In her thought-provoking and elegantly written study, Teresa Barnes shows how African ideas of gender in colonial Zimbabwe centrally shaped oppositional responses well before the advent of formal political nationalism. Marshaling an impressive collection of oral histories and rich archival detail, Barnes argues that urban African women and men in colonial Harare constructed complex yet coherent identities and durable hopes for themselves in broad moments of gendered conflict and consensus. this study compels readers to rethink urban colonial history and to question social categories in colonial Zimbabwe and throughout southern Africa. The book represents a major contribution to the social historiography of colonialism and to current debates on gender, politics, and family history in Africa.