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Summary Ch20 - Ethnic Identity and Conflicts in Africa
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The Palgrave Handbook of African Politics, Governance and Development - Chapter 20: Ethnic Identity and Conflicts in Africa
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L8 - Ethnic Identity and Conflictsin Africa
Created @November 13, 2022 1:31 PM
Class politics: africa
Type Reading
INTRODUCTION
during colonial era, ethnic groups focal point of resistance and medium of self-
affirmation against coloniser’s deculturing or devalorising of the ‘natives’
arbitrary lumping of different ethnic groups together by Europeans in Berlin Conference
of 1884/1885 led to conflicts among ethnic groups
Organisation of African Unity/African Union (OAU/AU) founding fathers decided
to maintain inherited colonial boundaries
conflicts often occur when narrow pursuit of an ethnic agenda by elites use ethnicity to
conceal exploitation by building solidarity across class lines when it suits them
conflicts arise when political leaders appeal for ethnic support in face of vanishing
political legitimacy and manipulate ethnic agenda to divide colonised people
construction of ethnicity and ethnic identity is both cultural and political
general assumption is that ‘ethnicity’ in Africa is where:
Africans define themselves primarily in terms of distinct ethnic or tribal affiliation
kinship ideologies are principles to which ‘primitive’ peoples are inflexibly devoted
affiliations are basically immutable and are serious obstacles to ‘nation-building’
and political stability
ethnic affinity means territorial control
politicised ethnicity
implies that mobilisation of ethnic identity, culture, territory and other symbols into
a platform for making demands for cultural autonomy and outright independence
L8 - Ethnic Identity and Conflicts in Africa 1
, fundamental questions that continue to resonate in our discourse or ethnicity as
Africans
are the components of national identity fixed or malleable?
can a multi-ethnic society be constructed on the basis of one ethnic group?
is the option of self-determination or outright secession acceptable?
CONCEPTUAL / THEORETICAL
UNDERPINNINGS
Donald Horowitz
ethnicity is based on a myth of collective ancestry, which usually, carries with it
traits believed to be innate. some notion of ascription, however diluted, and affinity
deriving from it are inseparable from the concept of ethnicity
elites and leaders restructure ethnic identity for instrumental reasons, which is to enhance
their own power and mobilise the people to achieve their political aims
ethnic identity is the instrumentality for an ethnic group to mobilise itself in the
contestation of political power
arguable, a common ancestry may not be a defining characteristic of an ethnic group
Zulus in South Africa claim direct descent from the patriarch Zulu who was born to
Nguni Chief in the Congo basin area
Kanchan Chandra
ethnic identities as subset of identity categories in which eligibility for membership
is determined by attributes associated with, or believed to be associated with descent
primordialist theories
describe ethnicity as fixed at birth
argue that human society is a conglomeration of distinct social groups
contemporary primordialists hold view that a primordial tie to a group is a biological
phenomenon
instrumental perspective
ethnicity is rooted in ‘historical’ and ‘symbolic’ memory created, used and exploited
by leaders and others in the pragmatic pursuit of their own interests
L8 - Ethnic Identity and Conflicts in Africa 2
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