Decolonization and White Africans examines how African decolonization affected white Africans in eight countries – Algeria, Kenya, Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), Angola, Mozambique, South West Africa (Namibia), and South Africa – and discusses their varied responses to decolonization, including resistance, acquiescence, negotiations, and migration. It also examines the range of mechanisms used by the global community to compel white Africans into submitting to decolonization through such means as official pressure, diplomatic negotiations, global activism, sanctions, and warfare.

Until now, books about African decolonization usually approached the topic either from the perspective of the colonial powers or from an anti-colonial black African perspective. As a result, white African perspectives have been marginalized, downplayed, or presented reductively. Decolonization and White Africans adds white African perspectives to the story, thereby broadening our understanding of the decolonization phenomenon.