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nationalism

Biafran ghosts : The MASOB Ethnic Militia and Nigeria’s Democratisation Process

Upphovsperson: Okonta, Ike
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | Uppsala, Sweden
År: 2012
Ämnesord: Nigeria, Biafra, Democratization, political development, Ethnicity, Ethnic groups, Interethnic relations, Social movements, nationalism, Political science, Statsvetenskap
The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), an ethnicmilitia, emerged in the Igbo-speaking region of Nigeria in 1999, shortly after military rule ended and Olusegun Obasanjo took office as elected President. MASSOB’s stated goal is the struggle for Igbo self-determination and the re-emergence of a new sovereign state in the eastern part of the country to be known as the ‘United States of Biafra’, thereby raising the spectre of a possible break up of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This Discussion Paper examines the circumstances of MASSOB’s emergence in a period of political transition and considerable uncertainty as the Nigerian armed forces began to prepare to relinquish their grip on power, and the specific ways the promoters of this ethnicmilitia movement have shaped Nigeria’s still unfolding democratization process since 1999.

Globally Oriented Citizenship and International Voluntary Service

Upphovsperson: Adebanwi, Wale
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Globalization, Trade and Regional Integration | Uppsala
År: 2011
Ämnesord: Nigeria, Development aid, Technical cooperation, Voluntary services, South south relations, Volunteers, nationalism, Citizenship, Surveys, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
This Discussion Paper explores Nigeria’s human development aid to Africa, Caribbean and Pacific countries under its international volunteer programme called the Technical Aid Corps (TAC). It critically examines the relationship between participation in international civic service and civic nationalism. Using a combination of empirical and analytical methods, the author is able to provide insights into the impact of two decades of Nigeria’s aid diplomacy within the context of South-South solidarity and into the inculcation of values linked to globally oriented citizenship in TAC volunteers. The findings of this study are of value to those interested in emerging African development cooperation in the global South and the expanding notions of citizenship beyond borders. Scholars, development actors and policymakers will find this study refreshingly different and highly informative.

The Zimbabwean Nation-State Project : A Historical Diagnosis of Identity and Power-based Conflicts in a Postcolonial State

Upphovsperson: Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Sabelo J.
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2011
Ämnesord: Zimbabwe, nationalism, State, Political conflicts, political development, Political leadership, Elite, Ethnicity, National identity, Nation-building, Post-colonialism, Political science, Statsvetenskap
This Discussion Paper draws attention to the often overlooked aspects of the limits, poverty and contradictions embedded in the “unfinished business” of the Zimbabwe nation state project. It is located within the broader context of the crisis of the nation-state in an African continent increasingly buffeted by waves of globalisation. It also revisits the debate on whether postcolonial nationalism can completely avoid reproducing the racial and ethnic discrimination that characterised its colonial past. Zeroing in on Zimbabwe, the paper argues that the nation-state crisis has roots in the legacy of settler colonialism, the ethnic fragmentation that marked the history of the liberation movement and the character of the nationalist elite. Its critique of the politics of the nationalist and political elite, the Lancaster House Agreement, the National Democratic Revolution and the Global Political Agreement makes this paper an important contribution to the debates on the real legacy of the liberation struggle in Zimbabwe and the prospects for a common national identity based on nationalism, social justice, inclusive democracy and development in the country.

Tales of the nation : feminist nationalism or patriotic history?

Upphovsperson: Bull-Christiansen, Lene
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2004
Ämnesord: Zimbabwe, feminism, nationalism, identity, literature, Yvonne Vera, history, Matabeleland, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
In light of the uses and misuses of history in Zimbabwean politics in recent years, this research report focuses on how versions of the country’s liberation war history have become a site of struggle over the definition of Zimbabwean national identity. As identity politics’often do, Zimbabwean nationalism draws on a wide field of cultural symbols of identity and political discourses of inclusion and exclusion. Therefore, the report takes a cross-disciplinary approach to the issue of national identity by mapping out the imaginary field of Zimbabwean nationalism. This approach opens up the possibility of cross-reading the political discourses of the President and the ruling party ZANU (PF) with opposing voices such as those in the works of the author Yvonne Vera. This cross-reading shows how Vera's novels and the political discourses participate in the struggle over Zimbabwean national identity by offering different versions of the nation’s history in the form of patriotic history, feminist nationalism, or narratives of difference. In this way the research report adds to our understanding of power and resistance in Zimbabwean politics of national identity.