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Lost White Tribes: The End of Privilege and the Last Colonials in Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Brazil, Haiti, Namibia, and Guadeloupe
Over 300 hundred years ago, the first European colonists landed in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean to found permanent outposts of the great empires. This epic migration continued until after World War II, when some of these tropical colonies became independent black nations and the white colonials were forced -- or chose -- to return to the mother country. Among the descendants of the colonizing powers, however, were some who had become outcasts in the poorest strata of society and, unable to afford the long journey home, were left behind, ignored by both the former oppressed indigenous population and the modern privileged white immigrants. At the dawn of the twenty-first century these lost white tribes still hold out, tucked away in remote valleys and hills or in the midst of burgeoning metropolises, living in poverty while tending the myths of their colonial ancestors. Forced to marry within their own group if they hope to retain their fair-skinned "purity," they are torn between the memory of past privilege and the extraordinary pressure to integrate. All are decreasing in number; some are on the verge of extinction and fighting to survive in countries that ostracize them because of the color of their skin and the traditions they represent. Though resident for generations, these people are permanently out of place, an awkward and embarrassing reminder of things past in newly redefined countries that are eager to forget both them and their historical homelands. In the remote interior and in bustling São Paulo, the Confederados of Brazil linger on, the descendants of Confederate families that fled the American South to rebuild their society here rather than face victorious Yankees. Wrenchingly poor then and now, these would-be genteel planters cling to their romanticized memory of a proud antebellum past. In Sri Lanka, once Ceylon, the children of Dutch Burghers haunt their crumbling mansions, putting on airs and keeping up appearances. In the steaming jungle of Guadeloupe, the inbred and deformed Matignons Blancs scrape out an existence while claiming the blood of French kings in their veins. On the beaches of Jamaica, a young man with incongruously blond dreadlocks -- the destitute descendant of a shoemaker from the Duchy of Saxony who became an indentured servant to earn passage from Germany to the new world -- still gazes out at the Caribbean over a century and half later. The Poles of Haiti are descended from troops lured over by Napoleon to quell slave rebellions. His promise of independence for their homeland went unfulfilled; they persist in hidden valleys in the island's interior. In the desert expanses of Southwest Africa, the famously devout Basters, the green-eyed, mixed-race Afrikaners, still doggedly pursue vast territorial claims as the continent's new power brokers sweep them aside. These are the lost white tribes. More than an entrée into a world we are unfamiliar with, this amazing chronicle opens up a world that we did not even know existed. In his masterful report, Riccardo Orizio has written the final chapter in the history of the postcolonial world, and in him these forgotten peoples have found their unique historian.
270 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
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May 7, 2013
‘Lost White Tribes’ seem to have two different subtitles, depending on the edition. One says: “The End of Privilege and the Last Colonials in Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Brazil, Haiti, Namibia, and Guadeloupe” and the other “Journeys Among the Forgotten”.
The former subtitle brings to mind dilapidated mansions, dusty heirlooms, and old people clinging onto the colonial residues with their wrinkled hands. As far as the first story goes, this image seems to be accurate - the Dutch Burghers living in Sri Lanka, reminiscing over the good old days. If they squint their eyes they can just about imagine they are still in Ceylon, ruling the island with benevolence, Dutch and proud, even though the only thing they can still say in Dutch is Het Lieve Vaderland – the rest of the anthem had to be replaced with its English version. They would say things like:
"Life was good in those days. There was none of this mad civil war and everyone knew their proper place; there was work for all, and we went on picnics to the seaside."
Nonetheless, the heroes of all the following chapters could hardly be described as privileged at any point of their history. They are usually wretched souls, stuck in some cul-de-sac of history and forgotten by just about everybody. Have you heard of German peasants and poor craftsmen who thought they were going to America in search of a better life but ended up in Jamaica as quasi-slaves? Some of them are still there. Or the immigrants from the American South after the end of the Civil War, who went so far southwards they ended up in Brazil, where they still talk about the damned Yankees.
There are Poles in Haiti, who arrived there with Bonaparte but the rumour has it they rebelled and joined the slave revolt. You can find a sign of that in the first Haitian Constitution which banned the whites from owning land and stripped them of other rights, but excluded Poles from those restrictions. The descendants of those Poles live in a small, poor village of Cazales, where children with blue eyes and blond hair are born in every generation.
The Basters in Namibia are like the Boers of South Africa, only without the putrid smell of apartheid. But who would remember that?
Possibly the most interesting is the last chapter about Blancs Matignon in Guadeloupe, a weird French tribe who one day up and went into the jungle where they settled, happily cutting off contact with the rest of the population of the island. With their heads full of apocryphal tales of their aristocratic and even royal origins they had to resort to incest to keep their blood pure. This group out of all described seemed to have the lightest grip on reality and was also the one most convinced of their elevated status, which was hard to see considering that they were poorer than the rest of the population of Guadeloupe. Yet, they still lived in their little racist fantasy land.
Orizio leads us through those forgotten worlds in a rather chaotic manner, which irritated me a little because I occasionally couldn’t quite organise all the facts in my head in a coherent manner. This whimsical way of telling a story would have probably worked better with a subject matter that was more familiar to an average reader. Not so with very obscure episodes of the world history. Also, I can’t help but think he might have spun the story for a better dramatic effect. I found a blog written by Polish doctors who went to Haiti around fifteen years after Orizio on some sort of Doctors without Borders program and decided to visit Casales. They found a fairly modern and well-organised little village, rather than a picture of despair painted by Orizio. Of course, it could be that the village benefited from the PR and leaped forward.
