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PALGRAVE STUDIES IN AFRICAN LEADERSHIP

Women, Religion
and Leadership in
Zimbabwe, Volume 2
Engagement and Activism in
Religious Institutions

Edited by
Molly Manyonganise · Ezra Chitando ·
Sophia Chirongoma
 Palgrave Studies in African Leadership

Series Editors
Faith Ngunjiri, Concordia College, Moorhead, MN, USA
Nceku Nyathi, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, UK
Almost every continent has solid representation in the field of leader-
ship studies except for Africa, despite its rapid growth. A groundbreaking
series, Palgrave Studies in African Leadership fills a gap in the production
of knowledge and scholarly publishing on Africa and provides a much
needed outlet for the works of scholars interested in African leadership
studies around the world. Where many studies of leadership in Africa
focus solely on one country or region, this series looks to address leader-
ship in each of the different regions and countries of the continent. This
comes at a time when business and academic discourse have begun to
focus on the emerging markets across Africa. The wide-ranging scholarly
perspectives offered in this series allow for greater understanding of the
foundation of African leadership and its implications for the future. Topics
and contributors will come from various backgrounds to fully explore
African leadership and the implications for business, including scholars
from business and management, history, political science, gender studies,
sociology, religious studies, and African studies. The series will analyze
a variety of topics including African political leadership, women’s lead-
ership, religious leadership, servant leadership, specific regions, specific
countries, specific gender categories, specific business entities in Africa,
and more.
 Molly Manyonganise · Ezra Chitando ·
Sophia Chirongoma
Editors

Women, Religion
and Leadership
in Zimbabwe,
Volume 2
Engagement and Activism in Religious Institutions
Editors
Molly Manyonganise Ezra Chitando
Zimbabwe Open University University of Zimbabwe
Harare, Zimbabwe Mount Pleasant, Zimbabwe

Sophia Chirongoma
Midlands State University
Zvishavane, Zimbabwe

ISSN 2945-6673 ISSN 2945-6681 (electronic)

Palgrave Studies in African Leadership
ISBN 978-3-031-24735-4 ISBN 978-3-031-24736-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24736-1

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2023
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 Praise for Women, Religion and
Leadership in Zimbabwe, Volume 2

“This second volume focuses on women and religious leadership, which

remains a contested area in Zimbabwe and throughout Africa. The writers
argue that religions are gendered institutions and that sacred texts such as
the Bible and the Koran continue to provide the foundation for women’s
lack of access to leadership positions. The ordination of women in specific
churches does not end women’s oppression since they are confronted with
a parallel male hierarchy which holds the real power. Various chapters
analyse the challenges women face in the church which is both liber-
ator and oppressor. The writers describe ways that women are subverting
these gendered leadership structures through a praxis African women’s
transformative leadership.”
—Prof. Susan Rakoczy, Honorary Professor—School of Religion, Philosophy
and Classics—University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

“The volume examines women’s engagements and activism in Zimbabwe.

This leadership and activism runs across religions and denominations.
Through a pertinent analysis of women in different religions, places and
denominations, the authors have re-ignited the quest to interrogate and
challenge patriarchal structures that have stifled the leadership of women,
especially in politics. The book confirms the claim that ‘women are the
roots of the nation’ and present to the fore, the leadership dynamics and
styles of women that are either overlooked or downplayed within patriar-
chal settings. The book traces, captures and presents insights of women

v
vi PRAISE FOR WOMEN, RELIGION AND LEADERSHIP …

in leadership roles, from cultural traditions through to new religious

movements. Therefore, it is needful and timely, especially in Zimbabwe
and beyond where the patriarchal curtains have closed out women from
entering into the corridors of power and leadership.”
—Prof. Kudzai Biri, University of Zimbabwe, Department of Philosophy,
Religion and Ethics, Zimbabwe and Alexander von Humboldt Research
Fellow, Department of Katholische Theologie, Otto-Friedrich Universitat
Bamberg, Germany
 Contents

1 Introduction: Women, Religion and Leadership

in Zimbabwe 1
Molly Manyonganise, Ezra Chitando,
and Sophia Chirongoma

Part I Women’s Leadership Engagement and Activism in

Zimbabwean Faith Communities
2 Women’s Transformative Leadership and Africa’s
Holistic Development: The Role of the Churches 19
Isabel A. Phiri and Ezra Chitando
3 Visibility and Leadership Opportunities for Muslim
Women in Zimbabwe 35
Silindiwe Zvingowanisei
4 Women’s Leadership Roles in the Reformed Church
in Zimbabwe (1891–2020) 55
Simbarashe Munamati
5 Gender Dynamics in the Apostolic Faith Mission
in Zimbabwe (AFMZ) Leadership Hierarchy 81
Terence Mupangwa

vii
viii CONTENTS

6 Women’s Leadership in the Guta Ra Jehovha Church:

Towards the Construction of ‘Soft Masculinities’ 103
Amos Muyambo
7 Exploring the Status of Women in the Zion Christian
Church Since 1913 121
Solomon Mukora

