is 35,543 square km.

This is an area prone to disasters. HIV exists side by side along with ecological disasters that include floods; most of the time they include drought. When drought occur, they affect agriculture which is the dominant activity in the area. Crops wither, and livestock die, leaving households with no resources for viable agriculture. To hedge them from poverty related to ecological disasters, households adopt additional livelihood strategies. Gold panning is important in the district, just as hunting and gathering. Both men and women engage in panning, although men dominate.

The district is dominantly patriarchal. Children inherit land and other valuables from fathers whom they live with even after marriage. Male children are valued, and these are preferred in inheritances. Girls are not preferred since they marry and subsequently live outside the lineage. More importantly, daughters have no voice in household matters, either as sisters or in-laws; they are perpetual adolescents.

There is migration in the area. Small towns are targeted, including Masvingo, but increasingly women travel to South Africa and Botswana to work in the service industry. These were targeted by most migrants due to their proximity to Zimbabwe. In the beginning, these migrations were cyclic, since the migrants would be visiting their homes at intervals. The cyclic migration would then graduate to long-term migration in situations where the immigration laws tightened movements of these migrants. For instance, failure to renew permits or prevailing pandemics such as the recent COVID-19 would extend the migrants’ stay in their destination countries to indefinite periods. Some of the migration are long term, the rest short term, characterised by shared times across borders: Daughters refer this migration as one where ‘one has one foot here and another foot there’. ¹

An administrative mechanism of control exists in the area. The district falls into wards, headed by a councillor, typically a man, although the most recent representative was a young widow with ties to powerful male politicians. Below the wards are villages, each led by a head, always an old man. The village head has to be legitimate by being part of the royalty, linked to the Chief of the area and the ancient conquering territorial and male spirits. In the district, the village head deals with customary matters, although difficult ones are forwarded to the Chief who is appointed by a neo-patrilineal government and answerable to the local District Administrator, who is also a man. It is a long way before women have a voice in this modern patriarchal district.

Research methods

This particular study took a qualitative approach. This was designed to provide more in-depth knowledge on how social change impacts on migration and remittance practices, and explore the role played by remittances in shaping gender and generational dynamics within households. Households with migrants and returnees were purposively selected to include youths, the middle aged and the elderly. The participants were further stratified by gender to capture the gender-related variations that were brought about by access and control of remittances at household level. The area is a high male migration zone, consequently, there were more women present during the time of study. Following the principle of proportionality, a total of 45 interviews were held and out of these interviewees, 25 were women and 20 were men.

Moreover, a total of 10 focus groups were formed. Six comprised members from migrant families, one from returned migrants and three comprising non-migrants households. The selected groups were equally classified into single gender groups according to the above-highlighted age categories.

In addition to this, Focus Group Discussions with three mixed gender groups from the migrant households, the returned migrants households and the non-migrant households were held. The Focus Group Discussions were held in conjunction with the mock money method designed to capture how remittances – represented by seeds – were distributed at the household level. In addition, we engaged 14 key informants, only from the migrant households and returned migrant households, to provide history of their lives elaborating on life turning events and choices made in relation to migration and remittances. This method was combined with the River of life and Path of life method (Moussa, 2009) which is the method designed to represent the challenges households faced and how these were managed in the context of migration. In the section below we deal with the dynamics of remittances, and how women in this study area remit and use the remittances.

Forms of remittances sent

In the village, remittances came in many forms. Sometimes, households received money. Indeed this was broadly the key form of remittance observed. ² Where money was sent, this took many forms. In some cases, households received real cash. ³ The cash was sometimes delivered on the door step; in other times, the money was sent, what one informant ⁴ referred to, as electronic money.

Other times, the remittances came in kind. ⁵ There was enormous diversity of what was sent, from basic household requirements to what we may regard as items of conspicuous consumption. The former category would include radios, cell phones, solar devices, DVD players and Televisions. These items would immediately raise the profile and status of the household in the community.

The three major ways through which remittances were sent were first, through smugglers, or malaicha in local parlance. ⁶ These feared no law and were adept at finding their way in difficult circumstances. They would bribe state officials tasked to control movement of cross-border goods. The second was normally through buses and trucks. ⁷ These transporters often dropped the cargo at public places where a member, with a wheelbarrow or scotch cart, of the household, would be on standby to collect the goods.

