How did the colonial experience in nineteenth century Africa create new identities?

1st Edition

Copyright Year 2002

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Book Description

Imperial Networks investigates the discourses and practices of British colonialism. It reveals how British colonialism in the Eastern Cape region was informed by, and itself informed, imperial ideas and activities elsewhere, both in Britain and in other colonies.

It examines:

* the origins and development of the three interacting discourses of colonialism - official, humanitarian and settler
* the contests, compromises and interplay between these discourses and their proponents
* the analysis of these discourses in the light of a global humanitarian movement in the aftermath of the antislavery campaign
* the eventual colonisation of the Eastern cape and the construction of colonial settler identities.

For any student or resarcher of this major aspect of history, this will be a staple part of their reading diet.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 Colonial projects and the eastern Cape; Chapter 3 British settlers and the colonisation of the Xhosa; Chapter 4 Queen Adelaide Province and the limits of colonial power; Chapter 5 Obtaining the ‘due observance of justice’; Chapter 6 Imperial contests and the conquest of the frontier; Chapter 7 Epilogue and conclusion;

Author[s]

Biography

Alan Lester is Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Sussex. His previous publications include From Colonization to Democracy: a New Historical Geography of South Africa [1996] and South Africa Past, Present and Future: Gold at the End of the Rainbow? with E. Nel and T. Binns [2000].

journal article

The American Economic Review

Vol. 91, No. 5 [Dec., 2001]

, pp. 1369-1401 [33 pages]

Published By: American Economic Association

//www.jstor.org/stable/2677930

Abstract

We exploit differences in European mortality rates to estimate the effect of institutions on economic performance. Europeans adopted very different colonization policies in different colonies, with different associated institutions. In places where Europeans faced high mortality rates, they could not settle and were more likely to set up extractive institutions. These institutions persisted to the present. Exploiting differences in European mortality rates as an instrument for current institutions, we estimate large effects of institutions on income per capita. Once the effect of institutions is controlled for, countries in Africa or those closer to the equator do not have lower incomes.

Journal Information

The American Economic Review is a general-interest economics journal. Established in 1911, the AER is among the nation's oldest and most respected scholarly journals in the economics profession and is celebrating over 100 years of publishing. The journal publishes 11 issues containing articles on a broad range of topics.

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Abstract

This paper examines the formation of a colonial identity among settlers from the British Isles who were relocated to the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony in 1820. It suggests that material aspirations united certain of the settlers in a political programme, and thus began the erosion of imported class [and other] divisions. However, it argues that their establishment as a capitalist colonial class is an insufficient explanation for their construction of a shared and emotive British settler identity. The settlers modified their inherited discourses of class, race, gender and nationality in order to forge solidarity, and the imperative for solidarity derived not so much from their mutual desire for accumulation, but from a corresponding collective insecurity. Not only were settlers afraid of Khoikhoi labour rebellion and Xhosa reprisals for land loss; they also feared abandonment by a seemingly unsympathetic metropole. Their aggressive capitalist endeavour, and collective fear of its destabilizing consequences, were two sides of the same coin, informing the development of a unifying social identity. The paper goes on to consider the mechanisms through which that identity was sustained, including acts of landscape representation, the textual generation of collective memory and the practice of communally binding, quotidian, gendered routines.

Journal Information

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers is a leading international journal of major research papers. It is one of the most widely read and cited geographical journals. It publishes substantial articles of the highest scholarly standard on any theoretical or empirical subject in geography. Papers based upon original research, which draw attention to the wider implications of their findings, assessment of debates at the cutting edge of the discipline and contributions showing the methodological and interdisciplinary significance of geography for critical environmental and social understanding are especially welcome.

Publisher Information

The Royal Geographical Society [with the Institute of British Geographers] is the Learned Society representing Geography and geographers. It was founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical science and has been among the most active of the learned societies ever since. The largest geographical society in Europe, and one of the largest in the world, the RGS-IBG operates at a regional, national and international scale. The Society supports research, education and training, together with the wider public understanding and enjoyment of Geography. With its focus on society and environment, Geography is one of the most popular subjects in formal education and highly relevant to both life-long learning and fulfillment from travel.