Post-Colonial Nations in Historical and Cultural Context

Book excerpt: Using historical and anthropological analysis, in Post-Colonial Nations in Historical and Cultural Context, Dmitri M. Bondarenko examines nation-building in Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. He examines the nation and state as concepts and how these are changing globally, particularly in regard to the idea that the fundamental characteristic of a nation is a culturally homogeneous community. This feature became a cornerstone of the concept of the nation at its formation in the West by the end of the eighteenth century, but post-colonial migration flows from the Global South to the Global North are increasing multi-culturalism in the North. In contrast, liberated states of Asia and Africa have been multi-cultural from earlier on as they inherited the colonial borders in which typically many peoples were united. Throughout the book, Bondarenko argues that this history of multi-culturalism is an advantage to development in the Global South and that it’s necessary to depart from the classical, Western concept of the nation to simultaneously support citizen unity while preserving cultural diversity.