Kubereka: singleness, childlessness and non-biological mothering in Shona culture

This article uses the Shona concept of kubereka (procreation or carrying a child on the back) to examine never-married women’s experiences of joys and anxieties surrounding (non)biological mothering in a socio-cultural context whose constructions of parenthood and motherhood reveal multiple contradictions. Shona cultural norms suggest that ‘everyone has a child’ in the sense that kinship systems always position individuals as parents in some relational form. However, women, particularly single ones, without biological children, continue to face stigma and exclusion. Although child rearing in Shona communities is a collective responsibility involving non-biological caregivers, such single women, who like others, perform mothering roles through nurturing, are still stigmatized for being childless and without a family. This tension generates complex emotional and social pressures. By centring the lived realities of single and childless women and advocating for a rethinking of the broader conception of motherhood, this study highlights ‘perspectives grounded in single life’ to illuminate how the experiences of women are often underexplored in dominant African feminist discourses. In doing so, it provides a culturally grounded analysis of reproductive gendered female identities, contributing to the growing interdisciplinary dialogue on the intersections of African feminisms and decolonial singles studies.