'One Namibia - One Nation' - A Qualitative Study of the Official Nation-building Process and Experienced Participation among Rural San in Namibia.

Dublin Core

Title

'One Namibia - One Nation' - A Qualitative Study of the Official Nation-building Process and Experienced Participation among Rural San in Namibia.

Description

Namibia won its independence in 1990 after a long liberation struggle lead by the – since independence ruling party – SWAPO. There is an ongoing nation-building process in the multiethnic country ever since, with a vision about a unified nation. This study examines the relationship between the nation and one of its ethnic minority groups; the San. From a socio-economic perspective the San is the most disadvantaged ethnic group of contemporary Namibia. How do members of San experience national participation? How does the nation handle the ethnic diversity? This study illustrates that a national identity is promoted by the government and that the struggle for an unified nation is legitimized with the liberation struggle and its won independence. At the same time members of San seem to identify their living situation with ethnicity and are more concerned about the survival of their closest community than national participation. The discussion is based on qualitative interviews where experiences among San-members and one NGO-volunteer are analysed with inspiration of the method Grounded Theory, related to earlier research on the field and theories of nationalism and ethnicity.

Creator

Jenny Schwerdt

Source

http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:278876/FULLTEXT01

Publisher

Linköping University

Date

2009

Format

PDF

Language

English

Type

Master (One Year) Thesis in Social and Cultural Analysis (Social Science): Linköping University

Files

5471af6aa57fde60e414293cd2da6046.pdf

Citation

Jenny Schwerdt, “'One Namibia - One Nation' - A Qualitative Study of the Official Nation-building Process and Experienced Participation among Rural San in Namibia.,” Namibia Digital Repository, accessed March 28, 2024, https://namibiadigitalrepository.com/items/show/323.

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