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Visions of Domesticity in the African Women’s Homecraft Movement in Rhodesia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Amy Kaler
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Extract

Now I want you to think and remember for a moment why these clubs were started for African women. The important part is to remember what we call the aims of the women’s clubs. It says this—to help and encourage all African women to become good homemakers and to work together in unity for the advancement of their people.

Lady Tredgold, First Lady of Southern Rhodesia, in a speech opening the Congress of the Federation of African Women’s Clubs in Marandellas [Marondera], June 1956

It is a truism that the personal is political: State power and other forms of publicly constituted power can penetrate interpersonal intimacy. Feminists and other scholars have criticized the notion that “private” and “public” spheres can be separated; they have asserted that the processes and experiences of the home and family are indissolubly linked with those of the state and the institutions of politics.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 23 , Issue 3 , Fall 1999 , pp. 269 - 309
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 1999

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References

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