The strength that protrudes the weakest of patriarchy and misogyny. Born Auxilia, crowned Moyo, she carries the totem of the womb that formed me and all I call siblings. Moyo, the genes of royalty, the bloodline that watered the tree upon which this nation’s sacredness was established.
By Richard Mahomva
Sixty-two moons ago, she was born. Today, she stands as a quiet, but shining archangel of hope to those navigating cancer, poverty, and the weight of substance abuse. Her birthday, 21 March, sits at the centre of a month globally devoted to women as the world bows to the strength and resilience of those who mother our homes, corporate organisations, learning institutions, civil society, and any other institution one can ever imagine. It is in this month that we are reminded of the role of women as creators of all institutions which give form and direction to humanity. On the 21st, in Zimbabwe, we are obliged to celebrate the self-effacing humility of the Republic’s First Lady.
As the famous Shona adage reminds us, musha mukadzi, the home is a woman. Extended further, one might say, “Nyika mukadzi”, the nation is a woman. This is why we speak of the “motherland”, why we invoke “mother earth”. These are not casual metaphors. They are moral frameworks that locate care, sacrifice, and belonging within the feminine.
To call the earth a mother is not a poetic indulgence. It is an ethical demand. It insists that preservation is not technical, but relational. That we protect not because policy requires it, but because we are bound to it.
The emotional attachment to the nation as a mother reveals something deeper about collective identity. To belong is to be held, to be nurtured, to be anchored. This is why our forebears insisted, kusina mai hakuendwe. Without the mother, there is no direction, no return, no home and no life.
This is why every nation on earth is called the “motherland”, and as Fidel Castro would teach us, it’s always “motherland or death”. Climate change advocacy is always instructive of the imperative to serve (save?) “Mother Earth”. Our being is indebted to our mothers. Therefore, discoursing the earth as a mother doesn’t only evoke the obligation to champion environmental preservation. Instead, this fosters an emotive call for all of us to be agents of combating climate change. Such is the precious value of the mother, as a person or as a land. Therefore, our mother is the earth, just like all our mothers who nursed us in the womb. When life fails, to the earth, our mother, we all return.
This interwoven persona of the nation as a woman or mother(land) shows that it is the force of femininity that gives right to all life, be it sovereignty, democracy, unity, prosperity, or innovation. This explains why the national existence’s personification is mostly attributed to the mother.
Beyond the symbolism, women have shaped the very substance of national interest. From Charwe Nyakasikana, Ambuya Nehanda, Lozikheyi Dlodlo, Victoria Chitepo, Gogo Mafuyana, Jane Ngwenya, and Oppah Muchinguri, the intergenerational struggle for freedom has always carried a feminine imprint. It is from this portion of history that, while Fidelis Mukonori (2017) autobiographically projects himself as the Man in the Middle, perhaps we need to think of the evolution of our nation in terms of women taking a central role in its development.
In a contemporary moment marked by inequality, social fragmentation, and cultural contestation, Dr Auxilia Mnangagwa has redefined the symbolic expectation of the First Lady. She has moved beyond spectacle; she has positioned herself within communities, engaging with chiefs, village heads, widows, orphans, and even those in correctional facilities. She stands tall as the “Woman in the Middle”.
Her approach suggests that leadership is not about performance, but about proximity. That dignity is restored not through grand gestures, but through presence. In this, she reintroduces Ubuntu as a practice. Not rhetoric!
Her birthday, then, is not merely a personal milestone. It is a moment that invites reflection on the many women whose labour quietly, persistently, and often without recognition sustains the nation. From cross-border traders to women in industry, from informal economies to formal institutions, this ethic of care continues to shape Zimbabwe’s present and future.
To celebrate her is, therefore, to recognise a broader continuum of women who hold the nation together.
Happy Auxilia Mnangagwa Day to all who embody this quiet, enduring strength.
As always, it’s “Motherland or Death”, as Castro would say.
