Abstract
This paper examines the relationship between the ethnic group, the nation, and the state. In addition to the analysis of related concepts such as modes of production and world-systems theory, it uses examples from precolonial Northern Nigeria to emphasize how multi-ethnic states existed in Africa prior to the development of global capitalism and the imposition of the colonial state. In so doing, it challenges the standard notion that the nation-state first emerged in Europe after the French Revolution. Instead, it offers a conceptualization of patriotism as identification with the state, which is distinct from nationalism and it also suggests areas of research in which this conceptualization of patriotism might be fruitfully applied.
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