Bordering intimacy THEORY FOR A GLOBAL AGE Series Editor: Gurminder K. Bhambra, Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies in the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex Globalization is widely viewed as a current condition of the world, but there is little engagement with how this changes the way we understand it. The Theory for a Global Age series addresses the impact of globalization on the social sciences and humanities. Each title will focus on a particular theoretical issue or topic of empirical controversy and debate, addressing theory in a more global and interconnected manner. With contributions from scholars across the globe, the series will explore different perspectives to examine globalization from a global viewpoint. True to its global character, the Theory for a Global Age series will be available for online access worldwide via Creative Commons licensing, aiming to stimulate wide debate within academia and beyond. Previously published by Bloomsbury: Published by Manchester University Press: Connected sociologies Gurminder K. Bhambra Race and the Yugoslav region: Postsocialist, post-conflict, postcolonial? Eurafrica: The untold history of European Catherine Baker integration and colonialism Peo Hansen and Stefan Jonsson Debt as power Tim Di Muzio and Richard H. Robbins On sovereignty and other political delusions Joan Cocks Subjects of modernity: Time-space, disciplines, margins Postcolonial piracy: Media distribution and Saurabh Dube cultural production in the global south Edited by Lars Eckstein and Anja Schwarz Frontiers of the Caribbean Phillip Nanton The Black Pacific: Anti-colonial struggles and oceanic connections John Dewey: The global public and its Robbie Shilliam problems John Narayan Democracy and revolutionary politics Neera Chandhoke Bordering intimacy Postcolonial governance and the policing of family Joe Turner Manchester University Press Copyright © Joe Turner 2020 The right of Joe Turner to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This electronic version has been made freely available under a Creative Commons (CC-BY-NC-ND) licence, which permits non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction provided the authors and Manchester University Press are fully cited and no modifications or adaptations are made. Details of the licence can be viewed at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Published by Manchester University Press Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 5261 4696 0 hardback ISBN 978 1 5261 4694 6 open access First published 2020 The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Typeset by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited For William-Cem Contents List of figures page viii Series editor’s foreword ix Acknowledgements xi Introduction: bordering intimacy 1 1 Domestication 29 2 Making love, making empire 64 3 Shams 100 4 Monsters 134 5 Deprivation 161 6 The good migrant 180 7 Looking back 219 Conclusion: pasts and presents 240 References 254 Index 286 Figures 1 ‘In the harem’, Lehnert & Landrock postcard, 1900s–1910s. Creative Commons. page 190 2 ‘My house boys’, Verdin. Licensed by British Empire & Commonwealth Collection at Bristol Archives, 2000/098/1/105 (Verdin Collection). 195 3 African Oil Nut Company Christmas card, Verdin. Courtesy of British Empire & Commonwealth Collection at Bristol Archives, 2000/098/1/52 (Verdin Collection). 196 4 Pedro Fuentes, from Arrivals: Making Sheffield Home by Jeremy Abrahams. © Jeremy Abrahams 2019. Courtesy of the artist. 203 5 ‘These water melons’, postcard. Courtesy of British Empire & Commonwealth Collection at Bristol Archives 2005/001/151/1. 220 6 Teresa María Díaz Nerio, Hommage à Sara Bartman, 2012. © Teresa María Díaz Nerio. Courtesy of the artist. 232 Series editor’s foreword Recent years have seen borders and bordering practices gain ever-greater visibility and political purchase in a variety of locations across the globe. In Bordering intimacy: Postcolonial governance and the policing of family, Joe Turner powerfully examines how borders work to manage intimacy in the present. He explores how intimacy, manifest in particular ideas of the family, is constructed historically through the racial categories and processes of governance that were central to imperial and colonial formations. He does this through an exploration of ideas and practices of domestication and the deprivation of rights and of the creation of monsters and the contrast with notions of the good migrant. In particular, he suggests that ideas of family were not only used to create hierarchies of development, but that such notions were a key aspect in the processes by way of which colonised peoples were dispossessed and disinherited. Whilst Turner’s substantive focus is on Britain and the British Empire, his analysis has a much broader resonance in terms of setting out how