Premium Essay

Ethnic Conflicts

In:

Submitted By dorcas
Words 2077
Pages 9
In this academic paper the researcher will endeavor to with the aid of examples assess the view ethnicity in Africa serves to polarize otherwise connected groups. A conclusion based on the data used, and the analysis of material used will be given at the end of this academic work.
Ethnic groups are defined as a community of people who share cultural and linguistic characteristics including history, tradition, myth, and origin. Scholars have been trying to develop a theoretical approach to ethnicity and ethnic conflict for a long time. Some, like Donald Horowitz, Ted Gurr, Donald Rothschild and Edward Azar, agree that the ethnic conflicts experienced today-- especially in Africa -- are deep rooted. These conflicts over race, religion, language and identity have become so complex that they are difficult to resolve or manage. Ethnicity has a strong influence on one's status in a community. Ethnic conflicts are therefore often caused by an attempt to secure more power or access more resources. The opinion of this study is that conflict in Africa is synonymous with inequality .
Using Nigeria and South Africa as case studies, it compares the management of ethnic conflicts in both countries and shows the difficulties in managing deep-rooted and complex conflicts. The governments of Nigeria and South Africa have taken bold constitutional steps to reduce tension, but the continuing ethnic and religious conflicts raise questions about the effectiveness of these mechanisms.
This study proposes, among other things, that ethnic conflict has been at the heart of both countries' development problems. Politicized ethnicity has been detrimental to national unity and socio-economic well-being. It is important to note that most of these ethnic conflicts were caused by colonialism, which compounded inter-ethnic conflict by capitalizing on the isolation of ethnic groups. The

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Ethnic Conflict

...From Ethnic Conflict to Genocide Individuals are mostly identified by their religion, culture, race and most importantly, their ethnicity. They would be labeled by what country or race they represent. Over the past decades, many ethnic conflicts have occurred and are still occurring in the world today due to political reasoning. When there are at least two ethnic communities called multiethnic or multisectarian, who realize they cannot form their own independent countries, they would change their geographical locations. But there is no guarantee that both ethnic groups will solve their conflicts by moving in different parts of the region. Each ethnic group competes for power, authority, resources and political independence, which lead up to deep conflicts between ethnic groups and even dehumanization. Each ethnic conflict is associated with deep emotions such as hatred, bitterness, resentment, anger and aggression. Political leaders play a significant role in identifying ethnicities. Such leaders commit violent acts for the sake of their group and victimize their followers. There are also political extremists who are only self-concerned and tend to disregard others’ lives through horrific actions. According to political psychologists, extremists have a variety of personal characteristics. They are not mentally sick. They are insane and are capable of evil behavior because they do not have any empathy for anybody. In Milgram’s experiment on power of authority, personality...

Words: 1727 - Pages: 7

Free Essay

The Solution to Ethnic and Racial Civil Conflict

...The Solution to Ethnic and Racial Civil Conflict Jacqueline Zhang GOVT 150W Introduction to International Politics Introduction Within a period of three months in 1994, an estimated five to eight hundred thousand people were killed as a result of civil war and genocide in Rwanda. Large numbers were physically and psychologically afflicted for life through maiming, rape and other trauma; over two million fled to neighboring countries and maybe half as many became internally displaced within Rwanda. This human suffering was and is incomprehensible. Similar ethnic and racial civil conflicts have deeply scarred countries and are threatening to break out in many places around the globe. Too much blood has been shed for ethnic and racial causes and too many have died in ethnic and racial wars. In accordance to the constructivist model of nationalism, identity (re)construction solves ethnic and racial civil conflict. Definition For the purpose of demonstrating how identity (re)construction solves ethnic and racial civil conflicts, “solve” can be defined as 1) to explain and 2) to put an end to, settle. In addition, “explain” means to make clear the cause, origin or reason of. Furthermore, an ethnicity is a population of human beings whose members identify with each other, on the basis of a real or a presumed common genealogy or ancestry. The term race refers to the concept of dividing people into populations or groups on the basis of various sets of physical characteristics...