The final method was through an acquaintance or relative. ⁸ Where this was done, the cargo was thrust in what are now seen among migrants as Shangani bags, with clear identifications marks to the recipient. Parcels sent via relatives were often small, perhaps to allow the courier to manage.

When we analysed patterns of remitting, it emerged out that sons had the tendency of sending monetary remittances. Where they sent remittances either in cash or in kind, it was mainly for developmental purposes. It was to develop a base from which the migrant would patiently wait for an inheritance. One informant remarked that he sent money for the following reasons:

To build a home, where himself and his parents are presently located. I do this because I want a place where I will return to in old age. I can’t come back to Zimbabwe unless in the event of worse fate in Johannesburg. ⁹

In support of this, women interviewed across categories said that

These males abroad are only seized with development and send money only for that. They just want a beautiful house, nothing more. ¹⁰

It may be noted in passing that when they sent remittances, it is often directly to fathers and or whom they hold to be leaders of households and developmental in scope.

As for women, they generally sent goods for household consumption, things like sugar, rice, cooking oil and soap. It was observed that the daughters would not readily send cash. They were averse to sending cash because they feared it might be intercepted by delinquent fathers who then misused it:

Money is very tempting; when these fathers receive the money, they go and buy beers for themselves, leaving children to suffer. We have had many cases where this has happened. So daughters prefer sending food stuff which they know would reach the family. They know their fathers. ¹¹

While this study acknowledges that households in Chivi District have been receiving remittances from both their sons and daughters, what differs by gender was the drive behind remitting. For daughters, then, migration was essentially to enable them to carry out their customary role of motherhood, especially caring and provisioning (food gathering and food preparations within the household). When they went abroad their main aim was to raise money and resources to look after the children they had left behind and older generations to whom they often entrusted the custody of the children as indicated,

. . . Women know the needs of the family and they are seized by these, They think about their fathers, and the how they can assist them in life’s troubles. They think about these parents they left behind. ¹²

In summary then, the data indicate that women sent money as well as goods from neighbouring countries such as South Africa and Botswana, specifically to provide for the children under them, while men often send remittances mainly for development which ultimately symbolises power, in the Zimbabwean patriarchal system.

Frequency of sending the remittances

Daughters generally remitted more than sons. In fact, it was said that a son is careless when it comes to remitting back home:

A son will not help me and yet I am the mother. What concerns him are his own needs and that of his own wife . . . ¹³

From the narration above, sons did remit, but daughters remitted more. There was evidence that young girls provided substantial support, as shown from the remark below:

A daughter that migrates is maybe considerate. She occasionally throws a shilling to parents for use at home. ¹⁴

While women proved to exhibit a higher frequency of remitting than men, these women, however, were heterogeneous. Their differences were a result of different statuses that resulted in them having different responsibilities. For instance, unmarried women with children were the ones that remitted more as a way of fulfilling care work that is expected of them towards their children. Ironically, in the process, parents benefitted since they were the ones that looked after the left-behind children. We could term the benefits that the parents accrued as circumstantial, nevertheless, the unmarried female migrant ultimately received more recognition by the supposed gate keepers of their patrimonial gains, as compared to married migrant women. Such a move by these unmarried female migrants was instrumental in buttering the hand that energised their reason to migrate and remit. The arguments above were supported by the elderly in one of the narrations:

A daughter is a blessing, especially if she is not married. She is truly a child. ¹⁵

It was inevitable for these women to remit often because of their children who were left behind in the custody of the elderly, but they also did so because they had no other place that they would call home besides their natal home.

Contrary, married daughters immediately forgot their natal homes at the time of marriage, hence they were ranked by the elderly as the worst when it comes to remitting.

When my daughter went to South Africa, I was happy that she would continue to look after us. And sure enough, that is what happened. We received grocery every month, by bus and all sorts of means. Our trouble started when she got married. She started to ignore us completely. ¹⁶

A closer analysis suggests that these married daughters are not insolent. They often are restrained to remit by circumstances, what informants referred to as ‘government’. For them to be able to remit meaningfully, these married daughters would have to defer from their ‘government’ who basically was the husband but such deferment would come with consequences. Such constraints would leave this group of migrants with very limited autonomy and or resources to assist their natal homes – own parents.

