Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wzw2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-08T06:04:55.538Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social Anthropology and Two Contrasting Uses of Tribalism in Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Peter P. Ekeh
Peter P. Ekeh
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Buffalo
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

A remarkable feature of African studies has been the sharp discontinuities in the characterization of transitions in African history and society from one era to another. Thus, for an important example, colonialism has rarely been related to the previous era of the slave trade in the analysis of any dominant socioeconomic themes in Africa. Such discontinuity is significant in one important strand of modern African studies: The transition from the lore and scholarship of colonial social anthropology to postcolonial forms of African studies has been stalled into a brittle break because its central focus on the “tribe” has been under attack. Social anthropology gained strength through its analysis of the tribe and its associated concepts of kin groups and kinship behaviors in colonial Africa. However, following criticisms of the mission and manners of social anthropology by postindependence African scholars and politicians, and a brave reexamination of the conceptual problems of their discipline, social anthropologists more or less agreed to abandon the use of the tribe and of its more obvious derivative tribalism with respect to Africa.

Type
Imperialism and Political Identity
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , October 1990 , pp. 660 - 700
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abernethy, David B. 1969. The Political Dilemma of Popular Education: An African Case. Palo Alto, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Afigbo, A. E. 1972. The Warrant Chiefs: Indirect Rule in Southeast Nigeria 1891–1929. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Ajayi, J. F. Ade. 1961. “The Place of African History and Culture in the Process of Nation-building in Africa South of the Sahara.” Journal of Negro Education, 30:3, 206–13.Google Scholar
Ajayi, J. F. Me, and Alagoa, E. J.. 1974. “Black Africa: The Historian's Perspective.” Daedalus, 103:2 (Spring), 125–34.Google Scholar
Akinjobin, L. A. 1967. Dahomey and Its Neighbours 1708–1818. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Talal, Asad, ed., 1973. Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter. London: Ithaca Press.Google Scholar
Asamoa, Anoa. 1982. Classes and Tribalism in Ghana. Accra: Information Service Department.Google Scholar
Basden, G. T. [1938] 1966. Niger Ibos. London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Biobaku, S. O. 1957. The Egba and Their Neighbors 1842–1872. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Bloch, Marc. [1940] 1961. Feudal Society. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Boahen, Adu. 1987. African Perspectives on Colonialism. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Bohannan, P.; and Bohannan, L. 1953. The Tiv of Central Nigeria. London: International African Institute.Google Scholar
Bradbury, R. E. 1973. Benin Studies, Morton-Williams, Peter, ed. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Brown, Richard. 1973. “Anthropology and Colonial Rule: The Case of Godfrey Wilson and the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, Northern Rhodesia,” in Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter, Asad, Talal, ed., 173–97. London: Ithaca Press.Google Scholar
Brown, Richard. 1979. “Passages in the Life of a White Anthropologist: Max Gluckman in Northern Rhodesia.” Journal of African History, 20:4, 525–41.Google Scholar
Bryant, A. T. 1929. Olden Times in Zululand and Natal. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
M, Carter Gwendolen.; and O'Meara, Patrick, eds. 1985. African Independence: The First Twenty-five Years. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Chitepo, Herbert. 1970. “The Passing of Tribal Man: A Rhodesian View,” in The Passing of Tribal Man in Africa, Gutkind, Peter C. W., ed., 10–15. Leiden: E. J. Brill.Google Scholar
Cissoko, S. M. 1984. “The Songhay from the 12th to the 16th Century,” in Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century, vol. 4 of the General History of Africa, Niane, D. T., ed., 187–210. Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Cocquery-Vidrovitch, Catherine. 1978. “Research on an African Mode of Production,” in Relations of Production. Marxist Approaches to Economic Anthropology, Seddon, David, ed., 261–88. London: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Cohen, Ronald. 1966. “The Dynamics of Feudalism in Bornu,” in African History, vol. 2 of Boston University Papers on Africa, Butler, Jeffrey, ed., 85–105. Boston: Boston University Press.Google Scholar
Crowder, Michael. 1968. West Africa Under Colonial Rule. London: Longmans.Google Scholar
Curtin, P. D. 1969. The Atlantic Slave Trade: A Census. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Daaku, K. Y. 1965. “The Slave Trade and African Society,” in Emerging Themes of African History, Ranger, T. O., ed., 134–40. Dar-Es-Salaam: East African Publishing House.Google Scholar
