Managing Ethnicity in African Politics

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christof Hartmann
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
State Building ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
The Political ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Interethnic Relations ◽  
Civic Nationalism ◽  
Formal Recognition

Political regulation of ethnicity has been a core dimension of state-building in Africa, and a set of different macro-political strategies was applied in African postcolonial states to deal with ethnic heterogeneity. One set of strategies consisted in attempts to completely eliminate political manifestations of ethnicity, violently through genocide (Rwanda, 1994) or mass expulsions of ethnic minorities (Uganda, 1973), consensually through secession of autonomous provinces (Eritrea, 1993; South Sudan, 2005), through legal instruments that ban the political expression of ethnic identity such as party bans, or via coercive variants of assimilation (Rwanda, 2001). An opposing option promoted the formal recognition of ethnicity through consociationalism (Burundi, 2005), ethnic federalism (Ethiopia, 1995), ethnic minority rights (Mauritius), or hegemonic control (apartheid South Africa). Many African countries have instead opted for an informal accommodation of ethnic identity in politics, which combines the pursuit of civic nationalism and ethnic party bans with a de facto recognition of ethnic group rights through informal power-sharing, centripetal institutions, or variants of federalism which shift resources and competencies to subnational levels. The choice of strategies is, however, constrained by how interethnic relations have been shaped in the process of postcolonial state-building. Both strategies of elimination and of formal recognition are applied in ranked societies where one racial or ethnic group managed to take control of the state and in which class corresponded with ethnic affiliation. South Africa, which also belonged to this group, seems to be the only country where a liberal model of civic nation is pursued along with a strong recognition of the country’s diversity in the political and constitutional architecture.

scholarly journals The relationship between the characteristics of Ethnic Identity and Psychosemantic Characteristics of Experiencing (‘Perezhivanie’) Interethnic Relations of Palestinian Muslims in the multinational Levant Region

2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 962-984
Author(s):  
L. F. Fakhrutdinova ◽  
S. T. M. Shauamri
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
External Environment ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Interethnic Relations ◽  
The Real ◽  
Development Processes ◽  
Real Self ◽  
The Relationship

This paper presents the results of analyzing the psychological patterns of the development of ethnic identity and interethnic relations in the multinational Levant Region, where interethnic confrontation between Palestinians and Israelis has been noted in recent years. The main aim of the research is to reveal the relationship between the characteristics of Ethnic Identity and the Experience (“perezhivanie”) of Interethnic Relations of Palestinian Muslims in the multicultural Levant Region. In the process of investigating into ethnic self-awareness the authors used the Leary Test, the Semantic Diff erential of “Perezhivanie” ‘Experiencing’ Questionnaire by L.R. Fakhrutdinova aimed at studying the psychosemantic characteristics of the “perezhivanie” ‘experiencing’. The research has displayed that Ethnic Identity is a self-developing phenomenon, basically infl uenced by both the infrastructural relations and positions of ethnic self-awareness, and the processes associated with the relations of ethnic self-awareness with the external environment, with other ethnic groups. The most active points of development have been identifi ed. So, in intrastructural relations, they are active as ratios of I-real and I-mirror with a stronger position of I-ideal, since practically all dimensions of I-real and I-ideal (dominance, egoism, suspicion, etc.) have shown signifi cant diff erences that testify to the points and directions of development of ethnic self-awareness; positions in the relationship between the real self and the mirror self also exerted an active infl uence. The points of confl ict of the structures of ethnic self-consciousness were found, where, when the points of development coincided, the direction of development was diff erent. Thus, suspicion, obedience, dependence, friendliness, integrative indicators of dominance and friendliness have shown themselves to be confl ict points refl ecting confl ict zones between the infl uence of an external ethnic group (mirror self) and self-development processes manifested through the ideal self. In the situation of relations with the external environment, the most active was shown by the self-mirror, which infl uences the development of the subjectivity of the ethnic group through the components of the experience of the Palestinian-Israeli crisis. The infl uence of the real self on the characteristics of the “perezhivanie” ‘experiencing’ of the PalestinianIsraeli crisis was also manifested, and therefore, through the components of the “perezhivanie” ‘experiencing’ of this impression on the development of the self-awareness of the ethnic group.

