Overview
- Presents the first book-length study of British royal visits to Southern Africa in the twentieth century
- Examines the imperial relationship between Southern Africa and Britain, revealing the perspectives of Black citizens
- Complicates and challenges the chronology and narrative of both ‘resistance’ and ‘loyalism’
Part of the book series: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies (CIPCSS)
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About this book
Exploring the entwined histories of British royal visits to Southern Africa in the twentieth century, this book analyses the clashing voices of dissent and cheering crowds that accompanied royal tours, providing insight into the shifting nature of ‘Black loyalism.’ Originating in the indigenous empire loyalism of eighteenth-century Canada, Black loyalism encompassed loyalty to the British crown and a shared ideology of ‘rights and ‘entitlements,’ which positioned the crown as a source of protection against white settler rapacity, colonial violence, and racial oppression. However, expressions of monarchical devotion were often double-edged and addressed the fundamental contradiction of a crown that was both the source of rights and complicit in colonial conquest, appropriation, and misrule. It was on royal occasions such as jubilees, coronation celebrations, and especially royal visits, when the sovereign was literally amongst their more distant subjects, that loyalist sentiment was rekindled, reinvented, and made directly relevant to the concerns of the day. By analysing change and continuity in Black perspectives towards both the British and Indigenous African monarchy during these visits, this book offers a fruitful way into examining an array of Black Southern African discourses on governance, political values, and cultural identities across the region. It argues that the refashioning of British imperial monarchy in the twentieth century was profoundly shaped by African initiatives and re-imaginings, and provides valuable reading for those researching imperialism, popular attitudes to the British monarchy in the twentieth century, and the diverse politics and identities of southern Africa.
Keywords
- British Crown
- Imperial monarchy
- South Africa
- Southern Africa
- Black loyalism
- Decolonisation
- Britishness
- Royal Tour
- Race
- Colonial violence
- Racial oppression
- Colonial conquest
- Imperial citizenship
- African culture
- Jubilee
- Coronation
- Indigenous
- Monarchical culture
Reviews
Vivian Bickford-Smith [Extraordinary Professor, University of Stellenbosch and Emeritus Professor, University of Cape Town]
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Hilary Sapire is a historian of Southern Africa based in the School of Historical Studies, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK, where she teachers global, imperial and African History. She has published books and articles on Southern African history, including Southern African Liberation Struggles: New Local, Regional and Global Perspectives (2012), co-edited with Chris Saunders.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: British Royal Visits and Black Loyalism in Twentieth-century Southern Africa
Authors: Hilary Sapire
Series Title: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-63291-4Due: 13 October 2024
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-63294-5Due: 13 October 2024
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-63292-1Due: 13 October 2024
Series ISSN: 2635-1633
Series E-ISSN: 2635-1641
Edition Number: 1
Number of Illustrations: 25 b/w illustrations