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Ethnicity as Trope of Political Belonging and Conflict: Cape Verdean Identity and Agency in Guinea-Bissau

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Politics and Policies in Upper Guinea Coast Societies

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Abstract

Kohl offers a much-needed socio-anthropological analysis of the Cape Verdean community in Guinea-Bissau. Cape Verdeans have integrated to various degrees into Bissau-Guinean society but have been repeatedly, until recently, identified as a “cause of trouble” in the country’s brief history. From both late colonial and postcolonial perspectives, Kohl offers a more nuanced exploration of Cape Verdeans’ culture and identity, and their role in both the struggle for independence from Portugal and postcolonial nation- and state-building in Guinea-Bissau. “Ethnicity as Trope of Political Belonging and Conflict” demonstrates that the relationship between Cape Verdeans and the rest of the Bissau-Guinean population, as well as the former’s role in the country’s politics, has been far more complex than often assumed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF), Frankfurt, Germany

    Christoph Kohl

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  1. Christoph Kohl
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Christian K. Højbjerg

  2. Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle (Saale), Germany

    Jacqueline Knörr

  3. Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA

    William P. Murphy

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Kohl, C. (2017). Ethnicity as Trope of Political Belonging and Conflict: Cape Verdean Identity and Agency in Guinea-Bissau. In: Højbjerg, C., Knörr, J., Murphy, W. (eds) Politics and Policies in Upper Guinea Coast Societies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95013-3_11

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