Stepmother and Stepson Relationship Within the Shona People, Zimbabwe

Abstract

ABSTRACTIt has been widely assumed that normally mothers relate well and are closer to their sons and girls are closer to their fathers. Indeed, it is true from a layman’s point of view. This article presents a Zimbabwean argument with regard to family relations, especially between either of the parents and the children. Precisely, the study focuses on the stepmother–stepson relationship, which in the majority of cases is defined by hostility, hatred, mistrust, and jealousy. An exploratory study to understand some of the causes of conflicts between stepsons and stepmothers was conducted within the Shona people of Zimbabwe through a triangulated approach of interviews with 70 stepfamily households and an intensive review of archival literature selected from sociological papers and media reports from 1980 to 2014. All the participants were purposefully selected, and the literature reviewed specifically focused on the cases of conflicts between the 2 parties and to some extent, their causes. To analyze the data and create key themes, a constant comparison method was applied. The study established that although there might be several reasons for the 2 parties’ conflicts, the most prominent, especially within the Shona people, include the following: inheritance of the traditional family title by the stepson while the stepmother fights to have it bestowed on her biological son, failure by each of them to recognize their respective roles and positions in the home, and jealousy.