Thorns in the home: a Case of Gweru District

Abstract

The current study sought to determine the nature of domestic violence in Gweru District, how women react to violence and why they remain in abusive homes. A qualitative naturalistic research design was employed in order to allow the researcher to understand the participants’ world view as much as possible on the nature of domestic violence, how they reacted and why they continue to live in abusive homes. The women who participated in this research were purposefully selected in order to allow them to provide information needed to answer the research questions raised. Individual in-depth interviews were used to collect data from the women. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data from in-depth individual interviews. This allowed the researcher to organise and describe the data in rich detail and interpret the various aspects of the research question. The study revealed that acts of domestic violence were prevalent among women in Gweru District. These included emotional, physical and sexual abuse. Women reacted to these acts of violence by reporting to the police and relatives, ignoring, praying, using love portions and engaging in extramarital affairs. Women also stayed in abusive relation for different economic and social reasons. The study recommends that children be taught on the importance of peaceful family life from an early age. Furthermore there is need for education to empower victims to speak up. Cultural values which perpetuate domestic violence should be abolished. Finally further research on a wider scale and employing different methods is recommended to come up with generalisable results.

Keywords: - domestic violence, abuse, women, cultural values.