National Integration in Guinea-Bissau since Independence

Kohl, Christoph

doi:10.4000/cea.155

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…While the above answers find credence especially within the context of Africa's return to democracy in the early 1990s, research in history education demonstrates that in the majority of cases, frantic efforts to maintain national unity could be attributed to concrete educational policies and strategies employed by states in the governance of diversities (Peshkin, 1967;Clignet, 1975;Wang, 1978, Akpan, 1990Ndlovu, 2009;Kohl, 2010;Egbefo 2014;Njeng'ere, 2014). Within this theme, research on Cameroon is to say the least, unavailable-a fact from which the current engagement draws value.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learn History, think unity: National integration through History education in Cameroon, 1961-2018

Ndille

2020

Y&T

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Since independence, one of the greatest worries of African states has been how to maintain national cohesion amongst the multiplicity of ethnic groups which characterize them. My aim in this paper is to show that, other factors notwithstanding, national integration had been a major educational ideology in Cameroon and that it contributed to the peace and stability that the country was known for, amidst a turbulent central African region until the advent of neoliberalism and multiparty politics in 1990. I discuss the nature of contents that helped to achieve this while arguing that a de-emphasis on the social sciences and particularly on the integrationist approach to history education in the multiparty era is not unconnected to the post-1990 reinvention of various parochial identities antithetic to national cohesion in which recent calls for the secession of the Anglophone region by some radical groups is seen as the culmination of the trend. I conclude by highlighting the social relevance of curriculum within which history education should be re-invented as a vector for peace, unity and national integration in the country.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learn History, think unity: National integration through History education in Cameroon, 1961-2018

Ndille

2020

Y&T

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“…Post-war economic policy then foundered quickly on individual interests and personal accumulation. There were few incentives to bolster the linkages between state and citizenry, when institutions barely existed and positioning within the elite network served a gatekeeping function and thereby a source of resources for a small group of connected individuals (Kohl 2010). By the early 1980s, high levels of external debt and external pressure forced a period of structural adjustment.…”

Section: Political Fragility and Changing Elite Interestsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drug trafficking in Guinea-Bissau, 1998–2014: the evolution of an elite protection network

Shaw

2015

J. Mod. Afr. Stud.

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Guinea-Bissau has been regularly described as a ‘narco-state’. Yet, few studies analyse how drug trafficking has evolved here. Based on extensive interviews in Guinea-Bissau over several years, this paper documents the process. It concludes that using the term ‘narco-state’, where much of the state has little or no capacity, is inappropriate. A better approach is to analyse the actions of key players as an elite protection network. In Guinea-Bissau, that network did not act on its own, but relied on a series of ‘entrepreneurs' who operated as an interface between traffickers and the elite. While the military as an institution is often said to be in charge of trafficking, exclusive control by high-ranking military personnel within the elite network only occurred relatively late. Senior soldiers' attempts to provide more than just protection, and to enter the drug market themselves, led to the network's undoing.

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“…Compare this to figures of 44% in 1979 and 51% in 1991 (Kohl 2010;Davidson 2002;Knörr and Filho 2010). Other factors are also important for relative interethnic harmony.…”

Section: From the Nineteenth Centurymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…And, to be sure, during the war "ethnic logic" did not determine who participated, who remained neutral, and who sided with the indigenous language has been embraced. This is something in which Bissau Guineans today take great pride, the past few generations learning Crioulo in their communities as their first or second language (after an indigenous language) and studying Portuguese, and increasingly French, as a third language in school (Kohl 2010;Davidson 2002, 421-423;Scantamburlo 1999). This has prompted some observers to dub Portuguese "a foreign language" and given rise to experiments to teach it as such in schools, children initially receiving instruction in Crioulo and later being introduced to Portuguese as they continue their educations (Benson 2004).…”

Section: From the Nineteenth Centurymentioning

confidence: 99%

The historical roots of multicultural unity along the Upper Guinea Coast and in Guinea-Bissau

Hawthorne

Nafafé²

2016

Social Dynamics

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General rightsThis document is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. Full terms of use are available: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/pure/about/ebr-terms Abstract: Lusofonia or lusophony is often defined as an identity shared by people in areas that were once colonised by Portugal, which in Africa include Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé and Príncipe. Lusofonia assumes that in these places people share something -a language, certainly, but also a history and culture rooted in the Iberian Peninsula. In some ways, it is a re-articulation of Gilberto Freyre's lusotropicalismo, the idea that Portuguese were more adaptable than other Europeans to tropical climates and cultures and created more multicultural colonial communities. Those who espouse lusofonia often have a political agenda -the strengthening of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP). In this article, we argue that like lusotropicalismo, lusofonia is a dream; it is not rooted in a historical reality. It is luso-centric in that it ignores the power and persistence of local cultures and gives undo weight to Portuguese influence. With regard to Africa, lusofonia's agenda is elite driven and assumes the inevitability of modernity and globalisation. And we demonstrate that it was through Upper Guinean institutions and * Corresponding author. Email: walterh@msu.edu; jose.lingnanafafe@bristol.ac.uk 2 languages, and not colonial ones, that community and fellowship were most commonly fostered in the past, as they are fostered today. Those seeking the roots of lusofonia cannot, then, look to this period of Portuguese-African engagement in Upper Guinea. There Portuguese embraced "black ways." They operated in a peculiar multicultural space in which people possessed fluid and flexible identities. Portugal did not create that space. Lusofonia has not been the foundation for cultural unity. Rather, unity has been found in localised institutions and in Crioulo. In Guinea-Bissau, lusofonia is not an indigenous movement. If it is anything, it is the stuff of elites and foreigners and is not rooted in any historical reality.

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National Integration in Guinea-Bissau since Independence

Cited by 7 publications

References 34 publications

Learn History, think unity: National integration through History education in Cameroon, 1961-2018

Learn History, think unity: National integration through History education in Cameroon, 1961-2018

Drug trafficking in Guinea-Bissau, 1998–2014: the evolution of an elite protection network

The historical roots of multicultural unity along the Upper Guinea Coast and in Guinea-Bissau

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