Orizio's writing is generally skilled but he does channel romance novel authors when he constantly tells us his protagonists have eyes blue like the Atlantic/Mediterranean/the sky. Yes, I get it. They are white and they live in Africa/Sri Lanka/Jamaica, etc. But this droning on about blue eyes smacks of a borderline fetish.
Also, I felt that Orizio made his attitude towards his subjects a little too clear. I’d rather if he strived for objectivity. After all, he could trust the reader to pass a correct judgement on a person who says:
"I have nothing against the black,' Constance will protest with an ever-so-lightly supercilious expression on her face. 'They're decent people, as a rule. We grew up together, so what can you expect. But we're white, we're different from them. I, for example, am in the process of selling the land on which my house stands. But I won't sell it to a black. I couldn't live cheek by jowl with black people. They might be heathen. We think differently. I know that the old times are dead and gone, but - forgive me - that's what I'm used to. No blacks ever entered my house, even if they were richer than us, while I've always had to earn my living dressmaking or cooking or working in a factory.'"
The former subtitle brings to mind dilapidated mansions, dusty heirlooms, and old people clinging onto the colonial residues with their wrinkled hands. As far as the first story goes, this image seems to be accurate - the Dutch Burghers living in Sri Lanka, reminiscing over the good old days. If they squint their eyes they can just about imagine they are still in Ceylon, ruling the island with benevolence, Dutch and proud, even though the only thing they can still say in Dutch is Het Lieve Vaderland – the rest of the anthem had to be replaced with its English version. They would say things like:
"Life was good in those days. There was none of this mad civil war and everyone knew their proper place; there was work for all, and we went on picnics to the seaside."
Nonetheless, the heroes of all the following chapters could hardly be described as privileged at any point of their history. They are usually wretched souls, stuck in some cul-de-sac of history and forgotten by just about everybody. Have you heard of German peasants and poor craftsmen who thought they were going to America in search of a better life but ended up in Jamaica as quasi-slaves? Some of them are still there. Or the immigrants from the American South after the end of the Civil War, who went so far southwards they ended up in Brazil, where they still talk about the damned Yankees.
There are Poles in Haiti, who arrived there with Bonaparte but the rumour has it they rebelled and joined the slave revolt. You can find a sign of that in the first Haitian Constitution which banned the whites from owning land and stripped them of other rights, but excluded Poles from those restrictions. The descendants of those Poles live in a small, poor village of Cazales, where children with blue eyes and blond hair are born in every generation.
The Basters in Namibia are like the Boers of South Africa, only without the putrid smell of apartheid. But who would remember that?
Possibly the most interesting is the last chapter about Blancs Matignon in Guadeloupe, a weird French tribe who one day up and went into the jungle where they settled, happily cutting off contact with the rest of the population of the island. With their heads full of apocryphal tales of their aristocratic and even royal origins they had to resort to incest to keep their blood pure. This group out of all described seemed to have the lightest grip on reality and was also the one most convinced of their elevated status, which was hard to see considering that they were poorer than the rest of the population of Guadeloupe. Yet, they still lived in their little racist fantasy land.
Orizio leads us through those forgotten worlds in a rather chaotic manner, which irritated me a little because I occasionally couldn’t quite organise all the facts in my head in a coherent manner. This whimsical way of telling a story would have probably worked better with a subject matter that was more familiar to an average reader. Not so with very obscure episodes of the world history. Also, I can’t help but think he might have spun the story for a better dramatic effect. I found a blog written by Polish doctors who went to Haiti around fifteen years after Orizio on some sort of Doctors without Borders program and decided to visit Casales. They found a fairly modern and well-organised little village, rather than a picture of despair painted by Orizio. Of course, it could be that the village benefited from the PR and leaped forward.
Orizio's writing is generally skilled but he does channel romance novel authors when he constantly tells us his protagonists have eyes blue like the Atlantic/Mediterranean/the sky. Yes, I get it. They are white and they live in Africa/Sri Lanka/Jamaica, etc. But this droning on about blue eyes smacks of a borderline fetish.
Also, I felt that Orizio made his attitude towards his subjects a little too clear. I’d rather if he strived for objectivity. After all, he could trust the reader to pass a correct judgement on a person who says:
"I have nothing against the black,' Constance will protest with an ever-so-lightly supercilious expression on her face. 'They're decent people, as a rule. We grew up together, so what can you expect. But we're white, we're different from them. I, for example, am in the process of selling the land on which my house stands. But I won't sell it to a black. I couldn't live cheek by jowl with black people. They might be heathen. We think differently. I know that the old times are dead and gone, but - forgive me - that's what I'm used to. No blacks ever entered my house, even if they were richer than us, while I've always had to earn my living dressmaking or cooking or working in a factory.'"
April 16, 2023
Wspaniała podróż do odległych czasów i odległych lądów. Orizio zabiera czytelnika do 6 egzotycznych państw, by tam zgłębić i przybliżyć dla wielu odbiorców nieznaną tematykę potomków białych kolonizatorów. Włoski reportażysta opisuje nieraz i obfitujące w liczne problemy dotarcie do “zaginionych białych plemion” jak i rzetelnie relacjonuje swój pobyt wśród tych zapomnianych przez resztę świata ludzi. Liczne rozmowy i w pewnym stopniu wniknięcie w te społeczności zaowocowały tekstami bogatymi zarówno w historię, zwyczaje i tradycję, kulturę jak i sytuację społeczną i osobiste obawy, nadzieje, marzenie poszczególnych jednostek. Nie ma w tym reportażu bezpodstawnego oceniania rozmówców, patrzenia na nich przez pryzmat ich kolonialnych przodków - to opowieści napisane z dużą dozą szacunku. To, co najmocniej uderza to ogromna bieda - wręcz ubóstwo, w jakim żyją Ci ludzie - tak kontrastowe do przepychu i blichtru będących codziennością dla kilku pokoleń wstecz.
Jest w tych opisywanych światach doza magii - Orizio tak obrazowo potrafi oddać nostalgiczne historie rodzinne swoich rozmówców, że czytanie tego reportażu momentami zapewnia przeniesienie się wstecz do odległych, dawno zapomnianych czasów. To książka, którą doznaje się wszystkimi zmysłami - odczuwa się na skórze wilgoć i lepkość tropikalnych lasów czy smakuje świeżo zerwanych i rozłupanych kokosów. Jest to i książka przepełniona smutkiem, tęsknotą, pewną złowróżbnością - tym bardziej kiedy czyta się ją dziś w epoce gigantycznego kryzysu klimatycznego i świadomości, że zarówno odwiedzane przez autora kraje - jak i ich mieszkańcy - w zastanej przez Orizio formie i sytuacji już długo nie przetrwają.
Wyjątkiem od reguły “Zaginione białe plemiona” nie są - i jak znaczna większość zbiorów reportaży tak i teksty Orizio nie są na jednym identycznym poziomie. Warto jednak zauważyć, że opisywane plemiona są tak różnorodne i tak całkiem od siebie inne, że wybór lepszych i gorszych utworów jest całkowicie subiektywny. Mnie osobiście, najbardziej zafascynowały historie holenderskich Burów zamieszkujących Sri Lankę i potomków polskich legionistów z Haiti.
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Jest w tych opisywanych światach doza magii - Orizio tak obrazowo potrafi oddać nostalgiczne historie rodzinne swoich rozmówców, że czytanie tego reportażu momentami zapewnia przeniesienie się wstecz do odległych, dawno zapomnianych czasów. To książka, którą doznaje się wszystkimi zmysłami - odczuwa się na skórze wilgoć i lepkość tropikalnych lasów czy smakuje świeżo zerwanych i rozłupanych kokosów. Jest to i książka przepełniona smutkiem, tęsknotą, pewną złowróżbnością - tym bardziej kiedy czyta się ją dziś w epoce gigantycznego kryzysu klimatycznego i świadomości, że zarówno odwiedzane przez autora kraje - jak i ich mieszkańcy - w zastanej przez Orizio formie i sytuacji już długo nie przetrwają.
Wyjątkiem od reguły “Zaginione białe plemiona” nie są - i jak znaczna większość zbiorów reportaży tak i teksty Orizio nie są na jednym identycznym poziomie. Warto jednak zauważyć, że opisywane plemiona są tak różnorodne i tak całkiem od siebie inne, że wybór lepszych i gorszych utworów jest całkowicie subiektywny. Mnie osobiście, najbardziej zafascynowały historie holenderskich Burów zamieszkujących Sri Lankę i potomków polskich legionistów z Haiti.
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February 27, 2023
Having read a number of the Goodreads reviews it is apparent that many people approached this book with confused ideas most expecting tales of decaying grandeur, vine clad plantation houses lost in jungles were impeccably dressed in decades out of date style old colonial hands continue to maintain old ways of life (think of the absurd scene of French colonials on their plantation in the wilds of Vietnam that restored, mistakenly I believe, to the film Apocalypse Now). Well the book isn't anything like that and I didn't expect it to be.
The book is about the traces of Colonialism and the belief in white and/or European cultural supremacy but it is about those groups/tribes/separate groups that were formed from the intermarriage of whites and natives. Some of these groups like Dutch burghers in Sri Lanka had very privileged positions as part of the ruling elite. Other small groups such as Poles in Haiti or US confederate exiles in Brazil never had the recognition of Dutch burghers but regarded themselves as separate and superior none the less. And that tells the truth about all the 'tribes' examined, they regarded, and some still regard themselves, as different from their neighbors but they are equally distant from whatever homeland they claim to belong to.
Although not covered in this book Britain had a group like this in India, the Anglo Indians, descendants of ordinary Britons who had married Indian women. The colonial authorities accepted they weren't Indians while the empire existed, and reserved jobs for them in government employ, particularly but not exclusively the railways, but they were always separated by class as well skin colour from the ruling colonial elite. Once the empire disappeared the Anglo-Indians disappeared into the rest of the Indian population. The UK didn't want them once their use as delaying tactic against independence was exhausted.
Although not identical the story of the Anglo-Indians while identical reflects truths for all the groups in this book. They are all descendants of whites who married locals, for a time that gave them a cachet, distinction even privilege but now it is only quaint or absurd - can you imagine what those Confederate supremacists in the USA would make of those dark skinned Brazilians claiming kinship with them? These groups are lost between feeling separate from the countries they live in but they have no connection, knowledge or knowledge of their ancestral homelands.
