Abstract
Settler colonialism is generally defined by its claims at once to new land and new identity – land and identity distinct from, yet linked, to the motherland. The first set of claims is usually based on usurpation, which throws the second set of claims into relief; that is, such claims to new identity are mapped not so much within geography as upon the terrain of the imagination. It is a case of ‘no nation but the imagination’, in Derek Walcott’s felicitous construction (Walcott 1998, pp. 36–64). I deliberately cite the Caribbean poet out of context, as I also misquote Samoan novelist Sia Figiel in my title, as the work of both writers has plotted a conflicted yet complicit relationship with settler traditions of writing (Figiel 1999).
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© 2011 Elleke Boehmer
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Boehmer, E. (2011). Where We Belong: South Africa as a Settler Colony and the Calibration of African and Afrikaner Indigeneity. In: Bateman, F., Pilkington, L. (eds) Studies in Settler Colonialism. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230306288_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230306288_17
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