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The Analysis of African Nationalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2011

Martin L. Kilson Jr
Martin L. Kilson Jr
Affiliation:
Harvard University
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Type
Review Articles
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World Politics , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , April 1958 , pp. 484 - 497
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1958

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References

1 Kohn, Hans, Nationalism: Its Meaning and History, New York, 1955, p. 9.Google Scholar Cf. Carr, E. H., Nationalism, London, Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1939, p. xviiiGoogle Scholar: “[Nationalism] is a consciousness, on the part of individuals or groups, of membership in a nation, or of a desire to forward the strength, liberty or prosperity of a nation …” Cf. also Hayes, C. J., “Nationalism,” Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. II, New York, 1933.Google Scholar

2 African societies (particularly in West Africa) have experienced indigenous political units that have taken the form of empires. for a brief survey, see Johnson, J. C. de Graft, “African Empires of the Past,” Présence Africaine (April-May 1957), pp. 58–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Balandier, Georges, “La Situation coloniale: Approche théorique,” Cakiers Internationaux de Sociologie, XI (1951), pp. 44–79.Google Scholar See also Balandier, “Contribution à une sociologie de la dépendence,” ibid., XII (1952), pp. 47–69.

4 Sir Jennings, Ivor, “Approach to Self-government,” Corona: The Journal of Her Majesty's Oversea Service (February 1956), p. 62.Google Scholar

5 See Coleman, James S., “Nationalism in Tropical Africa,” American Political Science Review, XLVIII, No. 2 (June 1954), pp. 404–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Cf. Balandier, Georges, “Contribution à I'étude des nationalismes en Afrique noire,” Zaire (April 1954), pp. 379–89.Google Scholar

6 Coleman, , op. cit., pp. 406–7.Google Scholar

7 Hailey, Lord, An African Survey: Revised 1956, London, 1957.Google Scholar

8 Ibid., pp. 251–52.

9 Huxley, Elspeth, “Africa: A Giant Task,” Sunday Times, November 24, 1957, p. 7.Google Scholar

10 Westermann, Diedrich, “Cultural History of Negro Africa,” Cahiers d'Histoire Mondiale, No. 4 (1957), p. 1003.Google Scholar

11 Morgenthau, Hans J., “The Paradoxes of Nationalism,” Yale Review, XLVI, No. 4 (Summer 1957), pp. 481–82.Google Scholar

12 Cf. Davidson, Basil, The African Awakening, London, 1955, pp. 248ff.Google Scholar: “Nothing is easier than to prove the African awakening in West Africa. It speaks from every street corner … Awakening does not speak from every street corner in the Belgian Congo and Angola. Here there are no parties, no trade unions, no national movements, no groups of organised intellectuals, who may stand up clearly in the light of day and declare their thoughts. Here, as we have seen, there is prison for me protesting nationalist. Yet, for all that, the awakening is here. The laconic item in the Belgian Congo's official returns, ‘3,818 political prisoners’, attests its presence, not to speak in neighbouring Angola of Senhor Pereira's ‘average of five a month sent to Sao Thome’. And in the Belgian Congo, on the brighter side, there is the powerful emergence of an industrial working class, setting a standard of technical achievement equalled in no other part of Black Africa.”

13 See Forde, Dayrll, ed., Social Implications of Industrialization and Urbanization in Africa South of the Sahara, Paris, 1956.Google Scholar

14 Hailey, , op. cit., p. 345.Google Scholar

15 Balandier, Georges, “Urbanism in West and Central Africa,” in Forde, ed., op. cit., p. 497.Google Scholar

16 Dresch, Jean, “Villes congolaises: Etude de gégraphic urbaine et sociale,” Revue de Gégraphic Humaine et d'Ethnologie (July-September 1948), p. 5.Google Scholar

17 Balandier, “Urbanism in West and Central Africa,” loc. cit.

18 Little, Kenneth, “The African Elite in British West Africa,” in Lind, Andrew W., ed., Race Relations in World Perspective, Honolulu, 1955, p. 284.Google Scholar

19 Hodgkin does not discuss separatist churches in his chapter on “New Associations,” but does so in his interesting chapter on “Prophets and Priests.” Separatist churches tend to be less distinctly “new” in character than the other associations, to the extent that they are syncretistic “in the sense that they carry over into their doctrines and worship values and rituals derived from traditional religion.” Yet their emergence represents a response to situations created by colonialism no less than that of the more modernly oriented associations. (See pp. 99ff.)

