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

• Superior document: Studies in Global Social History, Volume 22
• VerfasserIn: Keese, Alexander,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, [Netherlands] ;, Boston, [Massachusetts] : : Brill,, 2016.; ©2016
• Year of Publication: 2015; 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in global social history ; Volume 22.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (387 p.)
• Notes: "An earlier version of this monograph was accepted as habilitation thesis by the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Berne, Switzerland, in 2010."

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.

Table of Contents

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.