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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Democracy and the Ethnic Question in Africa
Author:Young, CrawfordISNI
Year:1997
Periodical:Africa Insight
Volume:27
Issue:1
Pages:4-14
Language:English
Geographic term:Africa
Subjects:ethnicity
democracy
plural society
Ethnic and Race Relations
Politics and Government
nationalism
Abstract:The accommodation of cultural diversity is a determinative variable in the consolidation of democratization. Focusing on States in Africa, this article explores how cultural diversity was accommodated during the wave of democracy which found place in the 1950s and 1960s and, more recently, the wave that started in 1989. During 1989 wave, which was ushered in by a combination of external and internal pressures, political opening in most African countries was accompanied by a more visible expression of cultural diversity. Nonetheless, a handful of transitions have witnessed a spiralling of cultural tensions degenerating into violence (Rwanda, Burundi, Algeria, and Congo-Brazzaville). Of the three dimensions of cultural pluralism, race has persisted as an important political factor primarily in South Africa. In the religious sphere, the challenges are substantially greater than in the democratization which came with decolonization (e.g. in Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt). The largest array of political challenges, however, revolves around ethnicity. In a number of countries a process of reinforcement of ethnic ideologies appears to be unfolding. For the management of ethnic diversity power sharing among the major ethnic communities and institutional incentives for intergroup cooperation are master principles. Notes, ref.
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