Reciprocity and the Moral Economy of Exchange in African 'Tealess' Tea Parties in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, c. 1945–1950s

Title data

Madhuku, Perseverence ; Mujere, Joseph ; Mahamba, Barbara:
Reciprocity and the Moral Economy of Exchange in African 'Tealess' Tea Parties in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, c. 1945–1950s.
In: South African Historical Journal. Vol. 73 (2021) Issue 4 . - pp. 818-835.
ISSN 0258-2473
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02582473.2022.2036802

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Abstract in another language

In recent decades, historians’ understanding of colonialism has been significantly enriched, going beyond the central concepts of resistance and negotiation. Several works have been produced on various aspects of African lives in colonial cities. Yet African organisational life and networks of solidarity in such ‘restrictive’ urban spaces have been largely overlooked. In this article, we examine African ‘informal’ leisure parties known as tea parties (matiyipati) and their role as economic circuits for the African underclass in Harari Township in Salisbury. Although Africans in urban areas were offered few opportunities in the colonial economy, they were capable of exploiting the crevices in the colonial system to create an alternative, underground economy that enabled them to survive in the city. Drawing on archival sources and oral interviews, this article argues that not only were tea parties arenas for alcohol consumption and cultural resistance but they were also essential platforms for chatting new livelihoods. The moral discourse of both the organisers and patrons was founded on the premise of the right to subsistence livelihoods. As a result, the exchange at these parties remained embedded in wide socio-cultural systems of which reciprocity formed an integral part.