Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-qsmjn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T17:07:06.696Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Not all whites are farmers: privilege, the politics of representation, and the urban–rural divide in Zimbabwe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2017

Rory Pilossof  and
Jacob Boersema
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Whiteness has always been visible and marked in Africa. This is what makes whiteness in Africa distinct from whiteness in the West. This article explores the question of how the visibility of whiteness matters for its politics by focusing on the case of Zimbabwe. Much of the work on whiteness in this country, concentrating solely on the white farming community, presents the white population as a homogeneous group. This article uses the urban–rural divide to challenge such a portrayal and to explore the relationship in Zimbabwe between the politics of representation and the politics of whiteness in the postcolonial era. Based on four years of ethnographic research, it investigates urban and rural whiteness together because they are interrelated. We make two specific observations: first, that urban privilege has remained invisible because white Zimbabweans and white privilege are imagined to be connected to the land and to being a farmer. Urban whites have perpetuated this stereotype, which helped mask their own privileged lives. Second, we demonstrate that the defence of white privilege happens through means other than simple denial. Our interview data shows that, despite urban whites’ acknowledgement and understanding of white privilege, they still defend and try to legitimize it. Finally, we conclude that raising awareness and demanding acknowledgement of white privilege might be a necessary but insufficient condition to end it.

Résumé

La blanchité a toujours été visible et marquée en Afrique. C'est ce qui distingue la blanchité en Afrique de la blanchité en Occident. Cet article explore la question de savoir en quoi la visibilité de la blanchité importe pour sa politique en se concentrant sur le cas du Zimbabwe. L'essentiel de la recherche sur la blanchité dans ce pays, exclusivement axée sur le paysannat blanc, présente la population blanche comme un groupe homogène. Cet article utilise le clivage urbain–rural pour remettre en cause cette description et explorer la relation, au Zimbabwe, entre la politique de la représentation et la politique de la blanchité au cours de la période postcoloniale. Basé sur quatre années de recherche ethnographique, il examine la blanchité urbaine et la blanchité rurale ensemble parce qu'elles sont liées. Les auteurs font deux observations spécifiques : d'abord, que le privilège urbain est resté invisible parce que les Zimbabwéens blancs et le privilège blanc sont imaginés liés à la terre et au fait d’être agriculteur. Les blancs urbains ont perpétué ce stéréotype qui a contribué à masquer leur existence privilégiée. Ensuite, les auteurs démontrent que la défense du privilège blanc se fait par des moyens autres que le simple déni. Les données d'entretiens montrent qu'en dépit de leur reconnaissance et de leur compréhension du privilège blanc, les blancs urbains continuent de le défendre et de tenter de le légitimer. Enfin, les auteurs concluent que la sensibilisation et la demande de reconnaissance du privilège blanc peuvent être une condition nécessaire mais insuffisante pour y mettre fin.

Type
The politics of whiteness
Information
Africa , Volume 87 , Issue 4 , November 2017 , pp. 702 - 719
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexander, J. (2007) ‘The historiography of land in Zimbabwe: strengths, silences, and questions’, Safundi 8 (2): 183–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andersson, J. (2001) ‘Mobile workers, urban employment and “rural” identities: rural–urban networks of Buhera migrants, Zimbabwe’ in de Bruijn, M., van Dijk, R. and Foeken, D. (eds), Mobile Africa: changing patterns of movement in Africa and beyond. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Andersson, K., Eklund, E., Lehtola, M. and Salmi, P. (2009) ‘Introduction: beyond the rural–urban divide’ in Andersson, K., Eklund, E., Lehtola, M. and Salmi, P. (eds), Beyond the Rural–Urban Divide: cross-continental perspectives on the differentiated countryside and its regulation. Bingley: Emerald Group.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barker, J. (2007) Paradise Plundered: the story of a Zimbabwean farm. Harare: self-published.Google Scholar
Beattie, A. R. (2008) Tengwe Garden Club. Morrisville NC: Lulu.Google Scholar
Bernstein, H. (2013) ‘Commercial agriculture in South Africa since 1994: “natural, simply capitalism”’, Journal of Agrarian Change 13 (1): 23–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buckle, C. (2002) Beyond Tears: Zimbabwe's tragedy. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball.Google Scholar
Caute, D. (1983) Under the Skin: the death of white Rhodesia. Harmondsworth: Allen Lane.Google Scholar
Central Statistics Office (2003) Census 2002. Harare: Government of Zimbabwe.Google Scholar
Chari, T. (2013) ‘Media framing of land reform in Zimbabwe’ in Moyo, S. and Chambati, W. (eds), Land and Agrarian Reform in Zimbabwe Beyond White-Settler Capitalism. Dakar: CODESRIA and AIAS.Google Scholar
Chennells, A. (2005) ‘Self-representation and national memory: white autobiographies in Zimbabwe’ in Muponde, R. and Primorac, R. (eds), Versions of Zimbabwe: new approaches to literature and culture. Harare: Weaver Press.Google Scholar
Clements, F. and Harben, E. (1962) Leaf of Gold: the story of Rhodesian tobacco. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Dyer, R. (1997) ‘Whiteness’, Screen 29: 44–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, F. (1999) Expectations of Modernity: myths and meanings of urban life on the Zambian Copperbelt. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Fisher, J. (2010) Pioneers, Settlers, Aliens, Exiles: the decolonisation of white identity in Zimbabwe. Canberra: ANUE Press.Google Scholar
Godwin, P. and Hancock, I. (1996) Rhodesians Never Die: the impact of war and political change on white Rhodesia, c.1970–1980. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Grundy, T. and Miller, B. (1979) Farmer at War. Salisbury: Modern Farming Publications.Google Scholar
Hammar, A. (2012) ‘Whiteness in Zimbabwe: race, landscape and the problem of belonging’, Journal of Peasant Studies 39 (1): 216–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammer, J. (2010) ‘(Almost) out of Africa: the white tribes’, World Affairs, May/June <http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/almost-out-africa-white-tribes>, accessed 2 February 2016.,+accessed+2+February+2016.>Google Scholar
Hughes, D. M. (2010) Whiteness in Zimbabwe: race, landscape and the problem of belonging. New York NY: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, D. (1987) Islands of White: settler society and culture in Kenya and Southern Rhodesia, 1890–1939. Durham NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Mormont, M. (1990) ‘Who is rural? Or, how to be rural: towards a sociology of the rural’ in Marsden, T., Lowe, P. and Whatmore, S. (eds), Rural Restructuring: global processes and their responses. London: Fulton.Google Scholar
Muronda, T. (2008) ‘Evolution of Harare as Zimbabwe's capital city and a major central place in southern Africa in the context of Byland's model of settlement evolution’, Journal of Geography and Regional Planning 1 (2): 34–40.Google Scholar
Muzondidya, J. (2009) ‘From buoyancy to crisis, 1980–1997’ in Raftopoulos, B. and Mlambo, A. (eds), Becoming Zimbabwe. Harare: Weaver Press.Google Scholar
Muzondidya, J. (2010) ‘The Zimbabwean crisis and the unresolved conundrum of race in the post-colonial period’, Journal of Developing Societies 26 (1): 5–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pilossof, R. (2009) ‘The unbearable whiteness of being: land, race and belonging in the memoirs of white Zimbabweans’, South African Historical Journal 61 (3): 621–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pilossof, R. (2012) The Unbearable Whiteness of Being: farming voices from Zimbabwe. Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press.Google Scholar
Pilossof, R. (2013) ‘For farmers, by farmers: using The Farmer magazine to write the history of white farmers in Zimbabwe’, Media History 19 (1): 32–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pilossof, R. (2014) ‘Reinventing significance: reflections on recent whiteness studies in Zimbabwe’, Africa Spectrum 49 (3): 135–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pilossof, R. (2016) ‘Possibility and constraints of market-led land reforms in southern Africa: an analysis of transfers of commercial farmland in postcolonial Zimbabwe, 1980–2000’, Journal of Agrarian Change 16 (1): 32–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Selby, A. (2006) ‘Commercial farmers and the state: interest group politics and land reform in Zimbabwe’. PhD thesis, University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Steyn, M. (2004) ‘Rehabilitating a whiteness disgraced: Afrikaner white talk in post-apartheid South Africa’, Communication Quarterly 52 (2): 143–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steyn, M. (2007) ‘As the postcolonial moment deepens: a response to Green, Sonn, and Matsebula’, South African Journal of Psychology 37 (3): 420–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, R. (1994) Zimbabwe and the New Elite. London: British Academic Press.Google Scholar
White, L. (2015) Unpopular Sovereignty: Rhodesian independence and African decolonization. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willems, W. (2005) ‘Remnants of empire? British media reporting on Zimbabwe’, Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture 2: 91–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willems, W. (2013) ‘“Zimbabwe will never be a colony again”: changing celebratory styles and meanings of independence’, Anthropology Southern Africa 36 (1–2): 22–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO and the Justice for Agriculture Trust (2007) Adding Insult to Injury: a preliminary report on human rights violations on commercial farms, 2000 to 2005. Harare: Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO.Google Scholar