Nation Because of Differences

Bibliographic Data

ID9250780
AuthorsClara A B Joseph (0000-0003-2982-1956, corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume32
Issue3
Pages57-70
Publication date2001-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueResearch in African Literatures (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0034-5210 • E-ISSN: 1527-2044
PublisherIndiana University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2979/ral.2001.32.3.57
OpenAlexW2068742312
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited18

In arguing for an English "national" literature in Nigeria, Chinua Achebe says, "Those who in talking about African literature want to exclude North Africa because it belongs to a different tradition surely do not suggest that Black Africa is anything like homogenous" (56). On the one hand the nation is defined as a unifying entity (Bhabha 19; Debray 51), and yet the various representations of the nation reveal division and disruption at strategic junctures so that the definition is rendered either meaningless or controversial. Case studies of the "nation" of Kenya facing resistance from within and of Nigeria yielding to The Republic of Biafra, labeling of tribes such as the Igbo and the Bedouin as nations (Ondaatje 6), categorizing of races as nations (Bhabha 8) are challenged by events of "independence struggle," "civil war," and something simple--the memory of home

Epistemology · Igbo · Independence (probability theory) · Linguistics · Nation-building · Political science · Politics · Resistance (ecology) · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · The Republic · African history and culture analysis · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · Race, History, and American Society

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