Depoliticised ethnicity in Tanzania: a structural and historical analysis (original) (raw)

Much of the literature on ethnicity in Africa regards ethnicity as a central cleavage and associates its politicisation with civil war and deteriorating socio-economic conditions. Tanzanian society is not structured by this cleavage, making it an outlier among African states. Despite the negative impact of politicised ethnicity, little is known of the circumstances through which it germinates and comes to have negative consequences, or how it can be suppressed in Africa. The present article attempts a comprehensive analysis of the structural and historical factors that have made the move away from politicisation of ethnicity in Tanzania possible. It provides an eclectic structural and historical explanation that attributes lack of ethnic salience in Tanzanian politics to a particular ethnic structure, to certain colonial administrative and economic approaches, and to a sustained nation-building ethos. The argument results from a critical analysis of secondary material on ethnicity and the politics of Tanzania. afrika focus -Volume 27, Nr. 2 [ 50 ] m. malipula afrika focus -2014-12 [ 51 ] Depoliticised ethnicity in Tanzania: a structural and historical narrative afrika focus -Volume 27, Nr. 2 [ 52 ] m. malipula afrika focus -Volume 27, Nr. 2 [ 54 ] m. malipula 8 The population census of 2009 indicates that the total population of Kenya is 38.6 million with the large tribes constituting 24.6 million. The distribution being Kikuyu: 6.6m Luhya: 5.3m, Kalenjin: 4.9m, Luo: 4m and the Kamba: 3.8m. 9 Assuming all are eligible to vote the minimum winning coalition requires 19.3 million which could be met if the Kikuyu,Luhya and Kalenjin plus Kikuyu's cousins Embu and Meru joined. afrika focus -Volume 27, Nr. 2 [ 56 ] m. malipula

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