Part II Women’s Leadership in New Religious

Movements and Cultural Traditions
8 The Emergence of Churches and Ministries
Founded/led by Women in Zimbabwe 139
Mpumelelo Moyo
9 Religio-Cultural ‘Clamps’ on Female Leadership
in Zimbabwe: Towards a Liberating Hermeneutic
in Mainline Churches and African Initiated Churches
(AICs) 161
Canisius Mwandayi
10 Zezuru Women’s Leadership Roles in the Death Rites
of Passage in Zimbabwe: A Pastoral Response 187
Sylvia C. Musasiwa and Yolanda Dreyer

Index 207
 Notes on Contributors

Sophia Chirongoma is a senior lecturer in the Religious Studies and

Ethics Department at Midlands State University, Zimbabwe. She is also
an Academic Associate/Research Fellow at the Research Institute for
Theology and Religion (RITR) in the College of Human Sciences,
University of South Africa (UNISA). Her research interests and publi-
cations focus on the interface between culture, ecology, religion, health
and gender justice.
Ezra Chitando serves as Professor of Religious Studies at the University
of Zimbabwe and Theology Consultant on HIV for the World Council
of Churches. He is also Extraordinary Professor at the University of the
Western Cape.
Yolanda Dreyer is Professor in Practical Theology, with specialisation in
Pastoral Care and Counselling in the Department of Practical Theology
and Mission Studies, Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University
of Pretoria. Her research focus is on pastoral care and counselling and
gender.
Molly Manyonganise holds a Ph.D. in Biblical and Religious Studies
from the University of Pretoria. She is a senior lecturer in the Department
of Religious Studies and Philosophy at the Zimbabwe Open University.
She is a Research Associate in the Department of Religion Studies, Faculty
of Theology and Religion of the University of Pretoria. Currently, she is
a Georg Forster Postdoctoral research fellow, Alexander von Humboldt

ix
x NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Foundation. Her research interests comprise religion and politics, gender

and religion, religion and sexuality, African Indigenous Religion(s) as well
as African Christianity.
Mpumelelo Moyo is an avid researcher who has published journal articles
and book chapters in refereed publications. His research interests are in
History of Christianity, African Christianity and gender.
Solomon Mukora is a Ph.D. candidate at Midlands State University,
Zimbabwe. He is a historian with a special focus on women’s issues
in African institutions with inroads having been made with regard to
their participation in the Zion Christian Church. His research interests
and publications are on the role of women in the African Independent
Churches. He is a seasoned educationist with two decades of experience
in Secondary School administration. He lectures African History-related
courses at the Midlands State University in the Department of Applied
Education.
Simbarashe Munamati is an educationist and an ordained Minister of
Religion in the Reformed Church in Zimbabwe (RCZ). He is the Prin-
cipal of Murray Theological Seminary, where he has lectured Ecclesiology
since 2015. Currently, he is a Doctor of Philosophy candidate with the
University of Zimbabwe in the field of Religion and Development. He
has attended and presented papers at various international conferences,
with publications in the areas of theological education, gender, religion
and development.
Terence Mupangwa is a lecturer in the Religious Studies Department
at the Catholic University of Zimbabwe. She is also a Ph.D. student
at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her research interest focuses on
Pentecostalism, women and leadership, and gender justice issues.
Sylvia C. Musasiwa is a lecturer in Pastoral Care and Counselling at
Domboshawa Theological College in Harare. She is also the founding
Director of Vimbainashe Learning Institute for children with varied
specific needs and disabilities. Her interests are mainly offering care and
support for the bereaved, helping surviving carers of cancer patients. She
has written materials on Gender-Based Violence for the Women’s Ministry
of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe. To date, she is the Interim
Chairperson of Pan African Christian Women’s Association of Zimbabwe.
 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS xi

Amos Muyambo is a doctoral student at the University of Botswana in

the Department of Theology and Religious Studies specialising in Gender
and Religion. He is a tutor with the Theological Education by Extension
College of South Africa (TEEC). His research interests are in the areas
of religion, ecology and gender issues, particularly gender-based violence,
masculinities and African Independent Churches (AICs).
Canisius Mwandayi is a senior lecturer in the Department of Reli-
gious Studies and Ethics at Midlands State University, Zimbabwe. He
is also an Academic Associate/Research Fellow at the Research Institute
for Theology and Religion (RITR) in the College of Human Sciences,
University of South Africa (UNISA). His research interests include: Incul-
turation, Death and after-life, Cultural Hermeneutics & Old Testament
Interpretation.
Isabel A. Phiri serves as Deputy General Secretary of the World Council
of Churches, responsible for Public Witness and Diakonia. She has been a
General Coordinator of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theolo-
gians (2002–2007) and is an honorary professor at the University of
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. She has published extensively in the field
of African women’s theologies.
Silindiwe Zvingowanisei is a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe. She
teaches in two departments: the Philosophy, Religion and Ethics Depart-
ment and in the Peace, Security and Society Department. Her research
and publications focus on Islam in Africa, religion and society, peace and
gender studies.
 List of Tables

