"Some are more white than others": Racial chauvinism as a factor in Rhodesian immigration policy 1890-1963

Abstract

This article analyses the role of ethnic chauvinism in determining the patterns and trends of white immigration into Rhodesia from the country’s occupation in 1890 to the Second World War. It argues that, while scholars have rightly emphasised white settler racism and discrimination against the African majority, and have tended to treat settler white society as a homogenous entity which shared a common identity, a closer examination of the racial dynamics within white colonial society reveals that strong currents of ethnic chauvinism maintained sharp divisions within the white settler society, even though settlers presented a united front when protecting their collective interests in the face of the perceived African threat. This article focuses specifically on racial and cultural chauvinism emanating from settlers of British stock which, among other things, determined the pace, volume and nature of white immigration into the country and contributed, together with other factors, to the fact that fewer white immigrants entered the country than had originally been envisaged by Cecil John Rhodes. Thus, while Rhodes had dreamt of creating Rhodesia as a white man’s country, this dream remained unfulfilled because of the dominant British settler community’s reluctance to admit whites of non-British stock. It is argued, therefore, that, throughout the period under study, British colonial settlers continued to regard themselves as “more white than others” with respect to other non-British races.