Visual Resistance and Postdigital Resilience

Abstract This article explores the transformative potential of visual culture as a tool for fostering resilience and empowerment among women and girls in marginalized mining communities in Southern Africa. Using Makusha, a mining community in Shurugwi, Zimbabwe, as a case study, it adopts an approach that integrates Freire's notion of critical awareness, feminist phenomenology, and postdigital theory to highlight how, through hybrid analog–digital practices, women can enhance their visibility in resistance and relational empowerment. Employing qualitative mixed methods, including participatory visual methods (photovoice) and focus group discussions, it examines how women navigate intersecting barriers of gender, socioeconomic inequality, and digital exclusion to reclaim narrative agency. The results show that although digital tools like smartphones and WhatsApp increase communication power, they also perpetuate disparities in access to technology between different age and class groups. The study underscores the need for contextually grounded strategies that integrate intergenerational knowledge and hybrid analog–digital approaches to foster inclusive empowerment.