Lifebuoy Men, Lux Women: Commodification and Cleanliness in Modern Zimbabwe

How do people come to need products they never knew they even wanted? How, for example, did indigenous Zimbabweans of the 1940s begin to believe that they required "Lifebuoy" soap? With particular attention to cosmetic products and the contrast between colonial and pre-colonial ideas about cleanliness, this text examines the role played by commodity culture and its agents in the making of modern Zimbabwe. It combines history, social anthropology and political economy to show how the development of commodification in the region relates to the social history of hygiene. Within this framework and drawing on a wide variety of historical sources, the author explores the interactions between commodity culture and embodies aspects of race, gender, sexuality, domesticity, health and aesthetics in a colonial society.