The only times these daughters remitted were when there were special events; in the study area, the events that were constantly mentioned were funerals. It was during this time that married daughters remembered their people. They did so because it was expected that the married daughter and her husband should help in the burial of the in-law, buying an expensive coffin and ensuring that the mourners were thoroughly fed. The participant below stressed the importance of these in-laws, chiefly at funerals, saying,

That is what they do, it is their responsibility, and if they are in Zimbabwe (local migrants), they must come in-person and ensure that all is in order. Otherwise they must send money using whatever means is necessary. ¹⁷

Beyond this normative intervention, the married daughter does not really help and is therefore a ‘source of shame and regret to parents’ according to the arguments above.

But if non-remittance angers parents, it also simultaneously engenders trauma among non-remitters. This arises because it is feared that aggrieved parents can harm delinquent children who do not remit, a point confirmed by the village head

Parents are full of love, but they can make life difficult if you do not reciprocate their love. They can cause evil to visit you. ¹⁸

In the study area, it is understood that parents can be dangerous when their benevolence is abused. However, they are not equally dangerous, mothers are the ones who have the ‘greatest vengeance, and this is why it was necessary to remit to mothers’. ¹⁹ The type of punishment aired out as being associated with neglect of parents included: mental illness, unemployment, bankruptcy and bad luck. ²⁰ Daughters and sons knew their fate, associated with parental neglect, one or all of the above would occur.

The most gruesome of the punishments was that of enduring the test of suffering to a point where death was desirable, what one informant pointed as, ‘kufa uchitambura’. ²¹ In agreement with this, one village head said that this extreme suffering characterised

. . . Those people that you see along the road, wearing nothing, and very sick and wishing they could die, these are the people who committed the sin against their parents by not remitting money from the Diaspora. ²²

Quite how the vengeance is expressed is difficult to say; some informants said that parents could declare a curse. Others said that the ‘rolling tears’ of a parent against an offending child caused sickness. Still others said that angry parents removed their protective shield on erring children, resulting in serious dangers befalling defaulters. Whatever the perceived cause of harm, fearful sons and daughters aimed to please parents, by making sure that they had food, although their remitting frequency would vary by gender and marital status as contented above. These migrant children made sure they did not neglect their parents to incur any debt or inconvenience on account of their grandchildren left in their custody.

Patterns of remittances use

While in the study area, use of remittances varies by gender and age, overall there are basic uses to these remittances that have been frequently highlighted by the participants. The use of remittances was ranked in a hierarchical manner starting with the most basic up to the aesthetic need.

Most of the respondents indicated that they used remittances for basic needs of the family such as food which ranked primary in this study. Nevertheless, women emphasised this priority more than men. This is because women had the role to serve the family with food while men’s instincts would opt for other materialistic uses. Women who received remittances reported that

I use remittances for basic family needs mainly inclusive of food. ²³

This statement highlights the degree to which food was considered so basic that the purchasing of assets was viewed as show-off and something that the household could survive without.

What came second on the hierarchy were school fees which this study views as a secondary need. This was reported equally by both women and men. This use had been augmented mostly by the middle-aged respondents. Thus, age determined greatly how uses of remittances were prioritised. The differences were shaped by the nature of responsibilities that surrounded an individual as a result of critical events in their lives. For instance, the middle aged acknowledged the need for absorbing remittances to school fees, since at middle age, their households would have scores of school going dependents ²⁴ .

What came third on the ladder was purchasing of household assets. These were inclusive of domestic utensils, mostly mentioned by women. Men invested in agricultural equipment while teenagers used remittance for flashy consumables such as radios, phones and for most girls – keeping up appearances. This pattern of resources use, never lost the attention of elderly people, who saw it as rite of passage for the children ²⁵ . What bothered them of course was having to provide money to migrants so they could return to the diaspora. Otherwise, parents were not bothered.

A final point to note from our data is that a significant number of the younger women used the remittances for constructing houses and other development activities at the birth place. Traditionally, sons are expected to perform this function. Daughters who made such investment did so to secure recognition by patriarchy ²⁶ . In the section below, we discuss how remittances impacted the identity of ‘daughters’ within the household located in patriarchal setting.

