African Ethnic Conflict

Ever since the Cold War ended, the number of conflicts around the world has increased leading to deep societal cleavages. These conflicts have exhibited themselves in various forms such as, ethnic conflicts, inter-state wars, intra-state conflicts and extra-state wars. Inter-state wars have dwindled whereas intra-state conflicts have increased, a bulk of them unfolding along ethnic lines (Väyrynen, 1999, p. 125; Shoup, 2008, p. 7). The end of the Cold War generated a plethora of ethnic conflicts on the African continent in addition to conflicts stemming from contested borders and boundaries. Border disputes have become part of the unfortunate legacies of Africa as they have been afflicted by a horde of quandaries that straddle villages, communities,

Its tentacles of destruction reach out to every corner of the world. From the Balkans region to the Middle East, and even stretching as far as Asia and Northern Ireland and countless other places, becoming perchance one of the most significant sources of conflict in the post-cold war era (Christie, 1998; Caselli & Coleman, 2002). Monty and Gurr highlight, an amalgamation of poverty, weak states and weak institutions are the core causes of African conflicts (2005). Borders in Africa have also played a noteworthy role in conflict intensification. By and large, they have been observed as a barrier to peaceful relations among communities (Aswaju & Nugent, 1996). It is believed that haphazard colonial borders contribute greatly to the mushrooming of ethnic conflicts which, after the independence of African states, was seen as being part of the political evolution of the continent. As rife as the border disputes have been in Africa, similar conflicts have been noted in Asia between India and Pakistan as well in Europe between Russia and Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Russia border dispute over the Tuzla Island, just to mention but a

Yet many of these conflicts have arisen due to political competition canvassed with deep rooted grievances of the “divide and rule policy” of the colonials (Mamdani, 2009). In South Sudan, ethnic interests set a crucible of conflict between the Nuer and Dinka. The discordant or contradicting interests has cut a swathe through all forms of ethnic cohesion and to a large extent political patriotism (Akiwumi, 1999). In Rwanda, when the majority Hutu rose against the designated politically economically dominant Tutsi minority a cataclysmic explosion took place, the genocide (Mamdani, 2009). In Kenya, the 2007/8 contested election which almost led to outbreak of a civil war in Kenya due to conflict of interest between the Kikuyu and Luo. Such conflicts, are often sparked by the monopoly of economic resources and control of political power by one ethnic community which then then strokes and massages ancient simmering antagonisms, fears, anxieties, and aggressions towards the other community (Nnoli,