ABSTRACT
This chapter is a critical analysis of the role played by Grace Mugabe, the wife of the “heroic” former president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, in the nation’s politics. It analyses the political significance of motherhood in Zimbabwean politics. Utilising Pentecostal perceptions and constructions of motherhood, the study argues that the deployment of motherhood in Zimbabwean politics through the figure of Grace Mugabe cannot be fully comprehended outside the matrix of patriarchy. The chapter construes Pentecostal perceptions of motherhood as part and parcel of the historical development of the concept that merges the traditional cultures with biblical interpretations. It argues that the deployment of the narratives of motherhood in Zimbabwean politics embodies multiple, complex and problematic discourses that call for rethinking of motherhood in an African context. The political scene in Zimbabwe during the Mugabe era has to be understood as the battleground between the marginalised attempting to assert their power and challenging the space designated as sacred, male dominated space.
