Paper Title
Songs as Women’s Response to Patriarchal Abuse in Their Societies: A Case of Zwelibomvu in South Africa

Abstract
Indigenous societies, with special reference to African communities that are steeped in patriarchy, have various avenues through which they deal with the abuse characteristic of relations in some of these communities. One such route is songs which allow them to voice that which, bound by societal expectations, they would not normally be able to say. This paper presents the cases of several young female diviner initiates in Zwelibomvu, KwaZulu-Natal who have experienced different forms of abuse. These initiates, under the guise of being possessed and through songs that are supported by personal experience narratives, open up about the ordeals they suffer under patriarchal power in their families. Using feminist standpoint theoretical framework, I interrogate the songs which are better understood with the narratives that women offer. Using women from the Zwelibomvu rural village outside Durban in South Africa as a sample, the paper concludes that women have avenues that they can employ to express their compromised situations. It further maintains that even though such channels may only be a temporary measure they do bring some relief to women. Keywords – Songs, Female Diviner Initiates, Patriarchy, Narratives, Feminist Standpoint