Legacies of British Colonialism in Southern Africa: The Hole at the Heart of Ubuntu

From the mid-19th to the mid-20th century, British Southern Africa saw hosts of Europeans arriving in the region to transform their lives and participate in colonial life in different ways. Their narratives have largely gone unexplored and unremembered until the present.

Set against the more glamorous history of colonialism and the civilizing mission, this focused history seeks to recover some of these forgotten narratives, and to tell the stories of the people and groups who, as colonial immigrants in Southern Africa, accrued immense social and cultural wealth. Ruramisai Charumbira chronicles the life of Alfred Beit, a German who would make millions in South African mining and go on to shape African infrastructure. She then turns to examine the Catholic missionaries who influenced native colonial policy. Finally, she demonstrates how ‘birthright colonials’ – the Scots, Irish, Welsh, and English – constructed and negotiated ethnic and national identities that were cast into sharp relief in the colonies.

These narratives combine to complicate our current picture of colonialism and its legacy, and this book will encourage readers to think in more nuanced ways about the differentiated and unequal societies that predominate in today’s world.