Obviously this book is 25 years out of date, things have changed, the assimilation that was rapidly making younger generations indistinguishable from their neighbors has probably advanced towards completion. But it is fascinating and provides a wealth information on some of lesser known aspects of colonialism.
The book is about the traces of Colonialism and the belief in white and/or European cultural supremacy but it is about those groups/tribes/separate groups that were formed from the intermarriage of whites and natives. Some of these groups like Dutch burghers in Sri Lanka had very privileged positions as part of the ruling elite. Other small groups such as Poles in Haiti or US confederate exiles in Brazil never had the recognition of Dutch burghers but regarded themselves as separate and superior none the less. And that tells the truth about all the 'tribes' examined, they regarded, and some still regard themselves, as different from their neighbors but they are equally distant from whatever homeland they claim to belong to.
Although not covered in this book Britain had a group like this in India, the Anglo Indians, descendants of ordinary Britons who had married Indian women. The colonial authorities accepted they weren't Indians while the empire existed, and reserved jobs for them in government employ, particularly but not exclusively the railways, but they were always separated by class as well skin colour from the ruling colonial elite. Once the empire disappeared the Anglo-Indians disappeared into the rest of the Indian population. The UK didn't want them once their use as delaying tactic against independence was exhausted.
Although not identical the story of the Anglo-Indians while identical reflects truths for all the groups in this book. They are all descendants of whites who married locals, for a time that gave them a cachet, distinction even privilege but now it is only quaint or absurd - can you imagine what those Confederate supremacists in the USA would make of those dark skinned Brazilians claiming kinship with them? These groups are lost between feeling separate from the countries they live in but they have no connection, knowledge or knowledge of their ancestral homelands.
Obviously this book is 25 years out of date, things have changed, the assimilation that was rapidly making younger generations indistinguishable from their neighbors has probably advanced towards completion. But it is fascinating and provides a wealth information on some of lesser known aspects of colonialism.
May 24, 2016
Someone who judged this book by its unfortunate title would assume that the colonials spoken of in this book were once privileged white colonists in various countries around the world. This would be a mistaken assumption to make, however. The foreword to this book makes the following comments: “The lost white tribes are in fact individuals still living a chapter of history that for the rest of mankind is forever closed. Which is why, despite Riccardo’s sympathy with these obscure heroes, his is nevertheless an anticolonial book, a demonstration of the fact that this particular human adventure can never be relived. It belongs to the past and only to the past.” This may be true, but it is hardly the point, and the foreword’s rather defensive tone about the need to point out that this is an anti-colonial book, and it is, only draws attention to the fact that colonialism and imperialism are typically judged by race, and this is a particularly unfortunate way to judge the fate of these lost tribes, which both receive and in many cases deserve the sympathy of the author as well as the reader, regardless of their unfortunate skin color as far as sympathy is concerned.
The contents of this book consist of six vignettes over about 270 pages that examine a half dozen obscure white tribes who live in post-colonial countries and face obscurity as well as official discrimination on a part of their background. This is so even though the peoples themselves were never really a privileged part of the colonial order in which their existence serves as a hated or pointedly ignored reminder. Included among the book’s lost white tribes are the Dutch and Portuguese-descended Burghers of Sri Lanka, the Germans of Seaford Town in Jamaica, the Confederados, Confederate refugees who departed the reconstruction South for a life of adventure in Brazil, the remnant population of Poles in Haiti, the Basters of Namibia, descended from the union between Boer fathers and Khoisan mothers, and the Blancs Matignon of Guadalupe, insulted as inbreds but proud of their own supposedly noble French heritage. In all of the cases, the white tribes were never the privileged classes of the places they colonized—they were political and religious refugees, soldiers fighting the wars of others facing oppression in their own homeland, people facing economic hard times and looking for opportunity in exotic locales, and in one case at least indentured servants brought over fraudulently and shortchanged on their wages, or the offspring of unions that brought them isolation from both sides of their ancestry. Such people may be considered white tribes, but they are hardly privileged ones. If anything, they remind one of the often maligned and forgotten poor folk of Appalachia, with a sullen mistrust of outsiders and a life that lacks any privilege save personal honor.