Words: 2466 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

The Politics of Cultural Pluralism and Ethnic Conflict

...This chapter focuses on various incidents of politics surrounding cultural pluralism and ethnic conflict that have occurred in least developed countries. (LDCs) Cultural pluralism refers to ethnic diversity. It’s defined as a condition in which many cultures co-exist within a society and maintain their cultural differences. It can also be called multiculturalism. Cultural pluralism seeks to overcome racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination. Cultural pluralism has been closely linked to the growth of the middle class and the emergence of politicians who articulated nationalist or other ethnic aspirations while mobilizing workers and peasants behind that ideal. The fear of and hostility toward other ethnic groups are far older and often more entrenched than modern principles of tolerance or equality under the law. No matter how we may wish for it otherwise, we did not leave violence against outsiders behind us as our nations became modern and democratic. Ethnic minorities have been victimized for hundreds of years. One needs only look to the nineteenth-century frontier wars between White settlers and Native Americans in the United States and Chile. Ethnic Conflict Incidents In the early years of the twenty-first century (2000s), like the first decades of the twentieth century (1900s), much of the Third World suffered from ethnic, racial, and religious tensions periodically punctuated by outbreaks of brutality and carnage. When progress was made in one...

Words: 1041 - Pages: 5

Free Essay

Ethnic Conflict

...Hamid Sbai Ethnic Conflict In contemporary terms the source of ‘the troubles’ can be traced back to the partition of 1922 when 26 of Irelands 32 counties were transferred to the control of the new Irish Republic whereas 6 of the nine counties from the province of Ulster remained under British control due to the fact that they contained a majority of Unionists, generally of the protestant faith, although they did also contain a significant minority of nationalists, around a third of the population, who were generally of the Roman catholic faith. This then led to nationalists being treated unequally in terms of housing and employment with nationalists facing significantly higher rates of unemployment than their protestant neighbors. The catholic population of the six counties also faced a problem, in that the police force of the north, the RUC, were predominantly from protestant/unionist backgrounds, with Catholics accounting for around 12% of the total force, and were seen as upholding the unionist domination of the six counties, although the auxiliary police force, the B specials, were even more vehemently hated by Catholics perhaps with good reason given that due to their actions they were disbanded by the British prime minister in 1970. By 1969 then there was a powder keg atmosphere in the six counties with nationalists, inspired by events in America, agitating for civil rights and unionists attempting to sustain their domination. By the end of 1969 the RUC were no longer...

Words: 2288 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Globalization and Ethnicity

...Globalization and ethnicity WRITER NAME Effect of globalization on ethnic conflicts Instructor’s name, Date. Does Globalization lead to greater ethnic-based conflicts? How is ethnicity defined? Introduction The advent of globalization characterized by industrialization and modernization has made the world flat bridging the gap between time and space. The world therefore has awoken to a collective consciousness brought about by infrastructural and technological advancements. Theoretically this has broken down peoples ethnic local identities and made them races of a wider world. The less anticipated issue has arisen of re-energized and persistent local conflicts that have flared against communities brought about by cultures, politics and fight for natural resources. Body Ethnic conflicts have time and again troubled the world from Sudan, Indonesia, Kenya, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ivory Coast, Liberia and countless other locations making conflict resolution a very important duty of the international community. A big question by analysts is whether the ease of communication has made it easier to report issues of ethnic conflicts thereby making it look like it’s on the rise while what has improved is the reporting mechanism. Of importance however is whether the accuracy of reporting events as they happen has brought about increased awareness from...

Words: 910 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Ethnic Conflict and Genocide

...Examination M4A1: Midterm Examination James Hallihan Ethnic Conflict and Genocide  Theory: In the case of Bosnia, choose the most important theoretical aspect (primordial, constructivist, instrumental, modernization) that you find most helpful in your understanding of the conflict. What does this approach illuminate to you that you find so important and how might it direct you towards one or other levels of analysis? In looking at the Bosnian conflict the most important aspect of the conflict was social constructivism. The definition of Social constructivism is “identities are molded, refabricated, and mobilized in accord with reigning cultural scripts and centers of power”(Cerulo, 1997, p.387). In Bosnia there were three major ethnic groups fighting for control of Bosnia: 1. Serbs- The Serbian people are Orthodox Christians 2. Croats- The Croatian people are Catholic Christians 3. Bosniaks- The Bosniaks are Muslim The two main actors in this conflict originally came from Croatia and Serbia which were all part of Yugoslavia and Russian controlled at one point in time. There is some primordialism overtones in this conflict however, “it is almost impossible for people in the region to trace the ethnic line of most inhabitants”(Jesse &Williams, 2011, p.146), and due to intermarriage between the Croats and Serbians in the region, there are no “physical differences among people of different ethnic origins”(Harvey, 2000, pp.42-43). It seems that everything...