the co-constitution of intimacy and borders has been a central feature, more generally, of modes of postcolonial governance. He traces the continuity to the present of colonial-era ideas of who is understood to be fully human or not-quite-human and therefore who has even the possibility of being able to belong. Turner expertly contextualises this in relation to the making and remaking of racialised violence in the periphery and its perpetuation in the metropole. In bringing together scholarship on coloniality, race, borders, intimacy and family, Turner extends the boundaries of the fields within which he works and marks a distinctive position for his arguments within them. The Theory for a Global Age series, of which this book is a part, seeks to transform the standard understandings which shape our dis- ciplines and academic fields by starting from other places. Turner brilliantly demonstrates how work that situates Britain itself as post- colonial, that recognises Britain’s contemporary political landscape as x Series editor’s foreword configured by its historical colonial conditions, opens up new vistas and new questions which have the potential to startle us out of our complacent renditions and understandings. This book is a powerful recontextualisation of contemporary Britain as postcolonial Britain understood in terms of its discourses and practices around borders and bordering, intimacy and family, governance and domestication. In the process, it also provokes us to rethink our understandings of borders, of intimacy, of family and of governance. It is a superb, and timely, addition to the series. Gurminder K. Bhambra University of Sussex Acknowledgements I always like reading acknowledgements. Academic labour is too often individualised so it is good to be reminded of the collaborative character of knowledge production. Books so often have communal origins and the writing of them is shaped by complex intimacies. This one is no different. The groundwork for this book began in 2015 and I would like to thank all of those who provided initial support and an intellectual environment where the idea could develop. Robbie Shilliam saw potential in the project from the start and for that I am grateful. The germination of this work was helped by two years of involvement in the Postcolonial Governmentality workshops organised by Terri-Anne Teo and Elisa Wynne-Hughes. Likewise, the creation of the Colonial, Decolonial and Postcolonial BISA working group by Meera Sabaratnam, Mustapha Pasha and Robbie (and continued by Lisa Tilley, Kerem Nisancioglu, Nivi Manchanda and Gargi Bhattacharya) provided a vital and inspiring intellectual space for the type of research which does not always fit in British politics departments. Books start with an idea (or in this case an encounter) but they are pursued through an orientation and drive. For me this was to recognise the importance of (and yet absence of) the colonial to my work and the reasons for that. For this I am indebted to Inanna Hamati-Ataya’s questioning of Eurocentric positionality throughout my research. During my time at the University of Sheffield I was lucky enough to find a group of supportive colleagues. Particular thanks go out to those involved in the International Politics Research Group, as well as to the IR and Decolonial reading group members for interesting discus- sions and solidarity. In our regular book club, I found colleagues who were willing not only to share ideas, read drafts and give constructive feedback but also to support the emotional labour of booking writing. To Joanna Tidy, Liam Stanley and Jonna Nyman – a big thank you! xii Acknowledgements Remember, it all starts with ‘bodies and borders’. Numerous colleagues read drafts and sections of this book and for this I am indebted, par- ticularly to Jonathan Joseph, Joanna Tidy, Lucy Mayblin, Amna Kaleem, Dan Bailey, Matt Wood, Luke de Noronha and Cemal Burak Tansel. Spike Peterson was a constant source of support and encouragement throughout the writing process and for this I am forever grateful. Sections of this book were presented at several seminars, workshops and conferences – the University of Manchester, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Queen Mary University of London, and BISA Brighton, ISA Toronto, ECPG Amsterdam – and I would like to thank all of the fellow panel members and organisers for their ideas and feedback. I am so pleased that the book has a home in the wonderful Theory for a Global Age series. Gurminder Bhambra was an exemplary editor and the book’s inclusion in the series feels particularly right given that so much of her research has inspired my own work. I would also like to thank Caroline Wintersgill and Alun Richards from Manchester University Press for their patience and support through the editing process and Joe Haining for his diligent copy-editing of the manuscript.