Polity The Causes of Ethnic Conflicts - Brigham Young Identity is the underlying cause of many conflicts. In those articles, he distinguished between underlying causes and proximate causes. Statistically until 1991, 59,4 % of the 485 post-colonial African heads of states were either killed, put in jail or forced to exile[4]. Media Relations Manager, External Relations. The employment of tension, dispute, or unease is more common in a non-violent context. Grievances and polarising leadership lead to mobilisation, ranging from political action to violent acts, such as terrorism, armed uprisings, and guerrilla and civil wars. It was also used to distract public opinion from important issues. The common objectives include self-governance, autonomy, better access to resources and power, respect for the groups identity and culture. It is explained in detail in the Annex to this report, but it draws on a sufficiently wide range of indicators and data sources to ensure that it can provide clear warnings of key problems and risks. Internal mass-level This is a dummy description. They also rejected internal immigrants from Mali and Burkina Faso. Past and ongoing crises in Africa like the Rwandan genocide, the crisis in Darfur, the civil wars in Nigeria, the quarrels between the whites and blacks in Zimbabwe or Tutsi and other rwandophones in Eastern in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) show evidence of the role that ethnicity plays as a trigger of conflict in some parts of Africa. The UNAHDRs warned that these factors were compounding on a pre-existing agitation over a lack of freedom to threaten regional stability, and create significant challenges to given countries. WebArgues that poor political governance and misuse of power by elites, rather than resource competition, ethnic diversity, or climate change, are the most fundamental causes of internal ethnic conflict Suggests political solutions to mitigate armed conflicts in Africa Part of the book series: African Histories and Modernities (AHAM) 4330 Accesses It was a period of politicized ethnicity and competition for resources which worsened the relationships between ethnic groups. It also provides a new approach to integrating these data into summary risk assessments developed by Dr. Abdullah Toukan. [17]Berman, op.cit, p 27-28. WebCauses of ethnic conflict. Furthermore, on the list of other practical policies that permitted unity we cite the introduction of boarding schools which allowed inter-ethnic friendships to be forged and respect for religious diversity and tolerance to be fostered. The Hutu-led political forces succeeded to abolishing the Tutsi monarchy in 1961, and the colonial administrator, in concert with Hutu politicians, led Rwanda to independence by July 1, 1962. - Africa Faith and Justice Network Ethnicity in Africa: a road to conflict or a path to peace? In 1947, Nigeria was divided into three political regions including the three main ethnic groups: the North with the Hausa-Fulani, the West with the Yoruba and finally the East with the Igbos counting for respectively 30, 20 and 18 % of the population. Ethnic Conflict: Causes, Tensions & Examples The major causes of ethnic conflicts in Africa are competition over resources, struggle for power especially when Ethnic conflict is particularly likely in states in which ethnic groups are inadequately represented in the government and the political and judicial systems. Frontmatter. The causes of unrest are deep, complex, and involve structural problems in governance, demographics, and economics. Leaders such as Mandela, Nkrumah and Nyerere have shown the path forward in their own nations and it is up to each generation to take their achievements to the next level. Within the context of proximate causes refugees or fighters from neighbouring countries, who cross the border often bring violence and turmoil with them. They also show that the pace of change and reform in most countries lags badly behind actual need for change and reform. Power-sharing models that take differences and external changes into account are the only way to deal with these issues. In the pre-colonial period, African communities followed the natural process of ethnicization with overlapping and alternate identities with significant movement of peoples, intermingling of communities and cultural and linguistic borrowing. Finally, the data and risk assessments provide a further warning that countries, intelligence experts, members of international institutions, NGOs, and area experts need to do a far better job of developing basic data on the causes of instability. This does not mean that there are many factors such an analysis does not cover, or that the political dynamics and violence that shape the current crises in the MENA regionand the daily events in Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Tunisia, Syria, and Yemendo dominate the immediate course of violence and instability in the region. As a result, indigenous peoples are among the most-marginalized ethnic groups in the world. by Anthony H. Cordesman Opportunistic interventions to gain military, economic, or political benefits take advantage of conflict-affected states and contribute to the conflict. Ethnic conflict arises if two or several ethnic groups compete. - WebThis paper will address the unstable politics and ethnicity, resource and development issues, human rights, Islamic extremism and terrorist groups, foreign support, and education as the main root causes of the conflict. In addition, discrimination in employment, and the allocation of social services favored southerners[15]. Ethnic Conflict In 1990, the Tutsi exiled decided to come back home by force and this war ended in 1994 with genocide of Tutsi and unprecedented massacre of Hutus in retaliation by the newly Tutsi regime in Rwanda. The common objectives include self-governance, autonomy, better access to resources and power, respect for the groups identity and culture. In 1945 in Dakar, the concept ofIvoiritwas introduced by students to push forward national pride. Those involve refugee flows, internal displacement, regional instability, economic failures, environmental disasters, diffusion and spillover effects, and conditions favourable to organized crime and terrorism. The mismanagement of the richness of ethnic diversity is often linked to the absence of visionary, civic-minded and nationalist leaders. Contents. For example, they show the need to generate better data on the impact of population pressure, corruption, poor distribution of income, and every aspect of the opportunities and problems faced by the regions youth, growing urban population, and farmers. In Tanzania, the countrys first president, Julius Nyerere insisted on creating a nation of citizens who would only be identified as Tanzanians and banned ethnicity from official records. Also a strong state can transform ethnicity from a negative force into a positive one with democracy as a superstructure. 