The Study of Racialism

G-Man · Moderator Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 2650 }

I highly recommend is book, despite the misleading title. Many of these groups profiled by the author, like the Poles of Haiti and the Basters of Namibia, are not white and would be more accurately labeled mixed-race and or mulatto, many of the others, like the Germans of Jamaica, are not have never been privileged in any meaningful sense. A good read nonetheless. The best chapters, in my opinion, were the ones on the Basters of Namibia and the in-bred Blancs Mantignon of Guadeloupe.
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Lost White Tribes : The End of Privilege and the Last Colonials in Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Brazil, Haiti, Namibia, and Guadeloupe

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743211979/qid=1114527510/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-6925605-5266316?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Ever wonder what became of that unfortunate Belgian clerk in Conrad's Heart of Darkness, who insisted upon wearing a starched collar despite the stifling Congo heat? Italian journalist Orizio shows that he may well have stayed on. Like Ryszard Kapuscinski, who provides a brief foreword, Orizio has a wonderful eye for cultural anachronisms and uncovers colonial remains in the form of white enclaves in Third World settings. His six subcultural portraits follow a similar pattern (which by no means detracts from their appeal), personalized by his subjects' discussions of their peculiar insider/outsider position. The opening chapter takes Orizio to Sri Lanka, where he contacts the remnants of the Dutch community, a group that originally arrived some 400 years ago with the Dutch East India Company and, for whatever reason, chose to stay on after the collapse of Dutch rule. Now they are doubly isolated not only have they lost their mother tongue, but they never acquired the national language, Sinhalese. Instead they speak English, the language of an intervening empire. And with whom do they identify? Orizio ably addresses that complicated question, conveying the ambiguities of identity that attend these historical holdovers by amplifying their voices with background information. All of the countries Orizio visits house small communities of whites who have been bypassed by history. Although Orizio (now editor of CNN Italia) refrains from drawing any overarching conclusions from these disparate narratives, he successfully conveys the dilemmas posed by being a member of a vanishing postcolonial tribe.

fwsweet · Posted: Tue 24 May 2005 17:01 Post subject:

Great book. I just finished it. It is amazing how many fragments of old colonial communites remain scattered around the New World.

My favorite photo is the one of the young Confederate girl in Santa Barbara, Brazil, who is obviously mixed. It is just as I remember them, when MaryLee and I lived near there.

My favorite quote is about how the Brits saw the "Basters," who were the result of Dutch/Khoisan intermarriage. From page 186: "To English eyes, the isolated and semi-wild Boers were guilty of two mutually contradictory but equally unforgivable sins: they used slaves as laborers on their farms, and they procreated children with these same slaves." Reminds me of some ultraliberal history professors I know.

Incidentally, I had just closed the book when I got an email from a fellow who is researching the story of the "Merikens" of Trinidad. A mirror image of the Confederates in Brazil. They descend from U.S. African Americans who fought for the British in the War of 1812 and were patriated to Trinidad afterwards. See http://www.mcnish-weiss.co.uk/history/colonialmarines.html

Salsassin · Suspended Joined: 04 Apr 2005 {Posts: 3508 }

http://www.scv.org/Camp1653/tour.htm

Confederates in Brazil

Salsassin · Suspended Joined: 04 Apr 2005 {Posts: 3508 }

G-Man · Moderator Joined: 27 Nov 2004 {Posts: 2650 }

Wow. Some of these people look distinctly non-Scots Irish. I wonder what Confederates in the American South would say.

fwsweet

punjabtrini · Mentor Joined: 04 Sep 2007 {Posts: 253 } Location: USA

The book seems to be a good read!

I understand what the author means but using the terms "Lost White X" is a little stretch because these group do exist in present society.
They were either sent (indentured servants/slaves) or voluntarily relocated to their present location because they had a fallout with their 'group' of that particular era.

Let us look at hypothesis and end result! If we apply that same term as in "Lost African Tribes" referring to the slaves brought to the nether regions, would that same epitaph hold!

I thought that the author was referring to Scythians!!!!!!

jagirl32 · Experienced User Joined: 17 Jul 2007 {Posts: 122 }

i have this book. have'nt finished reading it though