Displaced Rhodesian settlers justified ownership by erasing prior African agency

Evidence

Barker does not only marshal his farm management history and frugal financial inclination to argue that Nyahoa Estate indeed belongs to him; he also claims that prior to his advent, Nyahoa Estate was nothing but “bush [that] had not been touched since time began” (Barker, 2007, p. vii). In making this assertion, he delves into the white superiority complex of his predecessors who disregarded African onomastic presence and imposed European names on places and landforms that African people had, prior to the advent of colonialism, rendered accessible through indigenous nomenclature. Barker imagines Africa as an undeveloped place whose value could only be unlocked by Europeans. He nullifies indigenous human agency in a manner that justifies his entitlement to so much land in a country where the indigenous people have to make peace with patchy and uninhabitable lands. His self-congratulatory description of the crops and infrastructure at Nyahoa Estate speaks to his grounding in the myth that white agency is singularly coterminous with human development: We drove through verdant pastures where fat cattle grazed contentedly, and soon came to one of the irrigated tobacco lands where the crop was standing high and lush, and about to have its first reaping. — Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Davie E. Mutasa, and Kudakwashe Chitofiri, Settlers, Rhodesians, and Supremacists, 74

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s test of whether a dominant-settler grievance circuit persists decoupled from power — this shows how landed status itself was legitimated by the terra-nullius claim, feeding the grievance when power was lost. — connects to: Both Rhodesian settler novels and ZANU-PF patriotic history erase fluid identities — Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Davie E. Mutasa, and Kudakwashe Chitofiri, Settlers, Rhodesians, and Supremacists:…, 44; White Rhodesian memoirs recast Black land reclamation as incomprehensible criminality lacking popular support — Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Davie E. Mutasa, and Kudakwashe Chitofiri, Settlers, Rhodesians, and Supremacists:…, 80; Settler nations were built on stolen land and enslaved people. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror…, 763 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Rhodesian memoirism erases 90 years of black land hunger as legitimate motive #exemplifies (0.93) — Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Davie E. Mutasa, and Kudakwashe Chitofiri, Settlers, Rhodesians, and Supremacists, 80
• Settler identity depends constitutively on the colonized it wishes to erase. #expands (0.90) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 2105
• White Rhodesian memoirs recast Black land reclamation as incomprehensible criminality lacking popular support #exemplifies (0.88) — Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Davie E. Mutasa, and Kudakwashe Chitofiri, Settlers, Rhodesians, and Supremacists, 80
• Colonial settlement justified itself by declaring the land empty of legitimate people #corroborates (0.88) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 727
• White farmer memoirs undercut their own entitlement claims by clinging to Rhodesian supremacist discourse #corroborates (0.85) — Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Davie E. Mutasa, and Kudakwashe Chitofiri, Settlers, Rhodesians, and Supremacists, 82
• White Zimbabwean authors write from a sustained Rhodesian supremacist mindset even after losing land #corroborates (0.84) — Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Davie E. Mutasa, and Kudakwashe Chitofiri, Settlers, Rhodesians, and Supremacists, 13
• Both Rhodesian settler novels and ZANU-PF patriotic history erase fluid identities #expands (0.82) — Tavengwa Gwekwerere, Davie E. Mutasa, and Kudakwashe Chitofiri, Settlers, Rhodesians, and Supremacists, 44
• Colonial property law retroactively legalized forced seizures of waqf land #corroborates (0.79) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 235
• Settler nations were built on stolen land and enslaved people. #expands (0.78) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 763
• Voluntary African cooperatives were forcibly taken over by colonial administration. #corroborates (0.76) — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 1029
• Colonial officials rationalized domination by claiming trusteeship over the colonized #expands (0.74)
• Slaves in the western province took over plantations rather than destroying them #corroborates (0.72) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 456
• Defenders reframed a colonial-inherited practice as indigenous African heritage #corroborates (0.71) — , The Rod and the Child, 4490