Ethnicity_Reflection Memo

In the class we looked at ethnicity and it’s role in shaping or defining African politics. Although there is no denying the fact that ethnicity does exist and has real significance in Africa’s political life one also has to look beyond ethnicity to get a broader, clearer and comprehensive view  of African politics. The definition and origin of ethnicity in Africa is not only controversial but complex and context specific. Ethnicity though existent and Real in Africa, does not have the same origin or genesis in all African states. In discovering the meaning of ethnicity one has to examine the historical processes under which these ethnic identities were formed and transformed and the implications of these transformations on the African state.

Post colonial Africa has indeed struggled with ethnicity among other things. But looking at ethnicity alone provides too much of a simplistic analytical framework which excludes other relevant factors which play an important role in African politics such as policy considerations, corruption and unemployment. It is also worthwhile to acknowledge that these other factors interplay and intersect with ethnicity and the point at which these other factors intersect with ethnic identities provides insight into the reaction and action of various ethnic groups in the political life of a given country. Where for example unemployment runs along ethnic lines, or where political power is concentrated in a certain ethnic group or where access to state resources is possible through adherence or belonging to a certain ethnic group or where ethnicity coincides with territorial boundaries, ethnic tensions are likely to be higher than a situation where these inequalities are horizontal and cut across all ethnic configurations.

Ethnicity becomes salient when the size of the ethnic groups vis a vis the national population are large enough to contest for political domination or where ethnic groups are large enough to be able to decidedly influence the balance of political power or political coalitions in a state. In such cases large ethnic groups tend to rally the smaller ethnic groups in coalition building and in doing so ethnic cleavages and similarities are often exploited.

Where ethnicity becomes salient or not has to do with the dominant political ideology of the African country in question. In the Southern part of Africa where social life was devised across racial lines of black and white. Ethnicity played a lesser role to the ideology of black nationalism or black liberation. This ideology of black nationalism tended to rally various ethnic groups under one banner of black unity thus downplaying or suppressing ethnic divisions. To unite Africans under one political movement against settler occupation required something more than ethnicity hence the concepts of “African liberation movements” “black emancipation” “black liberation” which had the consequence of uniting different ethnic groups under the Black African banner against colonialism. The only way such movements could have survived and become successful involved the cooptation of all ethnic groups into such a movement. Ethnic differences within these liberation movement still existed as in the case of the Ndebele/Shona rift in Zimbabwe but the urgent need of raising a united front against the settlers pushed these differences to the fringes of political discourse.

Ethnicity in African politics is mostly seen by politicians as a means to achieving an end. Ethnicity is not and end in itself per say but ethnicity may grant one legitimacy to rule , legitimacy to claim citizenship or the legitimacy to a certain territory. On an individual basis ethnicity may grant one certain status and privileges of being a native or true son of the soil thus increasing an individual’s prospects in the labor market or access to public goods. On a collective basis ethnicity becomes a block or a group through which certain certain group rights maybe lobbied for or in extreme cases fought for. What makes this complicated is that apart from legitimate causes for which certain ethnic groups may fight for there are whole lot of cultural mythical issues which become attached to the movement. I would contend that ethnicity is fluid concept and can be manipulated for various political ends.