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The failure of ethnic nationalism: land, power and the politics of clanship on the South African high veld 1860–1990

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Résumé

Pendant les années 1980, beaucoup a été écrit sur le rôle que les missionnaires, antropologues, bureaucrates coloniaux et intellectuels ont joué dans “l'invention” des catégories ethniques et tribales en Afrique. Aujourd'hui peu d'érudits mettraient en question la complicité des agents coloniaux en ce qui concerne la construction des identités ethniques et tribales. En dépit de ces inventions, cependant, il y a la réalisation grandissante que les processus de formation de l'identité dépendent aussi d'autres facteurs.

Cet article explore cette proposition en enquêtant sur le rôle de la politique sous-ethnique des clans au nord-est de l'“Orange Free State” en Afrique du Sud au siècle dernier et sa contribution spécifique à l'échec du nationalisme ethnique dans cette région. Cet article conclut que de par l'abus de l'ethnicité par l'état sud-africain, il y a une tentation énorme d'exagérer le rôle de l'état dans la formation ethnique en Afrique du Sud et de ne pas prêter assez d'attention aux dynamiques internes de la construction de l'ethnicité.

Type
Traditions invented or reclaimed?
Information
Africa , Volume 65 , Issue 4 , October 1995 , pp. 565 - 591
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1995

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