Unsettled: Denial and Belonging Among White Kenyans (Ethnographic Studies in Subjectivity)

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Description

In 1963, Kenya gained independence from Britain, ending decades of white colonial rule. Even as tens of thousands of whites relocated in fear of losing their fortunes, many stayed. But over the last decade, protests, scandals, and upheavals have unsettled families with colonial origins, reminding them that their belonging is tenuous.

On this book, Janet McIntosh looks on the lives and dilemmas of settler descendants living in post-independence Kenya. From clinging to a lost colonial identity to pronouncing a new Kenyan nationality, the general public face of white Kenyans has undergone changes fraught with ambiguity. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews, McIntosh specializes in their discourse and narratives to invite: What stories do settler descendants tell about their claim to belong in Kenya? How do they situate themselves vis-a-vis the colonial past and anti-colonial sentiment, phraseology and re-phraseology their memories and judgments as they are trying to find a position they feel is ethically acceptable? McIntosh explores contradictory and diverse responses: moral double consciousness, aspirations to uplift the nation, ideological blind-spots, denials, and self-doubt as her respondents strain to defend their entitlements within the face of mounting Kenyan rhetorics of ancestry.

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