Das, Bhuban Mahan. 1964. Kaharpara. Gauhati: Department of Tribal Culture and Folklore Research, University of Gauhati.Google Scholar
Davidson, Basil. 1971. “Slaves or Captives? Some Notes on Fantasy and Facts,” in Key Issues in the Afro-American Experience, Huggins, Nathan, Kilson, Martin, and Fox, Daniel M., eds., 54–93. New York: Harcourt Brace Javanovich.Google Scholar
Dike, K. O. 1956. Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Dike, K. O.; and Ajayi, J. F. Ade. 1968. “African Historiography,” vol. 6, 394–99, of International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Sills, David, ed. New York: MacMillan and Free Press.Google Scholar
Easton, David. 1953. The Political System. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Eghervba, Jacob. [1934] 1968. A Short History of Benin. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press.Google Scholar
Ekeh, Peter P. 1974. Social Exchange Theory: The Two Traditions. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ekeh, Peter P. 1975. “Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Statement.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 17:1, 91–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ekeh, Peter P. 1976. “Benin and Thebes: Elementary Forms of Civilization,” vol. 8 of The Psychoanalytic Study of Society, Muenstenberger, Werner, Esman, Aaron H., and Boyer, L. Bryce, eds., 65–93. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Ekeh, Peter P. 1986. “Development Theory and the African Predicament.” Africa Development, 11:4, 1–40.Google Scholar
Ekeh, Peter P.; and Osagahae, E. E., eds. 1989. Federal Character and Federalism in Nigeria. Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books.Google Scholar
Engels, Frederick. [1884] 1942. The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State. New York: International Publishers.Google Scholar
Epstein, A. L. 1958. Politics in an Urban African Community. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press for Rhodes-Livingstone Institute.Google Scholar
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1940. The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Fage, J. D. 1964. “Some Thoughts on State Formation in the Western Sudan Before the Seventeenth Century,” in Boston University Papers in African History, vol. 1, Butler, Jeffrey, ed., 19–34. Boston: Boston University Press.Google Scholar
Fege, J. D. 1969 a. A History of West Africa, 4th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fege, J. D. 1969 b. “Slavery and the Slave Trade in the Context of West African History.” Journal of African History, vol. 10, 393–404.Google Scholar
Fege, J. D. 1974. States and Subjects in Sub-Saharan African History. Johannesburg: Witwastersand University Press.Google Scholar
Fields, Karen E. 1985. Revival and Rebellion in Colonial Central Africa. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Forde, D. 1967. “Introduction,” in West African Kingdoms in the Nineteenth Century, Forde, D. and Kabeny, P. M., eds. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Forde, D.; and Kaberry, P. M., eds. 1967. West African Kingdoms in the Nineteenth Century. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fortes, M. 1945. The Dynamics of Clanship Among the Tallensi. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Meyer, Fortes; and Evans-Pritchard, E. E., eds. 1940. African Political Systems. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fox, R. G. 1971. Kin, Clan, Raja and Rule: State-Hinterland Relations in Preindustrial India. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freedman, J. D. 1961. “On the Concept of the Kindred.” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, no. 91 (pt. 2: 07-12), 192–220.Google Scholar
Fried, Morton H. 1967. The Evolution of Political Society. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Furnivall, J. S. 1948. Colonial Policy and Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gluckman, Max. 1945. “Seven-Year Research Plan of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute of Social Studies in British Central Africa.” Rhodes-Livingstone Institute Journal, no. 4, 1–32.Google Scholar
Gluckman, Max. 1960. “Tribalism in Modem British Central Africa.” Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, 1:1, 55–70.Google Scholar
Gluckman, Max. 1961. “Anthropological Problems Arising From the African Industrial Revolution,” in Social Change in Modern Africa, Southall, Aidan, ed., 67–82. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Goody, Jack. 1969. “Economy and Feudalism in Africa.” The Economic History Review, 2d. ser., 22:3, 393–405.Google Scholar
Green, M. 1947. Ibo Village Affairs. London: Oxford University Press. Gutkind, Peter C. W., ed. 1970. The Passing of Tribal Man in Africa. Leiden: E. J. Brill.Google Scholar
Guyer, Jane I. 1981. “Household and Community in African Studies.” African Studies Review, 14:2–3, 87–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hailey, Lord. 1938. An African Survey. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hair, P. E. 1978. The Atlantic Slave Trade and Black Africa. London: The Historical Association.Google Scholar
Harris, Marvin. 1968. The Rise of Anthropological Theory: A History of Theories of Culture. New York: Thomas Y. Crandall.Google Scholar
