Ethnic Diversity in Eastern Africa: Opportunities and Challenges

Executive Summary

Festering conflicts in eastern Africa in the last two decades have mirrored a tidal wave of communal consciousness that has completely transformed the face of the region. From Rwanda to Burundi, Ethiopia to Somalia and Kenya to Uganda, eastern Africa has experienced an upsurge of ethnic nationalism which has outshined civic nationalism that pervaded the region on independence.

Kenya’s recent flare-up of violence after the disputed 2007 general elections was the most unprecedented in terms of its magnitude and ethnic nature. While the country had earlier registered flashes of violent conflict especially around elections, the scale of violence experienced in 2007/08 caught both Kenya and the rest of the world by surprise. With the emergence of political pluralism, various ethnic elites have exploited differences in ethnicity to add momentum to their struggle maintain power or propel themselves to political leadership. The 1990s, sometimes referred as the decade of democratization in Africa, saw the “Third Wave of Democracy” sweep through many countries in Africa, enlarging the space for ethnic and other interest groups to demand larger inclusion in the running of the state. Ironically, as the democratic space became bigger, it raised the stakes for national stability as diverse voices demanded larger stakes in the national representation and access to resources. The struggle for power and resources entrenches ethnic solidarity and this occasionally leads to violent conflict. Yet inter-ethnic togetherness can lead to more accountable and transparent leadership because the various interest groups can exert pressure from below.

It is in this regard that Africa Health and Development International (AHADI) with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation organized a regional conference on the opportunities and challenges of ethnic diversity in eastern Africa to examine ways in which ethnic diversity can be used as a resource for the region.

The two-day conference, held from 16-17 November 2009 under the theme of Ethnic Diversity: Opportunities and Challenges for eastern Africa brought together academicians, members of parliament and civil society from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Ghana and Netherlands. The meeting, opened by Hon. Kenneth Marende, Speaker of Kenya’s National Assembly, and addressed by world-renown political scientist Prof. Michael Chege of UNDP, sought to shed light on how eastern Africa can use its ethnic diversity as a step towards ethnic harmony and democracy, while seeking to learn from the successes and failures of other countries in the world.

The objectives of the conference were:
• To facilitate regional reflections on ethnic diversity as a resource for eastern Africa;
• To explore the opportunities and challenges that multiculturalism presents to African nations;
• To discuss ways in which a national identity can be cultivated and enhanced in a multi-ethnic situation;
• To publish the deliberations for wider dissemination in the region and the diaspora.

To facilitate the reflections and discussions during the conference, the presentations were structured around four themes, namely: the nature of ethnicity in contemporary Africa; ethnicity as a political and social construct; turning ethnicity into a resource for political, economic and social development; and building a peaceful multi-ethnic nation. From the discussions, it emerged that ethnicity is a neutral factor which can either be used positively to promote the well-being of all people or negatively to the detriment of the society and its people. From the presentations, there was general consensus that ethnicity serves as a principle of identity and gives people a sense of belonging. In most cases, people from the same ethnic group share a myth of common ancestry and history. This gives them a sense of ethnic solidarity. It is this solidarity that is used by the political elite to mobilize their supporters in their respective ethnic constituencies to promote their political and economic agenda. Rather than use ethnic diversity to create unity and interdependence among various groups, the political elite in most of Africa, have used it to create ethnic consciousness and invoke and accentuate differences among different groups. In a context of poverty, limited resources, corruption and ineffectual leadership the focus on difference, punctuated by ethnic hate speech, can lead to violent conflict.

Fundamentally, the rich ethnic and cultural diversity reflected in music, media, artifacts, language and traditions has often been blurred by the political differences which mainly exist along ethnic lines. Interestingly, in Tanzania where there are about 120 ethnic groups, language (Kiswahili) has been used to unify the different groups. Based on the policies of ujamaa (socialism), a principle closely associated with the late Tanzania’s founding President Julius Nyerere, the country remains generally peaceful and stable. Evidently, leadership and a value system encapsulated in a national language are key to the development of nationhood. A number of African states are continuing to transform politically through adoption of democratic principles and practice; some (like Ghana) are de-emphasizing ethnicity as an identity and promoting nationhood. Significantly, adoption of multiparty politics is one such effort but it is riddled with multiple challenges, particularly in view of ethnic-based political parties. Although efforts in the pursuit of democracy and good governance in some African countries are remarkable, there is more work to be done as was identified by the participants in the following series of recommendations.

Political inclusion and minority rights

1. Give voice to minorities through effective mechanisms such as affirmative action/positive discrimination. Minorities may include ethnic, linguistic and religious groups, women, people with disabilities and youth among others.

2. Implement proportional representation and party lists as the electoral system for the region to strengthen the basis of national level political parties.

3. Undertake real and meaningful decentralization with clear checks and balances, to sanction the regime.

Interventions to empower youth economically

1. Increase the availability of funds allocated specifically for youth employment and development, targeting projects at the district and village level.

2. Create more jobs for the youth especially in the countryside. This can be done using the Constituency Development Fund (CDF), focusing on labour intensive projects such as road construction. It may also include skills development in agriculture and agro-business, anchoring of creative industries and investment in information technology.

3. Expand markets for agricultural products, targeting specific agricultural/livestock projects and products such as horticulture, fish and fruits among others.

Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC)
(These recommendations were made with particular reference to Kenya because a TJRC has recently been set up.)

1. Create greater awareness among prospective witnesses about the importance and process of the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission in Kenya;
2. AHADI to spearhead the development of a position paper on what TJRC ought to do in relation to other commissions which recommended its establishment and to explore the possibility of establishing a coalition of civil society organizations on the TJRC process.
3. Engage with TJRC/Reference group on critical areas such as: timely release of funds; recruitment processes; financial management and engage partners on commitment to support TJRC to deliver on its mandate;

Education

1. Selection and admission of students to secondary schools should be done through a digitalized blind system. This would ensure that students from different ethnic backgrounds learn together and establish national networks;
2. Teachers and lecturers should be posted to learning institutions regardless of their ethnicity. Governors and leaders of academic institutions should be appointed on merit, without consideration for ethnic background. Communities should be sensitized to accept that institutions located in their neighbourhood are available to all learners irrespective of their ethnic origin;
3. All curricula – primary secondary, colleges and universities – should be revised so as to expunge any content that has connotations of ethnic stereotypes. More specifically, the history syllabus should seek to have a national outlook. Instructional, education and communication materials for all learning institutions should be geared towards promotion of unity and ethnic integration.
4. Competitive cultural shows such as schools’ drama and music festivals, should be maintained and enhanced at all levels of education. As much as possible the festivals should be held in different parts of the country and the local community should be involved;
5. Governance and leadership training at community levels should be carried out to encourage ethnic integration. This should target opinion leaders, leaders of academic institutions and cultural icons.

Nationhood, national cohesion and integration

1. The state should encourage people to recognize that they live in an artificial state and deliberately accept their commonness. Media can play a central role in entrenching inter-ethnic tolerance and trust. The state should put in place mechanisms to promote Kiswahili as a national language and the ‘lingua franca’ of the region.
2. Establish a social movement, mobilizing the people and cutting across communities and other identities, to demand for economic development, legal and other changes towards the artificial statehood. To be spearheaded by civil society organisations, the social movement ought to involve the gatekeepers and opinion leaders to ensure that the communities own it.
3. Design and implement programmes that empower communities. This will ensure equitable distribution of resources and access to opportunities by all communities. The government should adopt strategies and policies that ensure redistribution of resources.
4. Establish basic principles and values on how a society is managed. The principles should be agreed upon and written down in a National Political Charter.

Interventions in Land Sector

1. At Policy Level, recognizing that the land policy provides for customary land interests, ensure the completion of the land policy formulation process and its adoption.

2. At Implementation Level
i) Create community awareness in order to put pressure on relevant state organs to act on the policy.
ii) Translate the policy into law by establishing a legal regime to charter implementation of the
policy.
iii) Establish an institutional framework through capacity building for policy implementation and develop relevant institutions representative of all stakeholders, including civil society.
v) Establish a monitoring and evaluation framework, with appropriate milestones/indicators to
ensure that policy and legal commitments are followed through.

3. Documentation of Best Practices and Learning Process

i) a) At national level research the land practices of different communities;
b) At regional and continental level, determine lessons learnt and best practices which can enrich the region;
c) Facilitate the sharing experiences nationally, regionally and continentally.
ii) Pilot land administration/customary systems based on findings of a-c above;
iii) Land, historical injustices and ethnicity:
a) Following the land policy, research and concretize claims related to this phenomenon
across the country.
b) Establish a forum for discussion on this phenomenon (include outside experience to give the exercise a trans-national outlook), for example by supporting a joint state-civil society project.
c) Design a program on how to move forward, in consistence with the provisions of the land policy, for example on how to engage the Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission.

Prof. Kimani Njogu
Convenor
Ethnic Diversity Conference

(Over)riding the Rainbow:Ethnic Diversity and the Kenyan Creative Economy

By Joy Mboya

The term ‘rainbow’, to denote advantages attained by bringing together multiple and diverse ethnicities, has been popularized in Kenya via politics.

This paper, using the word ‘rainbow’ in a similar sense, examines how interventions,purposeful or circumstantial, in Kenyan creative domains, have metaphorically taken hold of the rainbow of ethnic and cultural diversity, de-constructed it, contemporized it, and innovated it, thereby contributing towards the evolution of a potentially exciting, forward-looking Creative Kenya.

The paper will also consider benefits and challenges in conserving ethno-cultural art forms and art practices for their intrinsic and heritage value.

The rainbow, that ephemeral but beautiful natural phenomenon that sits arched in the sky, has captured human imagination in folklore and mythology across all cultures.

In Australian Aborigine legends, the rainbow is a powerful multi-colored snake, Thugine, commanding respect as the guardian of rivers and seas, which are the source of life. In Western folklore, the rainbow is a promise of prosperity –it is said that at the end of it there is a pot of gold. Closer to home, in the beliefs of my own Luo community, the rainbow calledndanya is seen to be a good omen -in times of severe flooding, the appearance of the rainbow was understood to signify that the worst was over.

The term ‘rainbow’ referring to ethnic, or racial, or cultural diversity in social and political parlance today has positive connotations.

Today of course, thecultural myths about the rainbow have been overtaken by scientific knowledge – we know that a rainbow is the result of refraction, where a seemingly singular structure of light deflected through water particles in the atmosphere, is split and revealed to comprise multiple wonderful colors, arched beside each other in a single band.

The challenge for peoples and societies today is to broaden the metaphorical meaning of rainbow to embrace not only all within the clan, or all within the ethnic group, or even all within the nation, but also all within the world. Historical and present-day events,it seems, are pushing humanity towards a unification of its diverselements. In the political and economic realms, regions are consolidating into common unified blocs such as the European Union, the East African Community and SADEC.

Nations today struggle to contain the potential clashes of cultures within their borders – in Kenya, for example, Najivuniakuwa Mkenya is a slogan that attempts to rally the populace to embrace ‘Kenyan-ness’ as the higher glue that can bond 42-odd ethnic communities together, who in 2008 unleashed long-suppressed violence against each other after a contested presidential election. And if one were to take a the long view of history, might one not discern a fitful but nonetheless progressive movement towards a more unified humanity, from the nuclear family and clan groupings, to the tribe, the city-state, the nation state and now regional and global structures? Perhaps the principle of biodiversity in plant and animal life, that holds diversity as a complex but sure foundation for the survival of the planet, also applies to human societies? That for our human survival, not only as a biological species, but also as social organized systems, we must not fail to embrace, appreciate and utilize human diversity.

This paper examines how practitioners in the creative economy have risen beyond one level of distinction – the ethnic identity – to find a higher yet all-embracing distinction – Kenyan-ness, as a marker for their creativity. But the merit and viability of ethno-cultural activities for the creative economy is also considered. The latter is discussed as ‘riding the rainbow’, while the former is seen as ‘overriding the rainbow’.

Part One: Overriding the Rainbow
Progression towards a Kenyan Creative Economy

We find ourselves, as Kenyans, (and this is true of most African states), at an interesting transition point in relation to our indigenous arts, and also in relation to the new paradigm of creative or cultural economies, where debates rage about the polarities between the intrinsic and instrumental values of arts and culture. Discussions frequently also take place about how market economies, with profit-making as their primary objective, are in fact antithetical to the values of culture and the arts, which have aesthetic, intellectual, social and even spiritual values.

The ‘dark side’ encountered by the arts when they enter into the market economy, includes ‘tough competition, risks, and inadequate or non-existent guarantees of the right to work and earn’ (Razlogov2008).Razlogov’s view is a commentary on the situation prevailing in his home country Russia, and other Eastern bloc countries, after the end of socialism/communism.

But there is resonance with the Kenyan situation, although, of course, the Russian transition has a different genesis. In the Kenyan case, not only are we are transitioning from a colony state butalso from discrete traditional worldviews, values and social formations. Shifting from traditional communities and colonialism, the biggest change for Kenya’s communities, with regard to creative economies, is the cessation of thatintegral relationship that the arts had with everyday life. In other words, art fitted, in an almost- for-granted way, within the economic, social and spiritual life of the community. In that past, (according to researchers of African art like Laure Meyer), traditional craftsmen and artists ‘worked within the context of customs observed by everyone else. In turn, their imagination was nourished by myths, artistic traditions, and specific history of the culture and world in which they lived.’

The situation today is radically different and raises severalissues for African nations as they participate in a globalizing world: How to develop their arts and creative economies? How to mitigate the effects of a market economy on creative/cultural products? Whether it is desirable to resist the instrumental-ization of the arts and of culture –that is the use of arts and culture as tools for educational, healthand other development agendas?

How to receive and respond to the current focus on culture and creative pursuits as potential drivers of the economy capable of generating wealth and creating jobs? What role and impact might cultural diversityhave on the creative economy?

But before going further, let us try to quickly understand how the creative and cultural economies are currently being defined. Concepts and understandings around the creative and cultural industries abound.

Perhaps a Wikipedia definition will suffice for the purposes of this paper:
The phrase creative industries (or sometimes creative economy) refers to a set of interlocking industry sectors, and are often cited as being as a growing part of the global economy.

