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Province of South Africa
Despite the fact that nationalism and its national projects have in recent years been severely criticised by postcolonial theorists for being fundamentalist and essentialist; by feminists for being patriarchal and exclusive; by global financial institutions for being antagonistic to development and globalisation; by Pan-Africanists for being anticontinental unity; and by those Africans born after decolonisation for being irrelevant; Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Finex Ndhlovu's book convincingly argues that nationalism has defied its death and displayed remarkable resilience and resonance. Since the end of the Cold War, what has been poignant has been the enduring contest, tensions and contradictions between the growth of various forms of transnationalism on the one hand and a resurgence of territorial as well as other narrow and xenophobic forms of nationalism on the other. In this important book, Ndlovu-Gatsheni and Ndhlovu provide new critical reflections on nationalism and its national projects in southern Africa covering South Africa, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC, a member of SADC). The national question is interrogated from different disciplinary vantage points to reveal how it impinges on contemporary challenges of nation-building, development, devolution of power, language questions, and citizenship on the one hand and ethnicity, nativism and xenophobia on the other.
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 KwaZulu-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.