A tidal wave of scholarship produced in the last twenty years or so has refocused attention on the porous nature of colonial boundaries. In particular, Fred Cooper and Ann Laura Stoler's 1997 edited volume Tensions of Empire: colonial cultures in a bourgeois world demonstrated the messy entanglements of empire, and, among other things, challenged the previously immutable categories of colonizer/colonized. Yet it is difficult to underestimate the importance placed on, and indeed the energy invested in, maintaining racial ‘difference’ and ‘distance’ in the context of European colonialism. Studying manners as a way to understand how people learned to ‘behave’ in colonial Zimbabwe, Allison K. Shutt convincingly connects studies of everyday interactions as a way to understand ‘prestige, honor and governance’ (p. 1). Structured by way of five main empirical chapters, which variously focus on insolence, deference, etiquette, rudeness and violence, and draw on legal records, newspapers and advice handbooks, Shutt argues that ‘debates over etiquette reflected society-wide conflicts and confusions over race and status’ (pp. 1–2). Although largely viewed from the viewpoint of the settler community, Manners also makes a serious attempt to understand ‘the humiliating experience of racial etiquette’ (p. 2) from the perspective of the African population. As well as understanding these issues through the analytical lens of race, Shutt's study emphasizes the complex ways in which ‘generational ties, professional status, and gender roles’ (p. 5) combined to inform ideas about manners and appropriate behaviour(s).

Read from the official record, Chapter 1, ‘Insolence and respect’, examines the ways in which government officials strove to classify and define insolent behaviour. In particular, it examines the role of Native Commissioners (NCs) as ‘self-appointed experts in African customs’ (p. 24) and their subjective interpretation(s) of insolent behaviour. As the twentieth century progressed, NCs consistently argued for greater judicial powers, to respond to what they perceived as the unruly behaviour of African youths. As Shutt powerfully demonstrates, ‘etiquette was the foundation of an obedient population, not simply a sign of proper upbringing or quaint exotica’ (p. 31), thus the passing of the Native Administration Act in 1927 saw the management of ‘proper’ racial etiquette becoming part of NCs’ ‘legal authority’ (p. 32). Ranging from grins and laughter to the waving of hands and speaking in a loud voice, for Shutt ‘insolence cases provided a map of official attempts to … blunt African resistance’ (p. 49) in the context of growing African nationalism.

While, on the one hand, displays of African deference were equated with an obedient population, Shutt reveals the punitive treatment meted out to Africans who were considered to be overreaching in their performance of manners. Chapter 2, ‘Dignity and deference’, therefore offers two separate case studies of figures who came up against the confining categorizations of ‘proper’ behaviour. In the first instance, attention is paid to the case of Lennox Njokweni, a clerk at Inyati Boys’ Industrial and Agricultural Institution. An ‘urbane man’ who was on speaking terms with the local NC, and who wore a hat as a sign of ‘his distinction’ (p. 55), Njokweni had his hat knocked off by the assistant NC, Tapson, for a perceived display of impudence. Tapping into debates regarding the role of white women in the colonial enterprise, Shutt moves to examine the position of a colonial wife, Rose Comberbach. Shutt details how Comberbach became a vocal critic of the policy of cattle culling, undermining white patriarchal prerogatives and ‘racial etiquette’ by speaking on behalf of the African population (p. 72).

Continuing with white women, Chapter 3, ‘Etiquette and integration’, examines how white women were perceived as ‘conduits of good manners’ (p. 78), who played a central role in promoting ‘the lessons of racial etiquette’ (p. 91). As Shutt argues, instilling ‘proper’ manners into one's African servants was seen as part and parcel of being a ‘good Rhodesian’ (p. 98). While Chapter 4, ‘Courtesy and rudeness’, does note that the relative political ‘liberalism’ of the Federation years saw a slight relaxation of the rules of etiquette, on the whole, the regulation of manners continued. Interestingly, Shutt notes that, during this period, the African press was ‘chock-full of stories about ill-mannered whites bullying courteous and deferential Africans’ (p. 119). In Chapter 5, ‘Violence and hospitality’, Shutt notes the increasing irrelevance of white attempts to promote an ‘image of friendly race relations’ (p. 138) in the context of the growing tide of African nationalism. In concluding, Shutt argues for a greater appraisal of ‘white ideals about courtesy and rudeness’ (p. 177), demonstrating that ‘in the end as at the beginning, manners mattered’ (p. 179).

Persuasively argued and lucidly written, Manners is an important contribution to the existing literature. In particular, Shutt deserves praise for her judicious treatment of African nationalism, as she does not ‘read’ proto-nationalism where there is scant evidence of it. In summation, this book is likely to have a wide appeal not only to scholars and students of Zimbabwe, but to a broader range of social historians who are interested in understanding the complex ways in which power was exercised in the name of European colonialism.