Women’s agency and re-alignment of the cultural tradition of ukungena or ukungenwa in Nelisiwe Zulu’s play, iIsiko Nelungelo

Abstract

The women of South Africa have their rights enshrined in the Constitution of 1996. However, in a patriarchal society, women’s rights are often viewed as conflicting with cultural beliefs and practices. This article discusses women’s agency and realignment of the cultural tradition of ukungena or ukungenwa (levirate marriage) in a post-1994 democratic South Africa. The article is framed by the principles of African feminism which guide the argument that this cultural practice can be at turns oppressive or liberating to women, or indeed both. The isiZulu play, Isiko Nelungelo (‘Culture and Rights’) by Nelisiwe Zulu, challenges the tradition of ukungena or ukungenwa and the way in which it infringes on the rights of women to choose who they want to marry if their husbands die. The play also presents the perspective that if women’s agency about whether or not they desire to stay in a posthumous marriage is respected, this custom cannot then be viewed as oppressive. The events in the play introduce a debate over whether the instigators of gender-based violence and abuse are always men, and how women are sometimes ignored as active players or pawns used by men to undermine the emancipation and empowerment of women.