An imagined community is a concept developed by Benedict Anderson in his 1983 book Imagined Communities, to analyze nationalism. Anderson depicts a nation as a socially constructed community, imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that group.

In the process of their struggle with colonialism people began discovering their unity. Anti-colonial movement gave a strong issue to the people with which they could identify and could come on a common platform. Hence, the growth of nationalism in the colonies is linked to an anti-colonial movement.

The definition of colonialism is the act of one nation controlling another for economic gain. An example of colonialism was England’s control over India. The colonial domination policy pursued by the powers of Europe, from the second half of the XIX century to the years following World War II. A colonial system.

This “imagined community” took concrete shape through, amongst others, the institutions of “print-capitalism”, that nexus of the technology of the printing press and the economy of the capitalist market “which made it possible for rapidly growing numbers of people to think about themselves, and to relate themselves to …

Nationalism holds that each nation should govern itself, free from outside interference (self-determination), that a nation is a natural and ideal basis for a polity and that the nation is the only rightful source of political power (popular sovereignty).

Nationalism refers to an ideology, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. African nationalism attempted to transform the identity of Africans. Rather than seeing themselves as Zulu, Xhoasa, Sotho, etc, nationalist leaders wanted Africans to view themselves as South Africans.