It is therefore of little surprise that the author, an Italian reporter with an English wife, would have sympathy with these peoples. Those who come from similar backgrounds of European commonfolk seeking new lands and better opportunities will find much to empathize with in the stories provided here. The stories are all too familiar to at least some of the readers, with the curse of family secrets, the continual insults of incest, the feeling that one is an alien in one’s own homeland, the feeling of extreme isolation, the struggle for honor and personal dignity and demographic survival, the difficulty of finding suitable mates. These are not the sorts of problems faced by snobby elites receiving their deserved comeuppance in a postcolonial world, but are a poignant reminder that imperialism and colonialism has never been entirely about race [1], and that privilege is not as straightforward a matter as many hostile anti-imperialist leftists would like to believe and to promote among the world at large, and that a large part of the discourse of white privilege is in fact an illusion, spread to justify continued ethnic envy and hatred, rather than to encourage the sort of self-examination and search for peace and reconciliation that this world so seriously needs.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
The contents of this book consist of six vignettes over about 270 pages that examine a half dozen obscure white tribes who live in post-colonial countries and face obscurity as well as official discrimination on a part of their background. This is so even though the peoples themselves were never really a privileged part of the colonial order in which their existence serves as a hated or pointedly ignored reminder. Included among the book’s lost white tribes are the Dutch and Portuguese-descended Burghers of Sri Lanka, the Germans of Seaford Town in Jamaica, the Confederados, Confederate refugees who departed the reconstruction South for a life of adventure in Brazil, the remnant population of Poles in Haiti, the Basters of Namibia, descended from the union between Boer fathers and Khoisan mothers, and the Blancs Matignon of Guadalupe, insulted as inbreds but proud of their own supposedly noble French heritage. In all of the cases, the white tribes were never the privileged classes of the places they colonized—they were political and religious refugees, soldiers fighting the wars of others facing oppression in their own homeland, people facing economic hard times and looking for opportunity in exotic locales, and in one case at least indentured servants brought over fraudulently and shortchanged on their wages, or the offspring of unions that brought them isolation from both sides of their ancestry. Such people may be considered white tribes, but they are hardly privileged ones. If anything, they remind one of the often maligned and forgotten poor folk of Appalachia, with a sullen mistrust of outsiders and a life that lacks any privilege save personal honor.
It is therefore of little surprise that the author, an Italian reporter with an English wife, would have sympathy with these peoples. Those who come from similar backgrounds of European commonfolk seeking new lands and better opportunities will find much to empathize with in the stories provided here. The stories are all too familiar to at least some of the readers, with the curse of family secrets, the continual insults of incest, the feeling that one is an alien in one’s own homeland, the feeling of extreme isolation, the struggle for honor and personal dignity and demographic survival, the difficulty of finding suitable mates. These are not the sorts of problems faced by snobby elites receiving their deserved comeuppance in a postcolonial world, but are a poignant reminder that imperialism and colonialism has never been entirely about race [1], and that privilege is not as straightforward a matter as many hostile anti-imperialist leftists would like to believe and to promote among the world at large, and that a large part of the discourse of white privilege is in fact an illusion, spread to justify continued ethnic envy and hatred, rather than to encourage the sort of self-examination and search for peace and reconciliation that this world so seriously needs.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
July 7, 2014
I should warn readers at the outset that the title of this book is probably the most interesting thing about it. The idea that there might be such as a lost white tribe subtly subverts our sense of the natural order of things. As provocative notions go, it offers the promise of a good read, and it certainly persuaded me to go tagging along with Orizio, an Italian journalist who is now a senior editor at CNN, as he travels to exotic climes to rediscover the descendents of white people abandoned like flotsam on the beach by the great ebb tide of European colonialism.
Among them, we meet descendents of the Dutch East India Company in their crumbling mansions in Sri Lanka. They made their peace with the British when that country seized control of the island but were not so lucky when it reverted to the native Sinhalese, who wanted nothing to do with any white presence on their island, however far back it dated and however highly it regarded itself.
Then there are the Germans whose ancestors were tricked into emigrating to Jamaica when slavery ended and skilled workers were needed to work the sugarcane fields; the impoverished, egregiously inbred Frenchmen in Guadaloupe who trace their ancestry back to the pre-Revolution French aristocracy; the tiny clutch of Poles deep in the mountains of Haiti, descendents of mercenaries brought to help crush that country's struggle for independence but spared by the victorious leaders of the slave revolt from the otherwise merciless slaughter of whites -- because Poland, too, was a country struggling for freedom.
Less hapless, perhaps, but no more successful are the two remaining groups. One is made up of descendents of Southerners who migrated to Brazil at the invitation of that country's emperor after the Civil War in hopes of reestablishing the Confederacy not only south of the Mason-Dixon Line but south of the equator as well. The other is a group of Dutch settlers in South Africa who kept heading north into the Transvaal in search of a place where they could found their own nation, only to discover that history had the habit of catching up with them and spoiling their plans at the last minute.
"Too poor to leave; too proud to assimilate" might be the motto for all of these groups, certainly at this point in time, and one wonders if Orizio expected to keep uncovering this dismal truth over and over again. Each of these enclaves, however otherwise unique, proves to be similarly pathetic and energetically offputting, clinging fiercely to racist notions about themselves and fantasies about their importance in the natural scheme of things, while waiting for rescue -- by the Pope, the United Nations, the governments of their former homeland -- from a life of misery that is pretty much of their own making.
In fact, a careful reading of these pages soon reveals that anyone born into one of these communities who possessed any gumption and native intelligence left for another life somewhere else as soon as possible. This means that natural selection has left behind a bunch of -- how can one say this politely? -- incurably self-delusionary racists, who blame everybody for their troubles but themselves. The most interesting person in the book is one of the Blancs Matignon in Guadaloupe who found in the Jehovah's Witnesses a belief system powerful enough to replace the illusions he grew up believing and so was able to marry a black woman and raise a family of very healthy, normal-seeming children. It is one of the rare times in the book when you can feel the presence of happiness, even laughter.
Lost, yes, but least of all in the way that Orizio means; we haven't lost them or they us — they've just somehow lost themselves, and that from looking in all the wrong places. What kept me reading the book is that these forays take us into parts of the world where few travel writers ever venture -- down the backroads of nowhere to visit no place at all. For example, the Confederados do Campo (and what an unappealing lot they are) live in a part of Brazil that is treated by the Brazilians themselves as if it doesn't exist.
But these places are far from anonymous to those who live there, however resigned they may be -- even embarrassed about -- that fact, and for the attentive visitor there is much to surprise, inform, and even delight. In Lost White Tribes, an island the size of Haiti or Guadaloupe is transformed into huge and an amazingly complicated universe where each valley and hill possesses its own fiercely guarded story. The book left me reeling from a newfound awareness of the depths of my ignorance about the world. From that perspective at least, what Riccardo Orizio has revealed is how much each of us unwittingly belongs to our own lost tribe.
Among them, we meet descendents of the Dutch East India Company in their crumbling mansions in Sri Lanka. They made their peace with the British when that country seized control of the island but were not so lucky when it reverted to the native Sinhalese, who wanted nothing to do with any white presence on their island, however far back it dated and however highly it regarded itself.
Then there are the Germans whose ancestors were tricked into emigrating to Jamaica when slavery ended and skilled workers were needed to work the sugarcane fields; the impoverished, egregiously inbred Frenchmen in Guadaloupe who trace their ancestry back to the pre-Revolution French aristocracy; the tiny clutch of Poles deep in the mountains of Haiti, descendents of mercenaries brought to help crush that country's struggle for independence but spared by the victorious leaders of the slave revolt from the otherwise merciless slaughter of whites -- because Poland, too, was a country struggling for freedom.
Less hapless, perhaps, but no more successful are the two remaining groups. One is made up of descendents of Southerners who migrated to Brazil at the invitation of that country's emperor after the Civil War in hopes of reestablishing the Confederacy not only south of the Mason-Dixon Line but south of the equator as well. The other is a group of Dutch settlers in South Africa who kept heading north into the Transvaal in search of a place where they could found their own nation, only to discover that history had the habit of catching up with them and spoiling their plans at the last minute.
"Too poor to leave; too proud to assimilate" might be the motto for all of these groups, certainly at this point in time, and one wonders if Orizio expected to keep uncovering this dismal truth over and over again. Each of these enclaves, however otherwise unique, proves to be similarly pathetic and energetically offputting, clinging fiercely to racist notions about themselves and fantasies about their importance in the natural scheme of things, while waiting for rescue -- by the Pope, the United Nations, the governments of their former homeland -- from a life of misery that is pretty much of their own making.
In fact, a careful reading of these pages soon reveals that anyone born into one of these communities who possessed any gumption and native intelligence left for another life somewhere else as soon as possible. This means that natural selection has left behind a bunch of -- how can one say this politely? -- incurably self-delusionary racists, who blame everybody for their troubles but themselves. The most interesting person in the book is one of the Blancs Matignon in Guadaloupe who found in the Jehovah's Witnesses a belief system powerful enough to replace the illusions he grew up believing and so was able to marry a black woman and raise a family of very healthy, normal-seeming children. It is one of the rare times in the book when you can feel the presence of happiness, even laughter.
Lost, yes, but least of all in the way that Orizio means; we haven't lost them or they us — they've just somehow lost themselves, and that from looking in all the wrong places. What kept me reading the book is that these forays take us into parts of the world where few travel writers ever venture -- down the backroads of nowhere to visit no place at all. For example, the Confederados do Campo (and what an unappealing lot they are) live in a part of Brazil that is treated by the Brazilians themselves as if it doesn't exist.
[T]he territory that wavered before us seemed monotonous and inaccessible. This is what Brazilians refer to, with bored indifference, as the Interior Paulista. The term has come to indicate an attitude as much as a geographical location, because although the state of São Paulo has great natural diversity -- from mountains to plains, alpine firs to banana palms -- it is as if, beyond the skyscrapers of São Paulo's avenidas, beyond the illusion of this poor man's Manhattan, lay only a dreary wasteland, its towns and cities unworthy of being identified by name and hence anonymous. And they say that for a Brazilian anonymity is worse than prison.
But these places are far from anonymous to those who live there, however resigned they may be -- even embarrassed about -- that fact, and for the attentive visitor there is much to surprise, inform, and even delight. In Lost White Tribes, an island the size of Haiti or Guadaloupe is transformed into huge and an amazingly complicated universe where each valley and hill possesses its own fiercely guarded story. The book left me reeling from a newfound awareness of the depths of my ignorance about the world. From that perspective at least, what Riccardo Orizio has revealed is how much each of us unwittingly belongs to our own lost tribe.
November 3, 2024
Fascinating, truly.
I’m giving it 5 based on the wow factor and learning so much. However, there were some very subtle racial undertones in the book.
I found especially interesting, learning about the descendants of Polish legionaries in Haiti, the Basters of Rehoboth, and Blancs Matignon of Guadeloupe!
I’m giving it 5 based on the wow factor and learning so much. However, there were some very subtle racial undertones in the book.
I found especially interesting, learning about the descendants of Polish legionaries in Haiti, the Basters of Rehoboth, and Blancs Matignon of Guadeloupe!
March 20, 2024
I have very mixed feelings about this book. I’ll start off with saying that the subject matter is fascinating and should be taught in schools as part of history curriculums — I myself have only ever heard of the Confederados in Brazil and the Basters in Namibia — and this book serves as a valuable reference for what information we do have on these people.
