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Crossing the Color Line: Race, Sex and the Contested Politics of Colonialism in Ghana. BY CARINA E. RAY. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2015. Pp. 333. $64.00 (cloth); $26.36 (paper).
The regulation of sexuality in European colonies is a popular topic, but rarely has it been examined in such a nuanced way. This well-sourced book covers the sixteenth century to the present day, although the primary focus is on African European concubinage and marriage in the Gold Coast during British colonization, between the 1890s and the 1950s. The strength of this book is Ray's close study of the thousands of pages of material covering the small number of interracial relationships investigated by the Colonial Office, which make up the bulk of part 1, along with the few cases of intermarriage in Britain and the repercussions there and in the Gold Coast from 1919 to the present day, as detailed in the shorter part 2. Her analysis of available records shocks and moves readers, offering delicately nuanced interpretations of the lives and relationships (not just sexual) of the men and women caught up in scandal. Indeed, few historians can match her skill in demonstrating the interplay between race, sexuality, and class.
This is exemplified in chapter 2, which discusses Marcus Clarke, the first colonial officer investigated for violating a 1907 ban on concubinage. Clarke was accused of attempting to procure young African girls for sex, and Ray reveals how the case was less about illicit sex than about the racial and class implications of his position as a "West Indian of partial African descent" (58) who had been imported into the Gold Coast as a European official with European wages. This episode demonstrates how cases...