Words: 2134 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Ethnic Group Conflict

...Ethnic Group Conflict Paper In a society with numerous ethnicities and cultures living side by side being aware of one another’s morals and beliefs proves to help in providing a cohesive environment conducive for healthy living. Conflicts between ethnic groups can develop for many different reasons. Different belief and moral systems, different ways of doing things, or even different appearances can cause conflicts especially when particular ethnic groups have under gone socialization and are not open to other ideas or point of views. By examining how social perception, social cognition, and conformity influence the conflict between Germans and Jewish cultures during the Holocaust, one can better understand ways to find solutions to this conflict. The conflict between German and Jewish cultures dates back to the nineteenth century at the start of World War II. There was a lack of understanding from the Germans culture of the Jewish people and has become the foundation on which the conflict developed. During the Holocaust six million Jews were murder by the Nazi regime because they were considered inferior and posed a threat to the racially superior German culture (“Introduction to the Holocaust, 2013). Jewish people were kept in concentration camps and deported as well as tortured and starved out (Introduction to the Holocaust, 2013). Conformity refers to something that person does to try and fit in to what society expects and what social norms are. These two ethic groups...

Words: 300 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Ethnic Conflicts in Rwanda

...Ethnic Conflict in Emerging Democracies Rwanda & Sri Lanka SOC300036VAO16*1114*001 Sociology of Developing Countries Instructor: Professor CERTIFICATION OF AUTHORSHIP: I certify that I am the author of this paper and that any assistance received in its presentation is acknowledged and disclosed in the paper (at the end). I have also cited any sources from which I used data, ideas, or words, either quoted directly or paraphrased. I also certify that this paper was prepared specifically for this course and has not been used for another course (and will not be) either in whole or substantial part. NAME AND DATE: Abstract Interethnic conflict in developing countries can cause many problems that can be very hard to solve. When countries have harsh dictatorships or communism the ethnic conflicts with its people can be squelched to a certain extent. As the country breaks free and heads towards democracy ethnic issues can stun or stop democratic growth. In other cases countries that have never experienced constant leadership and a solid form of government tend to have on again off again ethnic and civil unrest. In this paper we will examine the relevance of problems of multi-racial or multi-cultural political and social relations in the areas of Sri Lanka and Rwanda. These two areas have a long history of civil unrest, shoddy government, and ethnic conflict. Although these are some of the cornerstone issues that have contributed...

Words: 1993 - Pages: 8

Free Essay

Ethnic Group Conflict

...Ethnic Group Conflict PSY 450 March 26, 2012 Ethnic Group Conflict Knowledge is power and the more knowledge a person has the more power he or she have at their disposal. Power can be defined as a overbearing control over a population or individual. People who are affected by power can be individual or a whole family can be manipulated. Power can cause a person to follow out of fear or out of trust, but the ultimate goal of welding power is the outcome can be the betterment of everyone involved or just the advancement of those in power. One form of power that can be welded over people is conformity. Conformity is the action of doing what the majority states is appropriate in order to be accepted. That means the majority of the group makes the rules and everyone follows the rules or get discarded. There is acceptable and unacceptable practice that leads to good and bad penalty. For example society which is the majority of the people agree that stealing is wrong, therefore a law was made to inform people stealing is wrong. If a person is caught stealing there are consequences that are set in place such as jail time which is enforced by the police. Conformity is not the only tool used by society to persuade its people to follow the demands and standards. Social perception and social cognition also play a significant role in getting people to follow the rules. Social perception works in three steps. The first step is the observer will watch the behavior or the observed...

