The Church's Struggle for Gender Justice in Zimbabwe

Abstract

One of the social pillars that have been championing the gender justice narrative is the church. The focus of this chapter is to reflect on how much the church in Zimbabwe has managed to contribute toward attaining gender justice within a period of 40 years, that is, between 1980 and 2020. This is done with the plans for the future in mind. Forty years is a significant number in the Judeo-Christian perspective. For the church, the 40-year period is a highly symbolic number. As can be seen in the Exodus event of the Israelites, it signified the time spent in the wilderness, and entrance into the Promised Land (Numbers 13:2, 25). Jesus spent 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness after which he overcame the devil and started his ministry (Matthew 4:1–11). It is with this inspiration that this chapter will read Exodus 2:15–22 wearing gender justice lenses. This is done against the background of analyzing the success and failures of the church in the struggle for gender justice in Zimbabwe. The overall goal for this undertaking is to envision a new dispensation of the Zimbabwean Second Republic characterized by gender justice and equality for all. This chapter will employ the See–Judge–Act methodology, which has been widely used in liberation theology. Besides foregrounding the importance of exercising gender justice in our homes and communities, the chapter also seeks to contribute to the church’s future plans in the course of the church’s ministry so that the church is constantly alerted about the need for being gender inclusive in all its structures. The chapter also seeks to add knowledge to reflections in liberation theology and practical theology, particularly surrounding the discourse on gender justice and gender parity.