June, Helm, ed. 1968. Essays on the Problem of the Tribe. Seattle: Washington University Press.Google Scholar
Hopkins, A. G. 1973. An Economic History of West Africa. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Ikime, Obaro. 1968. Merchant Prince of the Niger Delta. London: Heineman Educational Books.Google Scholar
Inikori, J. E. 1977. “The Import of Firearms into West Africa, 1750 to 1807: A Quantitative Analysis.” Journal of African History, 18:3, 339–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
E, Inikori j. ed. 1982. Forced Migration: The Impact of the Export Slave Trade on African Societies. New York: African Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Isichei, Elizabeth. 1976. A History of the Igbo People. New York: St. Martins Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Marion. 1976. “The Atlantic Slave Trade and the Economy of West Africa,” in Liverpool, the African Slave Trade, and Abolition, Anstey, Roger and Hair, P. E., eds., 14–38. [Liverpool]: Historic Society of Lancanshire and Chershire.Google Scholar
Johnson, S. [1921] 1966. The History of the Yorubas. London: Routledge and K. Paul.Google Scholar
Jones, G. I. 1963. The Trading States of the Oil Rivers. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kuper, Adam. 1973. Anthropologists and Anthropology. The British School 1922–1972. New York: Pica Press.Google Scholar
Kuper, Adam. 1982. “Lineage Theory: A Critical Retrospect.” Annual Review of Anthropology, no. 11, 71–95.Google Scholar
Lackner, Helen. 1973. “Colonial Administration and Social Anthropology,” in Anthropology and the Colonial Encounter, Asad, Talal, ed., 123–51. London: Ithaca Press.Google Scholar
Langham, Ian. 1981. The Building of British Social Anthropology: W. H. H. Rivers and His Cambridge Disciples in the Development of Kinship Studies, 1898–1931. London: D. Reidel Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Law, Robin. 1977. The Oyo Empire c.1600–c.1836. A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Lee, Pamela Reynolds. 1971. Tribalism. New York: American-African Affairs Association.Google Scholar
Levine, Donald N. 1974. Greater Ethiopia. The Evolution of a Multiethnic Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, I. M. 1968a. “Tribal Society,” vol. 16, 146–51, of the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Sills, David, ed. New York: Macmillan and Free Press.Google Scholar
M, Lewis I.. ed., 1968b. History and Social Anthropology. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Lloyd, P. C. 1955. “The Yoruba Lineage.” Africa, 25:3, 235–51.Google Scholar
Lloyd, P. C. 1962. Yoruba Land Law. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lloyd, P. C. 1971. The Political Development of Yoruba Kingdoms in the 19th and 20th Centuries. London: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.Google Scholar
Loeb, E. M. 1962. In Feudal Africa. Bloomington: University Research Center in Anthropology.Google Scholar
Lugard, Lord. 1942. “Foreword,” in S. F. Nadel, A Black Byzantium: The Kingdom of Nupe in Nigeria. London: Oxford University Press (for the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures).Google Scholar
Mafeje, A. 1971. “The Ideology of Tribalism.” Journal of Modern African Studies, 9:2, 253–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maine, Sumner Henry. 1888. Lectures on the Early History of Institutions. New York: Henry Holt.Google Scholar
Mamdani, Mamood. 1976. Politics and Class Formation in Uganda. New York: Monthly Review Press.Google Scholar
Manning, Patrick. 1982. Slavery, Colonialism, and Economic Growth. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Maranda, Pierre. 1974. French Kinship: Structure and History. The Hague: Mouton. Market Research Company of East Africa. 1961. Public Opinion Poll on Tribalism in Kenya. Nairobi: Market Research Company of East Africa.Google Scholar
Marx, Karl; and Engels, F.. [1845] 1970. The German Ideology. New York: International Publishers (in English).Google Scholar
Mayer, P. 1961. Townsmen or Tribesmen? Capetown: Oxford University Press (for the Institute for Social and Economic Research, Rhodes University).Google Scholar
Mitchell, J. Clyde. 1956. The Kalela Dance: Aspects of Social Relationships Among Urban Africans in Northern Rhodesia (Rhodes-Livingstone Paper no. 2). Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Mitchell, J Clyde. 1960. Tribalism and the Plural Society. Inaugural Lecture at the University College of Rhodesia and Nysaland. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mitchell, J. Clyde. 1970. “Tribe and Social Change in South Central Africa: A Situational Approach,” in The Passing of Tribal Man in Africa, Gutkind, Peter C. W., ed., 83–101. Leiden: E. J. Brill.Google Scholar
Murray, Alexander C. 1983. Germanic Kinship Structure. Studies in Law and Society in Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies.Google Scholar
Nadel, S. F. 1942. A Black Byzantium. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nagaland, , Government of. 1968. Commission to Survey the Work Done by Tribal Range, and Area Councils. Kohima: Nagaland Government Press.Google Scholar
Nnoli, O. 1978. Ethnic Politics in Nigeria. Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishers.Google Scholar
