The Kindred of the Kibbo Kift

February 25, 2016 8:39 AM

The other KKK: how the Kindred of the Kibbo Kift tried to craft a new world. They were hippies from 1920's Britain started by a pacifist who liked the outdoors activities of the Boy Scouts, John Hargrave. Designing Utopia: John Hargrave and the Kibbo Kift was published in November 2015. If you ever wondered about where Ramsey Dukes (Sex Secrets of the Black Magicians) came from, his parents met in the Kibbo Kift. He talks about that and other things in a new hour 42 minute interview with Gordon White on the Rune Soup podcast.
posted by bukvich (8 comments total)

A "progressive, co-educational and non-militaristic alternative to the Boy Scouts", as Wikipedia puts it, sounds like quite a lot of fun. Too bad that Hargrave succumbed to a power trip and turned it into just another 1930s British extremist political street gang.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:08 AM on February 25, 2016

The Woodcraft Folk, still going strong, have a shared tradition with the Kibbo Kift. Their principles stand in contrast to those of the other main youth organisations in the UK. When I was in the Scouts as a kid, the obligation to swear allegiance to God and the Queen always used to rile me. The Woodcraft equivalent is a bit different
posted by Mellon Udrigle at 9:56 AM on February 25, 2016 [4 favorites]

Wait, so Kibo killed Zug.com and made John Hargrave sell out? I think my early internet history lines are crossed.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 10:14 AM on February 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

That interview is fascinating. GCHQ / hippy / bridge / Crowley connection is lovely
posted by liliillliil at 10:31 AM on February 25, 2016

How in gods name this has not become a major plot point on Downton Abbey is beyond me. Is Julian Fellowes completely blind?

Seriously. Daisy would be all over this shit for like three episodes.
posted by Naberius at 10:31 AM on February 25, 2016

Excellent post. There's a small, though very good, exhibition on the Kibbo Kift on at the Whitechapel Gallery, which runs until March 13th. It's drawn from not just the Kibbo Kift archive, but also from the Whitechapel Gallery's own archives, since they staged an exhibition on the Kibbo Kift back in 1929.
posted by Len at 11:07 AM on February 25, 2016 [3 favorites]

The best part of the interview is at the end. His friends asked him if he would let them do a sweat lodge on his parents' land in Gloucestershire and he said fine; then they got this new age woo woo sweat lodge master to drive from London to M. C. it and he ended up marrying her. Now when anybody asks how he and his wife met he can say they first met in the dark, naked.
posted by bukvich at 3:25 PM on February 25, 2016

My kids do Woodcraft Folk. Which really means we all do it as both adults and kids are members and there aren't exactly leaders.

They get a lot out of it - eldest especially and there was no way any kid of mine was pledging allegiance to the queen so it was this or nothing.
posted by hfnuala at 2:38 PM on February 26, 2016