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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Violence and the War of Words: Ethnicity versus Nationalism in the Casamance |
Author: | Lambert, Michael C. |
Year: | 1998 |
Periodical: | Africa: Journal of the International African Institute |
Volume: | 68 |
Issue: | 4 |
Pages: | 585-602 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Senegal |
Subjects: | ethnicity rebellions separatism Mouvement des Forces Démocratiques de la Casamance Ethnic and Race Relations Politics and Government nationalism Law, Human Rights and Violence |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/1161167 |
Abstract: | Since 1982 the Mouvement des forces démocratiques casamançais (MFDC) has been fighting for the independence of the Casamance region of Senegal. In 1989, when the MFDC initiated a sustained military campaign, Senegal's official and independent press began to provide intensive coverage of its activities and objectives. This article documents the arguments for and against Casamançais independence as documented by Senegal's press in the year following the resurgence of the conflict. A striking feature of the debate is that the proponents of Casamançais independence have maintained that theirs is not an ethnic movement. Conversely, the MFDC's opponents, in particular the government, have tended to argue that the MFDC represents an ethnic (Jola) constituency and that the MFDC aims to establish what they refer to as the 'Jola Republic'. The author argues that the positions taken by the MFDC and the government can be explained in terms of an underlying distinction in African political ideology between nationalism and ethnicity. According to this ideology, nationalism, and other legitimate forms of political mobilization, should represent a plural constituency. Those that represent the narrow interests of a single ethnic group are not considered legitimate. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. |