ABSTRACT

This article considers the history of South African imperialism and claims over a white Southern Africa, throughout the period between 1910 and 1963, and how it affected colonial rule and practice in the Belgian Congo. The article thereby adds to our knowledge of South African claims in the wider Southern African region and calls for a better understanding of external, and trans-imperial, anxieties underlying colonial rule in the Belgian Congo, and particularly in the mining province Katanga. The central hypothesis is that the South African danger confronted colonial rule in a dual way: in its territorialism, but also in its utopia of a white controlled Southern Africa. Either could lead to a loss of empire. Focusing in particular on Katanga, the article argues that migration, labour, development and settlement policies increasingly aimed at preventing the creation of a ‘white man’s country’ akin to South Africa. The immediate postwar years, 1918–1922, were a defining moment, when South African influences and trans-imperial white labour solidarity in Katanga were particularly strong. Ultimately, this article analyses two clashing models of empire in Africa – one of autonomous white settler rule against centralised European metropolitan interests – and their implications for racial relations and colonial practice.

摘要

本文考虑了南非帝国主义的历史以及在1910年至1963年之间整个白色非洲南部的主权主张，以及它如何影响比利时刚果的殖民统治和实践。因此，本文增加了我们对更广泛的南部非洲地区的南非主张的了解，并呼吁人们更好地理解比利时刚果特别是采矿省加丹加省殖民统治下的外部和跨帝国主义焦虑。中心假设是，南非的危险以双重方式面对殖民统治：在其领土主义中，也在其白人控制的南部非洲的乌托邦中。任何一种都可能导致帝国的丧失。该文章特别关注加丹加语，认为移民，劳动力，越来越多的发展和定居政策旨在防止建立类似于南非的“白人国家”。战后即刻的1918–1922年是决定性的时刻，南非在加丹加的影响和跨帝国的白人劳工团结尤其重要。最终，本文分析了非洲两个相互冲突的帝国模式-一种反对集中的欧洲大都市利益的自治白人定居者统治-及其对种族关系和殖民实践的影响。