ABSTRACT
This chapter focusses on the gendered epistemic violence around the content, programming schedules and location of shows of the Intwasa International Arts Festival held in September in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Emerging out of a combination of the Ndebele national narratives and the capitalistic colonial history, Bulawayo city is haunted by the gendered epistemic violence of both patriarchy and colonialism. In addition to local Zimbabwean artists and performers, the Intwasa International Arts Festival draws performers from South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, the UK and Scotland and many other countries, every year (https://intwasa.org/). Located within the decoloniality theoretical space, especially the coloniality of gender (Lugones, 2008; Oyewumi, 1997) and intersectionality (Collins & Bilge, 2016), the chapter interrogates ways in which the gender representation of artists performing at the festival and the scheduling of shows, amongst other issues, constitute gendered epistemic injustice (Giladi & MicMillan, 2018).
