Making Nations, Creating Strangers (African Social Studies Series)
Contributors: Sara Dorman (Editor); Daniel Hammett (Editor); Paul Nugent (Editor)
Publisher: BRILL
Published: June 15, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 282
ISBN-13: 9789004157903
Subjects: African studies; Social Science; Ethnic Issues; Sociology; Ethnic Studies - General; Africa; History
Description: Who belongs to the nation? How is citizenship defined? And why have such identities become so politically explosive in recent years? This book explores the instrumental manipulation of citizenship and narrowing definitions of national-belonging which refract recent political struggles in Zimbabwe, Cotê d'Ivore, Cameroon, Somalia, Tanzania and South Africa. Conflicts which have arisen over the resources of the post-colonial state are increasingly legitimated through recourse to claims of nationhood and citizenship. The contributors address the historical roots of national and ethnic identities, the material and symbolic resources which are contested within states, and the relative importance of elite manipulation and subaltern agency.