Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-17T02:37:43.314Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Political Salience of Cultural Difference: Why Chewas and Tumbukas Are Allies in Zambia and Adversaries in Malawi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2004

DANIEL N. POSNER
DANIEL N. POSNER
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper explores the conditions under which cultural cleavages become politically salient. It does so by taking advantage of the natural experiment afforded by the division of the Chewa and Tumbuka peoples by the border between Zambia and Malawi. I document that, while the objective cultural differences between Chewas and Tumbukas on both sides of the border are identical, the political salience of the division between these communities is altogether different. I argue that this difference stems from the different sizes of the Chewa and Tumbuka communities in each country relative to each country's national political arena. In Malawi, Chewas and Tumbukas are each large groups vis-à-vis the country as a whole and, thus, serve as viable bases for political coalition-building. In Zambia, Chewas and Tumbukas are small relative to the country as a whole and, thus, not useful to mobilize as bases of political support. The analysis suggests that the political salience of a cultural cleavage depends not on the nature of the cleavage itself (since it is identical in both countries) but on the sizes of the groups it defines and whether or not they will be useful vehicles for political competition.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 98 , Issue 4 , November 2004 , pp. 529 - 545
Copyright
© 2004 by the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Asiwaju A. I. 1985. Partitioned Africans: Ethnic Relations and Africa's International Boundaries, 1884–1984. London: C. Hurst.
Bannon Alicia, Edward Miguel, and Daniel N. Posner. 2004. “Sources of Ethnic Identification in Africa.” Typescript, UCLA.
Barnes J. A. 1954. Politics in a Changing Society: The Political History of the Fort Jameson Ngoni. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bates Robert H. 1976. Rural Responses to Industrialization: A Study of Village Zambia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Bates Robert H. 1983. “Modernization, Ethnic Competition and the Rationality of Politics in Contemporary Africa.” In State versus Ethnic Claims: African Policy Dilemmas, ed. Donald Rothchild and Victor A. Olorunsola. Boulder, CO: Westview, 152– 71.
Brass Paul R. 1991. Ethnicity and Nationalism: Theory and Comparison. New Delhi: Sage.
Bratton Michael. 1994. “Economic Crisis and Political Realignment in Zambia.” In Economic Change and Political Liberalization in Sub-Saharan Africa, ed. Jennifer A. Widner. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 101– 28.
Bratton Michael. 1998. “Zambia Democratic Governance Project Political Attitudes Survey, 1993 and 1996” [computer file]. ICPSR version. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University, Department of Political Science [producer], 1997. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 1996.
Brown Roger. 1986. Social Psychology. 2nd ed. New York: Free Press.
Burnell P. 2003. “The Tripartite Elections in Zambia, December 2001.” Electoral Studies 22 (June): 388– 95.Google Scholar
Caselli Francesco, and John Coleman. 2002. “On the Theory of Ethnic Conflict.” Typescript. Harvard University.
Chandra Kanchan. 2004. Why Ethnic Parties Succeed: Patronage and Ethnic Head Counts in India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chirwa Wiseman C. 1998. “Democracy, Ethnicity and Regionalism: The Malawian Experience, 1992–1996.” In Democratization in Malawi: A Stocktaking, ed. Kings M. Phiri and Kenneth R. Ross. Blantyre: Kachere Books, 52– 69.
Deutsch Karl W. 1961. “Social Mobilization and Political Development.” American Political Science Review 55 (September): 493– 514.Google Scholar
Dresang Dennis. 1974. “Ethnic Politics, Representative Bureaucracy and Development Administration: The Zambian Case.” American Political Science Review 68 (December): 1605– 17.Google Scholar
Englebert Pierre, Stacy Tarango, and Matthew Carter. 2002. “Dismemberment and Suffocation: A Contribution to the Debate on African Boundaries.” Comparative Political Studies 35 (December): 1093– 118.Google Scholar
Epstein A. L. 1958. Politics in an Urban African Community. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
Fearon James D. 2003. “Ethnic Structure and Cultural Diversity by Country.” Journal of Economic Growth 8 (June): 195– 222.Google Scholar
Fearon James D., and David D. Laitin. 1996. “Explaining Interethnic Cooperation.” American Political Science Review 90 (December): 715– 35.Google Scholar
Forbes H. D. 1997. Ethnic Conflict: Commerce, Culture and the Contact Hypothesis. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Gertzel Cherry, Carolyn Baylies, and Morris Szeftel. 1984. The Dynamics of the One-Party State in Zambia. Manchester, UK: Manchester, University Press.
Grimes Joseph E., and Barbara F. Grimes. 1996. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
Gurr Ted Robert. 2000. Peoples Versus States: Minorities at Risk in the New Century. Washington, DC: U.S. Institute of Peace.
Henkel Reinhard. 1985. “Mission Stations in Zambia: Their Location and Diffusion Patterns.” Zambia Geographical Journal 35: 1– 18.Google Scholar
Hobsbawm Eric. 1996. “Are all Tongues Equal?” In Living as Equals, ed. Paul Barker. New York: Oxford University Press, 85– 98.
