The Nature of Whiteness explores the intertwining of race and nature
in postindependence Zimbabwe. Nature and environment have played
prominent roles in white Zimbabwean identity, and when the political
tide turned against white farmers after independence, nature was the
most powerful resource they had at their disposal. In the 1970s,
"Mlilo," a private conservancy sharing boundaries with Hwange National
Park, became the first site in Zimbabwe to experiment with "wildlife
production," and by the 1990s, wildlife tourism had become one of the
most lucrative industries in the country. Mlilo attained international
notoriety in 2015 as the place where Cecil the Lion was killed by a
trophy hunter.
Yuka Suzuki provides a balanced study of whiteness, the conservation of
nature, and contested belonging in twenty-first-century southern Africa.
The Nature of Whiteness is a fascinating account of human-animal
relations and the interplay among categories of race and nature in this
embattled landscape.