Exile and Identity

Abstract

South Africans in the United Kingdom failed to develop an exile community. Instead they created partial networks, a series of interacting and overlapping circles. In this chapter I explore how, within this context, South Africans worked at creating both a new identity in exile as well as an identity of exile. Through their social networks, many South Africans began to reinterpret their position in Britain. One consequence was that, among some, a collective identification as exiles emerged: they were anti-apartheid, anti-Pretoria, and not at home in Britain. The identity of exile became an identification of resistance. In calling themselves exiles, South Africans were affirming a conviction that they did not necessarily want to leave their country, that their absence was only temporary, that their political loyalties lay with the opposition to the home regime and that they did not intend integrating totally into British life.