Neither/Nor: The Complex Attachments of Zimbabwe’s Coloureds

Abstract

Drawing on historical research and ethnographic fieldwork, this chapter examines the history of and ideology behind the classification of mixed race Coloured people, specifically the self-perpetuation and maintenance of this now outmoded racial category in post-colonial Zimbabwe. The term Coloured describes those who are entitled, on the basis of their being regarded as persons of mixed racial origin, to admission to officially designated institutions (segregated schools, residential areas, hospitals, etc.). Although theirs is a narrative of change given Zimbabwe’s complex racial history—specifically its history of revolution—the Coloured community has firmly embraced their legally imposed racial categorization through self-segregation. Many Coloureds have historically denied the reality of the boundaries that have separated them from whites or Europeans and, more recently, have reinforced the boundaries that have separated them from black Africans. The research revealed that there are historical fluctuations in the meanings of the Coloured category as it continues to remain crucial in Zimbabwe today. Interestingly, Coloureds themselves seem to be firm believers in racial difference in the post-colonial context and value Coloured identity above either a national Zimbabwean identity or even a continental African identity.

My title is a nod to Hortense Spillers’ 2003 landmark essay on the mixed race figure in American literature, ‘Neither/Nor: Notes on an Alternative Model’.