Unreasonable Histories: Nativism, Multiracial Lives, and the Genealogical Imagination in British Africa

365 Pages·2014·2.614 MB·English

by  Christopher J. Lee

Unreasonable Histories
: A book in the series :
Radical Perspectives: A Radical History Review book series
series editors: Daniel J. Walkowitz, New York University
Barbara Weinstein, New York University
History, as radical historians have long observed, cannot be severed from autho-
rial subjectivity, indeed from politics. Political concerns animate the questions we
ask, the subjects on which we write. For over thirty years the Radical History Review
has led in nurturing and advancing politically engaged historical research. Radical
Perspectives seeks to further the journal’s mission: any author wishing to be in the
series makes a self- conscious decision to associate her or his work with a radical
perspective. To be sure, many of us are currently struggling with the issue of what
it means to be a radical historian in the early twenty- first century, and this series is
intended to provide some signposts for what we would judge to be radical history.
It will offer innovative ways of telling stories from multiple perspectives; compara-
tive, transnational, and global histories that transcend conventional boundaries
of region and nation; works that elaborate on the implications of the postcolonial
move to “provincialize Europe”; studies of the public in and of the past, including
those that consider the commodification of the past; histories that explore the
intersection of identities such as gender, race, class, and sexuality with an eye to
their political implications and complications. Above all, this book series seeks to
create an important intellectual space and discursive community to explore the
very issue of what constitutes radical history. Within this context, some of the
books published in the series may privilege alternative and oppositional political
cultures, but all will be concerned with the way power is constituted, contested,
used, and abused.
Unreasonable Histories
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nativism, mUltiracial lives, and
tHe GenealoGical imaGination
in britisH africa
: :
Christopher J. Lee
Duke University Press
durhAm And London
2014
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© 2014 Duke University Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid- free paper ♾
Designed by Kristina Kachele
Typeset in Chaparral Pro by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Lee, Christopher J.
Unreasonable histories : nativism, multiracial lives, and the
genealogical imagination in British Africa / Christopher J. Lee.
pages cm — (Radical perspectives)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978- 0- 8223- 5713- 1 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn 978- 0- 8223- 5725- 4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Great Britain—Colonies—Africa—Administration.
2. Great Britain—Colonies—Race relations.
3. Racially mixed people—Africa—History.
I. Title. II. Series: Radical perspectives.
dt32.5.L44 2015
968.9004′05—dc23 2014020690
isbn 978-0-8223-7637-8 (e-book)
Cover art: Guy Tillim, Petros Village, Malawi, #27, 2006 (top);
Petros Village, Malawi, #9, 2006 (bottom). Courtesy of the artist.
For my pArents
Jacqueline Vaughan Lee and Chong Sung Lee
And in memory oF
François Manchuelle (1953–96)

Contents
: :
A Note on Illustrations ix
A Note on Terminology xi
Acknowledgments xiii
introduction: Colonialism, Nativism, and the
Genealogical Imagination 1
Part i. Histories witHoUt GroUPs 23
Lower- Strata Lives, Enduring Regional Practices,
and the Prose of Colonial Nativism
chApter 1. Idioms of Place and History 27
chApter 2. Adaima’s Story 53
chApter 3. Coming of Age 72
Part ii. non- native QUestions 91
Genealogical States and Colonial Bare Life
chApter 4. The Native Undefined 95
chApter 5. Commissions and Circumvention 111
Part iii. colonial KinsHiPs 141
Regional Histories, Uncustomary Politics, and the Genealogical Imagination
chApter 6. Racism as a Weapon of the Weak 147
chApter 7. Loyalty and Disregard 175
chApter 8. Urbanization and Spatial Belonging 207
concLusion: Genealogies of Colonialism 233
Notes 249
Bibliography 305
Index 337

a note on illUstrations
: :
This book contains a number of photographs as illustrations, many of
which are from the National Archives of the United Kingdom. I have also
taken photographs of various colonial- era documents from the National
Archives of Malawi, the National Archives of Zimbabwe, and the National
Archives of Zambia. Although many illustrations are images of people and
places discussed in the narrative, a select number are intended for evoca-
tive purposes—to capture the appearance, atmosphere, and attitudes of a
certain time and place, thus providing ways of seeing from the past. This
book consequently uses photographs as a unique and serious source for
scholars to situate historical narratives visually. (The work of W. G. Sebald
is also an influence.) However, given their origin, some images may be con-
sidered Eurocentric in perspective. I utilize these illustrations with this
caveat in mind. Although I offer commentary with each illustration, I an-
ticipate that readers will be sensitive to both the explicit and suggestive
uses of these images and will bear in mind the critical acknowledgment of
their limitations as stated here, without my having to repeat this position
throughout the text.