Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T01:39:57.671Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nation-state or nation-family? Nationalism in marginalised African societies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2019

Abhit Bhandari  and
Lisa Mueller
Abhit Bhandari*
Affiliation:
Columbia University, Department of Political Science, 420 West 118th Street Room 710, New York, NY 10027, USA
Lisa Mueller*
Affiliation:
Macalester College, Department of Political Science, 1600 Grand Avenue, Saint Paul, MN 55105, USA
*
Email: [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Scholars have long puzzled over strong nationalism in weak African states. Existing theories suggest that (a) incumbent leaders use nationalistic appeals to distract people from state weakness; or (b) citizens use nationalistic claims to exclude rival groups from accessing patronage and public goods. But what explains robust nationalism in places where politicians seldom visit and where the state under-provides resources, as is true across much of Africa? We propose a theory of familial nationalism, arguing that people profess attachment to a nation-family instead of to a nation-state under conditions where the family, and not the state, is the main lifeline. We substantiate it using surveys from the border between Niger and Burkina Faso, where an international court ruling allowed people to choose their citizenship, thus providing a test for nationalism in marginalised communities. We supplement the border data with surveys and focus groups from the capitals of both countries.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 57 , Issue 2 , June 2019 , pp. 297 - 322
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

For invaluable research assistance and data collection we thank Thierno Mamadou Sow, Bachirou Ayouba Tinni, Adam Malah, Roukiatou Nikiema and Mohamed Tidjane Kinda. We thank Amadou Tankoana for insight on his role in the ICJ border dispute case and Issa Abdou Yonlihinza for his input on mining in western Niger. For helpful comments we thank seminar participants at ASA, APSA, Northwestern and WGAPE. The DeWitt Wallace Fund provided generous fieldwork funding. This project was approved by the Institutional Review Boards of Macalester College and Columbia University (IRB-AAAQ5013).

