Philosophy of Nationalism in Africa

Central to the endeavor of nationalist thought is the nineteenth-century idea of the nation as the primary political community, resulting in territorially bounded nation-states becoming the globally dominant model. In this chapter, Boele van Hensbroek identifies the imaginative intellectuals and leaders of African resistances who, during the struggle itself from the end of the nineteenth century onwards, conceived of how the unit of the Fatherland or Nation would be demarcated. Their struggles with local colonial authorities made colonial administrative units to become in most cases (but not all) units of nationalist imagination, while cosmopolitan inspirations were strongest in metropolitan intellectual circles, such as those of Negritude and Marxists in Paris, Pan-Africanism in the transatlantic link, and around Padmore in London. The chapter outlines the transformation of nationalism into a comprehensive vision of national development, leading the most prominent African leaders—Nkrumah, Nyerere, Kaunda, Senghor, etc.—to formulate a “national ideological philosophy” in order to frame their nation-building project, while linking ideologically to selected indigenous values and social practices. Boele van Hensbroek identifies important criticisms of nationalist thought ranging from Fanon to Blyden, and Cabral to Lamine Senghor and Nkrumah