The creative industries are often defined as those that focus on creating and exploiting intellectual property products such as music, books, film, and games, or providing business to business creative services such as advertising, public relations and direct marketing. Aesthetic live performance experiences are also generally included, contributing to an overlap with definitions of art and culture, and sometimes extending to include aspects of tourism and sport. Economic activities focused on designing, making and selling objects or works of art such as jewelry, haute couture, books of poetry or other creative writing, or fine art also often feature inn definitions of the sector because the value of such objects derives from a high degree of aesthetic originality.

How has a Kenyan creative economy progressed, both before and during the post-colony period? When art ceased being made ‘for the tribe’, for whom then was it being made?An examination of two directions that have evolved might shed some light.

One direction took the form of collective action led by the creative members of community,and the second direction witnessed the emergence of activity by individual artists – some of whom received formal schooling in the arts, while others were self-taught.

Collective creative activity (sometimes termed by arts researchers as a movement) can beseen in the evolution of arts & amp; crafts among the Akamba and the Kisii. (Other similar movements in the East & Southern Africa region include Makonde and Tingatinga from Tanzania, and Shona sculpture from Zimbabwe).

In these two communities it can be seen that when art & crafts ceased to be made predominantly for community purposes, when it lost its direct integral relationship with community life, it did not die away but instead entered the wider economy. Kamba wooden figurines entered the public market as early as 1914, (Von D. Miller, 1975).

The impulse, it is reported, came from exposure received by the Kamba carver Mutisya Munge toZaramo carvings from Tanzania, while he was there on duty with the Carrier Corps during World War I. The Akamba crafts movement organized itself to participate effectively within the wider economy: they selected which designs to produce, they set pricings, they established working and packaging spaces.

The shift from an ethno-centric craft to one that can became to bemore broadly defined as Kenyancraft happened, from an aesthetic perspective, through change in the design motifs selected, and a consciousness of the market’s tastes – Kenyan wildlife, human figures, (old men, male and female busts), and contemporary everyday household items such as spoons and bowls. According to Von D. Miller, the external market for Akamba carvings opened as early as the period of the First World Warwith missionariesand foreign visitors as the consumers. And trade continued to grow, so much so, that “by the late 1950s soapstone carvings could be purchased all over East Africa and in various places overseas.”

Kisii carvings followed a similar path. Carvings in soapstone, for public consumption, also began to be produced around World War I (Von D. Miller, 1975). Again, aesthetically, universal themes and motifs were settled upon and these were innovated with time, according to market needs. Commonly used household items such as soap dishes, vases and decorative figurines, were and continue to be popular with markets.

Like with the Akamba, the idea of working under a cooperative was adopted.Butover the years, arts & crafts cooperatives have seen on and off successes, constantly requiring revitalization. Still, they have made a contribution towards the production of handicrafts that can be identified as Kenyan rather than ethnic-based crafts. Market opportunities undoubtedly contributed to the development and innovation of new product ranges in arts and crafts, but the same markets do also dictate what will sell and what won’t. Thus the arts & crafts artist or artisan’s creativity can be limited.

The second direction that the arts have taken is individual creation, which are quite unlike arts movements or cooperatives which in reality operate like mini- factories, employing many artisans who churn out designs in quantity, in a repetitive process. The individual artist typically creates one-off originals or only a limited edition of the creative product. This evolution of the artistic skills, that begins to move away from handicraft and into ‘fine art’, can be seen, for example, in the works of individual artists Kioko Mwatiki and Elkana On’gesa, respectively. Both are inheritors of the particular creative skills of their ethnic communities, (Mwatiiki having dual heritage – Akamba and Maasai) and Ong’esa hailing from Tabaka in Kisii. Both are Kenyan artists of international repute.

What is of interest about the individual artist in the post-colony, is that their expression, deriving from their unique personal vision, and coupled with their technical mastery, defies being placed within any particular ethnic locus.

Again, it is in part, the contemporary and universal themes & amp; imagery portrayed by these artists that lift their creative expressions from being ethno-centric to becoming part of a dynamic Kenyan creative economy.Mwatiki’s life-size elephants at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport roundabout in Nairobi, or Ong’esa’s ‘Dove of Peace’ at the Joseph & amp; Sheila Murumbi memorial in Parklands, Nairobi are examples of work that can definitely be termed contemporary Kenyan; none of these works can be described as Akamba or Kisii art. For both artists, the influence of formal arts training and exposure to international work has influenced not only their personal styles, but also their strategies to enter the arts markets locally and overseas. It is Kenya’s loss, but obviously a gain for these two established artists, that the economies that consume their creative products are for the most part not Kenyan. For each, the export market, international commissions, and invitations by overseas galleries, are key end-destinations of their work.

Indeed, when one considers the overall contemporary visual arts sub-sector in Kenya, it is evident that any tendencies toward ethnic visual arts have been over-ridden by the complexity of modern Kenya. As far as the building of a Kenyan creative economy goes, the visual arts output, whether at craft level or fine art level is aimed, for the present, at external markets, although one can also begin to see the (very) slow emergence of local consumers of products from this sub-sector.

We now move to consider music. One finds here as well, progression towards pan-Kenyan sounds, a particularly good example beingbenga. The benga style of music was and still is a pervasive expressive formacross practically all communities of Kenya, originating in the late 50s and early 60s (Osusa, Kelemba, Muhoro, 2008).

In the same way that Akamba carvings drew inspiration for innovation and wider markets from contact and exposure to sculptures outside their own community, benga spread through contact and encounter between
Kenyan musicians of diverse ethnicities. In Nairobi of the mid 60s to mid 70s, recording studios were the meeting point between Luo musicians (from whom benga is said to have originated) and Kikuyu and Kamba musicians, and through ‘session-ing’ together, musical cross-fertilization began to take place. The spread of bengainto Kisii was due to the geographical proximity of Luo and Kisii, with Luo musicians playing frequently in Kisii town, thus eventually influencing the development of a benga among the Kisii.

With the wide adoption of benga as a common-denominator musical form across communities, markets began to grow across ethnic boundaries. Daniel KamauMwai, popularly know as DK, and hailing from Gatanga in Kenya’s Central Province, crossed over to Luo Nyanza with his hit song Murata because it incorporated the benga structure and sound. (Osusa, Kelemba, Muhoro, 2008).

Through the benga formula, artistes whatever their ethnicity, now had the potential to reach Kenyans beyond their own ethnic community, because, as with the popular lingala music from Zaire, it was not the only the lyrics that were the hook; the rhythm, dance pace and the recognizable role of the lead guitar were equally important in attracting audiences.

Today, as benga continues to be a common musical form across communities, other forms with the potential to become pan-Kenyan as well, are also emerging. The various musical forms from within and outside Kenya are collectively providing a repertoire of musical idioms that the contemporary popular Kenyan musician uses at will, in a genre increasingly referred to as afro-fusion.

Contemporary musicians like Eric Wainaina and Suzanna Owiyo work in this genre and their appeal and primary markets are with multi-cultural urban audiences.

The economy of music, perhaps more than any other creative sub-economy, can be greatly enriched by creative exploitation of the diversity of ethnic music in Kenya. As long as the creator, for the purposes of economic gain, or to refresh inspiration, makes conscious effort to find a sound that can be shared and enjoyed alike by the majority of Kenyans. Such creation, as already exemplified by benga and lingala music, need not reduce the writing of lyrics to a national language, vernacular can still be used.

Part One: Riding the Rainbow
The Economies of Ethno-cultural arts

In this section, we return to the multicolored quality of the rainbow. In the first part, we tried to make the case for the value of overriding the rainbow, where a higher common platform of identity – we termed it Kenyan-ness – can be seen to readily yield socio-economic returns. And we tracked forces and directions taken by creators of Kenya’s crafts, visual arts and popular music, looking at how they are delivering references more representative of Kenyan-ness, and with potential to reach wider markets. Yet, it is also true within the concept of creative economies, that there is individual value in each of the colors of the rainbow – in other words, the distinctive cultures of different ethnic groupscan also bring economic returns. After all, unity in diversity is not about same-ness, but rather a recognition and celebration of perspectives provided by different cultures.

The economies of ethno-cultural arts today are mainly managed under government departments of culture. Developing museums, cultural centresand historic sites, for cultural tourism is an important aspect of the creative economy. And to be sure, Kenya does not lack for places, things and events of ethno-cultural interest. What seems presently to be missing is proper investment in, and development and branding of such opportunities.

A fine example of aethno-cultural and historic site is Lamu Island. Lamu town is an old Swahili settlement on Lamu Island. It features original Swahili architectural structures, ancient building methods and a unique urban layout. It was recently declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO. For over five years now, the island has also held an annual festival that showcases the cultural activities and historic sites of Lamu – henna art, Swahili food, dhow races, donkey races, visits to the old Fort and the Lamu museum. But the opportunity presented here is yet to be maximized. Instead, interest on the island has come from Western foreigners; many own villas on the island.

Lamu is steadily evolving into an exclusive resort for the rich, aslocal residents sell and move out.
If government has plans to develop cultural centres in different communities aroundthe country, it must be prepared to ‘go all out’ and begin by selecting and developing the best sites, ensuring that curating and the program development of these centresis carefully thought through, and that the branding and publicity around such centres are given sufficient attention.

In Johannesburg South Africa, there is a site very well branded as the Cradle of Humankind, and marketed as a key attraction for visitors to the city. Kenya too has important archeological sites that are known as the Cradle of Mankind. But one could come away entirely unaware of this becauseof the poor publicity and packaging of these sites for cultural tourism.

Another opportunity that presents itself is the gradual positioning of some of cities as ‘cities of culture’. This no doubt requires careful thinking and planning about existingassets that could be maximized and those that might be newly introduced to achieve such a positioning.

The city of Nairobi, for example, is uniquely located next to a National Park. But is this fact really leveraged enough for cultural tourism? In addition, the cultural life that sustains a cultural city – music concerts, exhibitions, local cuisine, theatre, etc – would also need to be boosted, and to achieve this, one would need to draw from both ethno-cultural and contemporary creative economies.

Conclusion

While it seems entirely feasible to develop a robust creative economy both by riding and overridingour ethnic diversity, the dynamics of a creative economy must be properly studied and understood in order to better support it. So even as one reflects on the role of ethnic diversity in the Kenyan creative economy, the following issues and their implications for policy are also of concern:

Firstly, a comprehensive mapping, analysis and interpretation of the sector, qualitative & amp; quantitative, ought to be carried out: knowledge of who are engaged in the creative economy, how and why they are engaged; an account of which training and capacity-building opportunities exist, and an understanding of the range of activities in the capital (Nairobi), out-of-capital and rural.The specific locations of these activities ought to be known as well.

Secondly, there is need to consolidateKenyan creative economy & its sub- sectors. The sector’s value chain – from creation to production to distribution – is not only fragmented but has many missing links. Active encouragement of the private sector, with incentives to invest and engage with the creative sector value chain should be done.And the public sector should step up in delivering the necessary civic infrastructure such as concert halls, galleries, museums, cultural centres and training institutions.

Thirdly, is an examination of the financing of the sector- where might grants and subsidies be required? Where may micro-financing be more suitable? In what ways might government raise money for the arts? In some countries, for example, national lottery schemes are used to help fund the arts.

Fourthly, the arts must be re-instated in the education system as a core subject in schools. At the same time, a broader offer of vocational training, one that would include creative sector-related courses in areas such as arts management and technical courses such as sound engineering and lighting design, ought to be developed.

And last but not least, if Kenya is to fully embrace the creative economy paradigm, it must also ensure that the policy-making processes and legal frameworks pertaining to the same are dynamic and timely.

REFERENCES
Von D. Miller, Judith, (1975), Art in East Africa, Whitsable Litho Ltd, Great Britain

Meyer, Laure, (1994), Art and Craft In Africa, Pierre Terrail Editions, Paris

Reed, A. W. (1965), Aboriginal Fables and Legendary Tales, Griffin Paperbacks, Adelaide

Anheier H.K &Isar Y. R. (2008), The Cultural Economy, The Cultures and Globalization series 2, Sage Publications, Los Angeles

Razlogov, Kirill, (2008) Countries In Transition: Which way to Go?P172 -177, The Cultural Economy, The Cultures and Globalization series 2, Sage Publications, Los Angeles

Osusa T, Kelemba P, Muhoro N, (2008), Retracing the Benga Rhythm, Ketebul Music, Nairobi

The Challenges of Ethnicity, Multiparty Democracy and State Building in Multiethnic States in Africa

By Paul Mbatia, Kennedy Bikuru & Peter Nderitu

I. Introduction: Ethnicity and Multiparty Politics in Kenya

By 1990 when Kenya’s movement towards democracy had intensified, the ruling party (KANU) decided to extract political mileage from ethnicity. Many Kenyans thought, perhaps wrongly, that under democracy, there should be competitive politics, that parties would be free to take their messages to voters, … When Kenya moved from one party to multi-party democracy, ethnic patterns developed along party lines (Machira, 2001:123).

During the 1990s, a wave of change in form of political reforms swept through the world and modified the political terrain of many states. In Kenya, the late 1980s and the 1990s marked a period of struggle for democratization and change including reverting to multiparty politics championed by groups and individuals in civil society. Indeed this was the decade of democratization for Kenya for multiparty elections were successfully conducted in 1992 and 1997 respectively albeit with minimal changes on the composition of the ruling political elite as the incumbent ruling party KANU won both the elections and remained in government. In the successive elections of 2002 and 2007, KANU was trounced by other parties. However, former KANU diehards re-emerge in government in new party outfits.

Even with the adoption of multiparty democracy, practices of poor governance and corruption are still widespread. Furthermore, multiparty democracy appears to have heightened ethnic nationalism and has been associated with ethnic violence. In Kenya, for example, except for 2002, ethnic violence has been witnessed in all the elections held after Kenya formally adopted multi party democracy in 1991. Indeed, Muigai (1995) and Ndegwa (1997:599) affirm that multiparty democracy has been a prelude to ethnic competition and have led to “protracted transitions or outright conflict” in Kenya. Drawing from these observations in various African countries, scholars have raised questions over the suitability of multiparty democracy in multi-ethnic states. How can multi ethnic African countries manage multi party democracy without provoking ethnic groups to engage in violence during and after elections? Such violence has created many fragile States – these are States that are too weak to hold different ethnic communities together as a nation state.