Table 4.1 Number of women and men elected as elders

and deacons in the RCZ from 1984 to 2020 73
Table 4.2 Number of men and women who were trained
as ministers at Murray Theological College from 1936
to 2020 74
Table 4.3 Number of women and men in the RCZ’s eleven boards
from 2000 to 2020 75
Table 4.4 Number of women and men in the moderature
of the RCZ from 1952 to 2020 76

xiii
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Women, Religion

and Leadership in Zimbabwe

Molly Manyonganise , Ezra Chitando ,

and Sophia Chirongoma

Introduction
This volume builds on Volume I and it continues to focus on women,
religion and leadership in Zimbabwe. While the first volume engages with
thematic areas where women’s leadership is either located or absent, this
volume intends to make a discursive analysis of women’s leadership in
various Christian traditions in Zimbabwe, namely Protestantism, African

M. Manyonganise
Zimbabwe Open University, Harare, Zimbabwe
Department of Religion Studies, Faculty of Theology and Religion of the
University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
E. Chitando
Department of Philosophy, Religion and Ethics, University of Zimbabwe, Mt
Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe
e-mail: sochirongoma@gmail.com
University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Switzerland AG 2023
M. Manyonganise et al. (eds.), Women, Religion and Leadership
in Zimbabwe, Volume 2, Palgrave Studies in African Leadership,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-24736-1_1
2 M. MANYONGANISE ET AL.

Initiated Churches (AICs) as well as Pentecostalism. Such an analysis is

crucial in exposing religious attitudes towards women’s leadership within
and outside religious institutions. In this case, religion is considered a key
variable in determining women’s leadership in many other spaces such
as the home, religious institutions and many other places where deci-
sions are made (Klingorova & Havlicek, 2015; Schnabel et al., 2018).
We argue in this volume that religion is central in gendering space, both
abstract and physical (See Chitando et al., 2022). Hence, it is appealed to
in processes both to include and to exclude women in certain spaces, lead-
ership included. Gender inequality is exacerbated by religion(s) because
“religions as social institutions are gendered in different ways” (Schnabel
et al., 2018: 83). Klingorova and Havlicek (2015: 9) argue that “the
relation between religion and gender equality can be explained by the
assertion that societies with higher religiosity accept the authority of reli-
gious teachers, who advocate a patriarchal organisation of society.” We,
therefore, argue in this volume that such attitudes do not only need to
be interrogated but challenged to the extent that religion/s need to be
accommodative of women’s leadership. We envisage that gender inclusive
religious policies enable women to be present and effectively take part
when decisions that affect their lives are being taken.
Scholarship on religion and gender has demonstrated that religions are
gendered institutions, and that different religions have different norms
and expectations for distinct ways of accomplishing the same purpose,
that is, promoting gendered religious values, expressing gendered reli-
gious identities, differentiating between women and men in context
specific ways (Schnabel et al., 2018: 83; see also Koburtay et al., 2022;
Manyonganise, 2021; Seguino, 2011). Gender norms and stereotypes are
embedded in religious doctrines that shape the everyday lives of religious
adherents. Within the Zimbabwean context, most religious traditions are
hierarchical in nature with men occupying the higher offices. Seguino
(2011:1308) notes that in hierarchical structures, a dominant factor in

S. Chirongoma
Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Department of Religious Studies and Ethics,
Midlands State University, Zvishavane Campus, Zvishavane, Zimbabwe
Research Institute for Theology and Religion in the College of Human
Sciences, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa
 1 INTRODUCTION: WOMEN, RELIGION AND LEADERSHIP … 3

shaping gender attitudes is the views held by those at the top of the
religious structure at any given point in time. In most cases, women in
Zimbabwe have occupied less powerful positions in religions that make
Zimbabwe’s religious landscape. This is true of religions that use sacred
texts as sources of authority. The Christian Bible and the Islamic Koran
have been utilised in ways that ensure the subordination of women as
well as their exclusion from leadership positions. Zimbabwe’s religious
turf is largely dominated by African Indigenous Religion(s) and Chris-
tianity. Classens (2012: 149) alludes to the “way biblical texts play a key
role in forming and sustaining a worldview where the males in society are
privileged and thus in power.” Klingorova and Havlicek (2015) note that
even in cases where the sacred text of a particular religion may advocate
equality between men and women, the facts on the ground show that
such texts are not given much attention. There is, therefore, discrepan-
cies between what is expected and what is being done. Even then, the use
of the Bible in informing gender relations is not homogenous across the
different Christian traditions in Zimbabwe. It is only prudent to examine
the position of women in these traditions. However, before doing this,
there may be need to theorise the discourse on women and religious
leadership.

Women and Religious Leadership in Zimbabwe

Women’s religious leadership remains controversial in most religions of
the world. Scholarship on African Indigenous Religions and gender have
noted how the religious space was/is empowering to women as it allows
them to subvert patriarchy and exercise agency which they may not
be able to do outside of the religious spaces (Cheater, 1986). In this
case, “religious roles in traditional belief systems, therefore, afforded and
continue to afford exceptional women, who refuse to conform to the
standard female ‘social personality’, an escape route into individualised
positions of power as well as authority, based on traditional religion”
(Cheater, 1986: 69). Writing on the Punu of Congo-Brazaville, Plancke
(2011) argues that for women, spirit possession expresses aspects of domi-
nation, agency and self-realisation. From her point of view, these aspects
are manifest in most Bantu cultures where women exercise leadership in
religion and at times beyond the religious space. In the first volume,
we alluded to the Shona woman legend, Mbuya Nehanda as priestess
in Shona religion, which empowered her to function as leader in the
4 M. MANYONGANISE ET AL.

political realm as well. The Shona-Ndebele Uprisings (1896–1897) are

a case in point. Beyond spirit possession, however, most women were
treated as second-class citizens due to cultural beliefs and practices. We
make this argument cognisant of how some African gender scholars have
tried to dismiss the existence of unequal gender relations in pre-colonial
Africa, hence, proffering that gender in Africa was a colonial invention
(Amadiume, 1987; Oyewumi, 1997). We may run the risk of cultural
nationalism if we deny that gender was a crucial social organising tool
in pre-colonial Zimbabwe. We also use Mbuya Nehanda’s example while
being aware of the criticisms that some scholars have brought forward.
For example, Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2005) rejects the notion that Mbuya
Nehanda can be representative of pre-colonial African women. Her persis-
tent presence in Zimbabwe’s history is because “she was considered
different from other women” (Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 2005: 76). He further
argues that

Her inclusion was part and parcel of the ‘great women’ as an antidote to
the ‘great men’ of conventional historiography. Nehanda is herself suffering
as a historical figure from ‘masculinisation’ using male standards to measure
and judge her activities.
She has never been studied as a woman in her own right. If she was
not a spirit medium, she could be suffering from invisibility together with
her fellow Zimbabwean pre-colonial sisters.

In Ndlovu-Gatsheni’s analysis, Nehanda derived her authority from reli-

gion without which she would not have been recognised in history
as a historical figure. Other scholars like Anne-Marie Gallagher, Cathy
Lubelska and Louise Ryan cited in Ndlovu-Gatsheni take note of the
tendency among early historians to add key women to men’s history.
Some of “the accounts that try to present pre-colonial African women
as having wielded power tend to glorify individual African female rulers
without detailed analyses of the specific historic circumstances under
which they lived” (Becker, 1998: 259) cited in Geisler (2004: 18). Hence,
Geisler (2004: 259) argues that such accounts uplift outstanding cases
over the majority of women who must be postulated to have had much
less authority and political power. Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2005) raises critical
issues about women’s invisibility in history itself. However, we argue that
women’s visibility in history is closely tied to their roles in leadership in
the various facets of societal life, religious leadership included. The cherry
 1 INTRODUCTION: WOMEN, RELIGION AND LEADERSHIP … 5

picking of a few women in history does not (re)present a Zimbabwean

society that is gender sensitive and gender inclusive. It should actually
nudge scholars to question the absence of the majority of women from
authoritative positions in the public sphere. Such analysis needs to extend
from African traditional religious spaces to include other religions such
as Christianity and so-called minor religions in Zimbabwe, namely Islam,
Judaism, Baha’i Faith, etc. For example, AIRs and Christianity have been
accomplices in advocating for the subordination of women and their
exclusion from leadership not only in religious institutions but also in
homes and national institutions. King (1995) alludes to this fact when
she argues that the study of the status of women in religion also reflects
the status of women in society as a whole. Volume I has already alluded
to the way religion has influenced the genderedness of the political space
in Zimbabwe. Since in Zimbabwe the majority of Zimbabweans confess
to be Christians, it becomes imperative to analyse the attitudes derived
from this religion towards women.

Attitudes Towards Women’s Leadership

in Christianity in Zimbabwe
Focusing on Christianity, feminist and womanist scholars have critiqued
the inferior position of women within. Christianity is categorised as a
gender-traditional religion (Burke, 2012: 123). Burke (2012) further
argues that it promotes the belief that men and women were created to
fulfil different and complementary roles that tend to privilege the status of
men. In concurrence, Pui-lan (2000) argues that though women consti-
tute the majority in churches, they are marginalised in the power structure
of the church and the life of the congregation. She argues that “colonial
and patriarchal denominational polity reinforced by indigenous biases and
taboos against women has consigned them to second class membership in
the faith community” (2000: 98). In her 2005 publication, Postcolonial
Imagination and Feminist Theology, Pui-lan critiques some of the intellec-
tual projects which for her make the crucial connection between religion
and colonialism, but have left out the gender dimension. She also notes
that some scholars who have investigated the relationship between gender
and colonialism have not taken note of the role of religion in sustaining
colonial ideologies. In the light of this, she argues
6 M. MANYONGANISE ET AL.

Given [the] complex history of what counted as Holy scripture, the Bible
cannot be naively seen as a religious text reflecting the faith of the Hebrew
people and early Christians. Instead, it must also be seen as a political text
written, collected, and redacted by male colonial elites in their attempts
to rewrite and reconcile with history and to reconceptualise both indi-
vidual and collective identities under the shadow of empires. A postcolonial
feminist interpretation of the Bible needs to investigate the deployment
of gender in the narration of identity, the negotiation of power differen-
tials between the colonisers and the decolonised, and the reinforcement of
patriarchal control over spheres where these elites could exercise control.
(2005: 8)

While Pui-lan was writing on the Asian context, her observations are also
evident in the African context in general and Zimbabwe in particular.
Specifically focusing on Africa, Oduyoye (1997/8: 500) posits that

Since in the church in Africa, men and the clergy presume to speak for
God, and to demand the obedience of women, it is not easy to experience
God as empowering and liberating when one is in the church’s ambit.
Women experience God as the one who orders their subordination, who
requires them to serve and never be served. God is the one who made them
women, with a body deemed to be the locus of sin and impurity. God is
experienced as source of women’s oppression and Jesus as the author of
exclusion of women from sacramental roles in the church. This is the God
the Christian tradition wants women to love and obey.

Scholarship on religion and gender focusing specifically on Zimbabwe

has shown how the different Christian traditions within have in one
way or the other reinforced the otherisation of women as well as their
continued marginalisation from leadership positions. Chagonda-Banda
(2014) deals with gender inequality in the United Methodist Church in
Zimbabwe. She argues that the Rumano booklet, which is used during
the women’s Thursday meetings (China Chemadzimai), continues to
project women as home-makers and house wives. The domestication of
women was reinforced by missionary Christianity as it valorised Victo-
rian notions of domesticity in those areas which were colonised by the
British, Zimbabwe included. It is important to note that the concept
of women’s meetings was started by the Methodist Church, but even-
tually adopted by most protestant churches in Zimbabwe. It, therefore,
follows that in most protestant churches in Zimbabwe, women continue
 1 INTRODUCTION: WOMEN, RELIGION AND LEADERSHIP … 7

to be taught to focus on being good mothers and wives. In an on-going

research (Manyonganise, 2023) engaged women in Protestant churches
in order to understand their attitudes towards women’s religious lead-
ership. It was interesting to note that even in those churches where
women can now be ordained as pastors, a separate parallel hierarchy
of power and authority made up of men exists to the extent that the
women pastors have to subordinate themselves to this hierarchy. Most
women interviewed alluded to the fact that the ordination of women
in these churches act as smokescreens for fake women’s empowerment
yet real power remains in the hands of men. Writing on AICs, Mapu-
ranga (2013a) argues that women in these churches continue to linger
on the margins in as far as leadership positions are concerned. This is
despite the fact that earlier studies had argued that the religious space of
AICs was empowering to women. Scholarship on African Pentecostalism
in Zimbabwe has also shown the pervasiveness of patriarchy within this
tradition (Manyonganise, 2021; Mapuranga, 2018).
A book edited by Hendricks et al. (2012) titled Men in the Pulpit,
Women in the Pew? Addressing Gender Inequality in Africa captures the
reality of the church in Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular. Reli-
gious patriarchal ideologies from both African and biblical cultures have
shaped negative attitudes towards women’s religious leadership. Mombo
and Joziasse (2012: 184) argue

In a patriarchal system, gender roles are specifically defined and valued

differently, which means that men are socialised to be public figures, while
the women are socialised to be in the domestic sphere. When this is applied
in the church, the men are ordained and allowed to use the pulpit while
women remain in the pews.

This analysis is instructive of the experiences of women across the Chris-

tian traditions in Zimbabwe. This may also be applicable to other religions
found in the country. The emphasis placed on silence and submission
has allowed men to find justification to exclude women from leadership
positions in the church more specifically. The appropriation of Pauline
passages which emphasise women’s silence in church and subordination
to their husbands has been central in excluding women from religious
leadership in churches. To this, Machingura (2013: 234) avers that “the
Bible has been variously used to ridicule, stereotype, demean, vulgarise,
demonise, manipulate and fight against women’s empowerment.” Hence,
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Title: Too dearly bought

or, The town strike

Author: Agnes Giberne

Illustrator: M. Irwin

Release date: March 18, 2024 [eBook #73196]

Language: English

Original publication: London: John F. Shaw and Co, 1894

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOO

DEARLY BOUGHT ***
 Transcriber's note: Unusual and inconsistent spelling is
as printed.

"We'll make our own terms. We'll be the masters now!"

 TOO DEARLY BOUGHT
OR

THE TOWN STRIKE.

