The value of pre-colonial conflict resolution methods in addressing sexual violations committed in internal conflict situations in Zimbabwe
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Date
2022
Authors
Gcumeni, Fungisai Gloria A.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
The study considers the development of jurisprudence in conflict resolution with reference to pre-colonial African law in addressing sexual violence against women. The motivation for this investigation stems from the inadequacies of the present legal system in Zimbabwe to redress sexual violations perpetrated against women in the internal ongoing political conflict. The aim of the study is to garner insights from African traditional justice mechanisms in conflict resolution in determining their value in addressing sexual violations against women in Zimbabwe. This investigation of present-day Zimbabwe as a product of colonialism and imperialistic tradition explores its contribution to the loss of African values that shape the current approaches in addressing sexual violence. The socio-political, economic and cultural landscape of Zimbabwe post-independence mimics the political ontology under colonialism. The adopted governing principle of constitutionalism and its post-conflict justice initiatives adopted at independence until the present perpetuate coloniality. The existing conflict in the coexistence structure of Western and pre-colonial African law in conflict resolution is a foregoing challenge in the present legal system in Zimbabwe that prompts new thoughts in post-independent Zimbabwe. The aim of the study is to propagate the re-imagination of the present law and approaches to sexual violations against women from Zimbabwe's political conflict that disrupts post-colonial Zimbabwe. The present study invokes the task of recalling the pre-colonial African philosophy of Ubuntu in conflict resolution in the re-imagination of an alternative jurisprudence. The task of re-envisioning jurisprudence in the resolution of conflict-related sexual violence offers a liberating viewpoint that counters the Western domination and marginalisation of African indigenous knowledge in post-conflict justice initiatives in Zimbabwe. The study investigates the pre-colonial African philosophy of law and justice interpretation in conflict resolution to analyse and evaluate the challenges of the present conflicting existence of the two legal systems and the challenge this poses in addressing conflict-related sexual violence in Zimbabwe. The study explores the possibilities of integrating Western and pre-colonial African philosophy and systems in conflict resolution on sexual violence arising in internal conflict situations. To that end, the study proposes an integrating approach in resolving conflict-related sexual violations that assumes Ubuntu epistemology as the jurisprudence that might bridge the jurisprudential challenges and gaps in the lack of approaches on sexual violations against women in Zimbabwe.
Description
Thesis (LL.D. (Constitutional Law and Philosophy of Law))--University of the Free State, 2022