The struggle for national identity of Sabah's indigenous people

What is it about?

The attempt of the indigenous people of Sabah to benefit from independence within Malaysia and parliamentary democracy by defining themselves as a nation with a single identity was a late example of nationalism, and was far from fully successful. Defining a single version of the written language was more difficult in an age of competing western missionaries than in seventeenth century Europe. Yet an embryonic Kadazan nationalism fought back remarkably successfully against iys near extinction in the 1970s.

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Why is it important?

Understanding nationalism requires examples of cases that did not succeed in achieving nation-states, rather than explaining the phonomenon only in terms of its successes.