Words: 1416 - Pages: 6

Free Essay

Ethnocentrism

...မ်ိဳးျမင့္စိတ္ေနဝါဒ (Ethnocentrism) မ်ိဳးျမင့္စိတ္ေနဝါဒဆိုတာ လူမ်ိဳး၊ ဘာသာ၊ ဓေလ့ထံုးစံတူ လူမ်ိဳးအုပ္စုတစ္စုက အျခား မတူညီတဲ့ လူမ်ိဳးအုပ္စုတစ္စုကို ျပဳမူဆက္ဆံရာမွာ မိမိရဲ႕ ယဥ္ေက်းမႈတန္ဖိုး၊ စံႏႈန္းေတြကို အဓိက ဗဟိုျပဳလက္ကိုင္ထားၿပီး စဥ္းစား၊ ဆံုးျဖတ္ ျပဳမူလုပ္ေဆာင္ျခင္းသေဘာျဖစ္တယ္။ မူရင္းအဂၤလိပ္စကားလံုးက ေရွး ေခါမ စကားလံုး ‘Ethno’ (လူမ်ိဳး၊ ႏိုင္ငံ၊ ယဥ္ေက်းမႈတူ အုပ္စု) နဲ႕ လာတင္ စကားလံုး ‘Centric’ (ဗဟိုျပဳျခင္း) တို႕ ေပါင္းစပ္ထားျခင္းျဖစ္တယ္။ ဒီသေဘာမွာ မိမိရဲ႕ ယဥ္ေက်းမႈ၊ လူမ်ိဳး၊ ဘာသာ စတဲ့ သဘာဝအရ မတူညီႏိုင္တဲ့ ဝိေသသလကၡဏာေတြကို အေျခခံကာ အုပ္စုသေဘာအေနနဲ႕ စဥ္းစားေလ့ရွိၿပီး မိမိ အုပ္စုက သူမ်ားအုပ္စုေတြထက္ အရာရာမွာ သာလြန္တယ္၊ ယဥ္ေက်းတယ္၊ လူပီသတယ္၊ သဘာဝက် တယ္၊ ျမင့္ျမတ္တယ္၊ အျခား လူမ်ိဳးအုပ္စုမ်ားက မယဥ္ေက်း၊ လူမပီသ၊ သဘာဝမက်၊ ယုတ္ညံ ဟု လြဲမွားယူဆၿပီး မိမိအုပ္စုတစ္ခုတည္းသာ အခြင့္ထူးခံယူျခင္း၊ အျခားမတူတဲ့ အုပ္စုေတြကို ဖိႏွိပ္ခြဲျခားဆက္ဆံျခင္း၊ ကၽြန္ျပဳျခင္း စတဲ့ ဘက္လိုက္ဆံုးျဖတ္၊ မတရားမႈ ေတြ လုပ္ေဆာင္ေလ့ရွိတာေၾကာင့္ အက်ိဳးဆက္အေနနဲ႕ မတူညီတဲ့ အုပ္စုေတြၾကား ပဋိပကၡေတြ၊ အမုန္းေတြ၊ ရန္ညွိဳးေတြဟာ ေရရွည္ ႀကီးထြား အျမစ္တြယ္ လာေစတယ္။ ဥပမာ - ေရွးယခင္ လူျဖဴ လူမ်ိဳးႀကီး ဝါဒအရ လူျဖဴေတြကသာ ျမင့္ျမတ္တယ္ဆိုတယ္ သေဘာနဲ႕ အသားအေရာင္ရွိတဲ့ အာဖရိကအႏြယ္ဝင္ လူမ်ိဳးေတြကို အဓမၼ ကၽြန္ျပဳ ခိုင္းေစခဲ့တယ္။ ေနာက္ပိုင္း ကၽြန္စနစ္ ပေပ်ာက္သြားသည့္တိုင္ အာဖရိကအႏြယ္ဝင္ေတြအေပၚ ဆက္လက္ ခြဲျခား ႏွိမ္ခ်ဆက္ဆံခဲ့တယ္။ ဒီ မတရားမႈ ဆိုးက်ိဳး အရိပ္မည္းဟာ ဆယ္စုႏွစ္ေတြၾကာသည့္တိုင္ေအာင္ လက္ရွိ မ်က္ေမွာက္ေခတ္ အေမရိက နဲ႕ အျခား အေနာက္ ဥေရာပ လူ႕အဖြဲ႕အစည္းေတြမွာ လူမ်ိဳးေရးျပႆနာေတြ၊ အသားအေရာင္ ကြဲျပားသူခ်င္းၾကား ပဋိပကၡသေဘာေဆာင္တဲ့ တင္းမာမႈ ဒဏ္ရာ၊...

Words: 2153 - Pages: 9

Premium Essay

Ethnic Group Conflict

...Ethnic Group Conflict Brooke Stevens PSY/450 Michele Wagner In current events, the United States and Iraq have not always been on the best of terms. However, each country seems to have its own similarities and differences when compared to one another. The following will address those similarities and differences, along with the concept of conformity, social perception and social cognition, and to wrap it up with social perceptions that will need to be addressed in hopes to resolve the current conflict. Similarities and differences Although the United States is a more powerful country than Iraq, and also larger than Iraq, the two have issues that are similar and some which are different to each other. For example, the population is smaller than that of the United States. The school systems are slightly different; class sizes are around the same as the classes in the United States, however girls attend girls only schools and do not advance after the fifth grade. Girls are not allowed to go out much without an older male figure alongside with them. In the United States, it depends on the parental units as to when a child is allowed to leave the house for leisurely purposes and whether or not another individual is to go with him or her. The types of fun children have in Iraq compared to that of the children's fun in America are slightly similar. Iraqi boys play soccer, boxing, and video games as long as the electricity is operable. Iraqi girls however can...

