Ethnic Groups In Africa

Ethnic or racial classifications often say more about culture and shared experience than about genetics or common ancestry. In Africa, a continent where up to 3,000 languages are spoken, ethnicity can be especially difficult to define. Unfortunately, perceived ethnic differences have all too often produced tragic results. This book analyzes the role of ethnicity in contemporary African politics and governance. It examines the corrosive legacy of the slave trade and European colonization, details some of the bloody conflicts that have erupted from ethnic frictions, and describes how divisions that appear to be ethnically based often have more to do with class and religion. The book also explores the possibility of a united Africa, able to harness its diversity rather than fight over its differences.

This encyclopedia is an essential guide to the different ethno-linguistic groups in Africa and today's complicated Middle East region. Ethnic Groups of Africa and the Middle East contains encyclopedic entries arranged alphabetically within ethno-linguistic classifications. Each entry has four main sections: an introduction identifying the language group, where they are found, and their numbers; a brief discussion of their origins and early history; a section on cultural life that includes religion, literature, social organization, and art; and a final section on political organization and recent history. The contents are appropriate for high school and undergraduate students as well as for experts who need a refresher on groups in Africa and the Middle East. While certain ethnic groups have been combined into a single entry, some—such as the Tuareg, who are a Berber people—are described within their own entries because of their importance in history or cultural domination.

A prologue to ethnic diversity in Eastern Africa /Kimani Njogu --Ethnic pluralism and national governance in Africa : a survey /Michael Chege --What do we share? : from the local to the global, and back again /Mineke Schipper --Production of ethnic identity in Kenya /Karega-Munene --Links between African proverbs and sayings and ethnic diversity /Joseph G. Healey --(Over)riding the rainbow : ethnic diversity and the Kenyan creative economy /Joy Mboya --Leveraging Africa's diversity for an improved image and branding /Mary W. Kimonye --Ethnic diversity, democratization, and nation-building in Ghana /Kenneth Agyemong Attafuah --Ethnic diversity in East Africa : the Tanzanian case and the role of Kiswahili language as a unifying factor /Huruma Luhovilo Sigalla --Critical reflections on the challenges and prospects of ethnic diversity management in democratization /Eric Aseka --Media and national identity : should national media be relegated to the backseat? /Nassanga Goretti Linda --Ethnic diversity background and issues : the case of Rwanda /James Vuningoma --The challenges of ethnicity, multiparty democracy and state building in multiethnic states in Africa : experiences from Kenya /Paul N. Mbatia, Kennedy Bikuri & Peter Nderitu --A political economy of land reform in Kenya : the limits and possibilities of resolving persistent ethnic conflicts /Nicholas O. Odoyo --Epilogue -- emerging issues in managing the challenges and opportunities of ethnic diversity in East Africa : is good governance the destiny? /Ngeta Kabiri.

The fifteen essays written for this volume reflect the increasing importance for social scientists of ethnic, rather than physical or tribal, criteria for classifying modern population groups. The authors—from South Africa, the United States, South West Africa (Namibia), Nigeria, and Scotland—cover most of Africa south of the Sahara. They consider the range from large national population groupings to small-scale societies attempting to maintain their social boundaries, and discuss such topics as emergent nationalism, ethnic divisiveness, social distance, voluntary association, and the role of women. The first section is concerned with particular communities, peoples, and ethnic groups, and treats traditional tribal groupings as well as communities delineated on phenotypic grounds. In the second section, the focus turns to modern situations of interaction; the two major themes discussed here are situational ethnicity and situational realignment. The third section deals with color, one of the physical criteria of ethnic identification; here the authors discuss the political and legal implications of a system based on color. The last essay reports on current changes in attitude and organization within the countries of white-ruled southern Africa.

Discusses ethnicity in Africa in terms of history and the management, resolution, and prevention of conflicts. Groups some 700 ethnic groups that exist in Africa into six main categories, looks at how ethnicity was used to organize and protect chiefdoms and empires in the past, and inquires into why ethnicity has become more destructive in contemporary Africa. Investigates these questions using the imperial, the liberal, and Marxist models, and finds the liberal model to be the most applicable. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Enslaved peoples were brought to the Americas from many places in Africa, but a large majority came from relatively few ethnic groups. Drawing on a wide range of materials in four languages as well as on her lifetime study of slave groups in the New World, Gwendolyn Midlo Hall explores the persistence of African ethnic identities among the enslaved over four hundred years of the Atlantic slave trade. Hall traces the linguistic, economic, and cultural ties shared by large numbers of enslaved Africans, showing that despite the fragmentation of the diaspora many ethnic groups retained enough cohesion to communicate and to transmit elements of their shared culture. Hall concludes that recognition of the survival and persistence of African ethnic identities can fundamentally reshape how people think about the emergence of identities among enslaved Africans and their descendants in the Americas, about the ways shared identity gave rise to resistance movements, and about the elements of common African ethnic traditions that influenced regional creole cultures throughout the Americas.