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When does ethnic attachment pose a challenge to constructing an "imagined" national community in African states? The literature on ethnic identification typically assumes that individuals choose their primary identity instrumentally, in response to economic competition, electoral institutions, or elite discourse. In contrast, theories of state-level nationalism have focused on macro-historical trends to explain the rise of the nation-state in 18th century Europe. Ethnically diverse African states offer a fruitful arena in which to integrate these two literatures. Due to the timing of their creation, African state boundaries are relatively stable and protected by international norms, separating the process of nation-construction from territory consolidation. Furthermore, African states exhibit wide variation in the degrees of “success” in nationalizing their constituents, both cross- and sub-nationally. To exploit this variation, I use individual survey data from over 25,000 respondents across sixteen African countries, collected by Afrobarometer, to empirically test state-, ethnic group-, and individual-level determinants of identification with the nation. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]