The idea around national identity has played a major role in many nations around the world. Many nations have been formed and wars have been fought around issues of national identity.
In fact, nationalistic aspirations have been some of the biggest motivations behind many wars that have taken place around the world. One manifestation of this is in secessionist movements, fighting to gain independence in order to establish their own nation, based on national identity. Or empires looking to expand their influence, based on their belief in their nation’s strength.
When talking about the war in Ukraine, for example, the large Russian-speaking population, present in much of eastern Ukraine, is often cited as a reason for Russia’s invasion. Claims made by Russia propagandists have alleged that the Russian-speaking minorities had been discriminated against and mistreated to justify the invasion.
Many Africans lack a national identity
Because African countries today are not formed out of any kind of national identity, there are many with Africa that lack any kind of nationalistic sentiments. Africa’s borders had not been established based on any kind of correlations between communities, on things like language, religion, or cultural practices. Rather, they had been established by colonial powers, more interested in whatever value they could exploit from their African colonies. As a result, many African nations today are made up of groups of differing ethnic groups, all put together to form the countries recognised today.
Following the end of the colonial era, rather than the newly independent African states’ government’s reevaluating the colonial era borders, the African governments sought to maintain the colonial era borders. The governments of the newly independent African states would even fight often brutal civil wars against any secessionist movements within their borders.
Should greater nationalism be encouraged?
There are those who believe that, only if more Africans were more nationalistic, things would improve significantly on the continent. They would argue that perhaps if more of our populations, businesses, and politicians had greater nationalistic ideals, we could work together towards improving our countries.
Therefore, in order to encourage greater nationalistic sentiments among our populations. Things like promoting a national identity, around things like culture, symbolism, etc. They would argue that generations should be encouraged to be more nationalistic from a young age.
They would argue that anything that would promote a shared national identity should be encouraged over tribes or ethnicity, as they believe it would improve African societies national unity.
Nationalism cannot be forced
The problem with the idea that nationalistic sentiments should be encouraged is that there are often very few things people can agree on as national symbols. In many African countries, the difference in cultural values between ethnic groups is stark. Therefore, the task of bridging that divide between ethnic communities can be a daunting challenge.
That’s because, we typically aren’t just talking about national flags or symbolisms, rather more fundamental aspects of our identities, like cultural and social norms, religion, language, etc.
The idea that people from different cultures can just come together around a common national identity, without infringing on these fundamental aspects of our different communities, is not very convincing.
Should we even strive for nationalism?
Before we even begin to discuss the idea of encouraging greater nationalism in our countries, we should ask the question; is striving for greater nationalism even a good idea?
At its core, the more nationalistic approach would have to involve forcing people to abandon their cultural traditions in favour of a national identity. The idea that people would simply hold both at the same time is not a given.
Then there is the question of why should anyone have to take up a national identity, of a nation that had originally been devised during the colonial era. There would be many who would take issue with that very idea, in the first place.
Embracing our diversity
If the idea of a national identity doesn’t work; how then can our populations’ national identities be defined? Perhaps, rather, embracing our nation’s diversity can be a source of national unity.
Perhaps the fact that it is often possible for us to experience cultures completely different from our own, within our countries, can be a source of unity rather than a source of division.
Or perhaps, if we are being more cynical, we can just completely scrap the notion of our nation states and finally decide to change Africa’s borders.
