Beyond belonging? White settler entitlement and the dynamics of nativeness, autochthony and nostalgia in South Africa.
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Date
2022
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Abstract
White settlers continue to impose themselves as owners of contemporary settler
colonies (Veracini, 1999; Moreton-Robinson, 2015). Their imposition not only translates into
making settler colonies their permanent homelands, but also engenders deep sense of
entitlement to them (Veracini, 1999; Moreton-Robinson, 2015). Despite the transition from
an era of outright colonial rule to modern-day liberal democracies, colonial based
asymmetries of power between White settlers and Indigenous groups remain resolute.
Commonly, these asymmetries of power present as race-based hierarchies that shape the
political, social and economic landscape of these societies. Hence, White settlers’ entitlement
claims to contemporary settler colonies are central to the continuing problem of racial
inequality because they rationalise, maintain and even reproduce their enjoyment of historical
privileges. While Indigenous groups, who are the victims of settler colonial conquest,
continue to exist on the margins of these societies (Veracini, 1999; 2008; Moreton-Robinson,
2015).
The social psychology of intergroup relations has hardly paid attention to how White
settlers continue to exercise dominance over contemporary settler colonies by advancing
entitlement claims. In this thesis, I attempt to address this gap in literature by examining how
White nativeness, White settler autochthony beliefs and White settler nostalgia, reinforce
race-based hierarchies. Mainly, I argue that White settlers’ enduring sense of entitlement to
settler colonies reinforces race-based hierarchies through the construction of a White native
status and the mobilisation of White settler autochthony beliefs and nostalgia.
My primary aim in this thesis is to show how White settlers’ psychological
entitlement to settler colonial territory, reinforces preference for race-based hierarchies. To
do this, I first undertake a theoretical examination of how White settlers construct and assert
nativeness to settler colonies. Second, I undertake an empirical examination that investigates how psychological expressions of entitlement to settler colonies, through White settler
autochthony and White settler nostalgia reinforce race-based hierarchies. In my theoretical
examination, I argue that White settlers have constructed themselves as de facto natives by
mobilising settler mythologies. And their assertion of a de facto White native status enables
the mobilising of White settler autochthony and White settler nostalgia. This is because
autochthony beliefs are a powerful set of ethical and moral ideals that award rightful
ownership of a territory based on first arrival and investment of time and labour. While
collective nostalgia is a deep yearning for a place and time in the history of the group
(Wildschut et al., 2014). Autochthony beliefs and collective nostalgia are psychological
orientations are typically used by native groups express entitlement to territory. Hence, in my
empirical examination, I argue that autochthony beliefs and collective nostalgia are
expressions of psychological entitlement to territory that White settlers use to reinforce racebased
hierarchies, because they help them justify racial asymmetries and reflect their
assertion of a de facto White native status.
Description
Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.