Patrons, Clients and Factions: New dimensions of Conflict analysis in Africa (original) (raw)
Related papers
2020
This study discerned that prior to colonial intrusion conflicts existed in the African society, but usually in the context of conquest, expansionism or reassertion of supremacy. However, the advent of colonialism feasted on the existing primordial incongruities between ethnic groups; hence, seeded inter-ethnic consciousness as a divide and rule tactics for the advancement of their objectives in the usurped colonies. Following the fall of colonialism, the postcolonial African societies were built on unresolved/hibernated ethnic rivalries, which protruded and remained extant from the Cold War era hitherto. However, this study revealed that ethnic consciousness in Africa, such as that of Nigeria and Kenya, predates colonialism, but was exacerbated by the Cold War gladiators, and the postcolonial African leaders. Therefore, intra-intergroup conflicts in Africa are attributable to endogenous and exogenous factors. Central to the objective of this study is the advocation of mutual coexistence of ethic groups in heterogenous societies such as Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Cameroon and other African states. In addition, the need for leaders to narrow horizontal inequalities which is a potential source of ethnoreligious consciousness, and threatful to nation building project. Frances Stewart (1998) framework of horizontal inequalities was adopted in this study in that it critically explicated how inequalities along primordial lines can be a threat to nation building in a multicultural society. In addition, theory of primordialism featured greatly in this study as it explains the inevitabilities of primordial loyalties in multi-ethnic nation states. The findings of this study, coupled with the substantive frameworks adopted, points to the need that African nations should collate horizontal inequalities data respectively, in a bid to ascertain whether groups are proportionally represented or not in public offices. The need to deconstruct colonial constructions, to attenuate catalyst of conflict is sacrosanct to amicable coexistence and nation building in African nations.
Akdeniz Havzası ve Afrika Medeniyetleri Dergisi, 2020
This study discerned that prior to colonial intrusion conflicts existed in the African society, but usually in the context of conquest, expansionism or reassertion of supremacy. However, the advent of colonialism feasted on the existing primordial incongruities between ethnic groups; hence, seeded inter-ethnic consciousness as a divide and rule tactics for the advancement of their objectives in the usurped colonies. Following the fall of colonialism, the postcolonial African societies were built on unresolved/hibernated ethnic rivalries, which protruded and remained extant from the Cold War era hitherto. However, this study revealed that ethnic consciousness in Africa, such as that of Nigeria and Kenya, predates colonialism, but was exacerbated by the Cold War gladiators, and the postcolonial African leaders. Therefore, intra-intergroup conflicts in Africa are attributable to endogenous and exogenous factors. Central to the objective of this study is the advocation of mutual coexistence of ethic groups in heterogenous societies such as Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Cameroon and other African states. In addition, the need for leaders to narrow horizontal inequalities which is a potential source of ethnoreligious consciousness, and threatful to nation building project. Frances Stewart (1998) framework of horizontal inequalities was adopted in this study in that it critically explicated how inequalities along primordial lines can be a threat to nation building in a multicultural society. In addition, theory of primordialism featured greatly in this study as it explains the inevitabilities of primordial loyalties in multi-ethnic nation states. The findings of this study, coupled with the substantive frameworks adopted, points to the need that African nations should collate horizontal inequalities data respectively, in a bid to ascertain whether groups are proportionally represented or not in public offices. The need to deconstruct colonial constructions, to attenuate catalyst of conflict is sacrosanct to amicable coexistence and nation building in African nations.
Regime Change and Ethnic Cleavages in Africa
Comparative Political Studies, 2007
This paper explores a hitherto overlooked consequence of regime change in Africa. It shows how the shift from one-party to multiparty rule in the region altered the kinds of ethnic cleavages that structure political competition and conflict. The paper demonstrates how the different strategic logics of political competition in one-party and multiparty settings create incentives for political actors to emphasize different kinds of ethnic identities: local-level identities (usually revolving around tribe or clan) in one-party elections, and broader-scale identities (usually revolving around region, language, or religion) in multiparty elections. The argument is illustrated with evidence from the 1991 and 1992 regime transitions in Zambia and Kenya.
Exhuming Trends in Ethnic Conflict and Cooperation in Africa: Some Selected States
African Journal on Conflict Resolution, 2009
The world-wide surge in the number and violence of open conflicts revolving around ethnic or religious identities towards the end of the 20 th century is a powerful reminder that communal identities are not a remnant of the past but a potent force in contemporary politics. After three decades of independence, ethnicity is more central than ever to the political process of many African countries. Africa has had more than its fair share of ethnic dissent which has sometimes plummeted states into civil war as was experienced in Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and reached frightening proportions in Rwanda and now Sudan. Political openings and multiparty elections have led to the formation of innumerable overtly or covertly ethnic political parties, which serve more often to increase civil strife of which the most recent addition to the long list in Africa is Kenya.
Ethnic Conflict in Africa : A Short Critical Discussion
2015
Statistics show that ”one-third of the population in the South is income-poor and one-quarter is poor in terms of the UNDP’s Human Development Index” (Pearce 2000: 16). And the majority of those people are located on the African continent which, no matter what form of measurement index is applied, tends to project the most mediocre development record, the slowest economic growth, and to include some of the world’s poorest countries as outlined in various reports produced during the past 2-3 decades by the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, amongst others (see: World Bank.org; UNDP.org; OECD.org, online). For example, the most recent Human Development Report produced by the UNDP indicates that while ”the global HDI is now 0.702, [...] the lowest regional HDI values are for Sub-Saharan Africa (0.502) and South Asia (0.588)” (Malik et al. 2014: 33). More than half of all African countries have experienced a...
1 Ethnicity and Democracy in Africa
2010
The paradox of efforts over the past twenty years to reinvent democracy in Africa has been that rather than dampening the fires of ethnic conflict, they have often made them more intense and in the past decade have been accompanied by the explosion of violent conflicts of autochthony, confrontations of ‘sons of the soil’, that threaten the very bases of social order and cohesion in multi-ethnic societies. This essay explains the relationship through an argument in five parts. First, I examine the social construction of African ethnicities since the imposition of European colonial rule, with particular focus on both the role of the state and the market, as well as the internal response in African societies. Second, I discuss the particular relationship between the state, colonial and post-colonial, with effective institutionalization of ‘Big Man’ politics and patronage as the essential link between ethnic communities and the state and mode of access to the resources of modernity. Thi...
Misinterpreting Ethnic Conflicts in Africa (Africa Security Brief, Number 4, April 2010)
2010
There is a general perception that Africa is trapped in a never-ending cycle of ethnic conflict. The Rwandan genocide, Darfur, northern Nigeria, CÔte d'Ivoire, and the violent aftermath of the controversial Kenyan elections, among other cases, seemingly substantiate this perception. As grievances accumulate and are defined at the group rather than individual level, the motivation for reprisals is never ending. The centuries-old inertia behind these animosities, moreover, defies resolution. The seeming implication is that Africa's complicated ethnic diversity leaves the continent perpetually vulnerable to devastating internecine conflict. This, in turn, cripples prospects for sustained economic progress and democratization.