BY

AGNES GIBERNE

AUTHOR OF

"HIS ADOPTED DAUGHTER," "THE OLD HOUSE IN THE CITY,"

"WILL FOSTER OF THE FERRY," "MADGE HARDWICKE,"
ETC.

With Illustrations.

LONDON:

JOHN F. SHAW AND CO.

 48, PATERNOSTER ROW, E. C.

STORIES BY AGNES GIBERNE.

IDA'S SECRET; or, The Towers of Ickledale.

Cr. 8vo, 2/6.

WON AT LAST; or, Mrs. Briscoe's Nephews.

Cr. 8vo, 2/6.

"The treatment is so admirable we can understand

Miss Giberne's book being a help to many."—Athenæum.

HIS ADOPTED DAUGHTER; or, A Quiet Valley.

Large Cr. 8vo, 5/—.

"A thoroughly interesting and good book."—

Birmingham Post.

THE EARLS OF THE VILLAGE.

Large Cr. 8vo, 2/6.

 "A pathetic tale of country life, in which the fortunes of
a family are followed out with a skill that never fails to
interest."—Scotsman.

THE OLD HOUSE IN THE CITY; or, Not Forsaken.

Crown 8vo, cloth, 2/6.

"An admirable book for girls."—Teachers' Aid.

FLOSS SILVERTHORN; or, The Master's Little

Hand-maid.

Cr. 8vo, 2/6.

"We should like to see this in every home library."—

The News.

MADGE HARDWICKE; or, The Mists of the Valley.

Cr. 8vo, 2/6.

"An extremely interesting book, and one that can be

read with profit by all."—The Schoolmaster.

WILL FOSTER OF THE FERRY.

Cr. 8vo, 2/6.

 "We are glad to see this capital story in a new
shape."—Record.

TOO DEARLY BOUGHT.

Cr. 8vo, 1/6.

"A timely story, which should be widely circulated."

LONDON: JOHN F. SHAW & CO., 48, PATERNOSTER ROW,

E.C.

CONTENTS.

CHAP.

I. FLAGS AND BANNERS

II. PETER POPE'S SPEECH

III. THE STRIKE BEGUN

IV. WHAT STUCKEY THOUGHT

V. DUCKED

VI. SEED-CAKE

VII. THE CHILDREN

VIII. HOLDFAST'S SPEECH

IX. A COLD EVENING

X. THE QUEER LOOK OF THINGS

XI. BABY HARRY

XII. ANOTHER MEETING

XIII. A DISCUSSION

XIV. HOW IT ALL ENDED

TOO DEARLY BOUGHT

 OR

THE TOWN STRIKE.

CHAPTER I.
FLAGS AND BANNERS.

THE procession was coming down Pleasant Lane!

A great number of noisy little boys came trooping on

ahead, with shrill cries, to announce this important fact.
Hardly one among them understood exactly what the
procession was about; but flags and banners are the delight
of a boy's heart. Not seldom this particular form of affection
for coloured bunting lasts on into manhood.

The wives and mothers, who turned out of their

doorways to enjoy the sight, were, however, more learned
than their little boys as to the cause of the stir. And
everybody was aware that Peter Pope was to be at its head.

Peter Pope, a smooth-tongued and comfortably-dressed

individual, had been very busy lately in the town. Most of
his business had been in the way of talk; but what of that?
There was a committee, of course, behind him, which did a
good deal of work while Pope did the talk. He had been sent
down, as a delegate from London, for the express purpose
of teaching the inhabitants of the town; and teaching
commonly means a certain amount of talk. Peter Pope had
come to teach the men of the town to appreciate their
degraded and enslaved condition. With this object in view
he had talked vigorously for many weeks; and the men
were becoming fast convinced of the truth of his words.
They had not dreamt before what a melancholy thing it was
to be a British working-man; but now their eyes were
opened.

If you want to convince the British Public about

anything,—especially that part of the British Public which
reads very few books, and knows very little of history, and
never goes out of England, just remember this! There is not
the least need that you should be clever or learned yourself,
or even powerful in speech. You only have to go on saying
the same thing over and over and over again, with dogged
pertinacity; and in time you are sure to be believed. The
British Public is wonderfully easy of belief, and will swallow
anything,—if only you give it time! Peter Pope had done
this. He had talked on, with a resolute and dogged
pertinacity; he had given his hearers plenty of time; and
now he was rewarded by seeing the biggest boluses he
could offer, meekly gulped down.

It was a dingy and smoky town enough to which he had

come; one of the crowded manufacturing towns, of which
England owns so many. Not a clean or pretty town, but a
prosperous one hitherto, with a fair abundance of work for
willing toilers. Those who were unwilling to toil did badly
there as elsewhere; and these were the men who first
swallowed Peter Pope's bait.

Pleasant Lane was not the least narrow and dingy of

many narrow dingy streets. The houses on either side were
small, and for the most part not over clean. One little home
near the centre formed a marked exception as to this last
point; boasting dainty muslin blinds, windows filled with
plants, and a spotless front doorstep.
 On that step stood Sarah Holdfast, in her clean print
gown, watching like others for the coming procession. Not
that she had the least idea of seeing her husband figure in
it. She was only dandling her baby, and lifting it up to be
amused with the stir.

