Abstract

Can dogs be racist? Posing this question may seem odd and at worst, unhelpfully provocative at a time when the discourse of ‘colour-blindness’ is so pervasive. Yet the idea of ‘racist dogs’ remains salient within the post-settler societies of eastern and southern Africa, where dogs have been an integral if overlooked tool of colonial practices of racialization. This article traces the colonial demarcation of ‘native dogs’ – juxtaposed to white settlers’ ‘pet’ dogs – to understand how racial categories were imposed on domesticated animals, and how these racialized animals were then colonized through rabies legislation. Although the formal racialization of dogs ended with the dawn of political decolonization in the early 1960s, dogs continued to be co-opted for postcolonial racial discourse. Dogs were in a prominent position in postcolonial society due to their prevalence in the security arrangements of white homes as well as in the security forces of white supremacist Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa. The intensity of the relationship between white minorities, their canine pets and the surrounding African population points toward the uncomfortable conclusion that in the heightened racial environments of decolonizing settler Africa, dogs could be made to be racist.

中文翻译：

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狗可以成为种族主义者吗？肯尼亚和赞比亚种族狗的殖民遗产

摘要

狗会成为种族主义者吗？在“色盲”的讨论如此普遍的时候，提出这个问题似乎很奇怪，最糟糕的是，这毫无助益。然而，“种族犬”的思想在东部和南部非洲的定居者后社会中仍然很重要，在那里，如果忽视种族犬的殖民化手段，犬已经成为不可或缺的组成部分。本文追溯了与白色定居者的“宠物”狗并列的“本地狗”的殖民地分界线，以了解如何将种族类别强加于家养动物，以及如何通过狂犬病立法将这些种族化的动物殖民化。尽管狗的正式种族化在1960年代初政治非殖民化的曙光下结束了，但狗仍然被人们选作后殖民时期的种族话语。由于狗在白人家庭的安全安排以及白人至上主义者罗得西亚和种族隔离南非的安全部队中的普遍性，在后殖民社会中处于重要地位。白人，他们的犬科宠物和周围的非洲人口之间的密切关系指向一个令人不舒服的结论，即在种族隔离的非洲种族殖民化加剧的种族环境中，可以使狗成为种族主义者。