Who Are the Tribalists? Social Pluralism and Political Ideology in Ghana

Bibliographic Data

ID6026300
AuthorsDavid Brown (0000-0003-0275-8723, corresponding author)
Year1982
Volume81
Issue322
Pages37-69
Publication date1982-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAfrican Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0001-9909 • E-ISSN: 1468-2621
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a097404
OpenAlexW2204688303
LanguageEN
Citations received15

THE LITERATURE ON African politics abounds with such terms as 'communalism', 'pluralism', 'tribalism' and 'ethnicity'. The meaning as well as the terminology varies. Those who talk of the 'search for national integration in Africa' use these terms to refer either to objective socio-economic disparities and cleavages, or to subnational loyalties and prejudices. For such writers the major theoretical and empirical problem is to determine the relationship between the two. For those, however, who see Africa's main problem as the subjugation of the masses by the national bourgeoisies, communalism emerges primarily as a form of false consciousness or at least a politically expedient interpretation of the contemporary scene which provides a 'mask for class privilege' and a means for the 'ideological containment' of the masses by the governing elites.2 The problem then is one of assessing the degree of autonomy of the ideology and its actual influence and impact upon the societies. Frequently the impression is given of an antagonism between the pluralist and

Epistemology · Ideology · Pluralism (philosophy · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · African cultural and philosophical studies · Law · Philosophy

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