Horowitz Donald. 1985. Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Horowitz Donald. 1991. A Democratic South Africa? Constitutional Engineering in a Divided Society. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Horowitz Donald. 2001. The Deadly Ethnic Riot. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Huntington Samuel P. 1968. Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Huntington Samuel P. 1996. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Kasfir Nelson. 1979. “Explaining Ethnic Political Participation.” World Politics 31 (April): 365– 88.Google Scholar
Kaspin Deborah. 1995. “The Politics of Ethnicity in Malawi's Democratic Transition.” Journal of Modern African Studies 33 (December): 595– 620.Google Scholar
Kishindo Pascal J. 1998. “Politics of Language in Contemporary Malawi.” In Democratization in Malawi: A Stocktaking, ed. Kings M. Phiri and Kenneth R. Ross. Blantyre: Kachere Books, 252– 80.
Laitin David D. 1986. Hegemony and Culture: Politics and Religious Change among the Yoruba. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lake David, and Donald Rothchild. 1998. “Ethnic Fears and Global Engagement.” In The International Spread of Ethnic Conflict: Fear, Diffusion and Escalation, ed. David Lake and Donald Rothchild. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 339– 50.
Lijphart Arend. 1977. Democracy in Plural Societies: A Comparative Exploration. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Lipset Seymour Martin, and Stein Rokkan. 1967. “Cleavage Structures, Party Systems and Voter Alignments: An Introduction.” In Party Systems and Voter Alignments: Cross-National Perspectives, ed. Seymour M. Lipset and Stein Rokkan. New York: Free Press, 1– 64.
Miles William F. S. 1994. Hausaland Divided: Colonialism and Independence in Nigeria and Niger. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Miles William F. S., and David Rochefort. 1991. “Nationalism versus Ethnic Identity in Sub-Saharan Africa.” American Political Science Review 85 (June): 393– 403.Google Scholar
Mitchell J. Clyde. 1974. “Perceptions of Ethnicity and Ethnic Behaviour: An Empirical Exploration.” In Urban Ethnicity, ed. Abner Cohen. London: Tavistock, 1– 35.
Morrison Donald, Robert Mitchell, and John Paden. 1989. Black Africa: A Comparative Handbook. 2nd ed. New York: Paragon House.
Ott Martin, Kings Phiri, and Nandini Patel. 2000. Malawi's Second Democratic Elections: Process, Problems and Prospects. Blantyre: Christian Literature Association in Malawi.
Posner Daniel N. 1995. “Malawi's New Dawn.” Journal of Democracy 6 (January): 131– 45.Google Scholar
Posner Daniel N. 2004. “Measuring Ethnic Fractionalization in Africa.” American Journal of Political Science 48 (October).Google Scholar
Posner Daniel N. Forthcoming. Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Reilly Benjamin. 2001. Democracy in Divided Societies: Electoral Engineering for Conflict Management. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Republic of Malawi. 1992. Malawi Demographic and Health Survey. Lilongwe: Government Printer.
Republic of Zambia. 1992. Zambia Demographic and Health Survey. Lusaka: Government Printer.
Reynolds Andrew. 1999. Electoral Systems and Democratization in Southern Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Scarritt James, and Shaheen Mozaffar. 1999. “The Specification of Ethnic Cleavages and Ethnopolitical Groups for the Analysis of Democratic Competition in Contemporary Africa.” Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 5 (Spring): 82– 117.Google Scholar
Sklar Richard L. 2003. “Introduction of Kenneth David Kaunda, Former President of Zambia, Speaking on ‘HIV/AIDS and Poverty in Africa’ at UCLA.” Los Angeles, February 27.
Snelson Peter. 1974. Educational Development in Northern Rhodesia: 1883–1945. Lusaka: Kenneth Kaunda Foundation.
Straus Scott. 2004. “The Order of Genocide: Race, Power, and War in Rwanda.” Ph.D. dissertation. University of California, Berkeley.
Tew Mary. 1950. Ethnographic Survey of Africa: Peoples of the Lake Nyasa Region. London: International Africa Institute.
Vail Leroy. 1981. “Ethnicity, Language and National Unity: The Case of Malawi.” In Working Papers in Southern African Studies, Volume 2, ed. P. Bonner. Johannesburg: Ravan.
Vail Leroy, and Landeg White. 1989. “Tribalism in the Political History of Malawi.” In The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa, ed. Leroy Vail. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 151– 92.
van Velsen Jap. 1964. The Politics of Kinship: A Study in Social Manipulation among the Lakeside Tonga of Malawi. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
Wiseman J. A. 2000. “Presidential and Parliamentary Elections in Malawi, 1999.” Electoral Studies 19 (December): 637– 46.Google Scholar
Young Crawtord. 1994. The African Colonial State in Comparative Perspective. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.