Lost White Tribes

The book gives a fair account of the decendents of European colonists in remote corners of the world. I found it interesting that it did nort include those nations where colonists decendents still live in large numbers and are a major success in their new home! It is interesting to note that in almost all of the countries discussed the economy and lifestyle have plummented for everyone since independence.

an interesting gathering of little known history.educational and informative.

What an exceptionally well researched and written book

Excellent read - fascinating look into aspects of the postcolonial world I'd never heard about - unsentimental but without judgment, and even descriptively poetic in some passages.

The misleading subtitle of this book is a bit of a shame, and it's hard to imagine Italian journalist Orizio being very pleased with it. By positioning the contents in relation to colonialism, the subtitle overlooks the fact that at least three (more depending on interpretation) of the "lost white tribes" visited in the book have nothing to do with colonialism as the word is commonly used-in the imperial context. Unlike the bulk of books about colonialism, which tend to focus on history, politics, and economics, Orizio's six chapters are largely unrelated essays that merge travelogue with anthropology. His style-as in his previous book of essays on ex-dictators, Talk of the Devil-is to start the story by detailing his search for his subject matter. This may put off those looking for straight history, but the stories of traveling down dusty backroads to reach these "lost white tribes" set exactly the right context for their stories.And once he finds his subjects, their stories are fascinating. Americans will probably find the chapter on Confederates in Brazil the most interesting. This tells of the thousands who fled the South after the Civil War, rejecting Reconstruction in favor of a new life in Brazil. Their stubborn "rebel" identity and annual carnival in full Confederate costume is rather bizarre. My own favorite chapter is about small pockets of Polish genes in Haiti. These are the descendants of soldiers sent by Napoleon to assist in quelling the rebellion of 1803. When the rebels led by Toussaint Louverture won, the remaining French were systematically killed but the Poles were spared, as their country was also under Napoleon's boot. Orizio also tracks down pockets of inbred French in Guadeloupe whose reasons for settling in remote parts of the island in the late 1700s are lost to history, the remnants of indentured German laborers imported to Jamaica in the 1830s, Boers who left South Africa and mixed with a local Namibian tribe to become the Basters in the late 1860s, and the remnants of Dutch colonial rule over Sri Lanka/Ceylon.The communities share some characteristics: most are, if not desperately poor, living on an economic razor's edge. Almost all retain some disturbing notions about race and the superiority of their own genes compared to others in their country. The past is clung to in bizarre and fantastic ways, such as the French on Guadeloupe insisting on their connection to French royal blood, and the Haitian Poles waiting in vain for their Polish Pope to help them. They're pathetic figures in many cases, as they seem unable to break free of their tight communities in order to assimilate to any degree that may bring a better life. Of course, Orizio's journeys are to find those stuck in their ways, and it emerges in many cases that the best and brightest youths often don't stick around. His style is fairly conversational and choppy, and each chapter stands alone as its own essay since Orizio never attempts to make connections between any of the groups' experiences. This may be off-putting to some, but it never bothered me-just think of it as a series of related long magazine essays. An excellent glimpse into some of history's lost corners, and sure to be of interest to amateur anthropologists (a bibliography on each "tribe" would have been nice or those of us interested in further reading).

History is written by - and about - the winners. As European nations lost their overseas colonies, scholars focused on local populations that had freed themselves from European rule.In Lost White Tribes, Italian journalist Riccardo Orizio looks at the other side of the coin - what happened to the white colonialists who stayed in the former colonies after independence. During the 1990s, Orizio traveled to six nations (Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Brazil, Haiti, Namibia, and Guadeloupe) to look for these "lost white tribes."The book is both a travelogue and a discussion of the changing meaning of race. "...All of us... belong to a lost tribe. We can all become minorities. We are all potentially irrelevant" (p. 4).The material is uneven. The Namibia and Guadeloupe chapters are fascinating, as they tell little-known stories. The Jamaica chapter is disappointing; I did not learn much. Moreover, the accounts of contemporary life in each nation are fascinating, but the book loses momentum when Orizio goes into digressions on history.For the most part, Orizio avoids telling the reader what to think. But in the final chapter, his tone shifts and he editorializes. For instance, he calls Guadeloupe's whites "...four hundred pigheaded peasants" (p. 241).In the end, Orizio asks "How does one distinguish between a slight story that never made any headlines and a great adventure that deserves the status of history?" (p. 228). While Lost White Tribes' story is slight, it is still interesting. Despite of the book's dead spots, readers interested in colonialism's legacy will want to read Lost White Tribes.

When dreams of empires get displaced they leave behind buildings and monuments that become destroyed or just wither away. But they also leave behind a genetic trail: the descendends of conquerors and dreamers who the former mother country forgot or never acknowledged in the first place,This excellent book visits six of those lost white tribes. Their history is sometimes bizarre (Confederates in Brazil), sad (Poles in Haiti) or just a tale out of a time gone by since centurys (Dutch in Sri Lanka). The six storys vary in their mixture of the author's account of his search for and visit with the lost tribes and the history of those people. The quality of the information is somewhat uneven. One sad impression is universal in all the six tales: the tribes discribed are not only forgotten, but will very soon cease to exist.However this still is a very interesting, fascinatig to read book.

This book is pretty good and you have to admire the author for his meticulous research and tenacity in hunting down these forgotten and obscure groups. However as interesting as the book was in some places there were significant chunks of this book I simply found far too much hard work. I would also suggest that the title of this book is somewhat misleading. For example to argue that the Basters in Namibia represent some sort of Lost white tribe is patently ridiculous. Ultimately this book for me was a bit to much anthropology and not enough colour, pardon the pun.

Bought this primarily for the chapter on the Dutch Burghers of Sri Lanka and was disappointed. A very curosry consideration is given, based on a few shallow interviews. Poorly researched overall.

This is an interesting book. It does what it says on the tin essentially. It's well written rather than life changing, but is worth a go

OK as far as it goes, but I found it to be a bit "thin".

Great!