Naomi/Laban Showers and the Creation of Womanist-Botho/Ubuntu Ethic of Communal Living Spaces, 2022

Abstract

Marriage in Setswana culture is a community of relationships. One of these important relationships is the mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law. This relationship has historically been wrought with tensions and difficulties. In 2014, a group of Pentecostal Christian women formed the mother-in-law and father-in-law showers. They chose biblical eponyms, Naomi and Laban to name parental showers. This article explores Naomi/Laban Showers. Our exploration is based on data collected in Gaborone and surrounding areas over a period of eighteen months (2016-2018). We examine critically how Naomi/Laban Showers build community. We investigate also how the showers construct and reconstruct gender. Our analysis of the data is framed by the intersectionality of Womanist (or Womanism) Social Theory and Botho/Ubuntu African Philosophy. We conclude that Naomi/Laban Showers create a Womanist-Botho/Ubuntu Ethic of Communal Living in which the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law exist in harmonious relationship. Furthermore, the showers create the mother-in-law subjectivity by insisting that her subjectivity must un- Other her daughter-in-law.