136 CHAPTER 6
KEY FIGURE
MARCUS GARVEY (1887–1940) A Jamaican political thinker and activist, and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, Garvey was an early advocate of black nationalism. Placing a particular emphasis on establishing black pride, Garvey’s vision of Africa as a ‘homeland’ provided the basis for a pan-African philosophy and an associated political movement. Although his call for a return to Africa to ‘redeem’ it from European colonialism was largely ignored, his views provided the basis for the later Black Power movement and helped to inspire Rastafarianism.
World History Archive/Alamy Stock Photo
origins and traditions. The term is complex because it has both racial and cultural overtones. Members of ethnic groups are often seen, correctly or incorrectly, to have descended from common ancestors, suggesting that ethnic groups are extended kinship groups, united by blood. A further indication of ethnic belonging is a link with an ancient or historic territory, a ‘homeland’, as in the case of Zionism (see p. 263). As it is not possible to ‘join’ an ethnic group (except perhaps through intermarriage), ethnic nationalism has a clearly exclusive character and tends to overlap with racism (see p. 162). On the other hand, cultural and ethnic forms of nationalism have been viewed as closely related, even as part of the same phenomenon, commonly termed ‘ethnocultural nationalism’. In this view, a distinction is drawn between inclusive or ‘open’ political nationalism and exclusive or ‘closed’ cultural nationalism. Cultural nationalism, from this perspective, is often taken to be, either implicitly or explicitly, chauvinistic or hostile towards other nations or minority groups, being fuelled by a mixture of pride and fear. To the extent that cultural nationalism is associated with demands for assimilation and cultural ‘purity’, it becomes incompatible with multiculturalism (the relationship between multiculturalism and nationalism is examined in greater depth in Chapter 11).
TENSIONS WITHIN . . . NATIONALISM (1) Civic nationalism v.
Ethnocultural nationalism
cultural/historical nation
political nation
exclusive
inclusive
particularism
universalism
unique nations
equal nations
mystical/emotion
rational/principled
national ‘spirit’
national sovereignty
organic
voluntaristic
based on descent
based on citizenship
ethnic allegiance
civic loyalty
cultural unity
cultural diversity
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