In general, the outbreak of ethnic nationalism the world over dilutes the anticipated benefits of democratization. Accordingly, as African scholars attend to the problem of democratization and multiparty politics, they should also address the escalating problem of ethnic nationalism and violence. The overriding question is how to manage multiparty democracy in multi-ethnic African states?

This paper attempts to address the challenges of multiparty democracy in multiethnic states using the Kenyan experience. The paper examines the emerging dynamics of ethnic nationalism and their impact and consequences on the process of building democratic multiethnic states in Africa. Further, the paper seeks to explore possible strategies for the management of democratic and multiparty transition in multi-ethnic societies using the Kenyan experience as the basis of reference.

II. Meaning and Application of Ethnicity

Even though many scholars have attempted to define the term ethnicity, there is no consensus reached on its meaning (Hutchinson and Smith, 1996:5). The meaning of ethnicity tends to be elusive in that the term invokes mixed feelings and subjective interpretations across different contexts or cultures. According to Chapman et al. (1989:15), ethnicity is “the essence of an ethnic group” or “the quality of belonging to an ethnic community or group.” This definition is unclear because it only captures membership as the key aspect of an ethnic community.

Ethnicity is defined by Erikson (1993:4) as a field of study, which involves the classification of people and the relations between groups in the context of “self- and other” distinctions. Even though ethnicity is more than an academic discipline, this definition captures correctly, the importance of the term as a basis of social differentiation. Others have defined ethnicity as “a consciousness among people with shared cultural and linguistic roots that get utilized for political affiliation and mobilization to compete with other groups for scarce resources” Mungai (1995). This definition captures both the passive and active nature of ethnicity.

In its passive nature, ethnicity provides community members with a sense of belonging (identity), language, and other cultural resources (e.g., values, beliefs, myths, ideology, tradition, heritage, etc.). On the other hand, in its active nature, ethnicity provides a forum for competition with “outsiders” for scarce resources. Further, ethnicity in its active form is used to provide security and advance the interests of its members. In Kenya, active ethnicity is exemplified by ethnic groups, which work aggressively; assert their identity and interests, compete with other groups for scarce resources, fight other groups to enlarge their geographical and political space, mobilize their members to capture more political power and create/form new ethnic based social structures (associations and networks) to strengthen their bargaining power at the national level

Handelman (1977) conceptualizes four levels of ethnicity, which include; ethnic category; ethnic network; ethnic association and ethnic community. At the lowest level we have ethnic category which is defined as a perceived cultural difference between the group and outsiders and a sense of boundary between them. This category captures the passive nature of ethnicity by highlighting the cultural and geographical boundaries that differentiate “insiders” from “outsiders.” At the level of ethnic network, there is a regular interaction between ethnic members such that the network can distribute resources among its members. This conceptualization presents ethnic groups as production and distributive (economic and cultural) units to meet the needs of their members.

At the ethnic association level, members develop common interests and political organizations to express these at a collective corporate level. This conceptualization presents ethnic groups as active entities that consciously work for the interests of their members in a highly competitive world. The highest level in the development of ethnicity is the ethnic community. At this level, an ethnic group possesses a permanent, physically bounded territory over and above its political organization (Handelman, 1977:6). Practically, at this level, the group’s geographical territory and political domain are well defined. Accordingly, the group’s political and economic zones could be demarcated and protected.

Further, Handelman (1977) has identified six features of ethnicity. First is a common proper name “to identify and express the essence of the community.” In the Kenyan context, this would refer to the different names of Kenyan tribes e.g. Kalenjin, Kamba, Kikuyu, etc. Second is a myth of common ancestry … that includes the idea of common origin in time and space that gives them a sense of fictive kinship. Third, members share historical memories. Fourth, there could be one or more elements of common culture, which include religion, customs or language. Fifth, there is a link with a homeland, not necessarily its physical occupation by the ethnic community but only its symbolic attachment to ancestral land. And last, there is a sense of solidarity on the part of at least some section of the ethnic population. This means that without an active membership to ensure group cohesion, ethnic feelings could weaken. In Kenya, political elites mobilize their supporters in their respective ethnic constituencies to promote a sense of ethnic solidarity.

Scholars who perceive ethnicity in its passive form adopt the primordialist approach whereby they see ethnicity as based on primordial ties i.e., personal relations based on kinship bonds, blood, race, religion, language, and custom. For primordialists, ethnicity persists due to the durable nature of the primordial ties. In this approach, ethnicity can be viewed as a passive cultural consciousness and is considered as a given natural phenomenon. Unfortunately, this approach does not capture the active aspect of ethnicity as evidenced in Kenya where ethnicity has been used as a means of acquiring power and resources by the elite. On the other hand, instrumentalists treat ethnicity as a social, political, and cultural resource for different interests and status groups (Hatchinson and Smith, 1996:8). This approach correctly captures the active aspect of ethnicity. Accordingly, political elites could mobilize their respective ethnic groups to achieve personal gains — such as wealth, power, status, privileges and security.
In attempting to understand ethnicity, some scholars have conceptualized it as a product of contact and not of isolation, and by implication entailing commonalities and differences between categories of people in a process. Eriksen (1993) has referred to this process as complementarization and dichotomization. He argues that in spite of the very many contested notions of ethnicity, ethnic groups or categories tend to have notions of common ancestry, common culture, (in the Kenyan case we would argue common territory) justifying their unity. Most important, ethnicity is an aspect of relationship and not a cultural property for if a setting is wholly mono-ethnic then there would be no ethnicity (Ibid). In the Kenya situation, studies have tended to examine the relative distinctiveness of ethnic groups failing to stress the integrative and mutual contact aspects. In this context, we argue here that few studies have examined how ethnic communities have overtime developed mutual interdependencies through exchange of goods and services. Through increased contact (signifying dense interactions), some ethnic groups have expanded the volume of trade with each other as partners; not as competing group. Such interdependencies enhance unity of purpose and contribute to harmony as opposed to competition that eventually leads to conflict, and at worst, violence.
One can delineate several significant points about ethnicity drawn from the various interpretations of the concept. First, we argue that ethnicity is not a static but a dynamic concept that is socially constructed. We evoke its passive or active meanings depending on the obtaining circumstances i.e., situation. Second and drawing from the first point, ethnicity is a situational concept – its meaning and interpretation is largely determined by where we are and who we are with for whatever purpose. In this context, ethnic differences are “invisible” (hidden) between people of different ethnic groups who have common business interests or who meet in a foreign country. However, the same people will make their differences “visible” (manifest) when they engage in politics and campaign for their ethnic-based political parties. Third, we further observe that ethnicity is an elastic concept – it can be interpreted rigidly to exclude others or interpreted generously to include them albeit in a different situation.
In conclusion, we argue that ethnicity is thus a relatively fluid concept; at times, it is often negotiated by members to achieve a common purpose. However, at other times, ethnicity can be invoked or manipulated by certain agents or interest groups as a political tool to protect their interests (Eriksen 1993). At the individual level, ethnicity is instrumental when it provides a sense of belonging, a sense of identity in the absence of other more competing identities. For example, in an environment when the State is unable to provide security, citizens may constitute tribal vigilantes to protect them. Further, it can be argued that, in the absence of an appealing political ideology to rally citizens together; citizens form ethnic-based political parties in Africa. Indeed, since the adoption of multiparty democracy in Kenya, the larger ethnic communities have formed political parties – mainly to pursue political agenda that addresses the aspirations of respective ethnic groups.
III. Critical Viewpoints about Ethnicity in Africa
Scholars focusing on the challenges of ethnicity in Africa – that largely include ethnic struggles and violence — are confronted with critical (and also controversial) viewpoints that we have found worth interrogating in this paper. Our main intention here is to bring out the viewpoints and possibly ignite a debate that should inform the discourse of ethnicity in Africa. We challenge our audience to provide evidence to support their views and not to take dogmatic positions. Only then, can we move the scholarship of ethnicity in Africa forward. Clarification of these viewpoints is essential particularly in the formulation of strategies or interventions meant to address the challenges posed by ethnicity in Africa.
In this study, we consider the following viewpoints (Hypotheses) as critical and worth studying to establish their validity:
1. Ethnicity in Africa is a colonial creation?
2. Ethnic conflict is the main cause of underdevelopment in Africa?
3. Ethnicity can be utilized as a resource in Africa?
4. Ethnicity is the root cause of violence in Africa?
5. Ethnicity is rendering multiparty democracy irrelevant in multi-ethnic African states?
6. Due to ethnicity, Africa is not ready for multiparty democracy
A. Ethnic conflict a Colonial Creation in Africa?
Scholars who uphold to this viewpoint observe that historically, “prior to independence, some colonial administrators manipulated ethnic rivalries amongst indigenous populations by employing a strategy of divide and rule. The strategy created enmity and suspicion among African people and the situation has not significantly changed” (see http://www.africaresource.com/). Colonialism as a cause of ethnic conflict in Africa is also underscored by Irobi (2005:1) whose study compares the challenges of ethnicity in Nigeria and South Africa and posits that:
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 divide-and conquer method was used to pit ethnicities against each other, thus keeping the people from rising against the colonizers.
However, this view is contradicted by those who hold that “African societies are characterized by deep ethnic cleavages that are ancient and permanent” (Githinji & Holmquist, forthcoming). Furthermore, to argue that ethnic conflict in Africa was a creation of the colonial regime would suggest that prior to colonization of Africa, indigenous communities lived in harmony? Yet, it is evident that ethnic violence in form of civil wars predated the colonial regimes in Africa. The persistence of ethnic violence in Africa should therefore not be blamed exclusively on external factors. Internal factors should be critically examined to establish the extent to which they contribute to ethnic conflicts in many African states.
B. Ethnicity is the Main Cause of Underdevelopment in Africa?
There is a popular school of thought that holds that “democracy paves way for development.” Indeed, in his presentation during the 17th Annual Midwest Political Science Undergraduate Research Conference, Brian G. Smith affirms that “many researchers have sought to explain the relationship between underdevelopment and ethnic conflict.” Overall, many scholars have rightly argued that political and social instability is a major cause of underdevelopment (see Paglia in www.africaeconomicanalysis.org).
Africa’s underdevelopment is therefore associated with the persistence of ethnic conflicts and violence that undermine democracy. Furthermore, ethnicity has been used as a political tool in many parts of Africa including Uganda (when Idi Amin expelled wealthy class of Indians) and Zambia (when President Chiluba attempted to bar former president Kauda to contest for a political position on grounds that the latter’s parents were from Malawi). In recent times, the Darfur crisis exemplifies how extreme ethnicity can lead to poverty and human displacement – underdevelopment. As long as ethnicity leads to political instability, chaos and bloodshed (see http://www.africaresource.com/), it contributes to the continued state of underdevelopment. However, is ethnicity a sufficient cause of Africa’s underdevelopment?
Besides ethnic conflicts, there are many external factors that contribute to poverty and human sufferings in Africa. A more challenging view to this school of thought is that there are many African countries that have never experienced ethnic conflict, yet they remain poor? A good example is Tanzania. In our view, underdevelopment is not a logical outcome of ethnic conflicts and violence.

