Browsing by Author "Medard Twinamatsiko"

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Pan African Feminist Perspectives Promoting Matriarchy. Women’s Pre-Colonial Linguistic Power Perspectives, Power Loss and the Contemporary State of Affairs in Ankole Sub-Region
(Creative Commons Attribution International, 2021-11-15) Donath Asiimire; Medard Twinamatsiko
This paper studies the linguistic approach used to describe wise, healer and powerful women in the Ankole Sub-region during the pre-colonial times. Discussed in the study are the names, words and proverbs that describe a general perspective of women and illustrate how women were powerful before colonialism. The paper also presents how women were later oppressed and lost power during the colonial period. Finally, the paper puts forwards ways of reclaiming women’s power in the Ankole Sub-region.
Patriarchal Shadows : Gendered Power Relations, Food Production, and Livelihood Struggles among Female-Headed Households in Mbarara District, Southwestern Uganda
(Journal of African Interdisciplinary Studies (JAIS), 2026-06) Charles Godfrey Mukundane; Medard Twinamatsiko; Clementia Neema Murembe; Sedrack Atuhaire
The purpose of this study was to investigate gender dynamics and how their implications on food production, livelihood issues in female headed households in Mbarara District, Uganda. The contention f the study is that female-headed households in sub-Saharan Africa are frequently portrayed as uniformly disadvantaged, yet the specific mechanisms through which gendered power relations shape food production and broader livelihoods remain insufficiently explored from an intersectional, multi-voice qualitative perspective. Drawing on in-depth interviews with ten key informants (KIs), twelve female household heads (FHHs), and five focus group discussions (FGDs) comprising 40 participants in total, this study employs reflexive thematic analysis informed by Connell's Power Relations Theory and Scoones’ Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA) to examine how patriarchal norms, resource control, and decision-making dynamics affect agricultural and socioeconomic outcomes among female-headed households in Mbarara District, rural Southwestern Uganda. Findings reveal a “production-control paradox”: women perform the majority of agricultural labour but have limited authority over land, crop choices, and harvest proceeds due to the persistent influence of male kin and extended family structures. This disjuncture perpetuates food insecurity, dietary monotony, economic precariousness, and psychosocial stress. A novel contribution of this study is the foregrounding of women's own voices alongside institutional perspectives, which reveals significant divergences between policy narratives and lived experience. The study demonstrates that food production mediates the relationship between gendered power relations and livelihoods, and that equitable intra-household collaboration, even within patriarchal settings, can substantially mitigate vulnerability. The article argues for gender transformative interventions that go beyond resource access to address the deeply embedded cultural and institutional barriers constraining women's agency in agrarian systems.
Women‘s employment and the changing family pattern in Ankole Sub-region- Uganda
(International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, 2021-11) Asiimire Donath; Gertrude Fester; Medard Twinamatsiko; Benard Nuwatuhaire
This study employed a case study design using phenomenological stances of qualitative research to collect data from three districts of Mbarara, Bushenyi and Kiruhura and the objective of the study was to find out how women’s entrance in formal employment has contributed to changes in marriage and gender roles. Drawing from 17 interviews (with women activists, community development officers, probation officers, grade II magistrates, Gender based organisation managers, political leaders, religious leaders, local leaders) and 5 FGDs (with household heads, women in formal and informal employment), findings revealed that, women’s employment leads to a shift in marriage. The findings further reveal that women’s employment increases women’s conflicting roles (the tripartite roles). The study concluded that, women’s employment is significantly related to marriage and gender roles, increasing numbers of women in formal and informal employment has led to delays in marriage, child birth and increases in conflicting roles for women. Thus the study recommended that gender-responsive social protection systems should be adopted by all places of work, encourage and support institutions and all places of work to put provisions for day care centres and increase on maternity leave days.