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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Mutable Identities: Moving beyond Ethnicity in Botswana
Author:Wilmsen, Edwin N.ISNI
Year:2002
Periodical:Journal of Southern African Studies
Volume:28
Issue:4
Period:December
Pages:825-841
Language:English
Geographic term:Botswana
Subjects:ethnic identity
ethnicity
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Ethnic and Race Relations
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/823353
Abstract:The adoption of a focus on minorities suggests a move away from a discourse revolving around notions of ethnicity to one emphazising personal participation in the political arena and leading to a devaluation of divisions among peoples demarcated by language, parentage, class or so-called 'race' in favour of a concept of citizenship. The author argues that its frequent invocation notwithstanding, ethnic allegiance is a form of cultural capital that is increasingly marginal to social functions of the present. Not only do such constructions not stand up to historical scrutiny, but they can also be incorporated as an ingredient in a variety of potentially dangerous claims to cultural authenticity and the uniqueness of particular cultural visions. Understanding these constructions and their consequences requires detailed analyses of local ethno-histories, of colonial rule and policy, and of the connection between expansionary capitalism and the processes of social formation constitution. The author first turns to the backgrounds of ethnicity in Botswana and then to languages of labour in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries before examining present-day languages of political contention among minority and elite fractions of the country. The author concludes that an effective minority discourse would dissolve the surface appearance of ethnic disconnectedness and fragmentation and re-establish historic connections upon which an equitably served citizenship could be based. Notes, ref., sum. (Journal abstract)
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