C. Ethnicity can be used as a Resource in Africa?
Most studies on ethnicity present it as a negative force; ethnic conflicts and violence lead to destruction of property, poverty, deaths, displacements and human suffering. Under what conditions can ethnicity become a resource that could be used to improve the quality of life of African people?
Ethnic diversity could be appreciated if it is well managed to create interdependencies and forge unity of purpose in a nation state. Furthermore, ethnic groups could be mobilized to undertake development projects without provoking undue competition that could lead to conflict or violence. Unfortunately, there is limited evidence in Africa to demonstrate the potentiality of ethnicity as a resource.
We argue in this paper that a strong state would be a prerequisite for transforming ethnicity from being a negative force to a resource. In addition, building functional institutions is essential – to protect the rights of citizens and provide them with the required security all the time within the state’s jurisdiction. One step towards making ethnicity a resource is taming extreme ethnicity through enforcement of appropriate laws and regulations. Another strategy would be to discourage negative stereotyping among competing tribes through civic education.
We hold the view that ethnicity is a social reality in Africa (as elsewhere) that cannot be wished away or assumed. Its excesses should be managed effectively by the State assisted by the other development actors (private organizations and Civil Society Organizations — Faith-Based organizations, NGOs and CBOs). We underscore the observation that multi-ethnicity by itself should not be taken as the bases of ethnic conflict and violence in Africa. As correctly stated by Browen in Machira (2001:116),
Some of the world’s most ethnically diverse States, such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan, though not without internal conflict and political repression, have suffered little inter-ethnic violence, while countries with very slight differences in language or culture, such as Somalia and Rwanda, have had the bloodiest of all conflicts.
D. Ethnicity is the root Cause of violence in Africa?
Ethnic conflicts have been presented by scholars as a common feature of Africa. Proponents of this school can cite many cases to include the Rwanda genocide, the on-going crisis in Darfur in Sudan, the civil wars in Nigeria, the civil strive in South Africa before the dismantle of apartheid and the continued conflict between the whites and blacks in Zimbabwe. But to what extent are ethnic conflicts the root cause of violence in Africa?
Pamela Paglia (see www.africaeconomicanalysis.org) observes that “in Darfur conflict, the ethnic division between the Arab militias and African tribes has been described as the primary cause for conflict. However, she cautions that:
Concentrating on ethnicity as the primary cause for conflict underestimates the complexity of African societies and politics, and deviates policymakers’ attention from the real causes of conflict. Ethnicity is a means through which conflicts in many African countries are conducted and a powerful tool for political mass mobilization.
If ethnicity is but a secondary cause of conflicts and violence in Africa, scholars should cast their nets wider to establish the real triggers of conflict in Africa. As suggested here, ethnicity could only be a symptom? In our view, a set of more convincing causes of conflict would include poverty, exclusion and biased distributive systems that breed glaring inequality in the distribution of key resources like income and land (see Machira, 2001:115).
An invisible critical cause of ethnic violence in Africa is weak states – their lack of capabilities and sometime goodwill to control other actors (e.g., ethnic groups rising against other) create opportunities for ethnic violence. According to (Migdal, 988:5), most States in developing countries are weak; they have failed to regulate social relations (including ethnic relations) and to appropriate public resources in determined ways that avoid exclusion.
E. Ethnicity is rendering multiparty democracy irrelevant in multi-ethnic African states?
In the 1990s, a wind of change swept through Africa that significantly changed the political terrain. Many countries embraced multiparty democracy and replaced the single party dictatorial regimes that had taken over from the colonial powers (Machira, 2001). However, in a number of countries (including Kenya), the adoption of multiparty democracy heightened ethnic consciousness and precipitated ethnic conflict and violence. With the emerging challenges associated with multiparty democracy, Ndegwa (1997: 599) correctly states that a debate has been provoked over which institutions are appropriate to govern a multiethnic democracy. While multiparty democracy has enlarged democratic space, protected human rights and freedoms, the rising cases of ethnic violence, particularly during and after elections, tend to dilute the anticipated benefits of the new political system of governance. Multiparty democracy has in some counties threatened the national cohesion of African states – as has been the case in Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, and Nigeria, among others.
While multiparty democracy is appreciated and even celebrated in Africa, it has also posed new challenges in multiethnic States. In the latter, ethnic nationalism threatens national patriotism as political elites increasingly mobilize citizens to participate in the political and electoral processes along ethnic lines. Citizens are now more conscious of their ethnic identity as opposed to their national identity as citizens of their nation. Scholars should therefore reflect on the emerging challenges of multiparty democracy and establish conditions that a State and other actors must satisfy for a successful adoption of multiparty democracy in multiethnic states.
F. Due to ethnicity, Africa is not ready for multiparty democracy?
If multiparty democracy in multiethnic states is a prelude for ethnic conflicts and violence, what is its future in Africa? Should countries revert to single party mode of governance? In Kenya, when advocates of multiparty democracy were fighting for it in 1990s, its critics (including Moi, who was then the incumbent president) argued that “the country was not cohesive enough.” To date, faced with persistent waves of election-based violence (in 1992, 1997 and 2007), one is forced to ask: could Moi have been right?
On a positive note, Sola Akinrinade (2008:1) in www.africaeconomicanalysis.org correctly observes that immediately after independence, in many Africa countries, single party mode of governance was “seen as remedy to social divisions.” More specifically, he notes that “in a number of states notably Nyerere’s Tanzania, the adoption of a single party system was indeed an honest attempt to address a potentially dangerous situation.”
Emerging evidence suggests that while it is unthinkable to revert to one party rule, due to the escalating waves of violence, multiparty democracy is increasingly weakening African States – reducing them to fragile states. Scholars and policy makers are therefore tasked to establish the necessary and sufficient conditions that multiethnic African States should satisfy to adopt multiparty democracy successfully. Africa should learn lessons from the few multiethnic states (Tanzania, Ghana, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan) which have successfully adopted multiparty democracy without weakening their respective States or threatening their national unity.
IV. The Nature and Role of African States
In all the countries of the world that have different economic and political systems (capitalist, socialist or communist), State remains the most critical development actor. Unless the State is functional, all other institutions of a society are rendered ineffective. In this regard, scholars (Migdal, 1988, Migdal et al., 1994 and Ghani & Lockhart, 2008) have paid prime attention to the theme of nature and role of States in current development discourses. These scholars have correctly argued that a nation’s development is largely a function of the capability status of its State – whether “Weak” or “Strong.” Most important, compared to other States, these scholars have presented Third World States as weak.
States vary in their capabilities to execute their determined mandates. According to Migdal (1988:4), capabilities of the States are measurable in four aspects. First, is a State’s capacity to penetrate society – the extent to which a State can reach out its subjects wherever they are (even in the remotest areas)? Second, is a State’s capacity to regulate social relations – the extent to which a State can enforce its laws and regulations to ensure compliance of its citizens? Third, is a State’s capacity to extract resources from its subjects – the extent to which a State can tax or lawfully take or seize resources from its subjects? Last, is a State’s capacity to appropriate or use resources in determined ways – extent to which a State allocates and deploys public resources to achieve national objectives and targets? Migdal (1988:4) posits that “strong states are those with high capabilities to complete these tasks, while weak States are on the low end of the spectrum of capabilities.” Migdal (1988) further notes that Third World States are particularly weak in their abilities to regulate social relations and use resources in determined ways. How true is this analysis in Africa? Why are ethnic conflicts and violence common in Africa?
As we have observed earlier, ethnic conflicts and violence are widespread in Africa largely because of the weak States. Most States lack the apparatus required to enforce existing laws and regulations. For example, in Kenya, most law-enforcing institutions are riddled with corruption rendering them ineffective. In addition, the State lacks the required resources to fund law-enforcing institutions adequately – this reduces effectiveness of their operations. For example, during the 2007 post election violence, the State law-enforcing organs were overwhelmed by the massive numbers of those who engaged in the violence. Furthermore, the law enforcers took sides and supported (or sympathized with) participants in the violence who spoke their ethnic language. In general, the law enforcing agents were politicized. It has also been documented that the Kenyan State has not shown strong political good will to contain periodic waves of ethnic violence that have occurred periodically since the adoption of multiparty democracy in 1990. In an ideal situation, a capable State should be able to extract adequate resources from its subjects and deploy them prudently to insure security of all citizens. A strong State is a prerequisite for restoration of social order in any nation. Accordingly, state building should be taken up as a priority task in Africa. This should incorporate all initiates planned and executed to boost capabilities of African States. Such initiatives could include building infrastructures that facilitate operations of State institutions, allocation of adequate funds to State institutions e.g., police, army, courts, prisons and rehabilitation centres, professionalization of police and judiciary etc.
V. The Way Forward: How to Make Multiparty Democracy work in Africa?
How can we make multiparty democracy a suitable political model in multiethnic African states? In many parts of Africa, given the atrocities associated with single party rule, it is unthinkable to revert to the latter. And in the absence of an alternative model, multiparty democracy still remains the only option? Our challenge therefore is to devise strategies of domesticating to make it. This will require interrogation of past experiences, undertaking comparative analysis and drawing lessons from Africa and beyond where multiparty democracy has worked.
In this section we suggest the following strategies to make multiparty democracy work in Africa:
1. Understand the nature of African states: It is imperative to assess the nature of each African State in terms of their capabilities and establish whether they are weak or strong. Of importance, African States should have the capacity to control all other factors – internal as well as external. Internally, the State should dismantle any form of networks or associations that threaten national unity. As has been aptly observed, in Africa, “for the nation to live, the tribe must die.”
2. Fixing the weak African States: In this paper, we argue that to develop, Africa requires strong not weak States. Unfortunately, during the 1980s and 1990s, African States were dented through the Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) that advocated for leaner and weak States. As succinctly put by Ghani & Lockhart (2001:4),
The ground reality is that many states have collapsed and are unable to provide even the most basic services for their citizens. The failure to maintain basic order not only makes fear a constant of daily life but also provides a breeding ground for a small minority to perpetuate criminality and terror.
To date, African nations should therefore invest in state strengthening and building. As recommended by Ghani & Lockhart (ibid), “… solutions to our current problems of insecurity, poverty, and lack of growth converge on the need for state-building project. … Only the State can organize power so as to harness flows of information, people, money, force, and decisions necessary to regulate human behavior.” Further, they add that “the key to state building is first to agree on goals and functions of the state and … aligning actors to the goal of state building.”
3. Dismantle the bases of ethnic-based politics: Part of state building should entail dismantling all networks and associations that promote and perpetuate negative ethnicity. For example, States should craft laws and regulations that discourage or undermine flourishing of political parties formed along ethnic lines. In addition, ethnic auditing should be conducted regularly to identify and penalize those who engage in practices that enforce ethnic exclusion in hiring or distribution of public resources.
4. Transformation of the inherent repressive and undemocratic state structure: There is a popular view shared by African scholars that multiparty democracy has not transformed African states as was expected. To make multiparty democracy work, structural transformation of African State is inevitable. There is evidence suggesting that even after the adoption of multiparty rule, African political elites continued to protect their powers and privileges at the expense of public interests. The popular structural reforms associated with multiparty democracy have aborted in many African countries – Kenya included. For example, since 1991, Kenya has not managed to draft a new constitution. Structural transformation should entail, inter alia, public sector reforms to improve delivery of goods and services, constitutional reforms to devolve and decentralize power and strengthening civil society institutions that should help control excesses of the State. Most important, structural transformation should promote political emancipation of citizens.
5. Promote national unity and increase state legitimacy: While national unity is critical in State formation and building, there are few interventions undertaken in Africa to promote this noble agenda. In Kenya, Harambee was a national rallying call for national unity. However, after NARC took over from KANU in 2002, the State has relegated it to a micro-level initiative. In Kenya, promotion of national unity will require revival and nurturing of symbolic activities that unite people. For example, there is need to expand space or forum where Kenyans can share the national anthem, share national festivities including theatre and music. Most important, there is need to promote a national culture and language. Promotion of national unity ultimately enhances state legitimacy – citizens develop a sense of belonging to their nation and comply to the State’s laws without the use of force.
6. Strengthening institutions that nurture and safeguard democracy: State building in Africa will entail strengthening state organs or institutions particularly those that enhance democracy. They include police force, electoral commission, judiciary etc. Beyond these state-owned institutions, efforts should be made to re-awaken and mainstream Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). In 2002 elections, many leaders of CSOs in Kenya join politics and became part of the political elites. This weakened the civil society movement that was instrumental in pushing for multiparty democracy. To date, the civil society movement is weak and disjointed. In general, non-state actors should reclaim their space – part of which has been usurped by the State (and external forces).
7. Craft appealing ideologies for mobilizing citizens: One missing variable in mobilizing masses in Africa is a popular ideology. In the Kenyan history, MAU MAU is recognized as an appealing unifying force that empowered Africans to fight the colonists. However, after independence, nationalist movement lost its appeal. In Tanzania, President Nyerere used Ujamaa as an ideology to unite and mobilize his followers. There are few nations in Africa to date with popular ideologies. In the absence of the latter, politicians appeal to ethnic identity as a basis for mobilizing the masses. A nation without a popular ideology has weak pillars on which to build its unity and legacy. President Kenyatta struggled with Harambee while President Moi tried to adopt the slogan of “Peace, Love and Unity” (Nyayo) as his political philosophy. The incumbent President is yet to make an attempt?
8. Address the weakness of liberal democracy: A critical review of liberal (Western) democracy suggest that its major weakness is the tyranny of majority. Practically, in liberal democracy – exemplified by multiparty democracy – the winner (majority) takes it all. This practice spells doom for smaller tribes in multiethnic states dominated by one or a few large ethnic groups. In essence, unless liberal democracy is “moderated” by homegrown laws and regulations, it is despised by the minority groups in any country. In Kenya, for example, a presidential candidate is required by the electoral laws to have majority votes in five out of the eight provinces in order to win in a presidential contest.
As a referee, the State must ensure checks and controls to prevent tyranny of the majority – by taming competing interests, limit the rise of ethnic nationalism, reduce the escalating problem of exclusion in the distribution of national resources. Unless it is tamed, liberal democracy could increase inequality as dominant ethnic groups largely use their numeric strength to influence (at worst control!) political processes and resource allocation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Stewart, Frances. 2008. Horizontal Inequalities and Conflict: Understanding Group Violence in Multiethnic Societies. Palgrave Macmillan: New York

Questions Arising

1.Is ethnic diversity by itself a contributor to violence in Africa?

2.Does ethnic diversity have political, social, economic, cultural and environmental advantages?

3.What do you think nations can do to ensure that different ethnic groups live harmoniously?

AGENDA

ORGANIZERS:AFRICA HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONAL (AHADI), NAIROBI

SUPPORTED BY THE ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION

ARRIVAL 15th October 2009

6.30- 7.00 Registration and Reception (Nairobi Safari Club)
Briefing

7.00 -8.30 DINNER (NAIROBI SAFARI CLUB – By Invitation)

16th OCTOBER 2009

8.30 – 9.30 Welcoming Remarks
- Prof. Kimani Njogu – Convenor
- Dr. James Nyoro – Managing Director, the Rockefeller Foundation
Opening Remarks
- Prof. Chacha Nyaigotti-Chacha – Executive Secretary, IUCEA
- Hon. Kenneth Marende E.G.H, M.P. (Speaker of the National Assembly)

9. 30 – 10.30 Key Note: What is the Nature of Ethnic Diversity in Contemporary Africa?
- Prof. Michael Chege (Ministry of Planning)

10.30 – 11.00 TEA BREAK

11.00 – 1.00 Topic: What are the Challenges and Opportunities of Ethnic Diversity?
What Do We share? From the Local to the Global and Back Again: –
Prof. Mineke Schipper (University of Leiden, Netherlands)
Critical Reflections on The Challenges and Prospects of Ethnic Diversity Management in Democratization – Prof. Eric Aseka (KU)

Chair: Prof. Kimani Njogu
Discussant: Dr. Ozoinna Ojielo (UNDP)

1.00-2.00 pm LUNCH

2.00 – 3.20 TOPIC: How is ethnicity socially constructed and deconstructed?
Ethnic Diversity as a Political and Social Construct – Prof. Karega Munene (USIU)
Deconstructing and Reconstructing Ethnic Identity – Dr. Wiebe Boer (RF)
Addressing Diversity in Rwanda After the Genocide – Dr. James Vuningoma ( KIE, Rwanda)

Chair: Mr. Paul Gomis (UNESCO)
Discussant: Dr. Fred Matiangi (SUNY)

3.20 – 4.45 -Topic: How can the arts and media be used to enhance unity in diversity?
Media and National Identity: Should National Media be Relegated to the Backseat? Dr. Goretti Nassanga (Makerere, Uganda)
Riding the Rainbow: How ethnic diversity is Impacting Kenyan Creative Economy – Ms. Joy Mboya (The Go Down Arts Centre)
Branding and Diversity in Africa– Ms. Mary Kimonye (Brand Kenya)

Chair: Mr. Louis Otieno (Journalist)
Discussant: Dr. Garnet Olunya (Researcher)

4.45- 5.00 Reflections and Wrap Up

5.00 – 5.30 TEA BREAK

6.30 – 9.30 DINNER CONVERSATIONS AND CULTURAL EVENT

17th OCTOBER 2009

8.30- 9.15 Ethnic Diversity in Tanzania: The Role of Kiswahili as a Unifying Factor – Dr. Sigalla Huruma (UDSM)
Chair: Prof. Wangari Mwai (Kenyatta University)
Discussant: Prof. Rocha Chimerah (Pwani University)

9. 15-10.30 How is land allocation, use and management best planned to cater for varied ethno-cultural interests?
Ties that Bind: Of Belonging, Land and the Geography of Ethnicity in East Africa – Mr. Michael Odhiambo (World Vision Consultant)
Ethnic Diversity and Land in Eastern Africa- Prof. Abdalla Bujra & Mr. Nicholas Odoyo (Development Policy Management Forum)

Chair: Dr. Sophie Macharia (Consultant)
Discussant: Dr. Joan Kagwanja (AGRA)

Cross Sharing – Small Group Discussions

10.30 – 11.00 TEA BREAK

Cross Sharing – Small Group Discussions

11.20 – 12.45 pm Topic: How is nationhood built in multi-ethnic societies?
Ethnic Diversity, Democratization, and Nation Building in Ghana – Prof. Ken Attafuah (Justice & Human Rights Institute, Accra)
Building Multi-Party Politics in a Multi-Ethnic State –Dr. Paul Mbatiah (UON)
How are the rights of minorities best protected? – Mr. Ibrahima Kane (OSIEA)

Discussant: Dr. P.L.O Lumumba (UON)
Chair: Mr. Kepta Ombati (Akiba U Haki)

12.45 – 1.15 EMERGING ISSUES AND WAY FORWARD –
Dr. Kabiri Ngeta (Researcher)

1.15- 1.30 Closing Ceremony
- Great Lakes Parliamentary Forum on Peace – AMANI FORUM

1.30- 2.30 LUNCH AND DEPARTURE

Ethnic Diversity, Democratization and Nation-Building in Ghana

By
Prof. Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah, Ph.D., B.L.
Barrister-at-Law & Managing Solicitor
Ken Attafuah LawPlace
Accra, Ghana

Background

The processes of creating the single geo-political entity known as Ghana out of hitherto multiple, diverse and independent ethnic states have been well told elsewhere and do not bear a detailed exposition here: colonial conquest, subjugation, purchase, trickery and domination. Virtually all African countries, with the exception of Ethiopia and Liberia, are artificial products of the same instruments of incomplete and inadhesive cementation for colonial political and economic convenience.

Nowhere in Africa did the tools of colonial coercion, subterfuge and penetration result in nation-building, or in the crystallization of a sense of nationhood. It is now trite that the introduction of schools, the construction of development infrastructure such as roads and railways, and the extension of missionary works into the heart of the continent principally aimed at serving the material interests of colonial powers.

Admittedly, in some measure, these innocuous processes, such as participation in colonial education and civil service, had the unanticipated consequence of bringing persons from diverse ethno-cultural backgrounds together, especially in the urban, and forging new networks of friendship, amorous relationships and interdependence that occasionally transcended the strength of ethnic ties and other primordial loyalties, and, as a corollary, a sense of nationhood, even under colonialism. Many such relationships provided the initial platforms for the anti-colonial political movements that subsequently enveloped the continent. Nevertheless, the emergence and continued relevance of voluntary ethnic associations as instruments for meeting the material, emotional and social security needs of new entrants to the urban milieu underscore the power, resilience and relevance of the ethnic group in the urban setting. In the urban context, strong in-group solidarity is often correlated with strong out-group hostility. Ethnocentrism or ethnic prejudice grounded in the belief that one’s ethnic group is superior to another group or all others combines with ethnic discrimination or tribalism to impede nation building and national development efforts in Ghana. Tribalism continues to bedevil the emergent nation. Formation of political parties, patterns of voting in presidential and parliamentary elections, political appointments and termination of public sector appointments, formulation of development policies and programs, and distribution of development projects are all heavily influenced by ethnic considerations.

Focus of Paper

Against this background, the fundamental questions discussed in this paper are twofold:

1. How is Ghana developing nationhood and tapping on the richness of its diverse cultures and communities?
2. How can Ghana nurture diversity and make the best out of it through, for example, strengthening democratic institutions
Prior to engaging with these issues, it is important to explore briefly the challenge of nation building within the context of multiple-ethnicities within a country, as well as the meaning and elements of the very concept of nation building. This brief excursion is important in order to clearly situate the subsequent discussions in a proper conceptual framework.

The Challenge of Nation Building amidst Ethnic Diversity

Despite its significant strides in nation-building, Ghana, like many other African countries, remains severely fragmented, fractured and mired along ethnic lines, with other primeval ties and loyalties binding most people far more tightly than the State can currently dream of or claim. The classic example is the traditional Asante-Ewe hostility which has been capitalized upon by nefarious politicians since Ghana’s independence in 1957. This is in spite of great personal friendships and business partnerships across the two ethnic divides, as well as numerous flourishing marriages between women from matrilineal Asante and men from patrilineal Ewe ethnic groups that are considered hugely advantageous to the children of such marriages. A great number of Asante-Ewe concubinages also abound in Ghana. Yet, it appears that the two ethnic groups are considered the most fearsome ethno-political enemies, with mutually strong suspicions and attributions of ill-will, and in their traditional settings, fantastic myths that justify out-group hostility and in-group solidarity, and, by extension, the maintenance of social distance and social exclusion of each other.

Mutually negative stereotypes and prejudicial attitudes also assail relationship between the large cluster of ethnic groups from the Northern parts of Ghana and those from the Southern parts. Partly rooted in the nature of the colonial and post-colonial political economy, the systems of resource mobilization for economic production, and the unfair distribution of educational and development facilities, all of which have benefitted the resource-rich South to the disadvantage of the relatively resource-starved North, and which have largely been maintained to date, “northerners” as individuals and groups often tend to be the object of vile discrimination in employment, housing and the provision of social services by “southerners”, while the former also tend to find a scapegoat in the latter for virtually every personal or group failing. At the root of the problem also lies the fact that the development of the resource-endowed South has been made possible by and with the critical supply of labour from the resource-deprived North.

The challenges that have attended the business of forging a sense of nationhood in Ghana have been daunting, longstanding and occasionally debilitating. Ethnic competition, rivalry, conflict, domination and marginalization often characterize inter-group relations in Ghana. In parts of the country, particularly in the Bawku municipal area of the Upper East Region and parts of the Volta Region, contiguous ethnic groups are still caught up in pre-medieval rivalries and inter-ethnic warfare even in the face of long traditions of intermarriages and joking relationships. These internecine conflicts are often fuelled by incendiary politicians and acted out by idle armies of unemployed youths who are misled into the belief that their long-term economic prosperity is tied to the political fortunes of the politicians.

Occasionally, the inter-ethnic violence is spurred by arguments and conflicts arising from the mundane activities of living. Indeed, in 1994, disputation deriving from haggling over the price of a guinea-fowl sparked off latent strife in one part of the Northern Region of Ghana, which quickly transformed into an explosive, full-blown war between two anciently contiguous ethnic groups – the Konkombas and the Nanumbas. More than four thousand people died in that war and numerous others became internally displaced persons; thousands moved to the heart of Accra and established a “temporary” slum settlement, known as Sodom and Gomorrah for its scale of unspeakable immorality, crime and violence.

The point is that Ghana has its fair share of inter-ethnic difficulties that frustrate and complicate the process of building a formidable nation out of the many distinct ethno-cultural groupings. Yet, tensions in ethnic relations in Ghana have been sufficiently well-contained and well-managed; the country continues to pursue with zeal, even of lopsidedly at present, the agenda of nation-building. A veneer of inter-group hostilities is discernible in social and political life, especially as evidenced in voting patterns and free speech on the more than 320 private Fm radio stations in the country.

Despite these major deficits in national integration, democratization and nation-building, the centrifugal forces of ethnic diversity have not been allowed to degenerate into full-scale armed conflicts and as witnessed in many African countries such as Liberia, Ivory Cost, Nigeria, Kenya and Rwanda.

The Meanings of Nation-Building
i. Nation Building as State Reforms and Reconstruction
In one sense, nation-building refers to broad efforts to promote political and economic reforms with the objective of transforming a society emerging from conflict into one at peace with itself and its neighbors. In Europe, the end of the Cold War provided the occasion for the United Nations, NATO, the United States and a range of other states and nongovernmental organizations to engage directly and increasingly in nation-building operations.
In post-conflict societies, nation building equals state-building. It often entails the massive investment or deployment of financial resources and humanitarian aid. Indeed, in the contemporary world, nation building is often a strategy of modernization modeled after the Marshall Plan – the magnificent reconstruction effort initiated by the United States in 1947 to rebuild some European nations devastated by the World War II. The implementation of that plan cost $12 billion between 1948 and 1951 under President Truman. Nation building also frequently requires the use of armed force to ensure law and order. As in Liberia, Sierra Leone, DR Congo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Belarus, armed force was considered vital to securing the appropriate environment for the pursuit of other restorative and national reconstruction measures.
ii. Nation Building as National Identity Formation
The concept of nation building has a second, broader and probably more compelling meaning. In its broad sense, nation building refers to the process of constructing or structuring a national identity through the use of state power. The exercise of state power in aid of nation building commonly finds expression along two key dimensions, namely social psychological engagement and infrastructural development. The aim of nation building is to foster a shared and coherent national identity, orientation and unification among the people or peoples of a state in order to ensure the long-term political stability and viability of the state.
Typically, nation building in this broad sense entails the simultaneous use of strategies of mass reorientation, including propaganda, and major infrastructural developments to foster social harmony and economic growth. The second variant of nation building also emphasizes the development of the social sector comprising education, health and family welfare, water supply, sanitation, housing, social welfare, nutrition, rural employment and minimum basic services.
Symbolic efforts and manifestations of such orientation in aid of nation building may include (a) the introduction of superficial national paraphernalia such as flags, anthems, pledges and currencies, national identity cards; (b) the institution of national holidays; (c) the establishment of national colleges and universities, airlines and stadiums; (d) the institution of a lingua franca or national language for the state; (e) and the production, articulation or propagation of national myths. Nation Building is thus a complex and dynamic process with ideological, philosophical, political, socio-economic and cultural dimensions.
This broad view of nation building, then, is a deliberate political and cultural process of constructing or moulding a common nation out of hitherto independent political and ethno-cultural groups or tribes. In other words, the task of nation building in this broad sense is the creation of a universal national identity and sense of common destiny for people who previously belonged to different social formations and who defined and perceived their destinies as diametrically opposed. Thus, for instance, at the time of independence in 1957, the Gold Coast was a motley collection of different nation-states previously formed from the magma of wars, political alliances dictated by fear of military conquests, colonial annexation and impositions. Indeed, the Asante Kingdom, for example, was an amalgam of several smaller nation-states that came together to form a single political, military and religious entity “because of war” – osa nti. [The Asante nation gained its name from the corruption of the “Osa nti” to “Asante”]
Nation building in much of Africa commenced in the post-independence period as a reaction against the divide-and-rule tactics of the colonialists. It is an enterprise of persuading, manipulating, moulding, cementing and bonding diverse peoples into a nation with a common emotional relationship to the state and modernizing and improving their material socio-economic circumstances. That process continues to this day. This form of nation building thus requires the subordination of all competing ethno-cultural, primordial loyalties in a state to an emergent nationhood and supra ethnic identity.
Evidently, this meaning of nation building as national integration is a more daunting phenomenon. Thus understood, nation building appears to be a difficult and lifelong process. Canada has been treading the path of nation building since its founding fathers signed the Independence Proclamation and Constitution in 1877. A key challenge facing Canada today consists in finding ways to harmoniously integrate the two dominant “founding groups”, the French and the English, as well as the Aboriginals Canadians and the large numbers of immigrant and visible minority populations whose labour and other contributions helped build the country’s magnificent economic development infrastructure and sustain its enviable level of human well-being.
Today, the United States is grappling with a different kind of nation building founded on revitalizing the relatively shattered American economy, saving industries, jobs and banks, paying for education, rebuilding families, and generally restoring hope to millions. Building on the dreams of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., America under President Obama is also building a nation that is more inclusive and fairer, kinder and gentler. And the United Kingdom is now re-inventing itself in an effort to accommodate its increasing minority populations.
On the African continent, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Cote D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria are all entrapped in what appears to be in a state of perpetual infancy in nation building and the facilitation of economic development. Malawi, Burundi, DR Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe are examples of other countries on the continent that failed to build nations when they should have, and are still grappling with the painful costs of development without nation building.
Elements of Nation Building as Identity Formation and Governance
Fundamentally, nation building is about building one identity out of many; it is about harnessing and utilizing state resources to deliberately create a shared and broad-based sense of belonging to an socio-legal entity that is greater than the sum of its parts, i.e., to the nation, with all its emotional, spiritual and symbolic ramifications and connotations. It is about using good governance and democratization to foster a new common identity for the citizenry. In other words, it is to engender inclusivity and national integration.
What, then, may be described as the essential elements of this variant of nation building in Ghana as a counterfoil to the divisive centrifugal forces of ethnic diversity? Thus conceived, the foremost elements of nation building in Ghana, in my view, include the following:
a. Fostering a sense of national identity and belonging;
b. pursuing socio-economic development vigorously, equitably and responsibly in order to enhance the overall quality of life of people in all parts of the country in a sustainable manner;
c. Promoting inter-group harmony to reduce ethnic prejudice and discrimination;
d. Advancing and protecting human rights, administrative justice and integrity in private and public life;
e. Nurturing an open society to engender transparency and reduce all forms of tyranny and caprice;
f. Fostering respect for the rule of law, transparency and accountability;
g. Ensuring individual and public safety and security; and
h. Creating the social and political space for a vibrant civil society to flourish and participate in the process of governance at the local and national levels.
Nation building, as with all processes, aims at the production of a preferred outcome, namely, a society in which most citizens emotionally and intellectually identify themselves with the salient manifestations of its nationhood, and the citizens evince a sense of unity, a common outlook, and a sense of shared destiny.
Strategies Employed in Ghana to Manage Ethnic Relations and Promote Nation-Building
Since independence, Ghana has worked toward the development of nationhood by developing and implementing several legal, social and economic policies and programmes aimed at integrating the country’s wealth of diverse ethnic groups into a mosaic of cultures. It has also instituted measures to tap on the richness of its diverse cultures and communities. The following are illustrative:

1. Adoption of Affirmative Action policies and Programs

At the start of the Nkrumah’s pre-independence Government in 1950, there were significant differences in levels of development between the South and the North. Even to this day, there are portions of the North that are derogatorily referred to as “overseas” because of their acute levels of underdevelopment. The Nkrumah Government introduced and implemented an Accelerated Development Plan with in-built elements of corrective affirmative action. The policy continued throughout the reign of Nkrumah in the post-independence era till his overthrow in 1966. This resulted in a preponderance of physical development structures, including factories and schools, all of which aimed at facilitating the expeditious development of the North. This included a policy of free education for students from the North, and scholarships for bright students from the North to pursue secondary education at first class and prestigious schools in the South. Regrettably, not enough attention was paid to the qualitative output from those structures, and the affirmative action policies, like all such truly affirmative action measures, should have been time-bound, implemented within a specified time frame, monitored and periodically evaluated to ensure that they were indeed addressing the educational imbalance it was introduced to address. This was not done, and the whole programme became a sorry subject of criticisms as, by 1966 (i.e., 15 years later), there was no evidence that the gap was closing.
2. Use of Mandatory Constitutional Framework for Nation Building
Ghana’s constitution compels the deliberate implementation of efforts and initiatives to achieve national integration. Socio-economic development and nation building are constitutional imperatives in Ghana. Indeed, Ghana’s Fourth Republican Constitution (1992) provides the legal framework for the pursuit of socioeconomic development and nation building.
In the Preamble to the Constitution, the people of Ghana assert their conviction that the purpose of establishing a democratic framework of government is to “secure for [themselves] and posterity the blessings of liberty, equality of opportunity and prosperity”. Article 1(1) also provides that the welfare of the people of Ghana constitutes the basis for the exercise of governmental power. The essence of that welfare is elaborated upon in the Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP) found in Chapter Six of the Constitution which, in Article 34(1), calls for the use of law and state power to establish “a just and free society”.
Accordingly, Article 34(2) specifies the realization of the following fundamental conditions of liberty and human welfare for Ghanaians as the foremost job description of the State:
a. Basic human rights
b. A healthy economy
c. The right to work
d. The right to good health care; and
e. The right to education
Given the great importance the framers of our Constitution attached to these cardinal conditions for ensuring the welfare of the people, Article 34(2) obliges the President to “report to Parliament at least once a year” all the steps taken by Government to ensure their realization. Indeed, for Ghana, these foundational elements of human liberty and prosperity constitute the key benchmarks of socio-economic development, which the Government of every President must earnestly strive to achieve. This article therefore provides the compulsory template for the essential contents of the President’s Sessional Address to Parliament.
The Constitution also obliges the President to pursue, and report to Parliament on, other key policy objectives contained in the DPSP. And I must add that the President does not have to report to Parliament only once a year, but at least once year! Minimalism is not a best practice when it comes to public sector accountability.
Significantly, Article 17 of the Ghanaian Constitution prohibits discrimination on several grounds, including gender, race, colour, ethnic origin, place of origin, religion, creed, political opinions, occupation, social status or economic status. The nation will be well built when every Ghanaian is allowed to feel that they really belong in Ghana; when no one is unjustifiably discriminated against on the basis of based race, colour, ethnicity, ancestry, place of origin, sex, age, political affiliation or belief, physical or mental disability, economic status, social status, and family status. When no competent public officer is dismissed from employment because of their real or perceived political colour, the nation will be deemed to be well built because it will be truly inclusive.
Article 35(3) of the Constitution provides as follows:
“The state shall promote just and reasonable access by all citizens to public facilities and services in accordance with law”.
In a most progressive pursuit of nation-building, Article 35(5) of the Constitution charges the State with the obligation to “actively promote the integration of the peoples of Ghana; it charges the State to prohibit discrimination and prejudice on the grounds of place of origin, circumstances of birth, ethnic origin, gender or religion, creed or other beliefs”.
Towards this end, the State is further required in Article 35(6) to pursue and implement appropriate measures, among other things, to:
(a) foster a spirit of loyalty to Ghana that overrides sectional, ethnic and other loyalties;
(b) achieve reasonable regional and gender balance in recruitment and appointment to public offices; and
(c) provide adequate facilities for, and encourage, free mobility of people, goods and services throughout Ghana.
The State is also obliged to take steps to eradicate corrupt practices and the abuse of power, and to promote political tolerance among Ghanaians.
In Article 36, the State is enjoined to competently manage the national economy with a view to maximizing the rate of economic development and securing the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every person in Ghana. It must also provide adequate means of livelihood and suitable employment for the people, as well as public assistance to the needy.
In particular, Article 36(6) requires the State to afford equality of economic opportunity to all citizens, and to take all necessary steps to ensure the full integration of women into the mainstream of the economic development of Ghana.
These, then, are the core goals of nation building as enshrined in the Ghanaian Constitution. Nation building in contemporary Ghanaian society, as in the contemporary world generally thus includes the active promotion of good governance, including the eradication of corruption and the prevention and control of administrative injustice and abuse of power. Indeed, it may be said that nation building today is fundamentally about good governance, and good governance is best assured when it is anchored in sound leadership, equity and accountability.
Nation building in Ghana will be advanced when Ghanaians sincerely and prudently “protect and safeguard the independence, unity and territorial integrity of Ghana”, in accordance with Article 35(2) of the Constitution, and “seek the well-being of all”.
The nation will be built when, as required of us by Article 35(2), Ghanaians sincerely “promote just and reasonable access by all citizens to public facilities and services in accordance with law”. We further build the nation when we enable people to achieve their goals without placing frustrating impediments in their way.
We build the nation when our chiefs set personal examples of tolerance and acceptance of diversity, when they engage in high level cultural diplomacy – when the Agbogbomefia of Anlo pays a courtesy visit to the Asantehene, when the Nayiri of Mamprugu exchanges visits the Nzimahene, the Wa Na visits the Ga Manste, or the Drobohene visits the Krobohene, and forge friendships in real and substantive ways. What positive impact on inter-group relations there would be, when ethnic groups join forces to stage food festivals in celebration of each other cultures, and organize language clinics for members of the other ethno-cultural group.
We build the nation when we protect and defend the civil rights of all persons from discrimination and unfair treatment regardless of their political orientation or affiliation, or their religious persuasion or creed. We build the nation when we do not abuse our power or authority at the workplace; we build the nation when we do not subject our subordinates at the office, factory or church to bullying, sexual harassment or other form of demeaning treatment or humiliation.
We build the nation when we cultivate among all Ghanaians “respect for fundamental human rights and freedoms and the dignity of the human being.” The dignity of the human being, we are told in Article 15(1), is “inviolable”. That means that human dignity as sacred. A nation is built and sustained when it respects the dignity of all persons within its boundaries.
3. Use of Socio-Economic Development as Strategy for Nation-Building
Socio-economic development provides an impetus for nation-building. Much racial bigotry and ethnic prejudice melt away when the processes of socio-economic development plunge strangers from different social groups into unavoidable cooperation or collaboration on such platforms as school-based formal education, the workplace, sports teams and military battalions and police contingents.
The introduction of the boarding school system in Ghana, for instance, served as a training ground in inter-group tolerance, peaceful co-existence and social harmony. More than the university, the factory or the church, it was in the boarding schools of this country that the most enduring inter-ethnic friendships were forged, and where long-term political alliances were incubated and nurtured. Respect for religious diversity and tolerance was better fostered among our peoples from interactions in the boarding school than from the state propaganda apparatus.
In some measure, the attainment of higher education and economic success reduces ethnic bigotry. The ethnic bigot with a superiority complex accords genuine respect to the rich or successful business executive from a despised ethnic minority background. Such an executive is treated with a greater sense of fairness than his/her compatriots or other in-group members. It is evident from the foregoing that socio-economic development is the handmaiden of nation-building.
4. Commitment to Fairness in the Distribution of National Development
Ghana’s pursuit of sound economic development, likely to be boosted by the exploitation of crude oil from the South from the year 2010, can be best anchored and sustained in a well-considered strategy of nation-building, which will ensure a just and equitable distribution of development projects, recognizing that, and that a country with a lopsided social and economic development structure based on geography and ethnicity is not building a nation but commotion. To this end, Government in 1993 established the University for Development Studies as the first tertiary institution in the North, which has a catchment area of approximately 41% of Ghana’s land mass. This was part of broad efforts by the State to bridge the yawning educational and developmental gap between the South and the North. This was partly founded on the recognition that literacy is empowering, and illiteracy and ignorance are often perceived, rather sadly, as a ticket to ill-treatment. The University was also to open up the North to vibrant intellectual activity and increased engagement with civil society. Similarly, in 2009, Government established the Northern Sector Development Authority (NSDA) – a special statutory agency devoted exclusively to overseeing the development of the Northern parts of Ghana. Although Government has pledged to provide significant seed money, the NSDA has the power, among others, to mobilize financial and other resources to finance approved development projects.
5. Development and Promotion of a National Peace Architecture
Between 2005 and 2007, Ghana developed and tested a comprehensive Peace Architecture, with the support of the United Nations Development Fund, which contributed immensely to the management of ethnic and political conflicts in the country . The key elements of the peace architecture included specific roles for the following statutory bodies, including the National Peace Council which was deliberately created, to (a) serve as an early warning system; (b) ensure continuous monitoring of conflict situations and “conflict spots”; (c) intervene in conflict situations and pursue such measures as are reasonably necessary to arrest and redress the situation; (d) make appropriate recommendations for action by Parliament, the Executive and other statutory agencies such as the Ghana Police Service, and social dialogue bodies such as the Council of State, CHRAJ, NCCE and the National Media Commission; and (e) make recommendations to enhance democratization in a particular institution, community, District or Region as may be appropriate.
The social dialogue and deliberative bodies that have played important roles in preventing and managing ethnic conflicts and building peace in Ghana include:
a. Affirmative action policies of the Nkrumah Government – establishment of boarding schools, fair and equitable distribution of scholarship across the country, and multi-ethnic appointments;
b. Broad civic education on citizenship, rights, obligations and national cohesion by constitutional and social dialogue bodies such as the:
c. Erstwhile Centre for Civic Education of the late 1960s;
d. National Charter Secretariat of the 1970s; and
e. National Commission for Civic Education – the constitutional body charged with the promotion of civic awareness about duties and responsibilities of the citizenry;
f. National Commission on Culture;
g. The Council of State;
h. National House of Chiefs
i. National Council of Religious Bodies
j. National Peace Council
k. Committee of Eminent Chiefs
l. National Media Commission;
m. The role of Parliament and Municipal and District Assemblies in enacting legislation and by-laws that promote nation building;
n. The Role of the CHRAJ, pursuant to Article 218(b) of the Constitution, in investigating complaints “concerning the functioning of the Public Services Commission, the administrative organs of the State, the Armed Forces, the Police Service and the Prisons Service in so far as complaints relate to the failure to achieve a balanced structuring of those services or equal access by all to the recruitment of those services or fair administration in relation to those service”. The typical focus of concern in such complaints and investigations are ethnicity, gender and regionalism;
o. The role of the National Reconciliation Commission in excavating Ghana’s history of human rights violations, administrative measures and other acts and omissions that fractured the nation or otherwise undermined national cohesion;
p. The role of the Judiciary in the progressive interpretation of laws during adjudication in order to advance socio-economic development, national cohesion and unity;
q. The role of political parties in serving as national platforms for the articulation of common ideologies, visions and aspirations for the governance of the nation; and
r. The role of the National Identification Authority in establishing a credible national identification system to accelerate socio-economic development and promote a symbolic sense of belonging through the use of the national identity card.

6. Use of Traditional Social Mediators

The chieftaincy institution is an integral part of traditional and contemporary systems of governance in much of Africa. In The Position of the Chief in the Modern Political System of Ashanti, Prof. K.A. Busia demonstrated the centrality of the role of the chief in resolving a large variety of conflicts, both intra and inter-ethnic. In Ghana as elsewhere, chiefs continue to be veritable instruments for conflict resolution and peace-building, even if some of them, through their insincerity, incompetence and unbridled wealth acquisition, are the engineers of the perennial chieftaincy and land disputes. But the role of the Committee of Eminent Chiefs led by the King of Asante, (Otumfou Osei Tutu II, Asantehene) in exploring solutions to the long-standing Yendi Chieftaincy Affairs has been most lauded, although the inability of the State to effectively resolve the criminal justice dimensions of the dispute has thrown a heavy damper on the Committee’s otherwise glorious efforts .

7. Teaching Conflict Prevention and Conflict Resolution Skills to Youths

Teaching young people to eschew conflict (whether ethnic or political), to prevent conflict, to avoid being drawn into armed conflict, and to resolve conflicts when they arise, is one of the most important duties of Government and society. As former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, puts it, “There is no higher goal, no deeper commitment and no greater ambition than preventing armed conflict”. This must simply be one of the core concerns of the State, through such agencies as the Ministries of Justice, Education, Youth and Sports, independent national human rights institutions, National Youth Council, civil society groups and competent individuals across Africa. Indeed, in the context of the Konkumba- Nanumba conflict, the personal intervention of Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, now President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was crucial to ensuring sustained peace. Dr. Chambas recognized that, beyond the usual ceasefire, peace-keeping and other official interventions by security agencies, enhanced youth awareness of the triggers of conflicts, the possession of critical skills in conflict prevention and alternative dispute resolution such as negotiation, mediation and conciliation, were critical to sustaining inter-ethnic peace and avoiding retrogression to armed conflict. Thus, in 2001, at his invitation, Dr. Chambas and I worked quietly with Konkomba and Nanumba youths, part in hotel conference rooms, part on a soccer field in the township of Bimbilla in Northern Region, and part in the traditional areas of two opposing communities. The goal was to enhance their youth leadership skills, equip them with appropriate tools for preventing and resolving conflicts, and to foster in them a sincere appreciation of the humanity of each other and the acceptance of their diversity as intrinsically and mutually beneficial.

Civil society has not been left out the process of equipping youths to effectively engage in conflict prevention and conflict resolution. In March 2009, the Accra-based West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), an agency of the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) founded by multi-millionaire George Sorros, organized a three-day training in conflict resolution, human rights, and post-conflict reconstruction for youths from all over the West African sub-region at the Kofi Annan International Peace-Keeping Training Centre.

