Abstract |
The Casamance can “boast” the longest-lasting armed conflict in Africa. In the conflict, the national (Senegalese) identity competes against a regional secessionist identity (Casamançais) that has now challenged state and national unity for nearly three decades. The trope of marginalization and exclusion voiced by secessionists shows that the postcolonial Senegalese nation has not yet been consolidated by a consistent integrative narrative. What is fought over in the Casamance conflict is the integration of margins into a nation that seems to have been unable to fully integrate citizens. Analysis shows that conflict drivers are related more to the perception of marginalization—and the narratives that build upon them—than to political and economic facts of marginalization. |