from 1982 to 2012, when she retired. Most of her research as a socio-cultural anthropologist has been conducted in Zambia. Her research interests have focused on the informal economy, domesticity and domestic service, youth, and consumption.
She applied the "Page 99 Test" to her new book, Dress Cultures in Zambia: Interwoven Histories, Global Exchanges, and Everyday Life, and reported the following:
Page 99 of my book begins chapter six, entitled The Dramaturgy of Body Politics. It focuses on the ostentatious dress practice of one person, former president Frederick Chiluba of Zambia. Here is an excerpt:Learn more about Dress Cultures in Zambia at the Cambridge University Press website.By the time of his indictment for corruption, former second republican president Frederick Chiluba of Zambia was already well known for being a great dresser. In one of the first internal criminal trials of an African leader for corrupt activity, the legal prosecution (2003-2009) was followed closely both locally and abroad. While the legal proceedings in Zambia dragged on, a special task force was established to investigate the allegations. When in 2005 several metal trunks and suitcases were discovered in a warehouse in Lusaka, revelations about the former president’s stunning wardrobe attracted sensationalist attention. Commenting on the revelations of the contents of his stored trunks, Chiluba said: “Old pictures are there, so you can see how I used to dress… I was one of the sweetest guys in the street, an entertainer, a politician, a unionist, a man of God. Amen.”The revelations proved to be a turning point on which Chiluba’s fondness for spectacular dress morphed into his stored wardrobe and became emblematic of corruption. The stored trunks contained more than 150 Italian bespoke suits, and more than 100 pairs of custom-made shoes with elevated heels. Some shoes were made of “exotics,” a trade term for reptile skin, others of ostrich, and still others of satin. There were 300 shirts in their original cellophane wrappers, lots of neckties, monogrammed pajamas, and brown envelopes containing money and cheques.
A browser of page 99 might easily conclude that the book is about political dress in Africa. That is correct to some extent yet it is about much more. For dress, including men’s suits, are among the strongest bearers of cultural meaning both for the people who wear them and those who watch their dressed bodies. Introducing chapter six, page 99 also opens Part II of the book, Dress and Undress, that broadens the discussion to specific considerations of sexuality, gender, and power, in this chapter power dressing by men. The book’s three parts concern the late colonial period and the early independence years, followed by postcolonial developments, and ending with more recent global perspectives. Six brief Snapshots interspersed between the regular chapters expand my main line of inquiry, with topics such as “national dress,” accessories, secondhand clothing, and “Chinese” clothes. The snapshots serve as indulgences, enlivening the account by providing details about specific issues that appear in passing in the main narrative.
Dress is as central to political power as it is to personal style. Page 99 reveals how clothing and accessories invite more than sensationalist attention, in fact they demand serious work by scholars. Focusing on the material culture of consumption by women, men, and young people in Zambia, my book explores how changing dress practices both were shaped by events as well as how they helped influence events. In addition to men’s suits, Zambian wardrobes have included safari suits and white handkerchiefs, dresses and head ties of colorful printed fabrics called chitenge as well as fedoras, fashionista hats, mini-skirts, and upcycled, re-purposed fashions created from imported used clothing, referred to as Salaula, among many other garments. Throughout this period, local dress conventions appropriated western dress influences as Zambian, inspiring fashion styles that spread across colonial trading networks and postcolonial global interactions.
--Marshal Zeringue
Posts
