Lost White Tribes: The End of Privilege and the Last Colonials in Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Brazil, Haiti, Namibia, and Guadeloupe

In this fascinating book, author and journalist Riccardo Irizio looks at the "tribes" of white natives living in far off corners of the globe. In the six chapters of this book, he looks at the Dutch burghers who never left Ceylon, the German inhabitants whose ancestors had been tricked into emigrating to Jamaica, the colony of Confederate exiles who fled the United States after the Civil War, the descendents of the Polish soldiers who stayed in Haiti after that countries defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Dutch Basters of Namibia whose ancestors had trod a different path than the Boers, and the Guadeloupe descendents of the Frenchmen who went native. Overall, I found this to be a wonderfully interesting book to read. The author does an excellent job of weaving together the tales of his search for these "lost white tribes" with the story of how they came to be there. Some of the stories are quite sad, with Haitians that consider themselves exiles and are waiting for someone to come take them home after 200 years, people who look down on the countrymen around them because they are not white, people who look down on these people for being white, and so much more. I found their stories to be quite enthralling, sometimes sad, but never boring. If you want to see the tales of white people who went native during the colonial era, then this book is for you. I highly enjoyed it, and think that you will as well!

As a person who loves history and anthropology, the title of this book really got my attention and I eagerly anticipated the arrival of this book. I suppose anyone who wants to know more about the descendants of Europeans living in exotic and remote corners of the world would find this topic very interesting. The author tells of how (and under what circumstances) the ancestors of these peoples got there. He also decribes the lives of the members of these communities. These groups are quickly diminishing in numbers due to emigration, assimilation/intermarriage and inbreeding.The title "Lost White Tribes" is rather misleading though, as only the Jamaican Germans, the Blanc Matignons and some of the Confederados are actually whites. The Dutch Burghers, the Rehoboth Basters, and many of the Confederados as well as the Haitian Poles are in fact mixed-race peoples (ie. Eurasians and Afro-European). From the author's decription, the Haitian Poles despite proudly claiming to be Polish are mainly of African descent with some white admixture. Hence, I was quite suprised that notwithstanding the title and the fact that there are so many white groups and sub-groups in the New World, including some who live amongst a non-white majority, the author has chosen to include these communities. There are still French white creole communities in Mauritius and the Carribean islands, Mennonites in Belize as well as various distinct communities made up of descendants of Germans and other continental Europeans in Latin America. When I was in the Philippines, I found out that there were still many wealthy Spanish families descended from 16th century settlers. I give this book 4 stars because the author wasted too much time describing in detail the place he stayed in, whom he met along the way to asks directions and what he and his companions did (eg. his encounter with a pimp in Sri Lanka, his misadventures with a Protestant minister in Haiti, the two kids he hung out with in Jamaica etc.) He should have used the space in the book to have included more communities.

It really is rare to find an original take on colonialism but this book is brilliant! The stuff on the Confederates who fled to Brazil is beyond bizarre and fresh. I mean, who amongst us knew American descendants of the Confederates were living in Brazil? The lost white tribes the author finds are so varied and unique it begs the question, why has it taken so long for anthropologists to study these groups? Whatever the case may be, Orizio goes to the top of the list as an investigative writer in my books. If I could give it 10 stars, I would.

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.

For anyone interested in the history of colonialism and its modern-day legacy, "Lost White Tribes" is a must-read. Riccardo Orizio takes his reader into forgotten worlds: those of six European communities which, years after the end of colonial rule, have stayed on in their respective countries.Orizio tells the stories of these "white tribes" with just the right mixture of historical background and personal anecdote. The portraits which emerge are more than just footnotes to history - they serve to illuminate the themes of race, class, politics and culture which are central to understanding both the colonial and post-colonial eras. As such, they are a unique and useful contribution to the study of colonialism and its consequences.