Search results
contradictory figure … caught up and influenced by the socio-political historical context of segregationist and later apartheid South Africa’; despite his best efforts, the medical school he headed was deeply embedded in the racist norms of the white South African state. 13 Nor does he fit comfortably within either a radical or a conservative paradigm of South African politics. Thus, in 1974, at the very time
In our discussion on livestock until now, we have looked mostly at the nature of the colonial state, while touching briefly upon the reactions of various indigenous sections to government policies. In the present chapter, we will look much more closely at indigenous reactions to government policies, especially in the context of famine relief. These
This book is a study of the complex nature of colonial and missionary power in Portuguese India. Written as a historical ethnography, it explores the evolving shape of a series of Catholic festivals that took place in Goa throughout the duration of Portuguese colonial rule in India (1510-1961), and for which the centrepiece was the “incorrupt” corpse of São Francisco Xavier, a (Spanish Basque) Jesuit missionary (1506–1552)-turned-saint (1622). Using distinct genres of source materials produced over the long duree of Portuguese colonialism in India (Xaverian biographies, European travelogues, royal decrees and Jesuit letters, a state commissioned book dedicated to Xavier, Goa guidebooks, newspaper articles, and medical reports), the book documents the historical and visual transformation of Xavier’s corporeal ritualization in death from a small-scale religious feast arranged by Jesuit missionaries (1554), into an elaborate celebration of Xavier’s canonization organized jointly by church and state (1624), and finally, into a series of “Solemn Expositions” designed by colonial officials at regular centenary intervals (1782, 1859, 1952), including the last colonial exposition of 1961 staged amidst Goa’s liberation and integration into postcolonial India. These six ritual “events”, staged at critical junctures (1554, 1624, 1782, 1859, 1952, 1961), and always centered on Xavier’s biography and corpse, provide the conceptual framework for individual chapters of the book.
, greater and lesser officers of state learned more than Clarendon ever wished to know of the problems of imperial government. They articulated, indeed used ideas which might have overturned Clarendon’s imperial restoration, but even their most extreme actions came in response to practical problems. Just as the Earl of Danby managed the Treasury and parliament, so he approached imperial problems with
In my informants’ memory, the dogs’ employment in these events stood out as emblematic of Africans’ experiences of the white-supremacist state. Yet their account also points to the types of intra-communal tensions, exacerbated by the broader systemic pressures of colonialism, which led to police dogs being brought in and through which the dogs’ actions were popularly interpreted. The murder victim
several subjects like horse breeding were examined and implemented by the colonial state. It will also show that the semantics used for discussions around land settlement – undoubtedly the most important economic measure during early colonial rule – insinuated itself into debates on other subjects, shaping and forming them in various ways. There were parallels between land
State attempts at the moral surveillance and regulation of settlers began, in fact, even before they departed from Britain. The opening of the colony to free settlement and commercial development demanded the end of the old system, and in 1823 a free market in the key staples of wheat and meat was introduced. In 1830, one of the most powerful, and invasive, mechanisms for the regulation of free settlers was created in the form of the Assignment Board. Publicans and innkeepers, individuals who had breached state regulations and ex-convicts were, for example, banned from receiving assigned servants. William Sorell's inability to create a coherent site for the delineation and regulation of 'respectable' formed one part of Anthony Fenn Kemp's complaints against him. Sorell's departure and George Arthur's arrival marked a key turning point in the relationship between the state and the regulation of colonial gender relations and sexual morality.
the prestige of the state – seemed to favour their African subordinates over settlers. All of this made it difficult, settlers feared, for Africans easily to grant whites prestige. In the interests of their own safety and of the existence of settlerdom, whites had to attend daily to upholding prestige. Playing prestige The daily interactions between
The week of 20–28 September 1941 marked the centenary of the Brooke dynasty rule in Sarawak. The anniversary proclaimed an opportunity to celebrate the ‘world’s most ideal state’, one free from crime, poverty, exploitation and subjection. A common refrain in such English-language newspapers as the Sarawak Gazette and the Straits Times depicted the centenary as evidence that Brooke rule was resoundingly ‘Well Done’. The year 1941 was, however, a watershed for the dynasty as it faced external and internal challenges. In 1940 and again in 1941 the Raja had
A collection of essays about the Colonial Medical Service of Africa in which a group of distinguished colonial historians illustrate the diversity and active collaborations to be found in the untidy reality of government medical provision. The authors present important case studies in a series of essays covering former British colonial dependencies in Africa, including Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zanzibar. These studies reveal many new insights into the enactments of colonial policy and the ways in which colonial doctors negotiated the day-to-day reality during the height of Imperial rule in Africa. The book provides essential reading for scholars and students of colonial history, medical history and colonial administration.