Externe Publikationen

Unveiling the Weave: social cohesion in African post-colonial state- and nation-building

Wortmann-Kolundžija, Eli / Julia Leininger
Externe Publikationen (2026)

in: Constanze Blum / Ulf Engel / Christi van der Westhuizen (Hrsg.), Routledge Handbook of Social Cohesion in Africa, London: Routledge (Chapter 5)

Information

This chapter explores the role of social cohesion in African post-colonial state- and nation-building. It argues that understandings of social cohesion, rooted in pre-colonial traditions and concepts, were central to political and intellectual debates during decolonization in the 1960s and remain relevant today. Drawing on ethnophilosophical sources, such as oral traditions, proverbs, and communal practices, as well as social theories of African humanism and socialism, this chapter identifies core African notions of interconnectedness, collective responsibility, and the common good. Concepts including ubuntu, ujamaa, harambee, and other local philosophies illustrate how interdependence, identity, lineage, and community well-being shaped both traditional societies and post-independence political visions. African leaders and intellectuals invoked these ideas to legitimize distinctive paths of development, often contrasting them with Western models of statehood and individualism. At the same time, tensions arose between local, national, and pan-African identities, and between communal ideals and the practicalities of mass societies. By situating these debates historically and conceptually, this chapter demonstrates that social cohesion has been a constitutive element of African state- and nation-building and offers insights into contemporary challenges of inclusion, identity, and unity across diverse societies.