Martha Stevens, a young and pretty woman in the next

doorway, had no such security about her husband. Roger
Stevens was morally sure to be in the thick of whatever
might be stirring,—whether it were good or bad. He was a
well-meaning man, and not usually unsteady; but, like a
good many of his companions, he was easily led, always
ready to believe what he was told, and ever prepared to
follow the crowd. As the stream of public opinion—the
public opinion of the little world around himself—happened
just then to run in the direction of a grand procession,
Martha had not a shadow of doubt that her husband would
find his place somewhere in the said procession.

"What's it all about, mother?" asked Robert, a rosy child

of nine.

"It's the men, Bobbie," she said. "They're having a

procession."

"What for?" asked Bobbie.

"They want something that the masters won't give 'em.

They want higher wages and shorter hours."

"But what's the 'cession for?" persisted Bobbie.

"I'll tell you what it's for," volunteered a slovenly woman

in the left-hand doorway, tossing a ragged infant in her
arms. "It's to show that they're Men, and they're going to
have their Rights! Time enough too! Working-men ain't a-
going to be trampled on no longer, nor their wives neither.
We won't put up with no more tyranny nor nonsense."

Martha moved her head from one side to the other, and
was silent.

But Sarah Holdfast remarked dryly, "There's a sort of

tyranny in the home that isn't so easy got rid of! And
there's a tyranny of working-man to working-man, which I'd
like to see done away with. It may be harder tyranny than
the tyranny of capital, which folks talk such a lot about
nowadays."

"Oh, you! I dare say—you're sure to say that!" the

untidy woman retorted with contempt. "Your husband's
such a poor-spirited chap—all on the side of the masters."

"He is not on the side of the masters," Sarah answered

resolutely. "He's on the side of doing what is right; and he's
against tyranny of every sort,—it don't matter whether it's
tyranny of masters or of men. That's what the lot of you
don't and won't see."

"Here it comes!" cried Bobbie.

Except to a young imagination such as Bobbie's, the

advancing procession was not perhaps very imposing; but it
made a good show in point of numbers, and the men kept
well together, in a solid and orderly phalanx. Outside the
main body walked detached individuals, carrying money-
boxes; for the processioners had a practical object in view
beside the mere display of numbers. They would not only
march round the town, endeavour to impress the
imaginations of people generally, and pay a visit to their
employers' office to make formal demand of what they
required, but also they hoped to gather funds by the way
for the coming struggle. Most of the men appeared thus far
to be sober; but some towards the rear showed signs of a
recent visit to a public-house.

At the head of the procession marched a brass band,

playing lively jigs, very much out of tune; and the amount
of flags and banners following was really quite respectable.

First might be seen a great sheet of white calico,

stretched across two poles, and bearing the portentous
inscription—

"WE DEMAND FIFTEEN PER CENT. AND EIGHT

HOURS."

Next swaggered unsteadily along a second white calico

sheet, with the words—

"UNION IS STRENGTH!"

An axiom so self-evident that nobody could question its

truth.

An "Oddfellows" banner, drooping gracefully from its

single pole, came next. It had a picture of the good
Samaritan on a blue ground, and was not peculiarly
appropriate to a strike; but flags of all kinds help to swell
the general effect, and this with others was borrowed.

After the good Samaritan, a loaf stuck upon a pole was

borne along. No especial meaning might be attached to the
uplifted loaf; but no doubt bread is always an impressive
object. What would man be without the "staff of life"? There
is also an obvious connection between loaves and wages.

At the tail of the procession, after sundry other

appropriate and inappropriate flags, made or borrowed,
came the final output of native genius—another big square
of white, having its inscription painted with a tar-brush—

"WE MEAN TO GET OUR RIGHTS!"

This sentiment began with a magnificent "W," and

tapered gradually off to an absurdly diminutive "s"; no
doubt the natural expression of artistic feeling.

A loose crowd of open-mouthed followers clattered

along behind, deeply impressed by the whole affair.

"It's a grand lot of flags, mother, ain't it?" said Bobbie.

Martha was gazing, as if she did not hear, and little fair-
haired Millie said, "Daddy's there!"

One look in the direction where the tiny hand pointed,

and Martha turned away.

"Come, Millie,—come, Bobbie,—we'll go indoors now."

"O mother, I want to wait," cried Bobbie. But he yielded

to her touch and went in, only asking eagerly—"'Why
mayn't we stay?"

Martha made no answer. How could she bear to tell her

child that his father had been drinking?
 CHAPTER II.
PETER POPE'S SPEECH.

"TELL ye what, boys; now's the time! Now's the time if

ye want to gain your freedom! If ye give in tamely now and
let yourselves be driven to the shambles like a flock of silly
sheep, and crushed to the earth under the iron heels of a
set of despots, as 'ud grind down the very souls of ye, if
they could, into scrapings of gold-dust,—why, ye'll never
hold the position of men!"

