Book

Classifying Belonging: Race, Ethnicity, and Statecraft in Zambia and Zimbabwe

This book examines how African states inherited, erased, and sometimes resurrected colonial systems of racial and ethnic classification. Focusing on Zambia and Zimbabwe—two neighboring countries with shared colonial origins but divergent post-independence trajectories—it investigates how race, ethnicity, and “tribe” have been used in national censuses from the late 19th century to the present. Drawing on over 10,000 pages of archival documents and 46 interviews and oral histories, the book argues that census classification is a central tool of statecraft—one that reflects and shapes struggles over belonging, visibility, and power.

After independence, both Zambia and Zimbabwe removed “race” from their censuses and shifted toward ethnic classifications, aligning with global statistical norms and nationalist projects of unity. However, this shift had unintended consequences. As race became less visible in official statistics, racial inequality and historical memory were obscured. Meanwhile, ethnic identities became more politically salient—often in ways that deepened internal divisions. In Zimbabwe, this tension culminated in the Gukurahundi of the 1980s. In response, the government reintroduced colonial-racial categories in the 1992 census, attempting to depoliticize ethnicity by avoiding it altogether.

Zambia, by contrast, embraced ethnic enumeration in the early 1990s as part of its transition to multiparty democracy and a broader political turn toward liberalization and pluralism. Census questions on “tribe” appeared alongside “race,” reflecting popular excitement about representation and cultural recognition. Yet over time, these same classifications became politically sensitive. In recent years, while questions on ethnicity have remained part of the census instrument, public reporting on ethnic data has become limited. This shift reflects a growing ambivalence around ethnic visibility, as concerns about national cohesion and political tensions increasingly shape what the state chooses to make publicly legible.

By situating African census politics within both global and local frameworks, Classifying Belonging challenges the assumption that colonial legacies straightforwardly explain contemporary classification practices. Instead, it shows how post-independent African states selectively resurrect, modify, or suppress racial and ethnic categories in pursuit of unity, recognition, or power-seeking. The book offers a new perspective on state formation, racial and ethnic classification, and contributes to broader debates on the afterlives of empire.