The lives of Zimbabwean women have deteriorated dramatically over the past decade, writes activist Prespone Matawira, but now is the time to be creative and confront, unpick, challenge patriarchal and capitalist power in order to make lasting change real for women. Feminist consciousness, says Matawira, challenges many of our deep-held assumptions which are not often noticed because they are so pervasive. And its complexity helps us understand other related oppressions based on race, class, age, sexual orientation, and disability.

cc Dudu Manhenga is more than just a diva, Prespone Matawira discovers, in conversation with the powerful-voiced Afro-jazz singer following her performance with backing band Color Blu at Harare’s REPS Theatre. Manhenga is a major contributor to the Female Literary Arts Music Enterprise (FLAME), for the development and promotion of women artists. 'The music industry is tough on women, sexism is rife and the economic climate means things are challenging,' says Manhenga. But, she adds, as long as people think out of the box and pull together the ground is fertile for artists to blossom.

In the wake of a cross-party meeting of women ministers in Harare last week, Prespone Matawira discusses the continual absence of provisions to ensure equal numbers of women and men in positions of public and private authority, despite the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development and targets for 2015. While highlighting the political efforts of women MPs in general to struggle for women in Zimbabwe, Matawira contends that there are no ‘women’s issues’ per se, merely issues that have consequences for women, as for society at large.