Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | A Chief by the People: Nation versus State in Lesotho |
Authors: | Coplan, David B. Quinlan, Tim |
Year: | 1997 |
Periodical: | Africa: Journal of the International African Institute |
Volume: | 67 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 27-60 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Lesotho |
Subjects: | Sotho political systems democracy Politics and Government Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Ethnic and Race Relations |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/1161269 |
Abstract: | This article argues that the particular disjunctions in Lesotho between government and State, on the one hand, and ethnicity and nation, on the other, pose problems for the general process of democratic transformation in State structures on the subcontinent. It further argues that the sovereign State may not be the most ideal or beneficial political embodiment of a national identity; and that elections do not, of themselves, provide a context or even a ritual substantiation for democracy. To advance these points, the authors begin with a reflection on the quality of 'Sesotho', the language and culture of the Sotho, as an identity, move to a selective analysis of significant points in the transformation of the chieftaincy in Lesotho, narrate relevant aspects of Lesotho's postindependence political crises, and conclude with a set of projections about the disjunction between the Basotho nation and State and the prospects for nationalism in Lesotho. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. |