Land rights and inheritance

Evidence from the previous section pointed to the fact that other members of the household such as daughters were not ‘culturally’ expected to invest in the household land but the land would be reserved for default heirs, the sons. In this area, many sons could bring their wives and are allowed to share the household land in their numbers without paying a ‘dime’, but for the daughters, only those who breakthrough the patriarchal limitations by remitting awesomely and more so into immovable assets would be considered worth adding ‘a residential structure’ on the natal soil. Where diligent migrants supporting their old parents and siblings were unmarried daughters, they were frequently provided land rights. They were allowed to build own houses, which were typically two separate structures comprising a kitchen and a multi-purpose main house. We saw this in the case of Masline Muchoki ²⁷ who has a reputation of assisting parents far better than her male siblings. She was allowed to build a house. These rights included a farmland; Masline was given her own garden to grow vegetables or substance crops. Finally, they are allowed a burial place in the family shrine where close relatives were customarily buried. The late migrant Mary Tachoya ²⁸ had supported her mother till the mother’s death. These acts of diligence ensured reserved land for Mary’s burial upon her death. She indeed was buried next to her mother, against murmurs from her siblings. The siblings felt Mary had to be buried at her matrimonial homestead even when she had been divorced years back. The example above illustrates the power of remittances that surpasses cultural boundaries and erodes long-standing tradition of patrimony which prioritised sons over daughters.

Sometimes it is not just being given rights. It is also being given a special consideration than that given to male siblings. Janet Zora ²⁹ who was referred to by villagers as a model in the village because of the way in which she looked after her parents. This woman was allowed to build her house a few metres from the parent’s house – a practice which never was allowed in patriarchal setups. In contrast, her wayward brothers were directed to build outside the perimeter of the natal homestead.

The earning of these rights was through the elevated transformations seen in the social positions of those who were considered supporting their ‘left behind’ household members, especially parents, while the delinquent were condoned.

Usually daughters and even sons who did not provide support to parents did not enjoy these rights. We have already seen how delinquent sons were directed to locate their homes outside of the core estate.

In line with the African idiom which states that ‘a child is still a child regardless’, delinquent daughters and sons would still get burial rights, and these would certainly be outside the core of the estate or would not receive special burial reception compared to the ‘new born’ remitting ‘sons’. In patriarchal societies, women who took up upon them the role that was expected to be practised by men were referred to as ‘women who behaved like men’. This is the basis upon which this paper views these remitting daughters as the ‘newly born sons’ – these are ‘sons’ conceived by the seed of bravely migrating and also of diligently remitting. It would seem, then, that these new female-sons’ acts of service earned them special rights ahead of other siblings.

Such daughters who laboured frequently got to be among those who could inherit livestock, assets and even homes upon the death of their parents. Christabel ³⁰ who assisted her parents and brothers was allowed ownership of the family house, although her brothers emphasised that it was not to be given to her. Similarly, Laila inherited livestock from her ageing father who appreciated her role in caring for him and his wife. Clearly, remittances have become the means to purchase what blood ties have failed to do for the daughters over the years. Daughters could now access entitlements to household patrimony, but not on a ‘silver platter’. It would cost their fortunes and sometimes their lives to brave their ways to migration destinations, and also in harnessing the strength to maintain their migrant status in the face of continued uncertainties, in the frequently visited destinations that are highlighted in the previous sections.

In the study area, daughters are potential strangers. Their home is supposed to be somewhere, where they marry. If they had children out of wedlock, these children were not regarded as legitimate at all. Such children were at first stigmatised as what happened to Christabel’s children who were regarded as ‘totemless’ and ‘vagabonds’. However, when this daughter became conscientious and remembered to support both parents and siblings, her child became legitimate. Brothers affectionately referred to her as ‘aunt’, which had a deeper meaning than sister. In some cases, the unmarried daughter’s children were allowed to use the family name, ceasing to become strangers in the home. Both Mary and Farai’s children were allowed to use their maternal name.

Even where they retained their paternal names, these children were not stigmatised, and there was no shame associated with their presence. As a matter of fact, these children provided a new identity to maternal grandparents, and this new identity would be occasionally used in remembrance of their new ‘female-son’ – the remitting daughter. The grandparents would instead drop their usual family name and wear a new name tag with their grandchild’s name, for instance, ‘sekuru va Tonde’ meaning Tonde’s granny, if Tonde happened to have been begotten by their remitting daughter. These changes would take place from the moment of satisfactory support from their daughter. Within the lineage and even outside, the daughter’s father became the grandparent of her children and is referred by the name of the grandchild: Laisa’s father now wants to be known as Larry’s grandparent. Migration and remittances, then, have simultaneously transformed identities, across gender. In some cases, they have also affected decision-making power in households, and it is to these important matters that we turn to.