References

REFERENCES

Ahmed, D. 2015. Boundaries and Secessionism in Africa and International Law: challenging uti possidetis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Alesina, A., Easterly, W. & Matuszeski, J.. 2011. ‘Artificial states’, Journal of the European Economic Association 9, 2: 246–77.Google Scholar
Andres, L., Bodé, S., Yamba, B. & Lebailly, P.. 2014. ‘Gouvernance des Ressources Pastorale.’ Report prepared for a workshop hosted by the Groupe de Recherche en Appui à la Politique Belge, Tahoua, 25–26 March.Google Scholar
Banerjee, A. & Duflo, E.. 2007. ‘The economic lives of the poor’, Journal of Economic Perspectives 21, 1: 141–67.Google Scholar
Bates, R. 1974. ‘Ethnic competition and modernization in contemporary Africa’, Comparative Political Studies 6, 4: 457.Google Scholar
BBC News. 2013. ‘Niger-Burkina Faso Border Set by ICJ Ruling.’ <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-22165499>..>Google Scholar
Beissinger, M.R. 2013. ‘The semblance of democratic revolution: coalitions in Ukraine's Orange Revolution’, American Political Science Review 107, 3: 20–48.Google Scholar
Blattman, C. & Miguel, E.. 2010. ‘Civil war’, Journal of Economic Literature 48, 1: 3–57.Google Scholar
Booth, W.J. 1994. ‘On the idea of the moral economy’, American Political Science Review 88, 3: 653–67.Google Scholar
Chandra, K. 2012. Constructivist Theories of Ethnic Politics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Charlick, R. 1991. Niger: personal rule and survival in the Sahel. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
de Soto, H. 2000. The Mystery of Capital. New York, NY: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Destrijcker, L. 2016. ‘Boko Haram Refugees in Niger Find Safety, But Lack Aid’, Al Jazeera, 27 September. <http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/09/boko-haram-refugees-niger-find-safety-lack-aid-160916123622045.html>..>Google Scholar
DHS. 2010. ‘Enquête Démographique et de Santé et à Indicateurs Multiples du Burkina Faso 2010.’ Demographic and Health Surveys Publication FR256.Google Scholar
DHS. 2012. ‘Enquête Démographique et de Santé et à Indicateurs Multiples du Niger 2012.’ Demographic and Health Surveys Publication FR277.Google Scholar
Donaldson, J.W. 2012. ‘Perceptions of legal and geographic clarity: defining international land boundaries in Africa’, in Home, R., ed. Essays in African Land Law. Pretoria: University Law Press, 1–24.Google Scholar
Ekeh, P. 1975. ‘Colonialism and the two publics in Africa: a theoretical statement’, Comparative Studies in Society and History 17, 1: 91–112.Google Scholar
Elischer, S. 2015. ‘Autocratic legacies and state management of Islamic activism in Niger’, African Affairs 114, 457: 577–97.Google Scholar
Elischer, S. & Mueller, L.. 2018. ‘Niger's Protests are Ramping Up: Here's Why’, Monkey Cage/Washington Post, 26 March. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/03/26/nigers-protests-are-ramping-up-heres-why/>..>Google Scholar
Englebert, P. 2000. State Legitimacy and Development in Africa. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Englebert, P. 2009. Africa: unity, sovereignty and sorrow. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.Google Scholar
Englebert, P., Tarango, S. & Carter, M.. 2002. ‘Dismemberment and suffocation: a contribution to the debate on African boundaries’, Comparative Political Studies 35, 10: 1093–118.Google Scholar
Eriksen, T.H. 2002. Ethnicity and Nationalism. London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1940. The Political System of the Anuak of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. New York, NY: AMS Press.Google Scholar
Eyoh, D. 1999. ‘Community, citizenship, and the politics of ethnicity in post-colonial Africa’, in Kalipeni, E. & Zeleza, P.T., eds. Sacred Spaces and Public Quarrels: African cultural and economic landscapes. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 271–300.Google Scholar
Feyissa, D. 2010. ‘The cultural construction of state borders: the view from Gambella’, Journal of Eastern African Studies 4, 2: 314–30.Google Scholar
Grimard, F. 1997. ‘Household consumption smoothing through ethnic ties: evidence from Cote d'Ivoire’, Journal of Development Economics 53, 391–422.Google Scholar
Helling, L., Serrano, R. & Warren, D.. 2004. ‘Linking Community Empowerment, Decentralised Governance, and Public Service Provision through a Local Development Framework.’ World Bank Social Protection Discussion Paper No. 0535.Google Scholar
Herbst, J. 1990. ‘War and the state in Africa’, International Security 14, 4: 1–19.Google Scholar
Herbst, J. 2000. States and Power in Africa. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hirschman, A.O. 1970. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: responses to decline in firms, organizations, and states. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hodgson, D.L. 2017. ‘Africa from the margins’, African Studies Review 60, 2: 37–49.Google Scholar
Hoehne, M.V. & Feyissa, D.. 2013. Centering borders and borderlands: the evidence from Africa. In Korf, B. & Raeymaekers, T., eds. Violence on the Margins: states, conflict, and borderlands. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 55–84.Google Scholar
Human Rights Watch. 2006. ‘‘They Do Not Own This Place’: Government Discrimination Against ‘Non-Indigenes’ in Nigeria.’ Human Rights Watch Report 18, 3.Google Scholar
ICJ. 2010. ‘Burkina Faso and Niger Jointly Submit a Frontier Dispute to the International Court of Justice.’ ICJ press release, 21 July.Google Scholar
Idrissa, R. 2017. The Politics of Islam in the Sahel: Between Persuasion and Violence. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ignatieff, M. 1993. Blood and Belonging: journeys into the new nationalism. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Google Scholar
International Crisis Group. 2006. ‘Nigeria's Faltering Federal Experiment.’ Africa Report No. 119.Google Scholar
Joseph, R. 2003. ‘Nation-state trajectories in Africa’, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs 4, 2: 13–20.Google Scholar
Jütting, J. 2000. ‘Social security in low-income countries’, International Social Security Review 53: 3–24.Google Scholar
Katzenellenbogen, S. 1996. ‘Pastoralists and national borders in Nigeria’, in Nugent, P. & Asiwaju, A.I., eds. African Boundaries: barriers, conduits and opportunities. London: Pinter, 21–34.Google Scholar
