Making Nations, Creating Strangers: States and Citizenship in Africa

Published: 11/May/2007
Source: Brill

Editors: Paul Nugent, Daniel Hammett, and Sara Dorman

Who belongs to the nation? How is citizenship defined? And why have such identities become so politically explosive in recent years? This book explores the instrumental manipulation of citizenship and narrowing definitions of national-belonging which refract recent political struggles in Zimbabwe, Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Somalia, Tanzania, and South Africa. Conflicts which have arisen over the resources of the post-colonial state are increasingly legitimated through recourse to claims of nationhood and citizenship. The contributors address the historical roots of national and ethnic identities, the material and symbolic resources which are contested within states, and the relative importance of elite manipulation and subaltern agency.

Link to publishers website: https://brill.com/view/title/14169?language=en

Themes: Acquisition of nationality, Discrimination, Ethnic/Racial/Religious, Identity Documents
Regions: Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Pan Africa, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Côte d'Ivoire
Year: 2007