Mobilised diasporas: Kurdish and Berber movements in comparative perspective

Ofra Bengio () and Bruce Maddy-Weitzman ()
Additional contact information
Ofra Bengio: Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv University
Bruce Maddy-Weitzman: Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, Tel Aviv University

Kurdish Studies, 2013, vol. 1, issue 1, 65-90

Abstract: This study is a comparative analysis of the role of diaspora communities in the political and cultural activities of the Kurds and the Berbers (Amazigh) - the two most prominent cases of ethno-national “imagining” among the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region's two main “non-dominant” ethnic groups. Berbers and Kurds, however heterogeneous and varied their multiple historical experiences, all operate within the realm of territorial nation-states dominated by different ethnic groups which have been historically hostile towards alternative conceptions of the political and social order. Kurdish and Berber diaspora communities have engaged in important intellectual, cultural and political activities on behalf of their respective causes. Inevitably, this has also sharpened the hybrid nature of their identities, in ways which distinguish them from those still residing in the “homeland.” Overall, the Kurdish diaspora is far more mobilised on behalf of the homeland, politically and ethnically, than the Amazigh, a reflection of the advanced state of the Kurdish ethno-national cause.

Keywords: Kurds; Berbers; diaspora; identities; nationalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://kurdishstudies.net/journal/index.php/ks/article/view/386/379 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mig:ksjrnl:v:1:y:2013:i:1:p:65-90

Access Statistics for this article

Kurdish Studies is currently edited by Cruz García Lirios

More articles in Kurdish Studies from Society of history and cultural studies, Hong Kong
Bibliographic data for series maintained by KSJ ().