Bernard Lategan & Manuel Castells 
National Identity and State Formation in Africa 

This book examines how the interplay between globalization and the assertion of local identities is reshaping the political landscape of Africa. While defending their values against external forces, people simultaneously – and paradoxically – use the interconnectivity of global networks to maximize their particular interests. Focusing on the relation between national identity and state formation, the authors explore the far-reaching consequences of these contradictory dynamics.

Although Africa shares many common trends with other parts of the world, it also displays distinctive features. A region characterized by the increased mobility of people, goods and ideas challenges some conventional assumptions of statecraft and also highlights the advantages of federalism – not merely as a constitutional option, but as a pragmatic device for managing diversity and holding fragile states together. The book further explores emerging types of state formation in the same political space, as exemplified by the combination of elements of a kingdom, an independent state and a national power base in the province of Kwa Zulu-Natal and the careful crafting of an alternative state within a state by the Solidarity Movement in South Africa.

Informed by examples and case studies drawn from different parts of Africa, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars of Africa, politics, sociology, media studies and the social sciences more generally.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Table of contents:Preface

List of Contributors

List of Acronyms

Chapter 1: Introduction: Identity, Networks and State Formation in Africa

Manuel Castells and Bernard Lategan

Chapter 2: Mobility, Globalisation and the Policing of Citizenship and Belonging in the 21st Century

Francis B. Nyamnjoh

Chapter 3: Federalism in Africa

Eghosa E. Osaghae

Chapter 4: National Identity and State Formation: The Case of the Former UN Trust Territory of the British Southern Cameroons

Carlson Anyangwe

Chapter 5: The Secession of Eritrea from Ethiopia: A Historical Profile

Bahru Zewde

Chapter 6: National Identity of Sudan and the Emergence of South Sudan

Samson S. Wassara

Chapter 7: A New Kind of State for the Nation? Civil Society Mobilisation and White Minority Identity Politics in Post-apartheid South Africa

Danelle van Zyl-Hermann

Chapter 8: Reimagining the Sporting Nation: Negotiating Identity and Globalisation Amongst ‚Coloured‘ Supporters of the New Zealand Rugby Team

Marizanne and Albert Grundlingh

Chapter 9: The Persistence of Ethnic Identities in Kwa Zulu-Natal

Jabulani Sithole

Chapter 10: Identity-based Conflict in Kwa Zulu-Natal: Current State and Future Prospects

Mary de Haas

Chapter 11: Rethinking Mobility, States, Borders and Identity: Some Concluding Remarks

Bernard Lategan

References

Über den Autor

Manuel Castells is Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of California, Berkeley. He is one of the most widely-cited and influential social scientists in the world today and he has taught at universities in Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Bolivia.
Bernard Lategan is Founder and former Director of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study in South Africa.