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Lost White Tribes: The End of Privilege and the Last Colonials in Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Brazil, Haiti, Namibia, and Guadeloupe Hardcover – July 10, 2001

by Riccardo Orizio (Author), Avril Bardoni (Translator)

4.4 52 ratings

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Over 300 hundred years ago, the first European colonists landed in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean to found permanent outposts of the great empires. This epic migration continued until after World War II, when some of these tropical colonies became independent black nations and the white colonials were forced -- or chose -- to return to the mother country. Among the descendants of the colonizing powers, however, were some who had become outcasts in the poorest strata of society and, unable to afford the long journey home, were left behind, ignored by both the former oppressed indigenous population and the modern privileged white immigrants. At the dawn of the twenty-first century these lost white tribes still hold out, tucked away in remote valleys and hills or in the midst of burgeoning metropolises, living in poverty while tending the myths of their colonial ancestors. Forced to marry within their own group if they hope to retain their fair-skinned "purity," they are torn between the memory of past privilege and the extraordinary pressure to integrate. All are decreasing in number; some are on the verge of extinction and fighting to survive in countries that ostracize them because of the color of their skin and the traditions they represent. Though resident for generations, these people are permanently out of place, an awkward and embarrassing reminder of things past in newly redefined countries that are eager to forget both them and their historical homelands. In the remote interior and in bustling São Paulo, the Confederados of Brazil linger on, the descendants of Confederate families that fled the American South to rebuild their society here rather than face victorious Yankees. Wrenchingly poor then and now, these would-be genteel planters cling to their romanticized memory of a proud antebellum past. In Sri Lanka, once Ceylon, the children of Dutch Burghers haunt their crumbling mansions, putting on airs and keeping up appearances. In the steaming jungle of Guadeloupe, the inbred and deformed Matignons Blancs scrape out an existence while claiming the blood of French kings in their veins. On the beaches of Jamaica, a young man with incongruously blond dreadlocks -- the destitute descendant of a shoemaker from the Duchy of Saxony who became an indentured servant to earn passage from Germany to the new world -- still gazes out at the Caribbean over a century and half later. The Poles of Haiti are descended from troops lured over by Napoleon to quell slave rebellions. His promise of independence for their homeland went unfulfilled; they persist in hidden valleys in the island's interior. In the desert expanses of Southwest Africa, the famously devout Basters, the green-eyed, mixed-race Afrikaners, still doggedly pursue vast territorial claims as the continent's new power brokers sweep them aside. These are the lost white tribes. More than an entrée into a world we are unfamiliar with, this amazing chronicle opens up a world that we did not even know existed. In his masterful report, Riccardo Orizio has written the final chapter in the history of the postcolonial world, and in him these forgotten peoples have found their unique historian.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Ever wonder what became of that unfortunate Belgian clerk in Conrad's Heart of Darkness, who insisted upon wearing a starched collar despite the stifling Congo heat? Italian journalist Orizio shows that he may well have stayed on. Like Ryszard Kapuscinski, who provides a brief foreword, Orizio has a wonderful eye for cultural anachronisms and uncovers colonial remains in the form of white enclaves in Third World settings. His six subcultural portraits follow a similar pattern (which by no means detracts from their appeal), personalized by his subjects' discussions of their peculiar insider/outsider position. The opening chapter takes Orizio to Sri Lanka, where he contacts the remnants of the Dutch community, a group that originally arrived some 400 years ago with the Dutch East India Company and, for whatever reason, chose to stay on after the collapse of Dutch rule. Now they are doubly isolated not only have they lost their mother tongue, but they never acquired the national language, Sinhalese. Instead they speak English, the language of an intervening empire. And with whom do they identify? Orizio ably addresses that complicated question, conveying the ambiguities of identity that attend these historical holdovers by amplifying their voices with background information. All of the countries Orizio visits house small communities of whites who have been bypassed by history. Although Orizio (now editor of CNN Italia) refrains from drawing any overarching conclusions from these disparate narratives, he successfully conveys the dilemmas posed by being a member of a vanishing postcolonial tribe.

From Booklist

By 1970, the great European empires of Britain, France, Spain, and the Netherlands had essentially been dismantled. Most of the colonials, including government officials and settlers, returned to the "mother country." Yet, the forces of history are seldom tidy, and the end of European imperialism often left behind messy and sometimes curious remnants. Orizio, senior editor of CNN Italia and a former foreign correspondent for an Italian daily, here describes the interesting and often touching status of several "tribes" of whites, descended from European settlers, who stayed on after independence. Amongst the groups examined are Germans living in Jamaica, Dutch in Sri Lanka, and even descendants of Confederate refugees from the U.S Civil War in Brazil. Many of these people lead an economically marginal existence while holding on to a degree of racial or ethnic exclusivity. They seem trapped between their dreams of the past and the harsh realities of their present circumstances. This is a revealing glimpse at a variety of obscure peoples who seem to have maintained touching but somehow absurd solidarity. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The Free Press /Simon & Schuster (July 10, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 270 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0743211979
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0743211970
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.05 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1.25 x 8.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,016,133 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #75 in Haiti Travel Guides
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- #25,531 in Sociology (Books)

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4.4 52 ratings

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Todd Anderson

Very interesting read.

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2024

Verified Purchase

Lost my previous copy of this anthropological quirky book, and am glad I found this replacement.

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Matthew T. Szramoski

Fair Account of Colonists Decendents

Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2003

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The book gives a fair account of the decendents of European colonists in remote corners of the world. I found it interesting that it did nort include those nations where colonists decendents still live in large numbers and are a major success in their new home! It is interesting to note that in almost all of the countries discussed the economy and lifestyle have plummented for everyone since independence.

11 people found this helpful

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Richard P. Apgar

Colonialism tried to hang on

Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2016

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What an exceptionally well researched and written book

Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2015

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Excellent read - fascinating look into aspects of the postcolonial world I'd never heard about - unsentimental but without judgment, and even descriptively poetic in some passages.

2 people found this helpful

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JS

Worth skimming

Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2013

This very post-colonial book is not badly written and I would feel bad giving it less than three stars. The author is sympathetic towards everyone he meets and usually lets people speak for themselves. However, the choice of six different subjects is a regrettable one. It doesn't give the author enough time to really dig into the life of each white minority successfully, although he gives it the old college try. The book contains some surprising images, such as the die-hard Confederates in Brazil, but in other chapters like the portrait of Namibia, you get the idea that he is only scratching the surface of a very complex and deep political situation. We learn a lot from the instincts of the many interview subjects who shut the door in the author's face, because we come to understand by the end of the book that there is really a lot going on in each country and ethnicity and genealogy can only explain some of it.

4 people found this helpful

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David Ritter

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2016

Amazing book with amazing insight. To hell with political correctness this book shreds those perceptions of white privilege

Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2014

Verified Purchase

an interesting gathering of little known history.educational and informative.

Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2014

I learned many unique and interesting things about world history and culture by reading this book.Lost White Tribes is the type of book that is very hard to keep down,you must keep reading it and rereading it

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