Negotiated spaces and contested terrain: men, women, and the law in colonial Zimbabwe, 1890–1939

Abstract

During the early years of European occupation in Southern Rhodesia, people on the margins of African society took advantage of the erosion of indigenous authority structures. Women, in particular, challenged male control over their mobility, sexuality, and productive and reproductive capacities. Initially, a degree of female ‘emancipation’ was encouraged by European missionaries and the colonial state, who considered such customs as child‐pledging, forced marriage, and polygamy to be ‘repugnant’ to European concepts of morality. During the first three decades of colonial rule, legislation was enacted that outlawed child marriages, set limitations on bridewealth, and prohibited the marriage of women without their consent. The resulting crisis of authority in the rural areas, foreshadowing the possibility of a total breakdown in law and order, forced state officials to reconsider their earlier policies. By the 1920s, a backlash against female emancipation was well under way, intensifying under the pressures...