Kitching, G. 1985. ‘Nationalism: the instrumental passion’, Capital and Class 9, 1: 98–116.Google Scholar
Koter, D. 2013. ‘Urban and rural voting patterns in Senegal: the spatial aspects of incumbency, c. 1978–2012’, Journal of Modern African Studies 51, 4: 653–79.Google Scholar
Kotlikoff, L.J. & Spivak, A.. 1981. ‘The family as an incomplete annuities market’, Journal of Political Economy 89, 21: 372–91.Google Scholar
Kramer, A. 2011. ‘Kinship, affinity and connectedness: exploring the role of genealogy in personal lives’, Sociology 45, 3: 379–95.Google Scholar
Lakoff, G. & Johnson, M.. 1980. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lichtenberg, J. 1999. ‘How liberal can nationalism be?’, in Beiner, R., ed. Theorizing Nationalism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 167–88.Google Scholar
Lund, C. 1998. Law, Power and Politics in Niger: Land Struggles and the Rural Code. Hamburg: Lit Verlag.Google Scholar
Maidoka, A. 2008. ‘Esquisse d'une typologie des régimes militaires Nigériens’, in Idrissa, K., ed. Armée et Politique au Niger. Dakar: CODESRIA, 207–32.Google Scholar
Marie, A. 2002. ‘Une anthropologique communautaire à l'epreuve de la mondialisation’, Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines 166: 207–56.Google Scholar
Marshall-Fratani, R. 2006. ‘The war of ‘who is who’: autochthony, nationalism, and citizenship in the Ivoirian Crisis’, African Studies Review 49, 2: 9–43.Google Scholar
McCauley, J. 2008. ‘Social Insurance in Times of Crisis: A Natural Experiment in Ghana.’ Working paper.Google Scholar
Miguel, E. 2004. ‘Tribe or nation? Nation building and public goods in Kenya versus Tanzania’, World Politics 56, 3: 328–62.Google Scholar
Miles, W.F.S. & Rochefort, D.A.. 1991. ‘Nationalism versus ethnic identity in sub-Saharan Africa’, American Political Science Review 85, 2: 393–403.Google Scholar
Mueller, L. 2018. ‘Personal politics without clientelism? Interpreting citizen-politician contact in Africa’, African Studies Review 61, 2: 28–54.Google Scholar
Nash, C. 2005. ‘Geographies of relatedness’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 30, 4: 449–462.Google Scholar
Nielsen, K. 1999. ‘Cultural nationalism, neither ethnic nor civic’, in Beiner, R., ed. Theorizing Nationalism. Albany, NY: Duke University Press, 119–30.Google Scholar
Nolutshungu, S.C. 1996. Limits of Anarchy: intervention and state formation in Chad. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia.Google Scholar
Nugent, P & Asiwaju, A.I., eds. 1996. ‘Introduction: the paradox of African boundaries’, in African Boundaries: barriers, conduits and opportunities. London: Pinter, 1–17.Google Scholar
Nyamnjoh, F. 2002. ‘Local attitudes towards citizenship and foreigners in Botswana: an appraisal of recent press stories’, Journal of Southern African Studies 28, 4: 755–75.Google Scholar
Oduntan, G. 2015. International Law and Boundary Disputes in Africa. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Olivier de Sardan, J. 2004. ‘Des Pouvoirs Locaux dans l'Attente de la Décentralisation (Niger).’ LASDEL Working Paper No. 27.Google Scholar
Olivier de Sardan, J. & Tidjani Alou, M., eds. 2009. Les Pouvoirs Locaux au Niger: A La Veille de la Décentralisation. Dakar: CODESRIA.Google Scholar
Posner, D. 2004. ‘The political salience of cultural difference: why Chewas and Tumbukas are allies in Zambia and adversaries in Malawi’, American Political Science Review 98, 4: 529–45.Google Scholar
Renan, E. 1882. ‘Qu'est-ce qu'une nation?’ Lecture delivered at the Sorbonne, Paris, 11 March.Google Scholar
Robinson, A. 2014. ‘National versus ethnic identification in Africa: modernization, colonial legacy, and the origins of territorial nationalism’, World Politics 66, 4: 709–46.Google Scholar
Robinson, P. 1991. ‘Niger: anatomy of a neotraditional corporatist state’, Comparative Politics 24, 1: 1–20.Google Scholar
Sander, P. 2018. ‘West Africa: Fulani Conflict Getting Worse’, Deutche Welle, 7 May. <http://www.dw.com/en/west-africa-fulani-conflict-getting-worse/a-43679371>..>Google Scholar
Schatzberg, M. 2001. Political Legitimacy in Middle Africa: Father, Family, Food. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Schmidt, E. 2009. ‘Anticolonial nationalism in French West Africa: what made Guinea unique?’, African Studies Review 52, 2: 1–34.Google Scholar
Scott, J. 1976. The Moral Economy of the Peasant: rebellion and subsistence in Southeast Asia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Somerville, K. 2002. ‘Border Dispute an African Colonial Legacy.’ <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2316645.stm>..>Google Scholar
Sounaye, A. 2009. ‘Structuring Islam and the culture of democratization: the case of Niger’, in Mazrui, A.A., ed. Africa's Islamic Experience: history, culture and politics. New Delhi: Sterling, 147–64.Google Scholar
The Guardian. 2015. ‘Burkina Faso and Niger Exchange 18 Towns to Settle Border Dispute.’ <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/08/burkina-faso-niger-exchange-18-towns-settle-border-dispute>..>Google Scholar
Tinti, P. & Reitano, T.. 2017. Migrant, Refugee, Smuggler, Savior. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
van Walraven, K. 2013. The Yearning for Relief: a history of the Sawaba Movement in Niger. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Walther, O. 2012. ‘Sons of the soil and conquerors who came on foot: the historical evolution of a West African border region’, African Studies Quarterly 13, 1/2: 75–92.Google Scholar
Weiss, H.F. & Carayannis, T.. 2005. ‘The enduring idea of the Congo’, in Larémont, R., ed. Borders, Nationalism, and the African State. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 135–77.Google Scholar
Wimmer, A. 2018. Nation Building: why some countries come together while others fall apart. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Yack, B. 2012. Nationalism and the Moral Psychology of Community. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Yonlihinza, I.A. 2017. ‘As More People Flock to Niger's Gold Mines, Economic Boon May Become a New Migration Risk.’ Huffington Post, 17 May. <https://www.huffingtonpost.in/the-conversation/as-more-people-flock-to-nigers-gold-mines-economic-boon-may-bea22087892/>>Google Scholar
Young, C. 2007. ‘Nation, ethnicity, and citizenship: dilemmas of democracy and civil order in Africa’, in Dorman, S., Hammett, D. & Nugent, P., eds. Making Nations, Creating Strangers: states and citizenship in Africa. Leiden: Brill, 241–64.Google Scholar