African ideas of gender in colonial Zimbabwe centrally shaped oppositional responses well before the advent of nationalism. Citing a wide collection of vibrant oral histories, the author argues that urban African men and women incolonial Harare constructed complex yet coherent indentities and durable hopes for themselves in broad moments of gendered conflict and consensus. This contribution to the social histiography of colonialism encourages a rethink ofurban colonial history, and a questioning of social categorization in colonial Zimbabwe and throughout southern Africa.