Sovereign Corporations : Intellectual History and Political Philosophy of the British South Africa Company

In this book, the history of the British South Africa Company becomes a window into one of the central contradictions of modern empire: the transformation of a profit-driven corporation into a sovereign political power. Moving between intellectual history, political philosophy, and settler-colonial studies, the book reconstructs the myths through which the Company justified the conquest and governance of Rhodesia from the late nineteenth century onward. Drawing extensively on the Company’s own archives, reports, and propaganda, the book traces six major myths of legitimation: lawful occupation through treaties, the fight against the slave trade, the protection of the Shona from the Ndebele, settler self-defence, the “white man’s burden,” and the racial mythology surrounding Great Zimbabwe. It shows how these narratives were not static ideological ornaments, but strategic responses to Indigenous resistance, imperial competition, economic interests, and crises of colonial rule. At the same time, the book confronts a broader theoretical question that remains strikingly contemporary: what happens when sovereignty escapes the limits of the state? Engaging thinkers from Hobbes and Weber to Gramsci and Arrighi, the book examines the chartered company as a political form that blurs the boundaries between corporation, empire, and government. Combining archival research with political and philosophical analysis, Sovereign Corporations offers a new perspective on colonial power, corporate sovereignty, and the enduring relationship between capitalism and empire.