Imagining alternatives: tribal citizenship and the politics of recognition in Botswana

Type Journal Article - Cambridge Anthropology
Title Imagining alternatives: tribal citizenship and the politics of recognition in Botswana
Author(s)
Volume 26
Issue 3
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2006
Page numbers 45-71
Abstract
Multiculturalism, identity politics, and the conjuncture of culture and rights are fast becoming some of the most popular themes for anthropological debate. This study of an NGO struggling for recognition and striving for the cultural and linguistic revival of the Wayeyi tribe engages with these wider themes. It reasserts old anthropological insights, in particular that culture is not a stable and unchanging code but is alive to the exigencies of the present and produced through everyday social practice. It also explores how, and why, a particular image of Wayeyi culture–as clearly distinct from other cultures, and the common property of the Wayeyi tribe–came to be produced. I find that despite speaking in the powerful language of multiculturalism, and of rights, their claims are rooted in the specific experiences of their membership in contemporary Botswana.

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