Contested Foreignness: Indian Migrants and the Politics of Exclusion in Early Colonial Zimbabwe, 1890 to 1923

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2 Scopus citations

Abstract

The British South Africa Company's conquest of Zimbabwe in the 1890s opened the country to settlement by immigrants from Europe, South Africa, India and other regions. Using their position as benefactors of the emerging colony, the British-born settlers deployed various notions of foreignness to marginalize the indigenous populations and other groups. Focusing on thirty-Three years of company rule in Zimbabwe, this article examines how Indian immigrants contested the British attempts to foreignize them in the emerging colony. Rather than presenting Indian migrants as passive victims of discrimination and marginalization, the study emphasizes their creativity and determination to establish their own destiny, against all odds. It also shows that foreignness in colonial Zimbabwe was a key factor in the politics of power, identity formation and nation-state building. In that respect, the article explores the constructed-ness as well as the malleability of foreignness in processes of nation-state formation in Africa.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)312-335
Number of pages24
JournalAfrican and Asian Studies
Volume16
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Keywords

  • British settlers
  • Indian immigrants
  • colonial Zimbabwe
  • foreignness

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Development
  • History
  • Sociology and Political Science

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