That however leads me to just that; this book is really only good as a reference source. If you’re wanting to read it simply to enlighten yourself on these lost white tribes, it’s an extremely difficult and tedious read. The writing itself is not easy to follow, and I feel like I learned 80% of the information it contains about Seaford Town in Jamaica in a quick 40-minute Youtube documentary on the topic, which is in simple language and is lightyears easier to follow. This may possibly be due to this being translated work, which seems extremely likely that it’s just an unnatural flow — if you find and can read a copy in Italian, you may have a different (and better) experience.
It may also be because I sped through this work in 2 days — a full day should probably be dedicated to each of the 6 chapters and tribes to fully appreciate it.
Last note — another reviewer here mentioned how they didn’t like how Orizio hyperfocused the lighter eyes of these lost tribes and how to them it seemed like fetishization. After researching pictures of these people, specifically those in Jamaica, Brazil, Namibia, and Haiti, you’ll understand why he describes them as such; their eyes are the most striking and contrasting feature about their faces. To not mention it is to essentially censor the first noticeable physical feature of these people to not mention it. Lighter eyes are associated with European (for blue eyes) and Eurasian (for green eyes) features; of course Orizio is going to focus on the eyes when researching those of European descent settling where it’s almost unheard of for them to be.
Orizio could however do without some of his pious remarks towards people he interacted with while traveling to see each tribe.
That however leads me to just that; this book is really only good as a reference source. If you’re wanting to read it simply to enlighten yourself on these lost white tribes, it’s an extremely difficult and tedious read. The writing itself is not easy to follow, and I feel like I learned 80% of the information it contains about Seaford Town in Jamaica in a quick 40-minute Youtube documentary on the topic, which is in simple language and is lightyears easier to follow. This may possibly be due to this being translated work, which seems extremely likely that it’s just an unnatural flow — if you find and can read a copy in Italian, you may have a different (and better) experience.
It may also be because I sped through this work in 2 days — a full day should probably be dedicated to each of the 6 chapters and tribes to fully appreciate it.
Last note — another reviewer here mentioned how they didn’t like how Orizio hyperfocused the lighter eyes of these lost tribes and how to them it seemed like fetishization. After researching pictures of these people, specifically those in Jamaica, Brazil, Namibia, and Haiti, you’ll understand why he describes them as such; their eyes are the most striking and contrasting feature about their faces. To not mention it is to essentially censor the first noticeable physical feature of these people to not mention it. Lighter eyes are associated with European (for blue eyes) and Eurasian (for green eyes) features; of course Orizio is going to focus on the eyes when researching those of European descent settling where it’s almost unheard of for them to be.
Orizio could however do without some of his pious remarks towards people he interacted with while traveling to see each tribe.
September 11, 2018
Orizio takes us on an amazing journey around the world to tell us about the story of people most of us wasn't even aware they exist. Dutch Burghers, Jamaica Germans, Confederados, Haiti Poles, Busters and Blanc Matignons - they use to be simple families settled in a hostile land, then transform themselves to tribes, and after centuries in isolation become small nations living in somehow not expected for them tropical environments. Similar and somehow familiar with each other - some grow in numbers, but some blended with neighbors and today strive to survive as separate nation.
The book is really short, well written and logically divided into easy to read chapters. Truly inspiring lecture helping to understand the world.
The book is really short, well written and logically divided into easy to read chapters. Truly inspiring lecture helping to understand the world.
October 20, 2018
This is one of my favorite books. I just re-read it for the ump-teenth time and it never gets old. There is just something neat about the remains of the 19th century crumbling under the tropical sun or the people left behind to be their caretakers.
My favorite part of this book, hands down is the Blacs matignons. I don't know why but I would love to visit them and see if they are as weird as the book makes them out to be.
I also enjoy the opening chapter about the Dutch Burghers in Sri Lanka. I've always wanted to visit the island so when I do I will keep an eye out for them.
Read this book if you are into anthropology, sociology, or colonial history. You will not be disappointed.
My favorite part of this book, hands down is the Blacs matignons. I don't know why but I would love to visit them and see if they are as weird as the book makes them out to be.
I also enjoy the opening chapter about the Dutch Burghers in Sri Lanka. I've always wanted to visit the island so when I do I will keep an eye out for them.
Read this book if you are into anthropology, sociology, or colonial history. You will not be disappointed.
October 29, 2017
Lost White Tribes takes on the rich subject of colonial "left behinds," stragglers of history who never returned to their homelands. We get pockets of Dutch in Sri Lanka and Namibia, ex-Southern Confederates in Brazil (where slavery was legal until 1888, 23 years after the War between the States ended), French in Guadeloupe, Germans in Jamaica, and Poles in Haiti. These remnants are disoriented, probably permanently. Some have become inbred; they are largely poor; most pine for a "golden" past they can never know; their relations with both their countries of residence and of origin are tenuous at best.
March 9, 2019
Fascinating story of the white people left behind in various countries as colonialism disappeared and their attempts to preserve their heritage.
February 6, 2020
An interesting book about the remnants of white culture and civilization left over from colonialism,etc.
February 9, 2022
Rich in information and first time to know info, the idea of the book itself was catchy and interesting, but it needed over a month and a lot of pauses to finish it.
