Harare, 10 March 2023 – An exhibition by prominent Zimbabwean artists to celebrate international women’s month, focusing on rural women’s experience in transport opened today at Nhaka Gallery. -The Exhibition-, aims at reframing the traditional image of a woman walking with a child on her back and a heavy load on her head and is intended to stimulate a rethink of the day-to-day experiences of most rural women with a gender lens perspective. The exhibition is curated with support from the Australian and Swiss Embassies.
With rural women in Africa, still estimated to spend a collective 40 billion hours/ year on walking to fetch water alone-, -the -opening of the exhibition, coincided with this year’s International Women’s Day celebrations, and will shed light on this often-ignored challenge and encourage more priority to be given to women facing transport challenges.
Artwork: Keith Zenda
The exhibition will take visitors on an immersive journey and show how rural women experience power, transport, and mobility challenges. The exposition will also engage the public, to challenge stereotypes of a rural woman’s life, rethink transport needs and explore new ideas around shared mobility, especially considering the potential of electric transportation.
Lovemore Kambuzi-, Richard Witikani, Nothando Chiwanga, Lillian Magodi-, Yandani Mlilo, Webster Mubayireni and Keith Zenda under the guidance of project coordinator, Rudo Chakanyuka are some of the artists whose work is included in the exhibition. –
Preparations for the exhibition included a two-day workshop in Hwedza community where rural women shared their experiences, how mobility impacts their lives, hopes and aspirations. It allowed artists a chance to understand that what rural women usually make look easy is, in reality, painful and takes up a huge part of their time, limiting their economic activities and access to social services.
““I’m showing their day-to-day life situations as they go through life trying to make ends meet in providing for their children. My work is inspired by the hard work and determination of these women.
One of the artworks shows the efforts being made to make life a bit easier with innovations like the Hamba which seems to be a very empowering project for them””
These collective stories inspired the artwork that will be on exhibition from 10 March until the first week of June 2023. The exhibition will be open for tours, available on request, a series of meet the artists and organised thematic panel discussions on transport and gender. -Themes for panel discussions include women’s employment in the transport sector; mainstreaming gender in rural transport; gender responsive urban mobility; challenges and opportunities the role of women in decarbonising the transport sector.
The first in the series was at 11am on 11 March which will include a moderated discussion with women who participated in the workshop. It will explore the creative process for the artists and allow discussion on representation in art.
““It has been exciting working with the artists and visiting the women in Hwedza. It is my hope that this exhibition will capture the beauty and positivity we saw in the community we visited and that the conversations and experiences we had, have been clearly articulated so that our audience will also see and feel what is at the core of the issue. It’s not just about getting from point A to point B, it’s about freedom, its breaking barriers, it’s bringing people together. I’m grateful for this opportunity to be part of such process that highlights challenges, while at the same time celebrating the human – and Woman – spirit.” ”
Artwork: Richard Witikani
““Hwedza community’s got unity and a love of working together to support their life and progress forward. Even though they have some challenges of not having enough resources, they try to push their projects to move forward. Since they live very far from each other, they have had challenges of communicating and working with one another, but are now overcoming this, using the hamba as a means of the transport””