Colonial Bureaucracy, Post-Independent Statecraft and Social Movement in Africa: Making Racial Classification in Zambia and Zimbabwe.

This project examines why state racial classification varies in post-independent Africa. State racial classification constitutes state-making through defining the nation, legibility projects, and policy-making. How and why different forms of racial classification emerge and change in post-independent African countries is less understood. I address this gap by explaining racial classification changes in two former British colonies, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Drawing from archival, interview, and oral history data, I find that the strength and survival of colonial bureaucracy play a critical role in post-independent classification variations. Post-independent Zambia saw a classification break from its colonial racial categories, allowing the Zambian state more autonomy in shifting its legibility and policy projects around tribal identities. This was the result of nationalist projects, social movements, and a relatively weaker colonial bureaucracy in Zambia. In contrast, Zimbabwe retained racial classifications similar to those from its colonial period, largely due to the survival of a stronger colonial bureaucracy. Despite nationalist movements, this enduring colonial legacy in Zimbabwe constrained efforts at reclassification. This project contributes to the understanding of the politics of state legibility and belonging in post-independent nation-states, emphasizing the influence of colonial legacies, statecraft, and social movements. The persistence or alteration of colonial classification systems helps explain why political and economic distribution in some post-independent nations continues to mirror their colonial past. Understanding the mechanisms of colonial (dis)continuity offers insights into how these patterns can be dismantled.