The Afterlife of Empire Jordanna Bailkin
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The Afterlife of Empire Jordanna Bailkin Published in association with the University of California Press “Quietly dazzling. In this gripping account of welfare’s postcolonial history, Jordanna Bailkin throws the archives wide open and invites us to walk through them with new eyes—and with renewed appreciation for the intimate connections between empire and metropole in the mak- ing of contemporary Britain. The Afterlife of Empire chal- lenges us to reimagine how we think and teach the twen- tieth century in Britain and beyond.” ANTOINETTE BURTON, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign “A brilliant contribution to the history of twentieth-century Britain. It does what no other book has done: narrating the end of empire and the rise of the postwar welfare state to- gether, while placing the stories of ordinary people—children, adolescents, parents, hus- bands, and wives—at the heart of this account. With this book, Bailkin transforms our un- derstanding of how some of the most critical issues of twentieth-century British history were not just perceived, but lived.” STEPHEN J. BROOKE, York University The Afterlife of Empire investigates how decolonization transformed British society in the 1950s and 1960s. Although usually charted through diplomatic details, the empire’s col- lapse was also a personal process that altered everyday life, restructuring routines and social interactions. Using a vast array of recently declassified sources, Jordanna Bailkin re- casts the genealogy and geography of welfare by charting its unseen dependence on the end of empire, and illuminates the relationship between the postwar and the postimperial. JORDANNA BAILKIN is Giovanni and Amne Costigan Professor of History and Professor of History and Women’s Studies at the University of Washington. Berkeley Series in British Studies, 4 The Afterlife of Empire The Berkeley SerieS in BriTiSh STudieS Mark Bevir and James Vernon, University of California, Berkeley, editors 1. The Peculiarities of Liberal Modernity in Imperial Britain, edited by Simon Gunn and James Vernon 2. Dilemmas of Decline: British Intellectuals and World Politics, 1945 – 1975, by Ian Hall 3. The Savage Visit: New World People and Popular Imperial Culture in Britain, 1710 – 1795, by Kate Fullagar 4. The Afterlife of Empire, by Jordanna Bailkin 5. Smyrna’s Ashes: Humanitarianism, Genocide, and the Birth of the Middle East, by Michelle Tusan The Afterlife of Empire Jordanna Bailkin Global, Area, and International Archive University of California Press Berkeley loS angeleS london The Global, Area, and International Archive (GAIA) is an initiative of the Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley, in partnership with the University of California Press, the California Digital Library, and international research programs across the University of California system. University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. London, England © 2012 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Manufactured in the United States of America 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of anSi/niSo z39.48 – 1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of Paper). Contents List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 1. The Birth of the Migrant: Pathology and Postwar Mobility 23 2. Young Britons: International Aid and “Development” in the Age of the Adolescent 55 3. Problem Learners: Overseas Students and the Dilemmas of Cold War Education 95 4. Much Married Men: Polygamy, Culture, and the State 132 5. The Postcolonial Family? Problem Parents and Children 164 6. Leaving Home: The Politics of Deportation 202 Conclusion 235 Notes 243 Bibliography 309 Index 355 Illustrations 1. Chris Tipple Teaching in Akropong, Ghana 56 2. Alec and Mora Dickson 57 3. Rehearsing Chekhov in Ghana 70 4. Building a Community Center in Jamaica 71 5. “Kwame, and Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Appiah” 81 6. Sir Gerald Templer 85 7. “Congrats” 102 8. “In Quest of ‘Golden Fleece’ ” 103 9. “They Return with ‘Golden Fleece’ ” 103 10. “A Nigerian Ports Authority Instructor Himself Receives Instruction” 104 11. Mrs Lake Bakaar and Miss Grimilda Johnson Trying On Sierra Leone Masks in London 104 12. “Calling Nigeria from Belfast” 105 13. “Preparatory Course for Students” 109 14. From Tom Picton, “Oh Mary, This London” 111 15. From Tom Picton, “Oh Mary, This London” 112 16. Oswald K. Laryea 128 17. Melvine Stuart Spinning Wool at Cambridge University 166 18. Melvine Stuart Giving Tea at Cambridge University 167 19. “Career Women of West Africa” 168 20. Rosamund Ahiama 168 vii viii / Illustrations 21. “Joie de Vivre” 169 22. Wedding Photo of Mr. Eyo Ita and Mrs. Olufemi Jibowu 170 23. “A Santa for Sandra” 172 24. Ann Bello 173 25. Bodi Williams 173 26. “Nigerian Babies ‘Banished’ by Parents in UK” 196 Acknowledgments Five years ago, my father asked me over dinner one evening what my new book was all about. I told him that I wasn’t sure yet, but I thought it would have something to do with how certain fields of knowledge — anthropol- ogy, development studies, law, psychology, sociology, and social work — were reshaped according to the powerful demands of decolonization and the new world order after 1945. My dad beamed. “Hey, it’s all about me!” he cheerfully declared. He had a point, although I scoffed at the time. As an American, he’d gotten hold of the wrong empire and, trained at the University of Chicago, mostly the wrong group of experts. But as the book shifted and grew from its original conception, my father’s complex relationship to the 1950s and 1960s was much on my mind. A former Peace Corps volunteer, lawyer, and urban planner, my father had told me his version of the American story of these decades many times. His study of these disciplines, and the activism they seemed to entail, had been the defining experiences of his life, rescuing him from a troubled youth in ways that he could not always fully articulate. As a recovering Victorianist, I had thought of the postwar years as my father’s very American domain. Now I found myself grappling with the insights that British narratives of this same era might yield, and the ways in which they converged with or diverged from what I thought I already knew. It was daunting, but also exciting to move into new terrain. I am glad to have this chance to thank the many individuals and institutions who helped me to make this shift and to think about its implications. First of all, the librarians and archivists: I thank Grant Buttars, Irene Ferguson, and Sally Pagan at the Edinburgh University Library for pro- viding access to their materials while the library was closed for reno- ix x / Acknowledgments vations. Mary Bone at Chatham House, Chris Ledgard at BBC Bristol, Katie Mooney at the Institute of Education, and Kathleen Dickson, Katrina Stokes, and Steve Tollervey at the British Film Institute were also extraordinarily helpful. Closer to home, I thank Theresa Mudrock and the Interlibrary Loan Office at the University of Washington for working heroically on a shrinking budget to meet the needs of demanding faculty members such as myself. I began working on this project in the idyllic, richly interdisciplinary environment of the National Humanities Center. I thank the staff and fellows for helping me conclude one book and start another. I also thank Kathy Woodward, the perennially optimistic director of the Simpson Center for the Humanities, for inviting me to join the Society of Scholars, and my fellow fellows, especially Ted Mack, Stephanie Smallwood, and Adam Warren for their outstanding insights. The Giovanni and Amne Costigan Endowed Professorship, along with the Keller Fund, the South Asia Center, the Hanauer Fund, and the Simpson Center, provided time and money to complete this project, and I thank Kent Guy and John Findlay, my most recent chairs, for their support. Ali Bilow, Morgan Schoenecker, and Sarah Young provided research assistance with West African newspapers. One of the pleasures of this project has been that it has expanded the group of supportive and generous scholars with whom I am in conversa- tion. I thank Hakim Adi, Frank Biess, Deborah Cohen, David Feldman, Grahame Foreman, Michael Hassett, Lisa Cobbs Hoffman, Kali Israel, Seth Koven, Nicola Lacey, David Lieberman, Julie Livingston, Werner Menski, David Mills, Radhika Natarajan, Margaret O’Mara, Susan Pedersen, Steven Pierce, Gautam Premnath, Alice Ritscherle, Carrie Ritter, Bill Schwarz, Ileana Rodriguez-Silva, Tehila Sasson, Priya Satia, Prakash Shah, Carol Summers, Yinka Sunmonu, Kathleen Wilson, and Chris Waters for offering their valuable thoughts on this project. Even as dialogues with new colleagues emerged, longtime readers and friends remained vital. Lynn Thomas cheerfully read multiple drafts of multiple chapters with her characteristic enthusiasm, saving me from many errors of fact and thinking. She is also the only person in the world with whom I would even consider taking a meditation class, and even though it never happened, I did think about it really hard. Sarah Stein’s judgment regarding this project (and many other things) has been unerr- ing. We all miss her terribly since she went to sunny Santa Monica, but she is still a stalwart pal, even if I can no longer zip down Denny Way to see her.