All new nations face a struggle in constructing a national identity for themselves. This article examines Tajikistan as a particularly interesting case of this issue. The task of nation-building in Tajikistan involves wrestling with factors such as religion, ethnicity, linguistic heritage, and regional loyalties, in a particularly difficult regional context. The author discusses the current celebration of the 1100th anniversary of the Samanid empire as a national celebration of Tajik identity representing important policy choices in solving the dilemmas facing the Tajik nation.
All successful nations possess core symbolic elements that serve as touchstones for their citizens.
These symbolic elements inspire loyalty, concretize feelings of personal pride and honor, and underlie the moral basis for public participation in national defense, politics, and social and economic institutions. New nations must decide, consciously or unconsciously, what symbols best represent their feelings about themselves individually and collectively. New nations in the twentieth century have faced a great struggle in constructing national identities for themselves. The problem is particularly acute when a given nation encompasses more than one ethnic, religious or linguistic group. One can note the problems with new nations of Africa, some of which have dozens of groups with their own local loyalties that supersede their loyalty to the state.