Nationality and Nationalism: The Case of Barotseland

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Periodical article

Title:	Nationality and Nationalism: The Case of Barotseland
Author:	Ranger, Terence O.
Year:	1968
Periodical:	Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria
Volume:	4
Issue:	2
Period:	June
Pages:	227-246
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Zambia
Subjects:	nationality nationalism colonialism Ethnic and Race Relations History and Exploration
Abstract:	During the nineteenth century some African states were conspicuously successful in solving problems of scale. One such state was the Lozi kingdom of western Zambia which survived the challenge of the Kololo invasion to present incoming Europeans with the spectacle of a functioning supra-tribal political system. It is the intention of this paper to explore in the case of Barotseland the relationship of an African 'nationality' to African politics within the colonial territory as a whole and ultimately its relationship with 'nationalism'. According to an already accepted sort of stock version of this relationship the existence of the nationality, and the support afforded it by the colonial powers, is positively inimical to the development of nationalism; the nineteenth-century enlargement of scale obstructs the enlargement of scale required in the twentieth century. The Lozi provide a fine example of resistance to the development of modern nationalistic politics even to this day. Lozi accomodation to colonial rule did result in a much greater survival of institutions and assumptions than was the case elsewhere. Notes.