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Nationalism Versus Ethnic Identity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

William F. S. Miles  and
David A. Rochefort
William F. S. Miles
Affiliation:
Northeastern University
David A. Rochefort
Affiliation:
Northeastern University
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Abstract

Part and parcel of the conventional wisdom about rural publics in Africa is that populations on the periphery will accord ethnic solidarity greater significance than national consciousness. A survey of neighboring Hausa villages on different sides of the Niger-Nigeria boundary counters this myth. Probing issues of self-identity and ethnic affinity, we found that most Hausa villagers on the frontier did not place their Hausan ethnic identity above their national one as citizens of Nigeria or Niger and expressed greater affinity for non-Hausa cocitizens than for foreign Hausas. However, expressed attachments to ethnic, national, and other social identifications (such as religion) varied according to village: citizenship does make a difference in the political consciousness of villagers on the geographic margins of the state. More survey research in other transborder regions should shed further light on processes of state penetration and national integration in developing countries.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 85 , Issue 2 , June 1991 , pp. 393 - 403
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1991

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