Ethnicity in sub-Saharan Africa

Violent and intractable internal conflicts in recent years in Somalia, Liberia, Rwanda, Burundi and Sudan point to a failure of states in sub-Saharan Africa to cope with ethnicity. The author examines the association of ethnic identities with the colonial period and the 'instrumentalist' contention that ethnicity was invented for political purposes. He notes both that the imperial powers in Africa did little to prepare the colonies for independence and also that, given the imperatives of the colonial system, it was unrealistic to expect them to do more. He examines the coping mechanisms that African states are using to deal with ethnicity, paying particular attention to the 'hegemonical exchange model' of Donald Rothchild, and concludes with a discussion of attitudes towards ethnicity in post-apartheid South Africa.