War and Migration in the White African Tropics: Lauren St John’s Rainbow’s End

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.15.2.2016.3540

Keywords:

White African, war, memory, Zimbabwe, Rhodesia, Tropics

Abstract

This paper explores voyage and migration in tropical Africa through Lauren St John’s Rainbow’s End, a memoir contributing to debates of white African identity that now include more contemporary renditions of identity in female self-reflective accounts differing markedly from masculine perspectives. In her coming-of-age memoir, St John chronicles her experiences of a privileged 1970s white Rhodesian society at war, and her gradual awareness of racial inequalities that transformed her into a white Zimbabwean. For her parents, voyage and migration take different paths. Her father migrated (with his family) to fight for a white Rhodesia, driven by masculine concerns. In contrast, St John’s mother was an avid traveller who journeyed from the mundane world of tropical farm life to exotic locations in Europe and beyond, escaping both her deteriorating marriage and the dull world of the club, small town gossip and a narrow minded semi-colonial rural environment. St John’s account of white settler identity and racial difference gives us insights into a day in the African tropics, and furthermore speaks to those in other settler countries such as Australia who are debating colonial history and identity, and who are often uncomfortable with aspects of their own settler past.

Author Biographies

Richard Gehrmann, University of Southern Queensland

Dr Richard Gehrmann is a Senior Lecturer in International Studies at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. He has published on migration and identity in Australia and on war and society, and is currently researching white African identity. Richard is interested in the way memories of the land and white privilege impact on the resettlement experiences of white African migrants in regional Australia.

Rachel Hammersley-Mather, Head, Project Development, SEED, Madagascar

Rachel Hammersley-Mather is the Madagascar-based Head of Project Development at SEED, an NGO focused on sustainable environment, education and development. Rachel has worked in journalism, health promotion and academia, and has Masters degrees in Australian-African relations (Queensland University of Technology, Australia) and in International Health and Development (Flinders University, Australia).

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Published

2016-12-20

How to Cite

Gehrmann, R., & Hammersley-Mather, R. (2016). War and Migration in the White African Tropics: Lauren St John’s Rainbow’s End. ETropic: Electronic Journal of Studies in the Tropics, 15(2). https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.15.2.2016.3540