Eghosa E. Osaghae, Tenured Professor of Comparative Politics, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Dr Jabulani Sithole, Director, Mzala Nxumalo Centre, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Dr Danelle van Zyl-Hermann, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Basel and Research Fellow, University of the Free State
Prof. Samson S. Wassara, Director, Institute of Peace, Development and Security Studies (IPDSS), University of Juba, South Sudan
Prof. Bahru Zewde, Emeritus Professor of History, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
Abbreviations
ANCAfrican National CongressANCYLANC Youth LeagueAWBAfrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (Afrikaner Resistance Movement)AUAfrican UnionBADBantu Affairs DepartmentBCBefore ChristBDPBotswana Democratic PartyBPPBotswana People’s PartyCEOChief Executive OfficerCERDCommittee for the Elimination of Racial DiscriminationCNCChief Native CommissionerCODESAConvention for a Democratic South AfricaCODESRIACouncil for the Development of Social Science Research in AfricaCOPECongress of the PeopleCOSAGConcerned South Africa GroupCPConservative PartyCPAComprehensive Peace AgreementCPSACommunist Party of South AfricaDADemocratic AllianceDCDistrict CommissionerDOPDeclaration of PrinciplesDUPDemocratic Unionist PartyECEthiopian Calendar (seven/eight years later than Gregorian Calendar)ECOWASCommission of the Economic Community of West African StatesELFEritrean Liberation FrontELMEritrean Liberation MovementEPLFEritrean People’s Liberation FrontEPRAEthiopian People’s Liberation ArmyEPRDFEthiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic FrontEPRPEthiopian People’s Revolutionary PartyFAKFederation of Afrikaans Cultural OrganisationsGNUGovernment of National UnityGoSSGovernment of Southern SudanHECHigh Executive CouncilHLPHigh-Level PanelICSSInterim Constitution of South SudanICUIndustrial and Commercial Workers UnionIFPInkatha Freedom PartyIGADIntergovernmental Authority on DevelopmentILOInternational Labour OrganizationIMFInternational Monetary FundITIngonyama TrustITAIngonyama Trust ActKADUKenyan African Democratic UnionKANUKenyan African National UnionKLAKwaZulu Legislative AssemblyKZNKwaZulu-NatalKZPKwaZulu PoliceMa’ison (Amharic)All-Ethiopia Socialist MovementMCPMalawi Congress PartyMPMember of ParliamentMWUMineworkers’ UnionNABANTUKOPNatal Bantu Co-operative SocietyNADNative Affairs DepartmentNATONorth Atlantic Treaty OrganizationNBTUNatal Bantu Teachers’ UnionNEUMNon-European Unity MovementNGONon-governmental organisationNICNatal Indian CongressNMCNative Military CorpsNPNational PartyNPANational Prosecuting AuthorityNUPNational Unionist PartyNZRFUNew Zealand Rugby Football UnionOAUOrganisation of African UnityOFSOrange Free StateOLFOromo Liberation FrontONLFOgaden National Liberation FrontOPDOOromo People’s Democratic OrganisationPACPan Africanist CongressRdCRépublique du CamerounSACOSSouth African Council of SportSACTUSouth African Congress of Trade UnionsSADCSouthern African Development CommunitySANUSudan African National UnionSAPSouth African PoliceSARFUSouth African Rugby Football UnionSARUSouth African Rugby UnionSCSouthern CameroonsSPLM/ASudan People’s Liberation Movement/ArmySSUSudan Socialist UnionSTIASStellenbosch Institute for Advanced StudyTCRSSTransitional Constitution of the Republic of South SudanTICTransvaal Indian CongressTLSATeachers’ League of South AfricaTPLFTigray/Tegrean People’s Liberation FrontUDFUnion Defence ForceUDFUnited Democratic FrontUFPUnited Federal PartyUKUnited KingdomUNUnited NationsUNIPUnited National Independent PartyUNDPUnited Nations Development ProgrammeUSUnited StatesUTPUnited Tanganyika PartyZARSouth African Republic/TransvaalZulu SocietyZulu Language and Cultural Society
Chapter 1 Introduction: Identity, Networks and State Formation in Africa
Manuel Castells and Bernard Lategan
The contradictory dynamics reshaping our world in the twenty-first century are characterized by the relationship between globalization and identity. On the one hand, the core activities that define the economy, technology and geopolitical power are organized around a global network of glocal networks. This is the case for financial markets, international trade, multinational manufacturing, advanced business services, research and technology, military strategies, media production and distribution, and internet communication. On the other hand, historically rooted cultural identities, at the source of the creation of meaning, are stronger than ever everywhere, as a counterpart to the global flows of capital and communication that attempt to overwhelm the specificity of every human community, to merge them in a global culture that ultimately rationalizes the domination of certain values, multinational economic actors and political institutions in an interconnecting network of local and global hierarchies. To no avail. Deprived of their ability to exercise control over global forces, people around the world retreat into their own values, asserting their identity and using whatever means available to them to claim their autonomy vis-à-vis global networks that embody domination under the cover of instrumentality. In doing so, they are also mobilizing their energies to maximize their interest in the interconnecting global and local hierarchies in which they find themselves.
The world in the twenty-first century is dominated by conflicts of identity: religious, national, territorial, racial, ethnic, age, gender, ideological and otherwise. The failure to recognize the essential role of identity in structuring social life creates a key epistemological obstacle to understanding our world. The ideology of the Enlightenment (which recognizes identity only in the categorization of its opposites) that refuses to see identity as the source of self-definition, in favour of the abstract construction of the citizen, defined by the state, leads to intellectual dead ends. Even if we do not like the primacy of identity, we must acknowledge and deal with it as social scientists and philosophers.
This fundamental development can be observed everywhere, not just in the previously dominated/colonized areas of the world, but also in the United States and in Europe. The American nationalist movement, built around Trump, or the mobilization for Brexit in the UK, are clear expressions of the power of identity – a trend that often leads to xenophobia.
Sources of collective identity (always a cultural construction) are diverse. One of the most significant in the socio-political evolution of our societies is national identity. National identity is the set of interrelated cultural attributes that provide meaning and self-recognition to a collective of humans that define themselves as a national community. The term ‘national’ specifies the aspiration of this community to be acknowledged as a distinct social group that transcends primary ascription attributes, such as ethnic or territorial, and to emphasize their shared experience over time and space. It is suggestive of a congruence between polity and culture. Fundamentally, nations are cultural communities, but they are not ‘imagined’; they are constructed with the materials of history and geography.
Nations must be clearly distinguished, conceptually and practically, from states, because states are political-institutional constructions, sometimes derived from a pre-existing nation, but more often resulting from the integration/annexation of several nations, that are fused, through political domination, into a given state. In fact, the nation-state of the modern era is an exception in the high diversity of institutional constructions resulting from the interaction between nations and states, from city states to imperial states, and from communal institutions to tribal confederations. The multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-lingual composition of many (if not the majority of; cf. Welsh 1993) states gave rise to the idea of ‘multinational states’ (cf. Peleg 2007; Kraus 2008).
Moreover, when a nation-state is constituted, it defines a new identity: citizenship as established by the state. Citizenship tends to reflect the cultural identity of the nation that prevailed in the construction of the state, although in some cases, the project of state formation may include the negotiated recognition of pluri-national states – always a fragile construction because it does not necessarily respect equal access to the resources of the state. This is where federalism becomes a critical intermediate institution between the state and the nation. In some situations (South Africa is one example), despite the formal structure of a unitary state, many ethnic groups would rather understand and speak of
