Colonial Bureaucracy, Ethnic Conflict, and Post-Independent Statecraft: Racial Classification in Zambia and Zimbabwe

Yao Lu, University of California Davis

This project examines how and why state racial classification varies in post-independent Africa, focusing on Zambia and Zimbabwe. While racial classification has been extensively studied in North and Latin America, Africa remains underexplored despite its deep entanglement with Blackness and colonial racialization. This research addresses this gap by investigating the historical and political processes shaping racial classification in Zambia and Zimbabwe, two neighboring countries with shared colonial histories but distinct post-independence trajectories. Despite both being British colonies and members of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (1953–1963), Zambia and Zimbabwe's racial classification diverged significantly after independence. Using archival research, interviews with government officials and census experts, and oral histories from affected communities, this project traces the political decisions and contestations behind these classification shifts. Zambia, which gained independence under Black majority rule in 1964, moved away from colonial racial categories, incorporating ethnicity and tribe into its classification schemes as part of a broader effort to establish itself as a post-independent nation with policies centered on its African majority. Zimbabwe, after a protracted liberation struggle culminating in independence in 1980, initially abandoned racial categories but reinstated them in the 1992 census to mitigate ethnic tensions following the Gukurahundi massacres (1982–1987). I argue that racial classification in Africa is shaped by the strength of colonial bureaucracies, presence of ethnic conflicts, and post-independent statecraft. Contrary to assumptions that racial classification tends to reflect colonial legacies, this study shows how post-independent states actively reshape classification to match its agenda, and in the Zimbabwean case, reverting to colonial categories is a deliberate strategy to manage ethnic tensions. By analyzing African cases, this research advances theories of statecraft and racial classification, offering a comparative perspective on how race is made and remade in post-independent states.

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 Presented in Session 67. Racial Projects and the Administrative State