Colonial Kinships: Regional Histories, Uncustomary Politics, and the Genealogical Imagination

This chapter looks at how multiracial people in Nyasaland (contemporary Malawi) became politically active during the 1920s and 1930s, making demands upon the British colonial state by citing affective connections of kinship and responsibility. Furthermore, racism (through discrimination toward other communities and through citing common racial descent through family) was employed as a “weapon of the weak” to gain colonial favor over other communities.

This chapter looks at a similar set of politics in Southern Rhodesia (contemporary Zimbabwe), where multiracial people similarly sought attention from the colonial state. In particular, it looks at print culture and its employment for engaging in these politics.