8. Cross-Cultural Diplomacy By Traditional Rulers/Authorities

Sincere cultural exchanges and courtesies between traditionally opposing traditional leaders, such as the Asantehene in the Ashanti Region and the Agobgbomefia of the Asogli State in the Volta Region of Ghana were instrumental in neutralizing and abetting ethnic tensions between their peoples in 2004. Our chiefs must institute internal diplomatic cultural exchanges. We will register significant breakthroughs for peace and inter-ethnic respect if, for instance, paramount chiefs pay courtesy State visits to the “rival” chiefs, and learn over a week or several days, the ways of the other. Such domestic diplomatic missions by our traditional rulers would serve to bridge the gap between our different cultures and tone down the inter-tribal prejudices if they are seen by the populace to be sincere and gratifying. Let our traditional leaders take up the staff of new cultural leadership and forge genuine multiculturalism in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda, and the impact will transcend intercultural symbolism and contribute to the establishment of a society of genuine belonging. In entrenching a welcoming society of genuine belonging, we must emphasize the values of tolerance, toil and teamwork, as the famous African scholar, Professor Ali Mazrui, would put it.

9. Institutionalization of Public Educational Programmes

Strategies for managing ethnic relations and promoting nation-building in Ghana have also included educational campaigns by constitutional and statutory national bodies such as the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), For instance, the NCCE in 1998 staged several town hall meetings on identity, civic responsibilities and nation-building. Similarly, in August 2001, to help deal with the challenges of nation-building in the face of evidence of growing tribalism , CHRAJ organized a national consultation on combating tribalism and promoting nation-building. The program line-up included the following topics and issues:

a. Preventing Racism/Tribalism, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance through the Promotion and Enforcement of Human Rights Principles and Norms

b. Overview of Ethnic and Racial Conflicts in Ghana: Causes, Origins and Factors Contributing to Inter-Group Violence

c. Voices of Victims

d. Dealing with Racism/Tribalism
i. Multiculturalism: The Strength of the Nation
ii. Embracing Diversity in the School and Workplace
iii. Cultural Competency and Skills for Cross-Cultural Communication
iv. Characteristics and Skills of Effective Interculturalists

e. Prevention of Ethnic and Racial Conflicts Through the Creation of Mediation, Conciliation and Social Dialogue Bodies

f. Social Inequality: Trends, Pattern and Impact on National Unity and Development

g. Strategies for Promoting National Integration and Ethnic Harmony – The Role of Civil Society:
i. Traditional Authorities
ii. Youth Associations
iii. The Media

h. Realization of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Right to Development as a Strategy for Preventing Ethnic and Racial Conflicts

i. Correcting Persistent Patterns of Inequality Affecting Ethnic Groups

j. Enhancing Ethno-cultural and Religious Harmony Through Good Governance, Lawfulness and Social Equity

k. Strategies for Combating Racism/Tribalism and Related Intolerance at the Workplace and the School – The Role of:
i. Employers
ii. National Association of Teachers
iii. National Union of Ghana Students
iv. Trades Union Congress

l. Basic Skills in Mediating Inter-Group Conflicts

m. Voices of Hope

The CHRAJ fostered a sense of community ownership of the program through an expansive engagement of civil society actors in the planning process; it also drew resource persons from all sectors of Ghanaian society, and replicated the program across the ten administrative Regions of the country. These events were given wide publicity through the print and broadcast media, particularly through radio and television, in English and many local languages across the country.

10. Establishment of Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commissions

In Ghana, one recent method of national re-tooling for nation building was the institution of a national reconciliation process that sought to excavate the truth about gross human rights violations and abuses of the past, offer opportunities for healing, apology, reparation, forgiveness and reconciliation. The object was fairness and inclusivity.
Several countries that have undergone cataclysmic political change have found resort to transitional justice mechanisms as important ways of freeing up the bottled energies of the people occasioned by the pains of conflict in order to enable channel their energies into contribute meaningfully to the development of their countries, and to focus on nation-building. Such other post-conflict societies as South Africa, Nigeria, Morocco, Sierra Leone and Liberia have experimented, with different degrees of success, with truth and reconciliation commissions (TRCs) as mechanisms for healing and nation building. Cote D’Ivoire, Togo, Kenya and Zimbabwe are at different stages of establishing transitional justice mechanisms.
11. Creating an Educational System that Produces Nationalists

In promoting nation building and national integration, it is imperative that Ghana consciously implements an educational system that produces supra-ethnic nationalists who are well-informed, cosmopolitan, tolerant, understanding and accepting of diversity.

12. Adopting a Policy of Multiculturalism

Multiculturalism emphasizes the value of, and contributions to the development of the state by, each cultural group being a constituent part of the state. It is a policy that encourages the recognition and celebration of the principle of unity in diversity. It is a policy that partly underpins the relative peace of such countries as Canada and Switzerland. Encouraging individuals and groups to learn the language and culture of persons who are culturally or linguistically different from themselves could help advance the purposes of national integration and cohesion. It is desirable and fulfilling to celebrate ethnic diversity not as calamity but as opportunity.
13. Introducing or Expanding Cross-Cultural Excursions

Deliberately planned and well supervised excursions of students and youth groups to schools and communities different from their own could also contribute to fostering inter-group harmony, trust, respect and cooperation. In many places, student and youth group excursions already exist, and these must be purposely expanded to cover more young persons in order to broaden the scope of coverage and the scale of beneficiaries.

14. Abolishing the First-Past-the-Post System of Governance

The popular practice of winner-takes-all on which the electoral systems of much Africa is based is inimical to national integration and nation-building. It provides an excuse and justification for bloc ethnic voting that invariably allows ethnic groups that are in the numerical majority to not only win elections but also to sweep and grab all public and political offices in a manner akin to sharing the spoils of war after raping and plundering the countryside. It is politics of exclusion and marginalization, and it is a politics that is inherently against the grain of constitutionalism and good governance, even if it is legal by virtue of being the law of the land. In place of this legalized rape and plunder and marginalization, which in Africa means the exclusion and marginalization of large number of ethnic minority groups, must replaced with the system of voting known as proportional representation.

15. Expediting Decentralization

It is imperative that the process of decentralization of government be accelerated, with appropriate devolution of power, and the provisions of adequate financial resources and responsibility.

f. Future Directions in Nation Building
Our country will make significant advances in nation-building if we tailor our development strategies closely to the DPSP contained in Chapter Six of the Ghanaian Constitution. As outlined in the DPSP, the key principles that must be earnestly promoted in order to achieve effective nation-building are:
(1) Pursuit of a viable socio-economic development agenda;
(2) The cultivation of a vibrant and competent crop of leaders imbued with focus, high ethics and liberal, republican democratic values
(3) Fair and equitable distribution of the benefits of development;
(4) Promotion of inclusivity, acceptance and shared sense of belonging;
(5) Prevention of Discrimination based on the prohibited grounds enumerated in Article 17(2) of the Constitution and elsewhere;
(6) Ensuring Responsible Media reportage of potentially divisive ethnic remarks; and
(7) Promotion of fundamental human rights, social justice and the rule of law.
To succeed with nation building efforts generally, there must be a firm commitment on the part of Government and civil society to social justice – a view that everyone is entitled to fair treatment, equitable access to the opportunities and resources of the State, and to prosper in life; a view that those who are disadvantaged by circumstances and the accidents of birth must be helped along the ladder of personal growth and development. It is a view that the nation is better built and made even stronger when no one is left behind; when, in the language of the times, “we all move forward in the right direction”.
Conclusion
Nation Building is not an event but a process; it is not a revolution, but it is no fancy needle-work either. Nearly twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, German unification is still a struggle, although from the outside, it seems like a seamless process of integration and socio-political harmony. Failed families and suicides increased vulnerabilities and crime, a sense of anomie and purposelessness were among the initial burdens that many former nationals of East Germany shouldered in the early phase of the unification. South Africa continues to experience the pangs of racial unification and the promotion of multiculturalism. In Ghana, the task of promoting ethnic tolerance and political harmony continues to be as difficult today as was.
The answers, as I have emphasized, lie in continued democratization, the promotion of good governance, human rights, multiculturalism, cultural diplomacy sound economic management and social justice.

Ethnic Diversity in East Africa: The Tanzania Case

The role of Kiswahili language as a unifying factor
By Huruma Luhuvilo Sigalla

Introduction

Social and ethnic conflicts are recurrent phenomena affecting many countries in Africa. Ethnicity means identifying with, and feeling part of, a socially recognized ethnic group. It also means being excluded from other such groups because of one’s ethnic identity. An ethnic group refers to a particular culturally defined group in a nation or region that contains others. Ethnic distinction can be based on language, geography and kinship. This paper attempts to discuss some social factors particularly Kiswahili language in the process of building national identity, peace and political stability. It discusses the development of Kiswahili language from a historical and anthropological point of view, how the language emerged and developed in Tanzania. It will focus on some factors such as trade, political decision and policies as well as cultural factors especially joking relationships which among others have been contributing to the development of Kiswahili as a national language and one of the unifying factors in Tanzania. There are other factors which facilitated the process of national building, peace and stability in Tanzania, however, the focus of this paper will be on Kiswahili contribution to this process. In addition, it will discuss Kiswahili development in East Africa, and its possibilities to be an official East Africa language. At the end, the paper addresses some challenge Tanzania is facing as far as Kiswahili as national language and its ethnic stability.

Internal and historical Factors
Tanzania is a diversified country with many small ethnics groups and different religions. There were some few ethnics which were big in size than others with some sort of social organization politically and militarily, for instance Nyamwezi, Sukuma, Hehe, Chagae and some others, but these ethnics did not have a feeling of building hegemony or/and empire on the one hand, and controlling and governing others on the other. Although, the Nyamwezi under Mirambo were strong politically and militariry, but they did not have a feeling of conquering other and controlling them. Others scholars, for instance, Svendsen and Teisen have pointed out that Tanzanian Ethnic grouped “were loosely organized with many leaders, thus, tribalism failed to become a significant political factors”. Therefore, from sociological and anthropological point of view this organization structure can be described as not centralized type of political and governance system as against many centralized kingdoms had developed in many African countries. The pre-colonial tribal relations and interactions have been built on peace rather than conflict. The pre-colonial communities, despite their ethnic diversity lived in harmonious relationships due to various socio-cultural factors. Indeed, the word harmonious does not mean there were no conflicts or/and eruptions of wars. Inter-tribal ethnic wars occurred in some places due to various reasons. For instance the Ngoni invasion in the southern parts is a good example of such conflicts. However, the pre-colonial era, for Tanganyika, can be characterized by harmonious relationships between different ethnic groups. Although, there is a limited body of literature on the factors which held different ethnics together before colonialism in Tanzania, but some socio-economic and cultural factors such as social organization, the size and number of ethnic groups, their spiritual life, practices (matambiko) and trade cemented the cohesion between different tribes. Other factor which is also peculiar for Tanzanian tribes is the joking relationships (utani/mtani), a type of an ideology which existed in Tanzania between various neighbor ethnic groups and contributed to strengthern friendship between them

The essence of social relationships between tribes based on utani, mtani (joking relationships) supported cohesion between different ethnic groups. Joking relationships since pre-colonial time is a peculiar features existed between tribes in Tanzania. This type of social life and interaction created a strong feeling of friendship, neighborhood and later on shared identity between them. There were several factors which created this type relationship between tribes. The most common factor was neighborhood, especially, tribes which shared boundaries . The second factor was through conflict, for instance, the Ngoni created joking friendiships with other tribes in southern parts after being in conflict (wars) with them. Other tribes emerged as watani in order to forms alliances to protect themselves against enemies such as Matumbi and Ndengereko against invasion of Ngoni in southern Tanzania. Others developed utani between them based on the belief that they are related by blood in the sense that they share ancestors. Another example is ethnic groups around Lake Victoria such as Haya, Kuria, Zanaki, Luo interacted among other activities through trading and fishing on the lake. It was necessary for them to have good relationships in order to successfully and peacefully carry out their activities. Conflict between them would have excluded some of them from using and extracting resource from the lake, and consequently undermine their social development. Nyamwezi for instance, established joking relationships with a number of tribes from Tabora to the Coast, this type of relationship was created in the process of trade especially long distance trade. For instance, Nyamwezi under Mirambo had some sort of well organized political and military social organizations. However, the Nyamwezi did not enter into conflict with its neighbors, they created and maintained utani relationship with some tribes along the routes. Such relationships was important to allow a smoothly operation of trade with other parts. As they travel from Tabora to the coast, they mate other tribes which could have attacked them in case of hostile relationships. Gradually, such relations together with other factors, laid a foundation for future national unity despite the diversities among different ethnics groups

Therefore, hostile and conflictual relationships could have causes more harm, destruction and causalities in their undertakings than peace and harmonious relationships. Fishing went smooth as friendships mainly based on utani between them. This social relationships and ideologies of utani laid a foundation for peace, and gradually facilitated a process which undermined the tribal feeling and identity and created the thrust of good neighborhood and later national identity and feeling.

Another factor is Social organization particularly communal life based on equality relationships in contrast to feudal social organization “mwinyi”. The former promoted neighborhood, interdependence and harmonious life while the latter, encouraged competition, formation of classes and inequalities.
-traditional spiritual life and practice (matambiko) were similar and common among different tribes in Tanzania. In some cases, for instance, within the southern part of Tanzania, some tribes had something in common in their spiritual and religious practices, to the extent that a person could go and practice his spiritual life together with other tribes. Similar religious ceremonies “matambiko” have been common among the southern tribes such as Zaramo, matumbi, Makonde, Makua, Bena and others.

Kiswahili as an identity and unifying factor in Tanzania
Samuel Huntington, in his famous book titled “The Class of Civilizations and the Remarking of World Order” (1996:59-67) suggests that:

“The central elements of any culture and civilization are language and religion…people define their identity by what they are not”.

