Performing the nation and subnational differences in African national days

该项目审查民族归属和类似成员类别之间的关系，如种族和区域主义，以及各种不同的差异，如职业、社会阶层、性别、年龄或政治倾向。国家建设与国家建立密不可分，是一个过程，在这个过程中，（国家之间的）较高层次的差异通过将其重新塑造为互补的、较低层次的内部差异，来淡化交叉的、潜在的竞争差异。对外部敌人和内部少数群体的定义，以及对民族团结和共同民族认同的话语和表现的部署，对形成更高层次的民族差异具有重要意义。该项目探讨了在布基纳法索、Côte科特迪瓦和加纳的国庆节庆祝活动中，国家和地方差异是如何在国家的象征性代表和表演中被上演、淡化或强调的。该项目从历史和区域比较的角度研究国庆节，特别关注中心与边缘之间的关系（首都与区域中心的庆祝活动），以及国庆节庆祝活动与其他庆祝活动（如文化节）之间的关系。此外，它探讨了不同的民族国家如何处理关于种族、阶级、年龄、性别和政治取向的内部异质性，调查了布基纳法索、Côte科特迪瓦和加纳这三个邻国的案例，这三个国家有着不同的殖民经历和不同的国家建设和国家建立轨迹。

The project examines the relationship between national belonging and similar membership categories such as ethnicity and regionalism as well as diverse kinds of differences like profession, social class, gender, age or political orientation. Inextricably intertwined with state-making, nation-building is a process in which higher-level differences (between nations) are made to downplay cross-cutting, and potentially competing, differences by recasting them as complementary, lower-level internal variations. Important to the making of higher-level national differences is the definition of external enemies and internal minorities, as well as the deployment of discourses and performances of national unity and shared national identity. The project explores how na-tional and sub-national differences are staged, downplayed or emphasised in symbolic represen-tations and performances of the nation during national-day festivities in Burkina Faso, Côte dIvoire and Ghana. The project studies national days in a historical and a regionally comparative perspective, paying special attention to the relationship between centre and periphery (festivities in the capital vs. in regional centres), as well as the relationship between national-day celebrations and other festivities, such as cultural festivals. Furthermore, it explores how different nation-states deal with internal heterogeneity regarding ethnicity, class, age, gender and political orientiation, investigating the cases of Burkina Faso, Côte dIvoire and Ghana, three neighbouring countries with distinct colonial experiences and divergent trajectories of nation-building and state-making.