Power to allocate resources

Women have become recognised actors that influenced the allocation of resources at household level in Chivi District. The narration below says that

Working women are recognised in the family decision making processes. ³¹

This includes making decisions on which assets were sold or disposed of by the household. They also took part in determining the value of these assets. While single women contributed towards such decisions this was enabled by the lucrative power of the remittances that they sent home. For daughters in-law, they were now in a position to determine which resources, be it monetary or otherwise, was to be sent to relatives especially the in-laws who were distant from direct benefit of the remittances. It has been observed as a norm in this study area that daughters in-law immediately broke ties with their natal in-laws once they got married. This study has revealed that remittances sent by daughters have the power to glue back the broken ties. The same women also had the power to direct prioritisation of development. For instance, women used remittances as the trigger to decide on the nature of house to be built, number of cattle to be bought and the choices on other development oriented material. Some of the development material highlighted by the participants were inclusive of hoes, carts, radio and information technology (ICT) gadgets. Furthermore to this the daughters had the power to control the purchase and use of the household assets. This monitoring role was much more amplified by their frequent use of ICT. These daughters have also shown ability in shaping educational opportunities for their siblings and for the household as they could direct the amount of money allocated for different household members.

Voice in family matters and disputes

On another level, remitting daughters have attained space to air their interests and their perceptions during various household activities. An informant, Andy, reported that he consulted his daughters even on matters of marriage. ³² While such matters have been traditionally presided mostly by men, migrant-elite women have now been given the voice to make contributions towards such matters. Other activities were inclusive of funerals and death rituals planning. Mr Mahaka would not begin a function until he cleared it with his daughter, Masy. Again, these matters were mostly handled at men-only gathering known as the dare; ³³ the change in the position of women in decision-making has broken the barrier, as dare now happened in places where women could be allowed to be present. However, the dare itself has not been opened for gender integration, at the time of the study, it was still a man’s place. What changed was simply the transfer of certain matters to where women could access them. Why women were still not being consulted on certain issues that remained at the dare was a question that still needed to be answered.

Power to allocate time

Although tradition ensured segregation of women when it comes to interaction with particular relatives, location of interaction and time spent interacting, this ground has been broken by migrant-elite women. Remittances have given daughters some form of independence on the choice of acquaintances. Even if parents and siblings sometime murmured among themselves, unmarried daughters with children could now leave the homestead and visit friends or relatives of their choice and without question. As Mr Zako complained during the interview, ‘As parents, we see it, and know it’s not proper, but we can’t do anything about these human rights’. ³⁴ Remittances have broken the boundaries of interaction and liberated the daughters. The frequency of the visit and time spent does not seem to be a serious matter anymore. This only applied to remitting migrant women.

Migration has leveraged the change in position of women within the household. What the women have so far attained was the space to contribute towards the household at the same level with men, and they have instead used the space to challenge patriarchy on remittances and eventually elbowed out men on recognition by parents. The girl child was no longer considered a minor but a ‘child’ and furthermore a ‘son’. ³⁵ In the section below we deal with the conclusion and sketch consideration for future research and policy.

Future direction

In this paper, we have established that in drylands, migration and remittances have seen daughters being able to patrimonially curve for themselves an inheritance, along with their male siblings who have automatic birthrights. They have managed to empower themselves and their fellow women in accessing and in the control of land and water for production and poverty alleviation. This paper remain fairly unclear on two fundamental matters which have enormous implications on migration policy in Africa.

First, it was not at all apparent whether this newly found autonomy was relative or absolute. It could not be said with certainty whether the rights enjoyed by the daughters were indeed permanent, nor could it be unambiguously said that the patrimonial consideration including inheritance accorded to daughters and wives were circumstantial, whether the rights lasted for as long as the daughters were still useful to the household.

Second, given this, it could be possible that local patriarchs, who were even more stretched for resources to run households, could be playing tactical games designed to lure daughters to part with their money and resources in the name of patrimonial rights. This was a matter of conjecture because the present data were not sufficient to guide on these matters. These push buttons direct the future and certainly engage these intriguing questions, to guide policy on migration.