Yao Lu

Raised in Zambia, I am a sociologist studying racial and ethnic classification and post-independent statecraft, with a regional focus on Africa. My research examines how African states have inherited, reconfigured, and contested colonial systems of classification—especially through the institution of the census. I draw on archival documents, historical census forms, interviews, and oral histories to analyze how identity categories like race, tribe, and ethnicity have been deployed, suppressed, or transformed by African governments in the service of nation-building, social control, and international alignment.

My dissertation, State and Racial Classification in Africa: Colonial and Post-Independent Patterns, focuses on Zambia and Zimbabwe as comparative case studies to trace how classification schemes have shifted from the colonial to post-independent period. It explores how colonial bureaucracies, racial and ethnic conflict, and global statistical regimes have shaped divergent national approaches to counting and categorizing populations. In addition to in-depth fieldwork and archival research, I also compiled and analyzed a dataset of 235 census reports from 57 African countries and territories (1955–2024) to map broader regional patterns. Through this work, I aim to contribute to debates on race and ethnicity, the state, and the afterlives of empire in African societies.