Mitigating violence by solving the commitment problem in post-conflict negotiations

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-166
Author(s):  
Yukako Sakabe Tanaka
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Formal Model ◽  
State Building ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
The Political ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Timor Leste ◽  
Commitment Problem ◽  
Political Groups

Why do some political groups choose to remain militant when they have the opportunity to transform into political parties or become members of state organs? By scrutinizing the power-sharing negotiations held before a country’s first election, this article argues that the group that leads the negotiations faces the challenge of accepting or declining the policy proposed by its counterpart who poses a threat of violence. Even if the counterpart proposes policy that is acceptable to the leading faction, fulfilling the commitment in regard to the political deal is another challenge for the leading faction. Such challenges often fail and consequently cause violence. In contrast, some counterparts can successfully transform themselves into non-violent political agencies regardless of whether they make compromises in policies or not. Third parties can play a vital role in avoiding violence by influencing actors’ decision-making or enhancing the leading faction’s ability to achieve its commitment. The article illustrates this argument by presenting a formal model and then testing the model by examining the case of Timor-Leste. It suggests specific conditions required for negotiations under which armed groups transform into peaceful actors when introduction of democracy and state-building are ongoing.

scholarly journals Epos as a factor of formation of ethnic identity of a personality (on the example of Republic of Mordovia)

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentina P. Minichkina ◽  
Elena S. Rus’kina
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Transfer Of Knowledge ◽  
Cultural Education ◽  
Interethnic Relations ◽  
Important Means ◽  
Cultural Sphere ◽  
Universal Values ◽  
The Individual

The preservation and development of ethnic and cultural diversity of the peoples of Russia, the harmonization of national and interethnic relations can be achieved through the education of a person, a representative of a particular ethnic group (the bearer of its culture), as well as the development of a person, a citizen of one’s country. In other words, it can happen through the formation of ethnic and closely related civil identity of the individual within the framework of ethno-cultural education. In the work the institutional approach is applied to the problem of ethno-cultural education, which reveals its possibilities from the perspective of relationships with the ethnic group, socio-cultural sphere and society. It allows to consider ethno-cultural education not only as a mechanism for the transfer of knowledge and training, but also as a cultural institution, which is an important means of preserving and developing the individual’s human and national identity. Ethno-cultural education employs various methods and means of influence on the individual, aimed at preserving ethnic identity and national worldview. Epos becomes a powerful means of education and preservation of the national genetic code in the younger generation, and the formation of not only national but also universal values. The Mordovian epos “Mastorava” has received world popularity. Its literary version was created by a scholar and a poet A. M. Sharonov on the ancient Erzya and Moksha myths and epic songs. Meanwhile, it remains insufficiently studied, and its educational opportunities remain unrealized. The authors conclude that it is expedient to be included in the process of ethnocultural education in a multinational region by the means of the study of epic works of the peoples inhabiting it, which will contribute to the formation of the ethnic identity of the individual.

scholarly journals Conflictos interétnicos en el Caribe Insular Colombiano

2015 ◽  
pp. 173-217
Author(s):  
Inge Helena Valencia
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Group ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ethnic Conflicts ◽  
Native Population ◽  
Interethnic Relations ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Spanish Speaking ◽  
Western Caribbean ◽  
Anglophone World ◽  
San Andres

