More than ‘Somebody’s Wife’: Maternalism, Welfare and Identity among White Farming Women in Zimbabwe c.1970–2000

Although the historiography and ethnography of white farmers in Zimbabwe has been growing steadily in recent years, limited attention has been given to the biographies, subjectivities, roles, narratives and identities of white commercial ‘farmers’ wives’. Yet many white ‘farmers’ wives’ played an important but largely ignored role in farm welfare programmes, particularly those which were run between 1980 and 2000 by various non-governmental organisations. This article examines, through detailed case studies, the complex personal and broader motivations that white farming women had for becoming involved in farm welfare endeavours during this era. It demonstrates that for such ‘farmers’ wives’, farm welfare programmes allowed them to transcend societal expectations of domesticity, enabling them to use skills they had given up on in marriage, develop new skills, and contribute to society in ways that built their identities beyond being ‘somebody’s wife’. Yet this maternalistic work in farm welfare also played a crucial political role for the white farming community, allowing these ‘farmer’s wives’ to both challenge ‘settler masculinity’ and yet also help white farmers to manage their precarious position in the independent country.