Church Uniforms

This summer, I noticed all the different uniforms women would wear on their way to church. Not everybody could afford a uniform, but when I went to mass, for example, there were women in these long white dresses (more fitted than a choir robe) with purple and gold sashes and head pieces. My sister Nomkhosi explained that that was their church uniform. You'd see women in blue or green or red uniforms, each associated with a different denomination. Here, for example, is a women who is a member of the Shembe church. (I bought two Shembe belts, one for my mother and one for me, which are similar in design to the headpiece she's wearing.)

Anyway, last night, I was reading Terence Ranger's classic piece on the invention of tradition in Africa and in a roundabout way, it explained the reason why church members would have a uniform. Because the colonial rulers were obsessed with defending their right to rule over the territories they had decided were theirs, and because settlers wanted to be seen as "gentleman farmers" or of the gentleman class, they became equally obsessed with inventing traditions and rituals. These rituals of political and military organizations were a show of power, a way of demonstrating superiority through ritual, a way of indicating class. And Africans caught on in their own way. They were excluded from many of these colonial rituals but they invented their own. Creating your own uniform for the church you belonged to was one method of including these rituals of power into your life.