Olderogge, D. A. 1957. “Feudalism v Zapadnom Sudane v 16–18vv.” Sovietskaya etnografia, 4:1, 91–103.Google Scholar
Omer-Cooper, J. D. 1966. The Zulu Aftermath. Evanston, III.: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Okot, p' Bitek. 1970. African Religions in Western Scholarship. Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau.Google Scholar
Oyovbaire, S. Egite. 1983. “The Tyranny of Borrowed Paradigms and the Responsibility of Political Science: The Nigerian Experience,” in Political Science in Africa: A Critical Review, Barongo, Yolamu, ed., 239–54. London: Zed Press.Google Scholar
Phillpotts, Bertha Surtees. [1913] 1974. Kindred and Clan in the Middle Ages and After. A Study in the Sociology of the Teutonic Races. New York: Octagon Books.Google Scholar
Plotnicov, Leonard. 1970. “Rural-Urban Communications in Contemporary Nigeria: The Persistence of Traditional Social Institutions,” in The Passing of Tribal Man in Africa, Gutkind, Peter C. W., ed., 66–82. Leiden: E. J. Brill.Google Scholar
Potekhin, I. I. 1970. On Feudalism in the Ashanti. Moscow: Oriental Publishing House.Google Scholar
Prah, K. K. 1977. Notes and Comments on Aspects of Twsana Feudalism. Gaborone: National Institute.Google Scholar
Pratap, I. R. 1968. A Study of the Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Tribes. Hyderabad: Tribal Cultural Research and Training Institute, Government of Andhra Pradesh.Google Scholar
Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. [1924] 1952. “The Mother's Brother in South Africa.” South African Journal of Science, 21, 542–5. Reprinted in Structure and Function in Primitive Society. Essays and Addresses. New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Radclife-Brown, A. R. 1950. “Introduction,” in African Systems of Kinship and Marriage, Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. and Forde, Daryll, eds., 1–85. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Radcliffe-Brown, A. R.; and Forde, Daryll, eds. 1950. African Systems of Kinship and Marriage. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Walter, Rodney. 1966. “African Slavery and Other Forms of Social Oppression in the Context of the Atlantic Slave-Trade.” Journal of African History, 7:3, 431–43.Google Scholar
Rodney, Walter. 1972. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Washington, D.C.: Howard Uni versity Press.Google Scholar
Rubenson, S. 1964. Wuchale XVII: The Attempts to Establish a Protectorate over Ethiopia. Addis Ababa: Haile Salassie University.Google Scholar
Ryder, A. F. C. 1969. Benin and the Europeans, 1485–1897. New York: Humanities Press.Google Scholar
Service, E. R, . 1975. Cultural Evolutionism. New York: Holt, Rhinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Sklar, Richard L. 1985. “The Colonial Imprint on African Political Thought,” in African Independence. The First Twenty-Five Years, Carter, Gwendolen M. and O'Meara, Patrick, eds., 1–30. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, M. G. 1960. Government in Zazzau: 1800–1950. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, R. 1969. Kingdoms of the Yoruba. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Somalia, Democratic Republic. 1983. War Against the Evils of Tribalism in Our Country. Mogadishu: Ministry of Information and National Guidance.Google Scholar
Southall, Aidan. 1970. “The Illusion of Tribe,” in The Passing of Tribal Man in Africa, Gutkind, Peter C. W., ed., 28–50. Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Southall, Aidan. 1983. “The Contribution of Anthropology to African Studies.” African Studies Review, 26:3–4, 63–96.Google Scholar
Somuthall, Aidan. 1988. “The Segmentary State in Africa and Asia.” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 30:1 (01), 52–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strivastava, L. R. N. 1971. Developmental Needs of the Tribal People. New Delhi: National Council of Educational Research and Training.Google Scholar
Suret-Canale, J. [1964] 1971. French Colonialism in Tropical Africa 1900–1945. New York: Pica Press.Google Scholar
Vansina, J. 1960. “Recording of Oral History of the Bakura.” Journal of African History, 1:1, 45–53.Google Scholar
Vansina, J. [1961“ “Once Upon a Time: Oral Traditions as History in Africa.” Daedalus, 100:2 (Spring), 442–68.Google Scholar
Williams, Eric. [1944] 1964. Capitalism and Slavery. London: Andre Deutsch.Google Scholar
Williams, F. R. A. 1976. Report of the Constitution Drafting Committee Containing the Draft Constitution, vol. 1. Lagos: Federal Ministry of Information, Printing Division.Google Scholar
Wilson, Godfrey. [1941, 1942] 1968. An Essay on the Economics of Detribalisation in Northern Rhodesia (Rhodes-Livingstone Papers 5 and 6). Reprinted in Manchester, England: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, J. L. 1856. Western Africa: Its History, Condition, and Prospects. New York: Harper and Brothers.Google Scholar
Wrigley, C. C. 1971. “Historicism in Africa: Slavery and State Formation.” African Affairs: Journal of the Royal African Society, vol. 70 (no. 279, 04), 113–24.Google Scholar
Zolberg, Aristide. 1966. Creating Political Order: The One-Party States of West Africa. Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar