Rescuing children, reforming the Empire: British child migration to colonial Southern Rhodesia

Abstract

This article examines a child migration scheme which aimed at permanently resettling British children to Southern Rhodesia during 1946–1962. First, the philanthropic scheme was framed in terms of child welfare; it sought to benefit selected children by removing them from their homes and resettling them at Rhodesia Fairbridge Memorial College, a boarding school and children’s home. Second, the scheme aimed at advancing Empire building more broadly by increasing the number of white citizens in Africa. The article considers how the Fairbridge scheme distinctively combined physical and social mobility. The children were expected, through first-class education, to rise to privileged positions, thus maintaining the colonial, racially segregated social hierarchy. By focusing on implicit forms of education at the boarding school, analysed as a ‘Goffmanian’ total institution, the article considers the ambiguous intents and outcomes of a very particular project of colonial social engineering.