Sticks and Scones: Black and White Women in the Homecraft Movement in Colonial Zimbabwe

Abstract

In Colonial Zimbabwe, white women, primarily British settlers from South Africa and the United Kingdom, formed groups to socialize with each other to counteract the isolation they experienced on dispersed farms and ranches. During a period marked by the idea of progress and the fear of African nationalism, these middle- and upper-class colonial women reached out to African women, forming Homecraft clubs that taught various domestic tasks such as sewing and cooking. Homecraft clubs were part of a colonialist project to capture the loyalty of upwardly mobile rural and urban women. In developing the very popular Homecraft clubs, white women placed their skills in the service of the colonial state on a scale never before seen. For black women, especially of the Shona ethnic group, the majority of population and the group focused on in this study, Homecraft groups provided opportunities to gather socially in a new way, which ultimately led to new forms of social and political organization. Organizational skills (and cooking skills) that African women learned through their affiliation with a white-sponsored organization, in some cases protected them from the violence of the liberation forces and, in other cases, were used in support of the independence movement. The domestic was the site of civil society; domestic spaces and activities reached into the public realm with very real and significant effects. Thus, Homecraft groups challenged dualistic conceptions of home versus public and paved the way for greater participation in civil society for both black and white women.