Marriage, Perversion, and Power: The Construction of Moral Discourse in Southern Rhodesia, 1894-1930 (Oxford Studies in African Affairs)

This is the first scholarly study of African marriage relationships in Southern Rhodesia during the early twentieth century. It is a highly original and cogently argued history of sexuality and gender relations in colonial Africa. Diana Jeater's analysis pays careful attention to methodological questions and fruitfully combines historical and anthropological approaches. She examines the marriage relationship and the regulation of sexuality in terms of both the political and the production systems, and offers valuable insights into the nature of gender relationships before and during the colonial period. Jeater analyzes colonial ideology, its contradictions and its effects on the people of Southern Rhodesia, and explores the interactions between black and white, male and female. Marriage, Perversion, and Power is an important contribution to African history and to the study of gender relations.