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The ‘True Nzema’: A Layered Identity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Pierluigi Valsecchi
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Abstract

Nzema has been used historically as a multiple term to describe different but interrelated social, political and territorial realities. Failure to understand the historical context fully has led to persistent ambiguity in writings about the area, especially in anthropological studies. The tendency is to isolate ‘ethnic groups’ as precise categories in a broad context which in reality is covered by a pervasive network of continua. This article deals with the historical ‘mapping’ of ‘what it is to be Nzema’ and therefore puts forward a framework for analysing the question of identity in its actual formulation or, in other words, in relation to local ideological and political processes. Finally, it attempts to identify some of the registers which inform the question and some of the criteria for the use of each specific register by individuals and communities.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 71 , Issue 3 , August 2001 , pp. 391 - 425
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2001

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