October 5, 2015
This book is right up my alley. I was already familiar with the story of the Basters of Namibia but not with any of these other peoples. Most interesting to me were the Blancs Matignon of Guadeloupe, for a couple reasons. First, it is the clearest example of what each case study in this book is, which is not just ethnogenesis but specifically the genesis of new tribal formations out of populations that in the first instance were part of post-tribal, modern European (or Euro-American) nationalities. All of the features of a small-scale tribal society were reinvented, including oral traditions, informal systems of political authority completely untouched by bureaucracy, and, most fascinatingly, separation into clans. They even established wife exchange relationships with a white "tribe" on another Caribbean island. It's astounding more hasn't been written about this case. Second, just as a cherry on top, there are rumors that some of the Blanc Matignon family lines are descended from Bourbons and Grimaldis, with tantalizing hints that it might be more than just lore.
Orizio has done a great service with this book. Recommended to anyone interested in any aspect of colonialism and of the ethnography of Europe.
Orizio has done a great service with this book. Recommended to anyone interested in any aspect of colonialism and of the ethnography of Europe.
April 5, 2014
This was a book someone on my East African trip had been reading. It piqued my curiosity so when I saw it in a book shop earlier this year, I had to buy it.
And it is interesting. And sad ... but mostly, it's bloody difficult to read. The way these people live and where and how they came to be there is fascinating. But the story is not told in a very easy to read way and at the end of each section, I wasn't really sure what I'd learned about them.
I guess, the most interesting for me were the Basters in nearby Namibia. Their history so much in-line with South Africa's Great Trek that we all learned about in primary school History. I think one day I'd like to visit Rehoboth for myself.
And it is interesting. And sad ... but mostly, it's bloody difficult to read. The way these people live and where and how they came to be there is fascinating. But the story is not told in a very easy to read way and at the end of each section, I wasn't really sure what I'd learned about them.
I guess, the most interesting for me were the Basters in nearby Namibia. Their history so much in-line with South Africa's Great Trek that we all learned about in primary school History. I think one day I'd like to visit Rehoboth for myself.
October 11, 2015
Þessi var erfið aflestrar. Aðallega vegna þess hversu illa hún var skrifuð. Efnið sérstaklega áhugavert en höfundur heimsækir týnda afkomendur nýlenduherra víða um heim og skoðar hvernig þeir hafa komist af og hver saga þeirra var. Upp til hópa eru afkomendurnir rasískir og uppteknir af merkilegri sögu sinni. Þeir eru hins vegar lotnir hornauga af öðrum íbúum. Þeir eru fastir í gömlum hefðum og eru of fátækir til að fara burt en of stoltir til að aðlagast samfélaginu. Höfundur skrifar hins vegar ekki nógu góðan texta og setur efnið ekki nógu vel upp til að gera þetta læsilegt eða áhugavert.
March 18, 2012
Amazing book about disparate and disconnected "white" communities in a variety of world countries, from a "lost" group of Poles stuck in Haiti since the early nineteenth century, (they were mercenaries for Napoleon) to the "Baster Germans" in Namibia to the French and English colonists in the Caribbean and the Dutch in Sri Lanka. An interesting book of trivial information for the geography and history wonk.
April 3, 2016
An incredibly interesting and eye-opening read into various groups of people around the world. A colleague of mine mentioned some of the interesting stories she'd encountered in this book and I had to borrow it for myself. Combined with the pictures that are in the middle of the text, I spent a great few hours pouring over it. Orizio's writing style is both interesting and engaging that its an instant page-turner. It reads not only like an anthropological text, but also as a travelogue.
December 5, 2016
Part travelogue, part history, part anthropology this book recounts the experiences of six groups whose forefathers traveled to the areas mentioned in the title. Some of their forebears desired to emigrate while others were conned or forced into leaving their homeland. A few of the groups mixed to some extent with other ethnic groups while retaining traditions brought with their forebears. The 'tribes' have become smaller over time and are, in essence, dying out.
December 13, 2013
This review is going to be short because it is being written well after I have completed the book--almost two years afterwards. I could not put this book down because it contained a lot of information that I had no knowledge of at all. In fact, I think a lot of people would find this book very informative and enjoyable if you like to read about history just for information sake.
September 11, 2015
Fascinating - civilisation really is like architecture; history all around, if only you know where to look and how to read it. I loved reading about these tribes, most of whom hark back to colonial times and who are desparate to protect their identity and keep their tribe going no matter what.
November 23, 2007
Ever wonder what happened to people left behind when empires collapse? Then read this book.
Read
February 6, 2008This book was interesting. I am not fully satisfied with his methodology, but it was still an interesting viewpoint and I learned a lot.
March 22, 2008
Loved this book, I wanted to learn more.
October 17, 2020
I like reading about race, and I especially like to read about people turning up in unexpected places. This was a quick read for me because I found it so interesting.
September 5, 2013
I give up. I'm just not interested in Orizio's storytelling.
December 31, 2012
Confederate holdouts in Brazil from the civil war? A fascinating study of what happens when power shifts in places.
July 16, 2016
I know the history is important. 30 pages in was just too boring and irrelevant.
Read
November 3, 2016okuduğum en ilginç kitaplardan biri.
October 29, 2025
Exploring the vestiges of para-colonial white communities is more tolerable considering this book was conceived in the 80s and written in the 90s
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