The Half-Caste Education Debate

Abstract

Many Eurafricans recount memories of loving childhoods in their interracial families in Northern Rhodesia. For example, a few years ago I spoke to a woman about her childhood memories growing up in an interracial family in Northern Rhodesia in the 1930s and 1940s. The woman spoke to me about her British father’s love and kindness to her African mother and her Eurafrican siblings, all of whom were her British father and African mother’s children. In the course of our conversation, I emphasized our African origins, characterizing us as “African descendants of white men.” She responded: “My father was British.” I do not ridicule the woman or accuse her of being in denial of her African origins; rather, her comments demonstrate the intimate bonds shared within interracial families in Northern Rhodesia and the complexities of being fathered by British men.1