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- Title
Identifying Colonial Subjects.
- Authors
Brückenhaus, Daniel
- Abstract
Examining the introduction of fingerprinting in British sub-Saharan Africa between 1900 and 1960, this article demonstrates how this region became an important site of experimentation in the use of biometric methods for maintaining a racial hierarchy. Focusing on British Kenya, the article shows that many Africans experienced race-based fingerprinting as a threat to their personal honor and dignity. African opposition to this practice caused political conflict not only in Kenya, but also in the British metropole, and was a significant factor behind the emergence of the Kenyan nationalist movement.
- Subjects
AFRICA; KENYA; UNITED Kingdom; HUMAN fingerprints; HISTORY of Sub-Saharan Africa; BIOMETRIC identification; HIERARCHIES; HISTORY of Kenya, to 1963; IMPERIALISM; NATIONALISM; TWENTIETH century; RACE relations
- Publication
Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 2016, Vol 42, Issue 1, p60
- ISSN
0340-613X
- Publication type
Article