Identity?

Theory, Politics, History (Volume 1)

This collaborative publication entitled Identity? Theory, History, Politics is the first of two companion volumes emanating from the partnership between the French Institute (IFAS), the Institute for Global Dialogue (IGD, formerly FGD ) and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). The focus of Volume 1, based on the 1997 conference of the same name held in Pretoria, is almost exclusively on South Africa shortly after that country’s transition to democracy. The second volume, entitled Shifting African Identities based on the 1998 Cape Town conference, also of the same name, broadens the lens to provide comparative analyses from Africanist scholars. Together these texts provide critical and multidisciplinary reflections on the vexing questions underpinning ethnicity, religion, gender and language as pivotal constructs of contemporary African identities.

A third companion volume in this series on Identity and Nation Building is entitled National Identity and Democracy in Africa – a joint product of the Nordic Africa Institute, Sweden and the Mayibuye Centre at UWC based on their March 1997 conference. This text offers the reader a global comparative analysis and significantly extends the thematic range of the previous two texts to include cultural landscapes, power and conflict, literary critiques and discourses on the politics of nation building.

These books are essential reading for anyone interested in grappling with the politics of identity and its implications for the African Renaissance discourse. Policy makers, academics, postgraduate students and scholars interested in international relations, philosophy, political science, psychology, history, sociology, cultural anthropology, gender issues, development and African studies will find the accounts novel and insightful and are invited to engage with the intentional participatory and interactive style.