D.P.S Ahluwalia - African Identities: Contemporary Political and Social Challenges

AFRICAN IDENTITIES

Series Editors: Abebe Zegeye and John Higginson

Manoeuvering in an Environment of Uncertainty Structural change and social action in sub-Saharan Africa
Edited by Beol Berner and Per Trulsson

Gender, Family and Work in Tanzania
Edited by Colin Creighton and C.K. Omari

Contesting Forestry in West Africa
Edited by Reginald Cline-Cole and Clare Madge

Electoral Territoriality in Southern Africa
Stephen Rule

Community Health Needs in South Africa
Ntombenhle Protasia Khoti Torkington

Consolidation of Democracy in Afirca A view from the South
Edited by Hussein Solomon and Ian Liebenberg

Ghana in Search of Development The challenge of governance, economic management and institution building
Dan-Bright S. Dzorgbo

Regional and Local Economic Development in South Africa The experience of the Eastern Cape
Etienne Louis Nel

Agrarian Economy, State and Society in Contemporary Tanzania
Edited by Peter G. Forster and Sam Maghimbi

Entrepreneurial Ethics and Trust Cultural foundations and networks in the Nigerian plastic industry
Yakubu Zakaria

Contemporary political and social challenges

Edited by
Pal Ahluwalia and Abebe Zegeye

First published 2002 by Ashgate Publishing

Reissued 2018 by Routledge
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Copyright Pal Ahluwalia and Abebe Zegeye 2002

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A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 2002102836

ISBN 13: 978-1-138-73969-7 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-315-18366-4 (ebk)

Pal Ahluwalia teaches in the Politics Department at the University of Adelaide

Bill Ashcroft teaches in the School of English at the University of New South Wales

David Dorward teaches in the History Department at La Trobe University

Mark Israel teaches in the Legal Studies Department at The Flinders University of South Australia

Roger Knight teaches in the History Department at the University of Adelaide

Tanya Lyons teaches in the Politics Department at the Flinders University of South Australia

Patrick McAllister teaches in the Anthropology Department at Canterbury University, New Zealand

Paul Nursey-Bray teaches in the Politics Department at the University of Adelaide

Elizabeth Rankin is Professor of Art History at the University of Auckland, New Zealand

S.C. Saxena recently retired from the Department of African Studies, University of Delhi

Jeffrey S. Steeves teaches in the Political Studies Department at the University of Saskatchewan

Abebe Zegeye teaches in the Sociology Department at the University of South Africa

This volume grew out of the Australasian African Studies Conference held in Adelaide in 2000. While a number of papers are drawn directly from that conference, some additional papers have been assembled in this volume. The editors owe a great debt to Sue Ahluwalia for her unending patience, endurance and excellent editing skills. In addition, we wish to thank Tina Esca for assembling the volume ready for publication.

The idea of borders, boundaries and frontiers is one that has been used to demarcate African identities. The ossification of borders which constructed new identities and rigidly delineated geographical spaces into the contemporary nation-states of Africa is the ultimate creation of colonialism. The idea of Africa, that imagined blank space, the 'heart of darkness' which was so attractive to European explorers who sought to tame and name it, was ultimately filled in with linear certainty and geometrical precision. As Africa was carved up by rival imperial powers, and colonisers sought to 'develop' the land which in most cases was declared terra nullius, the new borders signified the order and rationality of European civilisation. The Africa of the European imagination, the other of Europe, was not only concretised through the literal borders that were established but also through the conceptual borders through which the twin planks of the colonial project, development and the civilising mission, were played out.

The most enduring legacy of colonialism for post-colonial Africa has been the sanctity of colonial borders. The irony of these borders is that they had no equivalence in pre-colonial Africa. As Rudiger Schott points out, African notions of the border were 'based on perceptions which differ from our 'secular'juridical concepts' (Schott 1999: 159). Nevertheless, the occlusion of old boundaries and the establishment of new borders has been made all the more urgent by the massive dislocations caused by war, famine, and pestilence as well as repressive political, economic and social turmoil. The dismantlement of borders in Eastern Europe after the fall of communism, and in other parts of the post-colonial world, has witnessed considerable political upheaval with heightened ethnic conflict rendering borders vulnerable and disrupting the very certainty of the colonial world (Maxted and Zegeye, 1997). The resultant displacement, the massive movements of peoples as refugees, emigres and exiles have all challenged the border. However, these people have not been accepted with open arms. On the contrary, the very life of displacement, of refugees and exiles, is one of uncertainty and marginality (Ahluwalia, 1997).

The border is a site from which to theorise, from which to reflect upon the post-coloniality of subject positions, as a position which challenges the very certainty of the colonial world (Anzaldoea, 1987; Alvarez, 1999; Hannerz, 1996). We suggest that the border needs to take on a poignant significance as a symbol for understanding the complexities and ambivalences of contemporary African culture. In the space of a decade, the very certainty and stability of African borders has been rendered vulnerable. The transgressing and crossing of borders and the increasing significance of the local highlights the uncertainty of these borders. Increasingly borders and boundaries have been made extremely porous and have challenged the very scaffolding of the nation-state system which was bequeathed to the postcolonial African world.