Ethnic Politics In Kenya And Nigeria

This book is more than just a study of ethnic politics in Kenya and Nigeria. The two countries are a microcosm of the entire continent: the problems it faces, its successes and failures, and the hope and despair of hundreds of millions of its people whose aspirations have been frustrated by decades of corrupt leadership that has skilfully exploited one of Africa's biggest weaknesses -- tribalism. But the people themselves are also responsible for that. They have allowed tribalism to flourish and destroy the countries. And they have allowed unscrupulous politicians to use and abuse them -- without storming the Bastille. What they are not responsible for is dictatorship African leaders instituted to perpetuate themselves in office by exploiting tribalism. These despots have been so good at it, and have done it for so long since independence, that many African countries are now on the brink of collapse, with the people at war against themselves.

This work is a comparative study of ethnic politics in Kenya in Nigeria, two countries on the African continent where ethnicity has played a major role in determining their destiny as much it has elsewhere only in varying degrees. This is similar to the author's other works on Rwanda and Burundi – including “Identity Politics and Ethnic Conflicts in Rwanda and Burundi: A Comparative Study” – where the same phenomenon has had tragic consequences for decades; both works appropriate in their own contexts yet of continental relevance. The work is also an examination of the Nigerian civil war whose tragic consequences included the secession of the Eastern Region which declared independence as the Republic of Biafra after tens of thousands of Easterners were massacred in Northern Nigeria in 1966.

This title was first published in 2001. The central characteristics of political ethnicity and its dysfunctional attributes in African politics is vexing to Africa's policy makers. Moreover, as a conflictive ideology in national and international politics, many political actors would rather avoid it. In the past, nationalists have blamed ethnic chauvinists for fanning the embers of ethnicity, but today they realize they may have underestimated its prominence in African politics.

"The politics of identity and ethnicity are resurgent. Civil society, whose revival was much vaunted, was riven by communal tensions particularly of ethnicity and religion. The contributors address questions such as: Why is ethnicity a political problem? How is the problem manifested? Which institutional models offer ways of ameliorating the challenges that ethnicity poses to democratic nation-building?".--BOOKJACKET.