En el archipiélago de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina, ubicado en el corazón del Caribe occidental, se encuentran, en un pequeño territorio insular de cincuenta kilómetros cuadrados, el mundo anglófono con el hispanófono, y el católico con el protestante. El multiculturalismo etnizado propuesto por la Constitución Política de 1991 en Colombia permitió que la población nativa del archipiélago de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina, la isleña-raizal, recibiera el reconocimiento jurídico como grupo étnico. Esto generó que dicho lugar se rigiera por normas especiales respecto al control de la migración y la economía, además de significar un avance alrededor del otorgamiento de derechos para esta población, hecho que profundizó el conflicto existente entre los pobladores raizales nativos y aquellos emigrados provenientes del Caribe continental colombiano. El presente artículo pretende dar a conocer cómo la implementación de políticas multiculturalistas ha fracturado el proceso de convivencia histórico entre ambas poblaciones.Palabras Clave: Multiculturalismo, Etnicidad, Conflicto social, Relaciones interétnicas, Caribe insular colombiano, Isleños-raizales, Pañas-continentales, Archipiélago de San Andrés, Providencia y Santa Catalina. ABSTRACTINTER-ETHNIC CONFLICTS IN THE COLOMBIAN INSULAR CARIBBEAN In the San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina Archipelago, located at the heart of the western Caribbean, in a small, 50 square kilometer insular territory, the Anglophone world meets the Spanish speaking, and the Catholic world meets the Protestant. The ethnicized multiculturalism proposed by the Political Constitution of 1991in Colombia allowed the native population of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina, the Raizal-islander, to be legally recognized as an ethnic group. As a result, this place started to be governed by special norms regarding the migration and economy control, something which deepened the existing conflict between local Raizals and those from the Colombian Continental Caribbean. This article sets out to disclose how implementing multiculturalist polices have disrupted the historical process of coexistence between both communities.Key Words: Multiculturalism, Ethnicity, Social conflict, Interethnic relations, Colombian insular Caribbean, Raizal-islanders, Continental settlers (pañas), San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina Archipelago.

Substate Nationalism

2020 ◽  
pp. 171-193
Author(s):  
Yoram Gorlizki ◽  
Oleg Khlevniuk
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
The Political ◽  
Party Membership ◽  
Ethnic Mobilization ◽  
Cultural Autonomy ◽  
Stalin Era ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Litmus Test ◽  
Formal Recognition

This chapter shows how formal recognition by the Soviet state of ethnolinguistic elites and cultures created opportunities for republican leaders to negotiate the problems of authoritarian control and authoritarian power sharing through ethnic mobilization. It looks at the early post-Stalin era that witnessed various campaigns to raise the political or cultural autonomy of national groups. The chapter describes the campaigns that rode on the coattails of the center's policy of reinvigorated indigenization and designed to promote ethnoterritorial elites and cultures. It talks about the litmus test of nationalism, in which an ethnoterritorial elite presented its interests as being opposed not only to those of other ethnoterritorial groups but also to those of the Soviet Union as a whole. It also explains ethnic mobilization that meant going over the heads of the party membership and appealing to the wider titular ethnic group.

The Emergence of Islamic Liberation Theology in South Africa

2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-61
Author(s):  
Matthew Palombo
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
Political Islam ◽  
State Building ◽  
The Political ◽  
Discursive Space ◽  
Subaltern History ◽  
Political Praxis ◽  
Unpublished Manuscripts

AbstractThere is a growing interest in Islamic liberation theology today, and seminal authors such as Ali Shariati, Alighar Ali Engineer (1984, 1990), Farid Esack (1984, 1997), and Hamid Dabashi (2008) have developed its central commitments. In South Africa the earliest representative text was the ‘Review of Faith’ (1984) by Farid Esack, used by the Call of Islam (est. 1984) for cultivating personal piety and conscientization (critical consciousness) against apartheid. Based on recent interviews, unpublished manuscripts, and published works, this article demonstrates how Islamic liberation theology emerged in the political praxis of Muslims against settler colonialism and apartheid. In this subaltern history, political Islam as political praxis and not state building generated a unique discursive space for an Islamic liberation theology to emerge within the confluence of two ideological paths: those of humanism and Islamism.

