Skip to content

Booksellers & Trade Customers: Sign up for online bulk buying at trade.atlanticbooks.com for wholesale discounts

Booksellers: Create Account on our B2B Portal for wholesale discounts

The State and the Social: State Formation in Botswana and Its Precolonial and Colonial Genealogies

by ØRnulf Gulbrandsen
Save 17% Save 17%
Current price ₹4,441.00
Original price ₹5,330.00
Original price ₹5,330.00
Original price ₹5,330.00
(-17%)
₹4,441.00
Current price ₹4,441.00

Imported Edition - Ships in 18-21 Days

Free Shipping in India on orders above Rs. 500

Request Bulk Quantity Quote
+91
Book cover type: Paperback
  • ISBN13: 9781782383253
  • Binding: Paperback
  • Subject: N/A
  • Publisher: Berghahn Books
  • Publisher Imprint: Berghahn Books
  • Publication Date:
  • Pages: 364
  • Original Price: USD 39.95
  • Language: English
  • Edition: N/A
  • Item Weight: 486 grams
  • BISAC Subject(s): Anthropology / Cultural & Social

Botswana has been portrayed as a major case of exception in Africa-as an oasis of peace and harmony with an enduring parliamentary democracy, blessed with remarkable diamond-driven economic growth. Whereas the "failure" of other states on the continent is often attributed to the prevalence of indigenous political ideas and structures, the author argues that Botswana's apparent success is not the result of Western ideas and practices of government having replaced indigenous ideas and structures. Rather, the postcolonial state of Botswana is best understood as a unique, complex formation, one that arose dialectically through the meeting of European ideas and practices with the symbolism and hierarchies of authority, rooted in the cosmologies of indigenous polities, and both have become integral to the formation of a strong state with a stable government. Yet there are destabilizing potentialities in progress due to emerging class conflict between all the poor sections of the population and the privileged modern elites born of the expansion of a beef and diamond-driven political economy, in addition to conflicts between dominant Tswana and vast other ethnic groups. These transformations of the modern state are viewed from the long-term perspectives of precolonial and colonial genealogies and the rise of structures of domination, propelled by changing global forces.

Gulbrandsen, ØRnulf: -

Ørnulf Gulbrandsen is Professor of Social Anthropology and has been the Head of the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Bergen for many years. He has conducted fieldwork in Norway, Botswana and, recently, in Sardinia. He has published extensively in books and international journals, especially on politics/state formation, law/jurisprudence, cosmology/occult practices, evangelizing Christianity, space, industrial relations/trade unions, political economy/labour migration, cultural ecology/land tenure, and kinship/marriage.

Trusted for over 49 years

Family Owned Company

Secure Payment

All Major Credit Cards/Debit Cards/UPI & More Accepted

New & Authentic Products

India's Largest Distributor

Need Support?

Whatsapp Us