African Development

1
African Development

• Ethnicity and the Politics
• Of Sub-Nationalism

2
Reading

• Questions and Clarification

3
Examples of Ethnic Conflict

• Cambodia?
• Bosnia/Kosovo
• Somalia
• Central Africa Rwanda/Zaire
• East Timor and Indonesia

4
Nationalism and Ethnicity

• DISCUSSION POINT IS AFRICAN ETHNICITY DIFFERENT?

5
Ethnicity

• The Story of Lingala
• Language spoken along Congo River by many groups
• No real Ngala Group
• Missionaries and Colonial officers heard the
  language
• By 1960, a group definition

6
Defining Ethnicity

• Core Separatism based on Language
• Language Group Identity
• Impaced by Colonialism-Divide and ally
• Geographic Ethnic Separation
• Multi-Ethnic Groups live together
• Sub-Nationalism- Perception of Group as nation
• Africa- Ethnic Mosaic

7
Nigeria

• 100, 000 people
• 10 Major languages (350,000 people )
• 248 Languages

8
Nigeria Three Places in One

• Northern Nigeria Dry, Grazing County Moslem,
  Hausa and Fulani
• Middle Belt Temperate, Hilly, Underutilized
  potential for Grain Crops- small heterogenous
  groups, Tiv and Nupe
• South Tropical forest, humid, palm oil, cocoa,
  oil. Yoruba, Wes, Ibo East

9
The Norway Problem

• Norway- A Nation State of 3.9 million people
• Ibo- a tribe of 17 million people
• Theme a State without a Nation

10
Defining Nationalism without states The Norway
Problem

• Defined as parochialism- Identification and value
  system set within Autonomous Local Communities
• Problems with "tribalism
• European Term, Conventional Use
• Tribes vs. Detribalization- What does it mean?

11
Ethnic Consciousness

• Sometimes New
• Often accidental
• External in origin
• Formed by urban contact
• Changing
• Related to Differences in Economic Advantages

12
Definitions of Sovereign Authority

• State
• Nation
• Government
• State-Centric Nationalism

13
Asian Ethnicity

• A Core Nationality and Outlying tribes
• Indonesia and Java
• India and Hindi (Crosscutting caste, religion and
  language)
• Kurds Minorities in Four Countries- Turkey,
  Iraq, Syria, Iran
• Iran Persia

14
Patrimonial Leadership and ethnic identity

• Is there an African traditional model?
• The authoritarian President as paramount chief?
• Is there a uniquely African State?

15
Defining Nationalism

• North Africa "Arab majorities" and "minorities"-
• Sudan, Chad, Mauritania and Morocco
• The Horn- Clans, religion and colonial borders

16
Defining Nationalism

• Uganda and sub-nationalism
• Nigeria and "federalism" Biafra
• Guinea Conakry and "ethnic arithmetic
• South Africa and "Zulu Nationalism"

17
Ethnicity, Race and Culture

• Focus of Explanations for Failure in Africa
• The nature of conflict
• The legitimacy of colonial borders

18
Ethnicity Issues

• Biology vs. Attitudes (Race)
• Ethnicity as a concept
• Colonial vs. Indigenous Languages
• The role of lingua francas English, French,
  Portuguese and Trade Languages Hausa, Swahili

19
Ethicity

• Clifford Geetrz and his Critics
• Clifford Geertz, The Integrative Revolution
  Primordial Sentiments and Civil Politics in the
  New States
• In Clifford Geertz, ed. OLD SOCIETIES AND NEW
  STATES (New York Free Press, 1968).

20
Theories of Ethnicity Primordial Sentiments

• Primordialism- Allegiance based on givens,
  culture, language and religion
• Contrasts Primorial vs. civil sentiments (Civil
  Society)
• Primordial- Permanent and unchanging

21
Primoridalism

• Corporate sentiments of oneness
• Personality flaw that must be corrected
• Undermines the Nation
• Ethnicity is destrictive
• Embedded in ancient myths and history

22
Civil Society

• Interests are rationally defined
• Broaden to form nation state
• Civic sense separates public interest from group
  interests
• Government superior to other collective or
  private interests
• Nationalism within Nation-State- Rational

23
Cleavages

• Cumulative (overlapping) vs.
• Crosscutting
• NORTHERN IRELAND
• Catholic
• Poor
• Urban
• Working Class

24
Ethnic Conflict

• Conflict in Africa is Civil War
• Colonial Boundaries Artificial
• Anti-colonial agitation often ethnic based
• Result Geographic sessession
• Sierra Leone, Liberia, Sudan, Somalia,
  Eritrea/Ethiopia, Angola and Mozambique

25
Related Terms Finding a meaning for Social
divisions

• Cultural Pluralism
• Cultural Sub-nationalism
• Religious Fundamentalism and Nationalism

26
Ethnicity as a Process

• Contextual and Changing
• Towns urban contact and the other
• retribalization
• European origins of ethnic identity
• Tradition actually changes

27
Explanations of Ethnicity

• Ethnicity as class
• cultural sub-nationalism
• Contextual- intensification of ethnic identity-
  and the reverse
• Ethnicity as Nationalism

28
Ethnicity and Class

• Class is Traditional
• Class was reinforced by Colonial Rule
• New Organizational and Economic Elites have ties
  to Pre-colonial elites
• Strikes and Spoils- Ethnic in Nature

29
Discussion The Novels

• Ousemane
• Achebe
• Gordimer
• Vassanji
• Ngugi

30
NEXT Week

• The Francophone Group