0 White Women and Domesticity in Colonial Zimbabwe, c.1890 to 1980 Ushehwedu Kufakurinani A Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Economic History in the University of Zimbabwe Jun e 2015 i Abstract The study analyses white women‟s experiences in colonial Zimbabwe in relation to domesticity. As in most new colonial territories, one of the mandates of the coloniser was to domesticate „the wild‟ (that is the indigenous populations and their environment) and make the conquered areas ideal for settlement and exploitation. The civilising mission was central to the project of domesticating the empire. The domestication of empire, however, was more complex and went beyond the mere extension of western civilisation and the taming of the physical environment. It also manifested itself in gender relations within the British Empire and derived its major characteristics from Victorian culture. In the context of gender analysis, domesticity defines women‟s proper place as the home and has a potential to restrict women‟s options. The study demonstrates that in reality, domesticity was more complex and went beyond the relegation of white women to the home or so-called private sphere. The domestic ideology, like elsewhere, took different forms within Rhodesian society and these shaped white women‟s experiences in very complex ways. White women also appropriated, challenged and deployed this ideology as well as engineered its reformulation over time. There was a continuous dialogue between ideology and white women‟s experiences. On the whole, the study inserts white women in the colonial narrative and demonstrates that there is an incomplete story on colonialism when these women are absent in this narrative. White women clearly had a huge influence on the social, economic and political development of the colonial societies and yet there has been little rigorous academic effort to appreciate their experience, roles and status particularly in colonial Zimbabwe. This thesis uses largely empirical evidence drawn from a multiplicity of primary and secondary sources such as extensive interviews, internet sources, archival records and published works on Southern Rhodesia and other parts of the British Empire. ii Dedication To my family – Sheron my wife, children (Grace and Daniel), siblings (Mashia and Gratitude), in-laws and parents iii Acknowledgments The writing of this work has been made possible by a number of contributions from several people. Four of these were probably cornerstones in shaping the writing of this piece, playing the role of supervisors in one way or the other. The first person is P. Nyambara one of my supervisors. I am so grateful for his meticulous reading of my chapters and his patience with my errors. His swift responses to my drafts always challenged me to be even more productive. Secondly, I am also grateful to Terri Barnes as co-supervisor to my work. From the onset, her accepting to take me in as her supervisee humbled me, given her very tight schedule. She also assisted me with relevant reading and research material. Third, I also want to acknowledge the role played by Virginia Ferreira, my supervisor from Portugal under the Coimbra Group of Scholarship for Young Researchers in Sub-Saharan Africa. If it was not for her, I would not have had the opportunity of visiting Portugal twice on writing retreats of three months for each trip (from June to August in 2012 and then later from September to December in 2013). She also became very instrumental in my conceptualisation and framing of my original arguments and, I am grateful for the opportunities to present some of my ideas in seminars that she accorded me. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the guidance of J. P. Mtisi. Despite not being an official supervisor, he acted in this capacity in many ways. Over and above the above-mentioned individuals, I would like to acknowledge the role played by the white women whom I worked with in this project whose names appear in the list of my interviewees. Special mention must be made of Adele Hamilton Ritchie and Edone Ann Logan because I have had a longer association with them which began with my Masters project in 2007. I am also indebted to the different archivists. From the National Archives of iv Zimbabwe the following come to mind Livingstone wekwaMuchefa and Tafadzwa Chigodora from the research desk as well as the retrievers namely, T. Nyoni, E. Takura, C. Rukure and K. Mafuga. From the Rhodes House Library at Oxford (UK), the assistance of Lucy McCann was invaluable and made every minute of my short time with this institution worthwhile. I am most grateful to my institution, the University of Zimbabwe, my Faculty (Arts) and in particular the Department of Economic History for assistance in various forms. I was able to access the Vice Chancellor‟s field work grant which helped me in my field work in a huge way. I am also grateful for the opportunity to take leave from work and write my first draft in Portugal and I am humbled by the willingness of my colleagues in the department to accommodate my trip. I am indebted to the organisers of the Coimbra Group of Scholarship for their scholarship. It was in my approximately six months in Portugal that I did the bulk of my thesis writing. In Portugal, I would like to acknowledge the assistance and company of individuals that made my writing retreat a comfortable one. Particular mention must be made of Sara Portovedo, Joāo Nogueira, Raphaela Lopes and Pedro Santos for their exceptional hospitality. My warmest gratitude also goes to Blessing Chapeyama who assisted me with data collection, particularly the newspapers. I would like to also extend gratitude to CODESRIA for the small grant which went a long way in assisting me in patching the final touches of this thesis. Finally, I acknowledge the constructive criticism at various stages of my thesis that I received from Professor Ray Roberts, Kate Law, Margaret Chipara, Mhoze Chikowero, George Karekwaivanane, Andrew Hartnack, Wesley Matwara and Eric Makombe. As the adage goes, the errors in this work are, however, entirely my own. v Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................................... i Dedication ............................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................................. iii List of tables and Photographs ............................................................................................................. viii List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................. ix INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 1 Southern Rhodesia as a destination for white women ........................................................................ 6 Writing gender and empire: An overview ........................................................................................... 9 Whiteness, white femininity and the construction of racial identity in Southern Rhodesian ........... 20 Conceptualising domesticity ............................................................................................................. 28 Origins of domesticity in Britain and Southern Rhodesia ................................................................ 32 Debating domesticity ........................................................................................................................ 37 Ideology versus practice ................................................................................................................... 43 The scope of the thesis ...................................................................................................................... 44 Sources and methods ......................................................................................................................... 45 Thesis structure ................................................................................................................................. 52 Chapter One .................................................................................................................................. 52 Chapter Two .................................................................................................................................. 52 Chapter Three ............................................................................................................................... 53 Chapter Four ................................................................................................................................. 53 Chapter Five .................................................................................................................................. 53 CHAPTER ONE ................................................................................................................................... 55 WHITE WOMEN AND THE DOMESTIC SPACE: HOUSEWIFERY IN THE RHODESIAN CONTEXT ............................................................................................................................................ 55 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................