Historicising nationalism in Africa

Abstract

This paper proposes rethinking nationalism as a political ideology and force in Africa outside the boundaries of the postcolonial African state. It argues against national histories and for histories of the construction of African nationalisms. In analysing the anti‐colonial basis of nationalism globally, it argues that the basis for African nationalism is similar to and not distinct from dominant nationalist processes elsewhere. The paper analyses the problematic historiography of African nationalism, arguing that the focus on political outcomes – the independent nation‐state – has distorted and distracted from a necessary historical focus on process, best understood as involving competing and contested nationalisms before and after national independence. Having identified a wave of recent literature that analyses such competing nationalisms across the continent, the paper sets out a research agenda for systematic historical analysis of African nationalism.

Team and Nation: Sports, Nationalism, and Attitudes Toward Refugees

“…Across the globe, national sporting events have been shown to be a potential mechanism through which states can foster nationalism (Billings et al, 2013). In Africa, post-independence leaders used sports, particularly football, as a nation-building tool to foster a shared national identity (Dorman, 2019;Larmer & Lecocq, 2018). Recent cross-national research on the continent reveals that national sports team victories lead to greater national identification, increased trust in members of other ethnic groups, and lowered intrastate ethnic conflict (Depetris-Chauvin et al, 2018).…”

Again, making Tanzania great: Magufuli’s restorationist developmental nationalism

“…Anti-political nationalist discourses construct the nation as united and construct ethnic and separatist movements as divisive threats. 53 Separatist nationalisms imagine peoples denied sovereign statehood by foreign oppressors. 54 Nativist Pre-proofs May 2020 Dan Paget Democratization nationalisms vilify foreign allochthons which threaten national autochthons.…”

Beyond the Modern: Muslim Youth Imaginaries of Nation in Northern Nigeria

“…The sedimentation of the North/ South differentiation was however often associated with differences between the three major ethnic groups (Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba), in ways that flattened recognition of the multi-ethnic diversities within Nigeria's main geographic regions, and indeed the diverse ways that ethnicity, religion and region map onto each other. As Larmer and Lecocq (2018) note, the use of an ethnic signifier (e.g. Igbo) constructs their affiliations as 'ethno-nationalisms' in ways that tend to disqualify them from being 'proper' Nigerians.…”

“…Igbo) constructs their affiliations as 'ethno-nationalisms' in ways that tend to disqualify them from being 'proper' Nigerians. Given that these relations have been forged over centuries, including those of the colonial era, this suggests the importance of an historical analysis of the divisions that reverberate within postcolonial nationalisms (Go, 2013;Larmer and Lecocq, 2018). This leads us to the final section in our analysis, which takes up the construction of the postcolonial nation against the 'other' of the 'West' (Hall, 1992(Hall, , 1996.…”

“…However, others suggest that expressions such as ‘ethno-nationalism’ continue to reflect orientalist perspectives by denigrating those nationalisms which did not become ‘official nationalisms’ (Larmer and Lecocq, 2018; Tinsley, 2019). Like Fanon (1967), Larmer and Lecocq (2018) point out that ‘official nationalisms’ in African contexts were often propelled by local elites working within colonial administrations, rather than by popular consensus. This left national imaginaries multiply contested, to the extent that the national ‘integration’ which such ‘official nationalisms’ proclaimed could be experienced as ‘internal colonisation’ by non-dominant ethnic groups (2018: 910).…”