Reflections on Identity in Four African Cities
Identity has become the watchword of our times. In sub-Saharan Africa, this certainly appears to be true and for particular reasons. Africa is urbanising rapidly, cross-border migration streams are swelling and globalising influences sweep across the continent. Africa is also facing up to the challe...
I tiakina i:
| Hōputu: | Online |
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| Reo: | Ingarihi |
| I whakaputaina: |
African Minds
2026
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| Ngā marau: | |
| Urunga tuihono: | ONIX_20260415T184307_9781067253752_40 |
| Ngā Tūtohu: |
Kāore He Tūtohu, Me noho koe te mea tuatahi ki te tūtohu i tēnei pūkete!
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| _version_ | 1869517586132107264 |
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| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | Identity has become the watchword of our times. In sub-Saharan Africa, this certainly appears to be true and for particular reasons. Africa is urbanising rapidly, cross-border migration streams are swelling and globalising influences sweep across the continent. Africa is also facing up to the challenge of nurturing emergent democracies in which citizens often feel torn between older traditional and newer national loyalties. Accordingly, collective identities are deeply coloured by recent urban as well as international experience and are squarely located within identity politics where reconciliation is required between state nation-building strategies and sub-national affiliations. They are also fundamentally shaped by the growing inequality and the poverty found on this continent. These themes are explored by an international set of scholars in two South African and two Francophone cities. The relative importance to urban residents of race, class and ethnicity but also of work, space and language are compared in these cities. This volume also includes a chapter investigating the emergence of a continental African identity. A recent report of the Office of the South African President claims that a strong national identity is emerging among its citizens, and that race and ethnicity are waning whilst a class identity is in the ascendance. The evidence and analyses within this volume serve to gauge the extent to which such claims ring true, in what everyone knows is a much more complex and shifting terrain of shared meanings than can ever be captured by such generalisations. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-175761 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | African Minds |
| publisherStr | African Minds |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1757612026-04-20T08:36:46Z Reflections on Identity in Four African Cities Bekker, Simon Leilde, Anne African studies thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSL Ethnic studies::JBSL1 Ethnic groups and multicultural studies Identity has become the watchword of our times. In sub-Saharan Africa, this certainly appears to be true and for particular reasons. Africa is urbanising rapidly, cross-border migration streams are swelling and globalising influences sweep across the continent. Africa is also facing up to the challenge of nurturing emergent democracies in which citizens often feel torn between older traditional and newer national loyalties. Accordingly, collective identities are deeply coloured by recent urban as well as international experience and are squarely located within identity politics where reconciliation is required between state nation-building strategies and sub-national affiliations. They are also fundamentally shaped by the growing inequality and the poverty found on this continent. These themes are explored by an international set of scholars in two South African and two Francophone cities. The relative importance to urban residents of race, class and ethnicity but also of work, space and language are compared in these cities. This volume also includes a chapter investigating the emergence of a continental African identity. A recent report of the Office of the South African President claims that a strong national identity is emerging among its citizens, and that race and ethnicity are waning whilst a class identity is in the ascendance. The evidence and analyses within this volume serve to gauge the extent to which such claims ring true, in what everyone knows is a much more complex and shifting terrain of shared meanings than can ever be captured by such generalisations. 2026-04-20T08:36:45Z 2026-04-20T08:36:45Z 2026-04-16T13:26:58Z 2012 book ONIX_20260415T184307_9781067253752_40 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/112564 9781067253752 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/175761 eng open access image/jpeg Attribution 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/112564/1/9781067253752.pdf African Minds African Minds 10.47622/9781067253752 10.47622/9781067253752 36099d72-8b22-4bf5-ab27-c2090263b9c6 9781067253752 African Minds 256 Cape Town, South Africa open access |
| spellingShingle | African studies thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSL Ethnic studies::JBSL1 Ethnic groups and multicultural studies Reflections on Identity in Four African Cities |
| title | Reflections on Identity in Four African Cities |
| title_full | Reflections on Identity in Four African Cities |
| title_fullStr | Reflections on Identity in Four African Cities |
| title_full_unstemmed | Reflections on Identity in Four African Cities |
| title_short | Reflections on Identity in Four African Cities |
| title_sort | reflections on identity in four african cities |
| topic | African studies thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSL Ethnic studies::JBSL1 Ethnic groups and multicultural studies |
| topic_facet | African studies thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSL Ethnic studies::JBSL1 Ethnic groups and multicultural studies |
| url | ONIX_20260415T184307_9781067253752_40 |