20 For more recent material on the new associations in African urban centers, see Little, Kenneth, “The Role of Voluntary Associations in West African Urbanization,” American Anthropologist, XLIX, No. 4 (August 1957), pp. 579–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also Banton, Michael, West African City, London, 1957, pp. 162–95.Google Scholar

21 Cf. Little, Kenneth, “African Culture and the Western Intrusion,” Cahiers d'Histoire Mondiale, No. 4 (1957), pp. 956ff.Google Scholar: “Nationalism in West Africa is recognizable as a political phenomenon; but in a number of other places opposition to Europeans has been expressed in a nativistic guise. It usually takes the form of independent churches and messianic movements which combine evangelical Christianity with tribal rites and practices. The Mau Mau movement in Kenya is an example of this.”

22 Mention should also be made of the role of organs of central government—known in British territories as Legislative and Executive Councils—in the rise of African parties. These proto-parliamentary organs have provided the institutional framework for the emergence of full-fledged political parties. See, especially, Coleman, James S., “The Emergence of African Political Parties,” in Haines, C. Groves, ed., Africa Today, Baltimore, Md., 1956, pp. 225–56.Google Scholar

23 Deutsch, Karl W., Nationalism and Social Communication, New York, 1953, pp. 81ff.Google Scholar; Deutsch, , “The Growth of Nations,” World Politics, v, No. 2 (January 1953), pp. 168–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Deutsch defines a nation as the “result of the transformation of people, or several ethnic elements, in the process of social mobilization.”

24 See Hailey, Lord, Native Administration in the British African Territories, Part III, London, 1951, pp. 18–20.Google Scholar

25 Banton, , op. cit., p. xvi.Google Scholar

26 See, e.g., Lewin, Julius, “Dilemma of Economic Growth,” Central African Examiner, November 9, 1957, p. 27Google Scholar; Davison, R. B., “The Challenge of Ghana,” Political Quarterly, XXVIII, No. 3 (July-September 1957), pp. 282ff.Google Scholar

27 As late as 1953, a British journalist published a report on Africa that included a chapter entitled “Continent Without History,” in which he observed that “Africa bears practically no traces of an indigenous civilization.” Bartlett, Vernon, Struggle for Africa, New York, 1953, p. 3.Google Scholar

28 Being familiar with Mr. Hodgkin's writings, I am sure he does mean that all African efforts to counteract the “myth of African barbarism” have been simply exercises in counter-myth making. See Hodgkin, Thomas, “The Paris Congress,” West Africa (September 29, 1956), p. 749Google Scholar; Hodgkin, “African Historians in Conference,” ibid, (July 27, 1957), p. 702.

29 See “The Mystery of Benin,” ibid. (May 5, 1956), p. 243; “Pioneer Historian,” ibid. (September 28, 1957), p. 917.

30 K. O. Dike, “History and African Nationalism,” Proceedings, First Annual Conference of the West African Institute of Social and Economic Research, University College, Ibadan, 1952, p. 31. See also Dike, , “African History and Self-government,” West Africa (February 28, 1953), p. 177Google Scholar: “So long as the African is regarded as a man without a culture and without a history, doubts concerning his ability to govern him self will find credence.”

31 Davidson, Basil, “A Note on Pre-European' Africa,” Présence Africaine (April-May 1957), pp. 146–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar; “The Fact of African History” (A Symposium), Africa South (January-March 1958), pp. 44–67; Hamilton, R. A., ed., History and Archaeology in Africa, Report of a Conference Held in July 1953Google Scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 1955.