Race, Resistance, and the Boy Scout Movement in British Colonial Africa: In British Colonial Africa

by Timothy H. Parsons

Conceived by General Sir Robert Baden-Powell as a way to reduce class tensions in Edwardian Britain, scouting evolved into an international youth movement. It offered a vision of romantic outdoor life as a cure for disruption caused by industrialization and urbanization. Scouting’s global spread was due to its success in attaching itself to institutions of authority. As a result, scouting has become embroiled in controversies in the civil rights struggle in the American South, in nationalist resistance movements in India, and in the contemporary American debate over gay rights. In Race, Resistance, and the Boy Scout Movement in British Colonial Africa , Timothy Parsons uses scouting as an analytical tool to explore the tensions in colonial society. Introduced by British officials to strengthen their rule, the movement targeted the students, juvenile delinquents, and urban migrants who threatened the social stability of the regime. Yet Africans themselves used scouting to claim the rights of full imperial citizenship. They invoked the Fourth Scout Law, which declared that a scout was a brother to every other scout, to challenge racial discrimination. Parsons shows that African scouting was both an instrument of colonial authority and a subversive challenge to the legitimacy of the British Empire. His study of African scouting demonstrates the implications and far-reaching consequences of colonial authority in all its guises.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

424 pages, Paperback

First published November 28, 2004

Reviews

[Benemint · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting *details* about the racial segregation and adapted education in colonial Africa. The Scouting was an extra-school activity, so you'll get to read educational policies in these countries too. Despite its topic that could attract wide audience, the writing is not that fun. It might be hard for general audience to keep reading.

[Jack Kirby and the X-man · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is very obviously an academic thesis turned into a book. It thus suffers the problems academic works so often suffer - a lack of a coherent narrative, excessive repetition and plenty of assumed knowledge. If however you go to the effort to wade through this book it rewards you.

Fasinating insights into the role of Scouts in British colonial (and briefly post-colonial) Africa. It concentrates on South Africa and Kenya, representing South and East Africa. Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia are also covered in lesser detail.

There are interesting parallels between the Boy Scouts of America and the African Scout associations in their struggles with controversial political issues. The ongoing Girls, Gays and God issues within the BSA have distinct parallels with the issues of segregation in the African assocations. Should the Scouts be a progressive organisation that lead public opinions, or should they be a conservative organisation that only moves once public opinion has? Should individual Scouts work within the organisation to bring about change, or should they create independent Scout Troops outside the official bureaucracy, or should they give up on Scouts entirely?






the struggles between the African Scout Association's


Scout associations accepting what is right and what is politically acceptable