304Pages. [3]Idem, p 12-14. Because cultural affiliations and ethnic identity are particularly strong factors shaping group relations, these conflicts have led to tremendous human suffering and are a significant threat to international security. These tools have shown to be effective in fostering social harmony in places where poverty is a trigger of ethnic tensions. [15]Emily Wax,Reaching out a cyber-hand fromAfricato the workd:Ghanas vice president seeks to broadcast thye countrys benefits, The Washington Post, June 22nd 2011. The country is now faced with at least four major conflicts (Poso, Maluku, Aceh, and Papua) and has experienced several other conflicts National minorities are groups with kinfolk in a neighbouring state but who are a minority in the state in which they reside. Modeling Risk as Well as Showing Key Data. In a same manner, the extensive use of patron-clients networks left little basis for the development of modern States, In the first decade of independences up to the end of the 1970s, the political discourse was about nation-building, development and nationalism. It also means independent courts, strong civil society participation, robust institutions, rule of law, property rights, free press and especially tolerance and open space for minorities. Conflict resolution classes for young people were also introduced and cultural exchanges and courtesies between opposing traditional leaders were encouraged. Even if a country possesses one strong national identity, it doesnt necessarily mean the absence of conflict. Can we avoid another Rwanda in the future? Many factors cause conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa, some direct, others indirect. 2023 Center for Strategic & International Studies. This is why ethnicity is a powerful catalyst of violence. Why does ethnic conflict remain one of the major security challenges in todays world? How can we build a unified nation with many ethnicities peacefully coexisting? One of the steps is infrastructure development and economic growth. There were eleven major armed conflicts with more than a thousandwar related deaths a year. To this day, as multi-party state, Tanzania still doesnt allow political parties founded on religion, race, color or gender. In 1945 in Dakar, the concept of. However, Kwame Nkrumah, the first President of the Republic of Ghana implemented anAccelerated Development Planwith in-built elements of corrective affirmative action. The Burke Chair at CSIS is introducing a two-volume survey of the underlying causes of stability and instability in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This analysis displays the size of many of the problems involved, as well as key trends, using wide range of different sources and metrics. The conflict tends not to be about ethnic differences themselves but over political, economic, social, cultural, or territorial matters. Read, highlight, and take notes, across web, tablet, and phone. Stefan Wolff is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Centre for International Crisis Management and Conflict Resolution at the University of Nottingham, Part 1 The Causes and Consequences of Ethnic Conflict 23, 4 Motive, Means and Opportunity: A Framework for Understanding the Cause of Ethnic Conflict 44, 5 The Prevention, Management and Settlement of Ethnic Conflicts 79, 7 Conflict Settlement in Theory and Practice 138, 8 'Alternatives' to Consensual Conflict Settlement 171. Once ethnic conflict breaks out, it is difficult to stop. While the moral and economic prospects of this plan may be controversial, it enhanced national unity and cohesion, Kiswahili was not the language of a particular ethnic group, but it was a medium of communication between traders of different race and ethnic background namely Arabs, Africans and Europeans. 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Causes More importantly, they have become more pronounced with the passage of time. Land Ownership and control of land are another major source of ethnic conflicts in the Northern Region. Diffusion occurs when an ethnic conflict in one state stimulates conflict in another state with similar conditions. How was it possible, after almost four decades, to achieve a lasting settlement to the conflict in Northern Ireland, while that in Kashmir remains unresolved after more than sixty years? The present wars and upheavals have also been shaped by the major tribal, ethnic, sectarian, and regional differences within a given nation. [9]Emmy Godwin Irobi, Ethnic Conflict Management in Africa: A Comparative Case Study of Nigeria and South Africa, May 2005, http://www.beyondintractability.org/case_studies/nigeria_south-africa.jsp?nid=6720 Armed ethnic conflicts involving violence are caused mainly by social and political systems that lead to inequality and grievances and do not offer forums for the peaceful expression of differences. Grievances and polarizing leadership lead to mobilization, ranging from political action (conventional politics, strikes, demonstrations, and other nonviolent means) to violent acts such as terrorism, armed uprisings, guerrilla activity, and civil wars. In addition, competition for power was high. Wikipedia Conflicts on account of ethnicity have been a recurring phenomenon for the last couple of centuries. The lack of governance experience and political maturity of the new African leaders was obviously due to the lack of preparation of the latter by colonial powers before and during the decolonization process, When other ethnic groups could not be bribed, ethnicity was used to denounce them as scapegoats.