A threat to the nation and a threat to the men: the banning of Depo‐Provera in Zimbabwe, 1981

In this paper, I discuss the prohibition of the injectible contraceptive Depo‐Provera in Zimbabwe in 1981 by analysing the confluence of events which led both to its popularity amongst Zimbabwean women and to the suspicion in which it was held by many Zimbabwean men. I argue that the prohibition of Depo‐Provera must be seen both as an act of nationalist self‐assertion by the newly victorious majority government under ZANU (PF) and also as a significant moment in the gendered politics of reproduction in Zimbabwe. During the era of the white minority government in the 1960s and 1970s, Depo‐Provera was constructed by Africans as a form of medical colonisation of African women's bodies and, because of its centrality to the white regime's population control strategies, as a weapon for cutting down the African nation by preventing future generations of Zimbabweans from being born. At the same time, Depo‐Provera was associated with ‘subversive’ conduct by women, as Depo enabled these women, with the assistance of sympathetic family planning workers, to regulate their own fertility without the permission or knowledge of their husbands and other relatives. Consequently, despite the pernicious side effects and negative political connotations of Depo, it became the most popular contraceptive method among African women in the 1970s. I argue that national politics and fear of ‘disorderly’ women, along with the genuine health risks posed by the synthetic hormones in Depo, led to its banning by the Minister of Health. This article is based on archival research in English and in Shona, and on interviews with former family planning educators and with middle‐aged and elderly Zimbabweans about their memories of the social dynamics which attended the introduction of Depo into their communities.