1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910404070503321

Autore

Keese Alexander

Titolo

Ethnicity and the colonial state : finding and representing group identifications in a coastal West African and global perspective (1850-7960) / / by Alexander Keese

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Leiden, [Netherlands] ; ; Boston, [Massachusetts] : , : Brill, , 2016

©2016

ISBN

90-04-30735-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (387 p.)

Collana

Studies in Global Social History, , 1874-6705 ; ; Volume 22

Disciplina

305.800966

Soggetti

Ethnicity - Africa, West - History

Group identity - Africa, West - History

Wolof (African people) - Ethnic identity

Ewe (African people) - Ethnic identity

Temne (African people) - Ethnic identity

Africa, West Ethnic relations

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

"An earlier version of this monograph was accepted as habilitation thesis by the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Berne, Switzerland, in 2010."

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front Matter -- Copyright Page -- Acknowledgements -- Maps -- Introduction -- Group Identifications: African and Global Categories -- Wolof and Wolofisation: Statehood, Colonial Rule, and Identification in Senegal -- Fragmentation and the Temne: From War Raids into Ethnic Civil Wars -- ‘Ethnic Identity’ as an Anti-colonial Weapon? Ewe Mobilisation from the Late Nineteenth Century to the 1960s -- Conclusion -- Back Matter -- Bibliography -- Secondary Sources -- Notes -- Index.

Sommario/riassunto

Ethnicity and the Colonial State analyses, through a comparison of three West African communities (Wolof, Temne, and Ewe), the ways in which ethnic labels and arguments are used (or omitted) in dealings with colonial administrations. It follows these strategies and choices over more than a century, between the conquest periods and independence. Where state structures were weak as a factor of group



cohesion, ethnic arguments were especially likely to come into play. The analysis discusses internal fissures and conflicting interests within the communities as other incentives for ethnic coalition-building. The observations made in this book are put into the context of a global historical perspective, for which “ethnicity” has so far remained a badly defined concept.