Words: 953 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Ethnic Conflicts in Russia

...Какие меры молжно принять правительство России, чтобы смягчить межнациональные разогласия в стране? В этом сочинении я хотел бы рассмотреть проблему межнациональных разногласии в России и какие меры должно принять правительство, чтобы их смягчить. В каждой страной есть межнациональные разногласия, особенно в многонациональных городах, но в России уровень таких разногласии гораздо выше, чем в других странах. У каждой страны, даже региона, есть свой уклад жизнии, традиции и культура, и всегда важно гордиться своей родиной. Но, есть большая разница между патриотизмом и расизмом, и в России межнациональные конфликты часто бывают из-за националистических взглядов и недопонимании культурных различии. Эти разногласия бывают часто между Русскими и "выходцами с юга"- люди из таких стран, как Узбекистан, Таджикистан, Азербайдян, Туркменистан и северокавказские регионы. Такие конфликты вызывают не только социальное разделение, а также имеют катастрофические последствия; мы вновь и вновь в газетах читаем о зверских, иногда фатальных расовых нападениях, в частности в Москве и в Санкт Петербурге. Для того, чтобы смягчить межнациональные разногласия в России правительству обезательно надо понять повод их. В интервю с "Газета.ру" бывшый президент Дагестана Магомедсалам Магомедов заявил, что в корне межнациональных проблем российского общества лежат, прежде всего, экономические факторы. Он указал на то, что Дагестан (и другие республики Северного Кавказа) "недопустимо отстали в экономическом...

Words: 537 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Civil War: The Conflict Between Ethnic Groups In Rwanda

...Many of previous genocides shown ineffectiveness of UN peacekeepers. UN peacekeepers failed to prevent genocides such as in Rwanda, Srebrenica an Darfur (Vermeulen & Grünfeld, 2009). Rwanda genocide is considered “to be the fastest, most efficient killing spree of the twentieth century” (Power, 2011 para 1). Rwandan Civil War was a conflict between two ethnic groups, the Hutu and the Tutsis populations (BBC News, 2011). There has always been tension between these ethnic groups in Rwanda. Death of the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana sparked the civil war and genocide in Rwanda (BBC news, 2011). During Rwanda civil war, “800,000 Tutsi and politically moderate Hutu” were killed within 100 days (Power, 2011, para 1). During the Rwanda civil...

Words: 289 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Kenyan Problem

...[u06a1] Unit 6 Assignment 1 Systems Theory and Conflict Resolution Resources * Systems Theory and Conflict Resolution Scoring Guide. * APA (6th edition) Style and Formatting. * Webuwrite Academy Simulation. By successfully completing this assignment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assignment criteria: * Competency 5: Implement a strategy for reducing conflict. * Propose strategies for reducing conflict based on a systems analysis. * Competency 7: Communicate effectively in a variety of formats. * Communicate in a manner that respects the dignity, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and individual uniqueness of others. For this assignment, you will analyze the conflicts at Webuwrite Academy using systems theory, as described by Wilmot and Hocker in Chapter 7. When people think of conflict, they often tend to think only about the actual conflict itself. They often fail tocontextualize that conflict within the norms and background of a larger organization or group. This type of contextualization is an important part of understanding a conflict more fully, and of better understanding how to resolve the conflict. Systems theory is a method of analyzing conflict that goes beyond looking at individual behavior and goals, and instead focuses on the patterns of interactions between individuals as a part of a whole organization. Systems theory also focuses on the roles that individuals play within organizations. For...

Words: 433 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

How Does Cultural Frames Affect Conflict Resolution Practices?

...Cultural frames view conflict resolution practices differently and the processes must be different to be effective. This is why we see peaceful results in some ethnic conflicts and extreme violence in others. The cultural frame includes values and communication is unique to that culture based on assigned values of meaning. Generally, there are two overarching concepts of culture, the individualist and collectivist. While these are generalizations and are not absolute, they provide a basic starting point for understanding how they may react to certain conflict resolution approaches. In this paper, the collectivist culture will be seen through the Sri Lankan Sinhalese, and the individualist cultures will be seen through the American culture. These...

Words: 693 - Pages: 3