Identity Resilience Within the Coloured South African Community in Canada; Exploring the Impact of Settler Colonialism, Racialization and Diasporic Movement on Racial/Self Identification

This thesis is an interdisciplinary examination of the resilience of Coloured South African racial identity/self identification. I assert that the dark legacy of settler colonialism, and its concomitant racialization and diasporic movement resulted in the persistence of many identity/traits within immigrant Coloureds living in the Toronto area, long after their departure from South Africa. Coloured identity remains complex and often contradictory while continuing to impact the lives of these immigrants. Existing research and my personal knowledge supplements the life narratives of three Coloured South African interlocutors who emigrated to Canada in the late 1960s, during the tightening of apartheid legislation and heightened violence against non-whites. Only scanty information exists on this sizeable exodus. This study additionally provides a broader understanding of the persistence of settler colonialism, the impact of racialization and diasporic movement, expands existing research on Coloured South Africans and the multifaceted and problematic position of being interracial, during apartheid.