Peter Pope had taken his stand at the corner of a street

one evening, two or three days after the grand procession.
He mounted a block of wood which lay conveniently there;
and being thus raised over the heads of his compeers, was
at once in a situation to exercise power over their minds.
Men began to gather round him, with attentive eyes and
ears, ready to believe whatever Peter Pope might assert.
Englishmen do not often put faith in Roman infallibility; but
give an English Pope to a particular class, and no amount of
infallibility becomes impossible.

"Now's the time!" pursued the orator, flourishing his

arms, "now's the time! It'll maybe never come to ye again.
There's a good old saying, lads, as tells us 'Procrastination
is the thief of time!' Procrastination means putting off.
Procrastination is putting off the settling of a question like
you're doing now. Procrastination is the thief of time. It
steals time! It steals the nick of time, when the nick of time
comes; and once gone, you'll never get that nick of time
back."

"Now's the time I tell ye, boys! Will you cringe before
the iron heel of capital? Will ye knuckle down before the
bloodhounds of tyrannic power, when ye may fight and
conquer, if ye will; and come out from the battle men, and
not slaves?"

"For you're not men now!—Don't think it. Men!—When

ye have to work like dogs for your living! Men!—When
you're counted plebeians by them as 'll scarce deign to look
at ye in passing. I tell ye, lads, ye're all tied hand and foot;
though many a one of you scarce feels his bonds, just
because he don't know what freedom is. You're degraded
and miserable and enslaved, and don't scarce know what it
is to wish for anything better."

"That's what I've come down to you for, my men. It's

because I want you all to see what you are, and what you
might be, if ye'd sense and spirit to exert yourselves. It's
because I'm a friend of the Working-man. It's because the
noble society, of which I am a member and a delegate—and
proud to be both;—it's because that noble society is the
friend of the Working-man, desirous to rescue him from the
gigantic heel of a merciless power, which is crushing him in
the dust—like the boa-constrictor, lads, which wraps the
victim in its voluminous folds, and slays him in its slimy
embrace. And the best thing a friend can give is advice.
Advice, men. Wise advice; thoughtful advice; advice
founded on knowledge, which 'tisn't everybody has power
to attain to."

"What are we to do first? That's what you'll say; that's

the question ye'll put. Don't I read it now in your manly
faces, lads, all a-looking up at me this moment? And I'll tell
you what you're to do first! You're to—"

"UNITE!!"

The word came out with tremendous emphasis, emitted

by the whole force of Peter Pope's lungs, after a suitable
pause. It made a proportionate impression.

"Ye'll say, 'What for?' To show your power, lads; to show

that ye won't be cajoled, nor cheated, nor beaten down, nor
taken in, nor treated like a pack of infants. And then you're
to—"

"STRIKE!! That's the word for you, men. It's a mighty

easy word. It's a mighty easy thing. Just strike—and the
business is done."

"What business?" a voice asked.

"What business? Why, the business of getting what you

want. You want shorter hours and an increase of fifteen per
cent. on your wages, eh? Just so. You've made the demand
in fair and reasonable terms, eh? Just so. You're freeborn
Englishmen, all of you, eh? Just so—or had ought to be.
What man living has a right to say you're not to have a rise
which is your fair and just due? Why, if it wasn't for the
tyranny of capital, you'd have had it months ago."
 "Will ye submit to that tyranny? Will ye let your children
grow up under that tyranny? Tell you, lads, it's time to
make a change. Things have gone on long enough. It's time
you should be the masters now! Show yourselves men,
lads. Better to die than to yield. Give a cheer with me, now!
Hurrah for the strike! Hurrah! Hurrah for the strike! Hurrah
for the strike, boys!"

They went a little mad, of course, and shouted and

yelled in chorus, not musically, but to Peter Pope's
satisfaction. Peter Pope's enthusiasm was catching, and so
was the toss of his cap. What "boys" would not have
followed his example, under like circumstances?—"Boys" of
any age. There is no great difference, after all, between the
credulity, or to use a certain working-man's forcible word,
the "gullibility," of young and old and middle-aged.

Somewhere near the outskirts of the crowd stood a

man, in age verging perhaps on fifty, or even fifty-five. He
was little and crooked in figure, with a wizened face, and
glittering eyes under bent overhanging brows. Everybody
knew Peter Stuckey; the man-servant of the Rector of the
neighbouring church—gardener, groom and coachman, all in
one. Years before, Mr. Hughes had taken Peter Stuckey into
his service, after the severe accident which cut the man off
from his old work. Peter did his utmost to repay with
personal devotion this disinterested act.

Through his namesake's oration, he stood with his head

on one side, and a note-book in his hand, scribbling a word
occasionally. After the uproar of cheering, Stuckey turned to
a sensible-looking man near, who had been as silent as
himself, and dryly remarked—

"I say, we've learnt a deal this evening."