Description
Book SynopsisFocuses on how the unintended consequences of colonialism lead to the creation of an African middle class in Zimbabwe. This title shows how some Africans were able to avail themselves of scarce educational and social opportunities in order to achieve some degree of upward mobility in a society that was hostile to their ambitions.
Trade Review"... a compelling portrait of a community seeking heroically to succeed 'inside the system' and choosing confrontation only when other options seemed exhausted... African Studies Review... impeccable and original scholarship..." -American Historical Review
Table of ContentsPreliminary Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Colonial and Postcolonial Place Names
Introduction
Part 1. The Social Construction of the African Middle Class
1. Running Against the Wind: African Social Mobility and Identity in a Settler Colonial Society
2. Courting "Miss Education": The Love Affair with Social Mobility
3. The Quest for Bourgeois Domesticity: On Homemakers and Households
4. The Best of All Homes: Housing and Security of Tenure
Part 2. The Political Construction of the African Middle Class
5. A New Beginning: The Roots of African Politics, 1914-1933
6. Found and Lost: Toward an African Political Consensus, 1934-1948
7. Back Toward the Beginning: The Pursuit of Racial Partnership, 1949-1958
8. An Aborted Coronation: In Search of the Political Kingdom, 1955-1965
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
