Title Unsettled : denial and belonging among white Kenyans / Janet McIntosh

Published Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2016] ©2016

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Description 1 online resource Series Ethnographic studies in subjectivity ; 10 Ethnographic studies in subjectivity ; 10. Contents Unsettled -- Loving the land -- Guilt -- Conflicted intimacies -- Linguistic atonement -- The occult Summary "In 1963, Kenya gained independence from Britain, ending nearly seventy years of white colonial rule. While tens of thousands of whites relocated outside Kenya for what they hoped would be better prospects, many stayed. Over the past decade, however, protests, scandals, and upheavals have unsettled families with colonial origins, reminding them of the tenuousness of their Kenyan identity. In this book, Janet McIntosh looks at the lives and dilemmas of settler descendants living in postindependence Kenya. From clinging to a lost colonial identity to embracing a new Kenyan nationality, the public face of white Kenyans has undergone changes fraught with ambiguity. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews, McIntosh focuses on their discourses and narratives, asking: What stories do settler descendants tell about their claims to belong in Kenya? How do they situate themselves vis-a-vis the colonial past and anticolonial sentiment, phrasing and rephrasing their memories and judgments as they seek a position they feel is ethically acceptable? With her respondents straining to defend their entitlements in the face of mounting Kenyan rhetorics of ancestry and autochthony, McIntosh explores their contradictory and diverse responses: moral double consciousness, aspirations to uplift the nation, ideological blind spots, denial, and self-doubt. Ranging from land rights to language, from romantic intimacy to the African occult, Unsettled offers a unique perspective on whiteness in a postcolonial context and a groundbreaking theory of elite subjectivity"--Provided by publisher Analysis 1960s 1963 activism africa african ancestry anthropologists anthropology britain classism code switching collective past colonial identity colonial colonization diversity ethics ethnographic ethnography fieldwork identity ideology independence international kenya language memory morality national identity nationality protest race racism rhetoric scandal settler white kenyans Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Online resource; title from PDF title page (EBSCO, viewed March 31, 2016) Subject White people -- Kenya -- History SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Discrimination & Race Relations. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Minority Studies. SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural. Social conditions White people SUBJECT Kenya -- History -- 1963- http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85072001 Kenya -- Social conditions -- 1963- http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85072008 Subject Kenya Genre/Form History Form Electronic book ISBN 9780520964631 0520964632

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