Nationalism and Intra-State Conflicts in the Postcolonial World

Intra-state ethnic conflict remains a topic of perennial interest, not least because most of the world’s states have ethnically diverse populations. Fonkem Achankeng’s volume presents both theoretical analyses of national conflicts in post-colonial contexts as well as a diverse collection studies from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The volume provides a valuable service to the comparative study of nationalism by emphasizing lesser-studied case studies whose peculiarities bring forth new perspectives. -- Alexander Maxwell, Victoria University of Wellington
In this most relevant and significant book, two conflict-causing applications of ‘nationalism’ are courageously addressed. Post-colonial power elites still use it as an imported rationale behind top-down attempts to unify population groups within a ‘state’. At various times and places, however, suppressed groups use it as a banner in their bottom-up struggles to acquire self-determination. The widely spread problem of reconciling national(ist) aspirations is frankly discussed in the foreword, four general chapters and eighteen case-specific chapters (covering five continents). Some questions inevitably have to remain open, but meaningful guidelines towards resolving these extremely complex conflicts are given – especially to the groups who ‘themselves hold the key to their freedom’.   -- Jannie Malan, The African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes