Daphné Budasz

This dissertation deals with the question of cross-cultural intimacy in relation to race and migration in British East Africa (BEA) between 1895 and 1930. The first decades of British colonial rule were characterised by various movements of people, including the immigration of Indian workers, the arrival of European settlers, the displacement of indigenous groups, as well as internal mobility triggered by colonial labour policies and urban development. At the same time, the period witnessed the progressive delineation of racial boundaries which were materialised through spatial segregation (creation of 'Native Reserves' and White Highlands, ban on land acquisition for Indians etc.); the legalisation of unequal treatments (the racially based legal system) and the tightening of racial thinking (eugenics). This dissertation reflects on these historical developments through the perspective of cross-cultural intimacy considered as both a cause and effect of this context.

The notion of 'cross-cultural intimacy' refers to various cases of close relations that represented a transgression of racial boundaries along which the colonial society was supposedly organised. In this research, I consider within the same framework encounters of varying nature involving distinctive groups of people: marriage between Indian migrants and indigenous women, British administrators who 'went native' (namely who lived with local women), indigenous runaway wives re-marrying outside of their communities, colonial prostitution, and cases of sexual abuses.

The aim of this work is to research the way racial, sexual and gender norms were defined, by whom they were defined, how they were experienced and, above all, how they were challenged. I aspire to provide a better understanding of the possibilities for cross-cultural intimate encounters and the meaning these relations had for those who experienced them. By considering the role and position of Indian settlers in East Africa, this research also shows how co-existing patriarchal orders interplayed with each other and how indigenous women navigated them. Overall, this research explores the way the handling and effect of 'transgressive' intimate relations changed over time and the fluidity of gender and racial boundaries in colonial context.