Firstly thanks to @steemitbc really cool place!!
The research question I would like to pose issa, “How has the development of African nationalism impacted on the post colonial state, and how has the notion of nationalism in Africa been perceived in the West?”
For my research essay I have chosen to research Nationalism in the Third World. The reason why I believe that Nationalism is an interesting choice is that, Nationalism in the third world is what brought about change and eventually independence to these countries. Moreover, Nationalism for the Third World, Africa to be more precise brings its own problems to the African continent. It will be interesting to find out how people identify themselves with the nation they inherit from their former colonizers.
This topic produces a lot of discussions and differences. As Zeleza puts it nationalism is now vilified in the “global North” for various reasons which will also be indentified in the research paper. The main reasons why scholars find nationalism an interesting topic for discussion in Africa particularly is because nationalism was the way in which the states of Africa gained mass support in the plight for independence. Moreover, nationalism also produced problems for the post independence stage for the African countries – which is also a study which scholars find intriguing.
The main authors that I will be using will be Fanon and Falola for the African perspective. For recent studies in the field on Nationalism I will look at Hastings (1997), Berberglou (2004), Gellner (1993), and Smith (1998).
The main arguments that I will be looking at in the different readings will look at how the African authors classify nationalism and how do they go on to critique the form of Nationalism the country takes. Furthermore, I will mainly focus on the elitist nationalism which was the preferred vehicle of change in Africa and discuss what the authors say about this form of nationalism will help or hinder the country after decolonization.
For my case study I will use Zimbabwe and ZANU to illustrate the development of nationalism in the country and how nationalism as a vehicle of change has ostracized people in Zimbabwe who are not considered part of the nationalistic identity which the elites of Zimbabwe created. Furthermore, I will be looking at the weaknesses of the concept of nationalism such as: the problems it creates for the state, the tendency of the states to become dictatorial states with patronage being the main feature of the state.
All of which remain pertinent....