Week 3: Nationalism and the state in Africa

Daniel Mulugeta
Lecture outline

1. Nationalism
2. The state
Nationalism
 A nation: For Benedict Anderson, an ‘imagined community’ that ties people who
don’t know each other or enjoy face to face relations, or instantly recognisable
aspects of cultural similarity we see in ethnicity.
 Nationalism: An ideology - the desire that a nation should self-determine.
 In Africa, nationalism is often seen as ‘not real’ because it doesn’t grow out of a
nation that thinks about itself in these terms.
 Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana are the most mono-ethnic, and might have some
credible claim to nations that predated states.
 But in most cases, national consciousness has to be brought into being through
heavy, self-conscious ‘construction’ by new elites.
 While there had been anti-colonial activism centred on ‘cultural’ groups and
identities, elite nationalists (politicians) understood that one anti-independence claim
of colonialists was ‘Africans are tribal. Without us to rule, they would kill each other’.
 Thus aimed to present a unified face, to focus on colonialism as the problem, to deny
and critique tribalism, and to build discipline in the nationalist movements.
 Discussed ethnicity/’tribalism’ (and traditional authority) as a colonial era ‘invention’
(i.e. as modern, but a corrupted form).
 This was to be overcome by the incoming modernist state that would embrace all,
and respect the universal humanity of citizens.
 Samora Machel (Mozambique): “For the nation to live, the tribe must die”: “To
ensure national unity, there must be no Shonas in Zimbabwe, there must be no
Ndebeles in Zimbabwe, there must be Zimbabweans. Some people are proud of their
tribalism. But we call tribalists reactionary agents of the enemy.”
 Augustinho Neto (Angola): “Our contribution has to be given not only for the
liquidation of the colonial system but also for the liquidation of ignorance, disease
and primitive forms of social organization.”
 ‘we need to break up tribal consciousness among the people and . . . build up
 a national consciousness’ (Nyerere 1966, 39).
 Nelson Mandela (South Africa, 1994 Inauguration Address) ‘"We enter into a
covenant that we shall build a society in which all South Africans, both black and
white, will be able to walk tall, without and fear in their hearts, assured of their
inalienable right to human dignity – a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the
world.’
 Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe, 1980), having just won a race war: ‘If yesterday I fought
you as an enemy, today you have become a friend and an ally with the same
national interest, loyalty, rights, and duties as myself.’
After independence
 But ‘nationalism’ was fractured on regional, ethnic and/or ideological lines in
most countries. Even in most ‘developed’ struggles against colonial settlers,
Zimbabwe, Angola, different nationalist movements had clear
constituencies in regions and identities.
 Legacies of those splits were suppressed after independence
 Heavy overlays of political rhetoric: ‘One Zambia, One Nation’ was
Kaunda’s slogan. And deployment of the education system, official histories
reproduced in schools, speeches, national press; sports teams, flag, songs,
rituals, the army and its uniforms, portraits of the leader as symbols of unity.
Kenya and Tanzania: Majimboism VS Ujamma

 Kenya and Tanzania share a variety of characteristics, such as being former British
colonies, becoming independent in the 1960s, having single-party independence
governments, and transforming to multiparty systems in mid-1990s.
 In addition, the two countries are both presidential republics that use a proportional
voting system and that have a similar geography
 However, while in Kenya ethnicity is a highly politicized factor, politicization of
ethnicity remained very low throughout Tanzania’s history.
 Politicization of ethnicity can be traced back to
1. Election
The first independence government in December 1963 had a clear ethnic basis.
It was formed by the Kenya African National Union (KANU) with Jomo Kenyatta
(Kikuyu) as president and Jaramogi Odinga Odinga (Luo) as vice- president.
 Jomo Kenyatta broadened his support base by appealing to the Kikuyu-cousin ethnic
groups, namely the Embu and Meru. Kenyatta tried to strengthen the loyalty of the
Kikuyu, Embu, Meru co-ethnics to the party by performing mass oathing ceremonies.
 The ethnic basis of the parties, voting along ethnic lines
 Promoted Majimboism - which basically meant that ethnic groups not indigenous to
particular regions of Kenya should return to their “homeland”
2. The distribution of land –
 After most white settlers left the country and sold their farms to the Kenyan state,
many Kikuyus, who had originally been chased off their land, took this opportunity
and bought former white farms from the state
 Some of these lands had been the property of the Kalenjin or the Maasai prior to
white expropriation, especially farmland in the Rift Valley.
 The settlement of Kikuyu on formerly Kalenjin/Maasai land in the Rift Valley became
a source of recurring anger and feeling of injustice by the Kalenjin ethnic group.
 It has featured in the ethnic rhetoric and ethnic violence throughout Kenya’s history
 Majority of schools built during the Kenyatta era were located in the home province
of the Kikuyu, that is, Central province
 In particular, Kenya continued to use vernaculars, which weakened the use of
Swahili
 The first postcolonial government of Tanzania was led by Julius Nyerere with the
Tanganyika African National Union (TANU)
 An advocate of African self-rule and socialism, President Nyerere had a strong vision
of a national Tanzanian identity
 He respected by the population, who called him Mwalimu (Swahili for teacher).
 Introduced the use of Swahili as the national language.
 Promoted the universal use of Swahili by, for example, translating Shakespeare into
Swahili (Topan 2008, 257).
 School curriculum emphasized the common Tanzanian identity and history
 No ethnic group received favored access to land - Nyerere built villages with
appropriate infrastructure and communal farmland
 Tanzania abolished the system of indirect rule through traditional leaders that it
inherited from the British colonial rulers.
 Electoral constituencies were created as large entities so that politicians
 Electoral rules that prohibit the use of ethnicity in the political context.
 Political parties must have national support (at least 200 voters in ten different
regions in Tanzania), and they are not allowed to be based on religious, ethnic, tribal,
or racial group.
The State in Africa
Title font: Georgia 28pt
 Bullet font: Arial regular 20pt
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Title font: Georgia 28pt
 Bullet font: Arial regular 20pt
 (minimum size: 16pt)