scholarly journals MINORITY VETO RIGHTS IN KOSOVO’S DEMOCRACY

2019 ◽  
pp. 148-157
Author(s):  
BEHAR SELIMI
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Power Systems ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Political System ◽  
State Building ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Veto Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Consociational Democracy

The political system of Kosovo belongs to the power sharing democracies. Indeed, it has all the characteristics of Consociational Democracy. In addition to that, minority veto rights are absolute and go above the aims of this type of democracy. As it is designed in current Constitutional arrangements, even a single word of Constitution can’t be changed without minorities’ vote. This is different from other Consociational Democracies, where minorities are entitled with selected veto power only regarding their vital interests, but they cannot block constitutional decision-making. Since Kosovo is among the youngest countries worldwide, this constitutional provision can be a heavy obstacle even in the state building efforts of majority.  Therefore, in this article we will try to explain in depth this constitutional arrangement versus principles of sharing power systems and versus similar democracies in the region and wider. The doctrinal constitutional interpretation, descriptive and comparative methods are the main pillars of research methodology.

A decolonial legal method

2021 ◽  
Vol 138 (4) ◽  
pp. 761-798
Author(s):  
Tshepo Bogosi Mosaka
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
The Political ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Criminal Process ◽  
Present Epoch ◽  
The Third ◽  
Legal Method ◽  
The Law ◽  
Law Of Evidence

A survey of the burgeoning body of scholarship on decolonising education in South Africa leaves one with the impression that this is an area of scholarship that is yet to mature, particularly due to the rarity with which its scholars engage in self-conscious reflections on their methods. The article addresses this in two ways. The second part of the article theorises generally about an appropriate method of decolonising the discipline of law. The proposed method rests on four conditions: (1) standpoint (with whom is one in conversation in broader debates about decolonial education?); (2) historicity (what particular aspects of a specified branch of law were inherited from colonial Europe and with which other African countries does South Africa have this in common?); (3) evaluative/critical (what is problematic about the identified colonial inheritances for the present epoch?); (4) remedial (what changes are proposed towards the development of the branch of law concerned, and the discipline as a whole?). The third part then proceeds to illustrate how to apply this method towards decolonising evidence scholarship in Africa. Ultimately, it is argued that the political legitimacy of African criminal process remains endangered by the colonial inheritances that currently are embedded in the law of evidence.

scholarly journals The Politics of Ethnic Identity in Sub-Saharan Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 001041402097022
Author(s):  
Elliott Green
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Identity ◽  
Ethnic Group ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Identity Change ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Presidential Transitions ◽  
Group I ◽  
Sub Saharan

Recent literature suggests that African Presidents tend to target co-ethnics with patronage, especially in non-democracies. Coupled with evidence on the role of incentives in driving ethnic identity change, I propose that a change in the ethnic identity of the President should lead to an increase in the proportion of people identifying with the President’s ethnic group. I use survey data from fourteen African countries with Presidential transitions to show that ethnic Presidential change leads to an upwards shift in the percentage of respondents identifying with the new ruling ethnic group in non-democracies, and that this shift increases with the level of autocracy. I also show that countries where citizens perceive more ethnic favoritism see higher levels of ethnic switching. Within-survey evidence from Zambia demonstrates that this shift is immediate, and case study evidence from early modern China suggests that this phenomenon is not limited to Sub-Saharan Africa.

Engendering Political Decision-Making

1998 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hatchard
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
World Wide ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The World ◽  
Women In Decision Making ◽  
Political Decision Making

In November, 1996, the Fifth Meeting of the Commonwealth Ministers Responsible for Women's Affairs recommended that member countries be encouraged to achieve a target of not less than 30 per cent of women in decision-making in the political, public and private sectors by the year 2005. This is an ambitious target for, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the proportion of women involved in politics world-wide declined from 12.1 per cent in 1985 to 11 per cent in 1995. The situation throughout Africa is especially bleak for, as the following table indicates, with the notable exceptions of Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, Eritrea and Uganda, most African countries fall well below the world average.

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