Colonial imaginaries, colonized places

This chapter examines the production of colonial imaginaries in the practice of Empire and how they were manifest, and contested, in colonized places. It considers the specificities of place in accounts of colonialism in order to appreciate the situatedness of colonial rule, and the entanglements of its material and discursive forces. It begins with an examination of how power was inscribed onto the fabric of colonized places through the creation of dual cities in which separate European cantonments and native quarters were established. Drawing on research with former colonial administrators, the chapter goes on to reveal the contingent and heterogeneous character of these colonial places. It further explores collaborations between anti-colonial leaders exiled by the British to the Seychelles to demonstrate how colonial imaginaries of, and practices in, colonized places were not transferred seamlessly but were resisted in various ways. The chapter concludes with a discussion of contemporary postcolonial legacies.