Mutable Identities: Moving Beyond Ethnicity in Botswana

The adoption of a focus on minorities suggests a move away from a discourse revolving around notions of ethnicity to one emphasising personal participation in the political arena and leading to a devaluation of divisions among peoples demarcated by language, parentage, class or so-called 'race' in favour of a concept of citizenship. I argue that its frequent invocation notwithstanding, ethnic allegiance is a form of cultural capital that is increasingly marginal to social functions of the present. Not only do such constructions not stand up to historical scrutiny, but they can also be incorporated as an ingredient in a variety of potentially dangerous claims to cultural authenticity and the uniqueness of particular cultural visions. Understanding these constructions and their consequences requires detailed analyses of local ethno-histories, of colonial rule and policy, and of the connection between expansionary capitalism and the processes of social formation constitution. I turn first to the backgrounds of ethnicity in Botswana and then to languages of labour in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries before examining present-day languages of political contention among minority and elite fractions of the country. I conclude that an effective minority discourse would dissolve the surface appearance of ethnic disconnectedness and fragmentation and re-establish historic connections upon which an equitably served citizenship could be based.