Post-Colonial Women’s Resistance and Peacebuilding in Zambia

This paper examines women’s peacebuilding initiatives in post-colonial Zambia as forms of gendered resistance that have emerged in response to enduring structures of power inherited from colonial rule and reproduced in the post-independence state. While Zambia has largely avoided protracted armed conflict since independence, women have continued to confront patriarchal governance systems, socio-economic marginalization, and political exclusion that shape everyday insecurity. Drawing on Resistance Studies and feminist peace theory, the paper argues that women’s peacebuilding practices in the post-colonial period constitute both every day and organized resistance, challenging dominant political and cultural power structures while redefining peace beyond the absence of war. The study situates women’s resistance within key post-colonial moments, including economic crises, political transitions, and community-level conflicts over land, resources, and social authority. It focuses on women-led initiatives such as informal mediation in family and communal disputes, faith-based peace movements, market women’s associations, and civil society organizations that have played critical roles in conflict prevention and social cohesion since independence. These practices are analyzed as resistance not only to direct and structural violence, but also to post-colonial state practices and cultural norms that marginalize women from formal decision-making spaces. Methodologically, the paper employs qualitative analysis of secondary literature, policy documents, and selected post- independence case studies from both rural and urban Zambia, complemented by insights from feminist resistance scholarship. The analysis demonstrates that women’s peace work in the post- colonial era has often been rendered invisible within dominant security and governance discourses that privilege elite, masculinized, and state-centric notions of power. By prioritizing dialogue, care, and social repair, women’s peacebuilding practices resist these models and offer alternative visions of security rooted in community resilience and relational authority. The paper contributes to Resistance Studies by extending the concept of resistance to include post-colonial peacebuilding as a sustained political practice rather than episodic protest. It also enriches peace and conflict scholarship by centering women’s agency in post-colonial contexts that are frequently framed as stable or non-conflictual. Ultimately, the paper argues that recognizing women’s peacebuilding as post-colonial resistance is essential for understanding how power, memory, and authority are continuously contested in Zambia’s everyday political life.