One of the factors which facilitated the cohesion of ethnic groups in Tanzania and later a national identity is Kiswahili language. Many scholars such as Whiteley (1969) and Ohly (1978) have traced the origin of Kiswahili language from the coast. They have associated it with Arabic and Bantu languages. Before colonialism, Kiswahili evolved and developed as a medium of communication between traders of different race and ethnic background especially Arabs, Africans and European. For instance, the early caravan routes from coast to the mainland. The major trade routes started from coastal areas such as Bagamoyo, Saadani, Mboamaji. Kilwa through Ugogo to Tabora or south-westwards to Uhehe and the areas between lake Nyasa and Tanganyika. From Tabora, Caravans went west to Lake Ujiji north-west to Karagwe and Uganda or north to Lake Victoria close to Mwanza. In his discussion about the Kiwahili language and its function in East Africa in general, and Tanzania in particular, Steere (1870) in his book titled A Handbook of the Swahili Language as spoken at Zanzibar suggest that:

There is probably no African language so widely known as the Swahili. It is understood along the coasts of Madagascar and Arabia, it is spoken by the Seedees in India, and is the trade language of a very large part of central or inter-tropical Africa. Zanzibar traders penetrates sometimes even to the western side of the continent, and they are in the constant habit of traversing more than half of it with their suppliers of Indian and European goods.
In the some context, Omari (1995) point out that the Kiswahili language has been playing an important role in Tanzania to develop as a nation. Despite the fact that each ethnic group has its own language, however, the majority of them are Bantu languages, and large proportions of Kiswahili language is made up of Bantu words. “It belongs to no one ethnic group and is spoken all over the country. It is used in schools as a language of communication, in administration and in commerce. People speak it freely and eloquently and, although there are different dialects, it is a truly a lingua franca”.

Colonial administration and promotion of Kiswahili

From the turn of the century, and increasingly with time, the educational and administrative implications of colonial policies determined the choice to speak Swahili. Though educational policies in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanganyika converged for a time in the 1920s, in general quite different policies were pursued in relation to Swahili, both in the British-administered areas and in the Belgian Congo, and quite separate treatment must accorded them. Whitelely, W. 1969:56

It is worthwhile at this point to suggest that, despite all other cultural factors which have been contributing to the process of national unity and identity in Tanzania, political factors in general, particularly vision and policies had been influential in the whole process of strengthening unity and building stability and peace. From this point on wards, I will show how policies were developed with an intention to promote Kiswahili language, which among other factors contributed to a greater extent to weaken ethnic identity at least politically on the one hand, and strengthened national unity and identity on the other. From economic point of view, Tanganyika under Germany administration was not aimed to establish a strong and sustainable economy, it was rather meant to produce raw materials for metropolitan industries. Such colonial economic policies did not create a stable and vibrant economic structure which would have caused prosperity of some ethnics groups than others which later on could have caused competition to access or/and control such economic fortunes as it has been the case in other African countries.

Politically, colonial policies promoted Kiswahili language in different ways. For instance, it is argued that, Tanganyika had many Swahili news paper which were produced in the country side (regions) than those in Dar es Salaam whereas in Kenya the number of Swahili news papers were more than in Tanganyika in numbers, but three quarter of them were produced in Nairobi. Whiteley (1969:67) for instance, suggest that:

… in short, if Swahili was the language of the country in Tanganyika, in Kenya, it was the language of towns, especially Nairobi, where people from all parts of the country found it as convenient bulwark against the loneliness of a city life as well as a reality tool to exploit attractions which the city offered

German administration promoted Kiswahili in various ways. At educational level, schools were established to train Africans to work as junior officials in the administration. For instance, in the year 1893, a school was established in Tanga, and by 1903 there were another eight government schools, whereas, twelve were local authority schools and fifteen mission schools. Kiswahili was to be the language of the administration, a great effort was made to promote and document it. For example, a governor Rechenberg (1906-12) spoke the language and his successor, H. Schnee, had attended courses in Berlin. Not only administrators but also settlers and missionaries become competent in the language (Whiteley, 1969). By 1911, the missions were responsible for Primary Education, a school population required textbook and they were produced in increasing numbers, in this context, the British missionaries of the U.M.C.A. played an important role since 1870, by 1905 the Mission at Magila produced the classic Habari za Wakilindi. The same Missionaries produced the first newspaper, Msimulizi by 1888 and Habari za Mwezi (1894). In the year 1910, the Germany missionaries produced the German Protestant Mission’s monthly Pwani na Bara whose circulation rose to 2,000 by 1914. This was followed by the Catholics with Rafiki Yangu in the same year with more religious contents. By 1914, the Kiswahili language was developed and expanded to the extent that the Germany administration was able to conduct much of its correspondence with local people and authorities in Kiswahili. The language was supported by the administration to the extent that letters which were not written in Kiswahili or German were likely to be ignored. This also meant that the Junior Officials especially Africans were not restricted to regional setting due to language difficulties. They could be transferred without difficult from one part of the country to another and be sure of finding people who were fluent in Kiswahili particularly around the boma. In the same context, this undermined the feeling to belong to a particular tribe and promoted the feeling of belonging to a unit which is more than a tribe, thus, this also facilitated the cohesion of different tribes.

Explaining this development, for instance, Whiteley (1969:61) suggests that:
Over the whole Colonial period Swahili was used throughout the District Administration as a means of communication between people and officialdom, not only where this was the only possible means of communication but also, in some cases, where English could have been used. It was thus a mark, if only secondarily, of social distance; a means of reaching down to people, rather than of enabling them to reach up to the administration. Whereas in German times the acquisition of Swahili represented a first stage towards participating in Government through membership of the junior Civil Service, no further stage in this participation could be achieved through the language
Sharing the similar point of view, Ohly (1978:12) suggest that the German introduced Kiswahili as the only official administrative language and the Roman alphabet, he further argue that:
In fact, the Germans were unable to control the whole Tanganyika territory to-be, therefore Swahili fulfilled rather the function of a regional official language. The British standardized Swahili and enlarged its vocabulary with modern terms. Like other domains of social life, Swahili was underdeveloped in respect to its vocabulary, because of the intention that within the educational system English would increasingly displace Swahili. At this time, however, Swahili satisfied the needs of social control, being used, beside English, as the official language of the legislative council.

By the mid-fifties it was widely and more vigorously applied than before. For example, there were as many as forty newspapers in regular circulation. Most of the newspapers were run by the government and some were produced by Missions, and one or two, like Zuhra in Dar es Salaam were independently run. For the case of Government paper, we should distinguish between the ‘regional’ and the ‘national’ Press. The regional papers, more than twenty, usually appeared monthly, and were concerned almost exclusively with local, i.e. districts, news. Whitelely (1969:62-64) provide some examples of the regional newspapers as follows: Kulichi based in Sumbawanga was distributed monthly and had four pages, Mara Gazeti based in Tarime, was also distributed monthly had four pages, Irgobawe which was from Mbulu, it was also a monthly paper had six pages. The national papers included the famous such as Mambo Leo which had been appearing monthly since 1923 and Mwangaza which by 1957 was already a daily. These newspapers performed a number of valuable services, they did not only supported the establishment of Swahili as a means of national communication but also they introduced Tanganyikans to the problems involved in running such papers and provided adults with much –needed reading material. In addition to the newspaper, some government departments such as agriculture too were at this time producing a considerable volume of Swahili materials. Furthermore, some endeavors were taken to start translating some legal terms and the compilation of technical word-lists essential preliminaries if Swahili was to assume the status of a modern African language. In the same vein, the Tanganyika Broadcasting Service reached a vast wider audience for its Swahili Programme. Finally, the important step under colonial administration was taken in 1955 when Swahili was officially in Legislative Council, members were permitted to speak in Swahili.

The process of building the nation after independence in Tanzania
The period before and during colonialism, Kiswahili had an important role to play as means of communication particularly for trade and administration, the aspect of building an identity was not a priority, although it did contributed to the process. The need to develop Kiswahili as a national language was more apparent after independence probably for political and cultural reasons. After independence, Kiswahili was made to be the language of political power, national-oriented. Tanzania, in contrast to its neighbors, adopted Swahili as the national language. The first revolution change was the transformation of different Kiswahili dialects and local (ethnic) languages into languages of statehoods. The second revolutionary change was the transformation of Kiswahili into supra-ethnic language during and after colonialism. The third revolutionary change change occurred at a time when Swahili took successfully over the function of a national language, integrating most Tanzanians in respect to language, that meant a complete revolution, because Tanzania was and is the only Multi-ethnic country in Africa which managed to overcome its ethnic heterogeneity with the help among other factors of an Africa language (Ohly, 1978). Ohly (ibid) further points out that this development was facilitated by a peculiar Tanzanian language policy which entails a socio-linguistic phenomenon on world- wide scale, creating a promising model for other heterogeneous countries. Other scholars such as Whiteley (1969) has suggested that when TANU was founded in 1954 it deliberately used and maintained the long-established language policy. In connection with this, for instance, Whiteley (1969:65) further point out that

“the value of Swahili to TANU was quickly demonstrated, and President Nyerere once boasted that during his many tours of the country he had had recourse to interpreters only on two occasions. Not merely were the Swahili-speaking but they also served as an excellent example when the party wished to organized its own country-wide branches. It might be true that President Nyerere’s status as a leader was enhanced by his ability to negotiate for independence in English, on terms of linguistic equality, but in this role the fact that he represented so large a proportion of the people of Tanganyika was due in large measure to the efficacy of Swahili as a means of communication on a national scale.

The ability to operate Swahili became a national pride, even though it did not meant that one operated it more efficiently than previously. It must be emphasized that the great strength of the language in the pre-independence period was the fact that it was associated with no single tribal unit. In other words, Kiswahili was not associated as a language of a particular ethnic group, it was neutral and integrative. The culture associated with Swahili, where it does occurs as mother tongue, is generally that of an Islamic coastal community, by no means characteristics of a country as a whole. The national culture of Tanzania is, in a sense, the sum of its regional cultures, expressed in more than one hundreds and twenty local languages and tied to the local customs and situation. The following part will focus on the way how Kiswahili was institutionalized politically.

Institutional development
After independence two ministries namely Education and of Community Development and National Culture were closely involved in the development of language. On the one hand, the Ministry of Education was responsible for teaching of Kiswahili in all levels of the educational system. Some sub-committees were established as well in order to study and revise secondary-syllabus as well as to find ways of extending the teaching of the language up to University level. Politically, it was also promoted by politician and policy makers. For instance, Whiteley (1969:105) suggest that “late in 1964, the second Vice-President sent a circular to Civil Servants and others urging them to desist from the habit of mixing Swahili and English…Civil Servants were urged to remedy the weakness of being unable to express themselves elegantly in Swahili”. Several institutions and departments were established during 1960 and 70s to promote and support Kiswahili at national level. Among others, the following had played a vital role to its development as a national language which also supported the nation building. Whiteley (1969:110-113) mentioned and summarize some of these institutions and associations in the following way.

The Association for the Advancement of Swahili (Jumuiya ya kustawisha Kiswahili) was founded in 1963. Its main objectives were
(a) To discover the origin of Swahili words, in belief that understanding the origin of something is to understand its quality, and indeed is the basis for loving and respecting it.
(b) To cherish Swahili, by correcting the misleading use of words
(c) To co-operate with similar-minded bodies
(d) To promulgate preferred usage
(e) To correct existing grammatical descriptions
(f) To translate and write books.

In addition, Society for the Enhancement of the Swahili Language and Verse (Chama cha Usanifu wa Kiswahili and Ushairi) founded under the leadership of the leading poet, Mr. M.E. Mnyampala had the following objectives
(a) To preserve the language, encourage its poetry and also purity of form and style: to develop the language in Bantu terms and encourage poetry as a special study which contribute to acknowledge of Swahili for national benefits.
(b) To awaken and stimulate people who wish to be experts in the language and poetry
(c) To awaken the efforts of those who wish to write books on various subjects in Swahili, and in verse, and to find ways of publishing their work
(d) To set about compiling a dictionary and grammar more adequate than present ones
(e) To encourage dramatic performances, and other cultural features.

In August 1967 a National Swahili Council was set up whose functions included
(a) To promote the development and usage of the Swahili language throughout the United Republic of Tanzania
(b) To co-operate with other bodies in the United Republic which are concerned to promote the Swahili language and to endeavors to co-ordinate their activities
(c) To encourage the use of the Swahili language in the conduct of official business and public life generally
(d) To encourage the achievement of high standards in the use of the Swahili language and to discourage its misuse
(e) To co-operate with the authorities concerned in establishing standard Swahili translations of technical terms
(f) To publish a Swahili newspaper concerned with the Swahili language and literature
(g) To provide services to the Government, public authorities, and individual authors writing with respect to the Swahili language.

Moreover, other scholars, for instance, Mulokozi (2003:68) has pointed out some governmental structures which were deliberately established to facilitate its development and implantation of new policy on language such as
(a) Creation of the Ministry of Culture 1962
(b) Creation of the IKU 1964
© Creation of Tanzania Publishing House 1966
(d) Creation of the national Kiswahili Council of BAKITA 1967
(e) Creation of Department of Kiswahili at UDSM 1976
(f) Establishment of EACROTANAL 1976
(g) Establishing of Institute of Kiswahili and Foreign Languages
Zanzibar-TAKILUKI 1978
(h) Establishment of the Zanzibar Kiswahili Council (BAKITA) 1986
(i) Creation of Mfuko Wa Utamaduni Tanzania
(Tanzania Culutral Fund) 1998

These institutions, as their objective indicate were aimed at providing technical support to the governments and individuals who promoted and supported an endeavor to spread Kiswahili throughout the country as a national language.

Another political initiative which contributed to the process of “nation building” was the Education system, especially the secondary and post secondary education system. Secondary schools were institutions which brought young Tanzanian from different part with different cultural and religious background together. As it was the case, partly due to the scarcity of schools, students were selected to join secondary schools, and were located in different parts within the country, in most cases, far from home. For example, students from southern parts attend secondary education in (Mirambo (Tabora), Ilboro (Arusha) Pugu (Dar es Salaam), Zanaki (Dar es Salaam), Old Moshi (Moshi), Tanga Schools (Tanga) etc. Likewise people from Northern, western, Eastern and central parts of Tanzania went to southern parts of the country such as Rungwe (Mbeya) Malangali (Iringa) Tosomaganga (Iringa), Songea Boys and Songea Girls (Songea), Mazengo (Dodoma) etc. This further weakened tribal, ethnic and regional feelings on the one hand, and strengtherned the feelings that they were all Tanzanians. In the long run that paved the way toward intermarriage between couples from different ethnic groups and religious background.

The second point related to the education system in this context was the establishment of National Service. It provided a venue for a young educated generation in Tanzania to learn more about their country and serve it. All students regardless of sex, religion, race were supposed to serve in the national service first for two years, then later was reduced for one year soon after completion of their high school. Again, they were distributed all over the country in most cases, away from where somebody did his/her secondary education. This also exposed young educated Tanzanians to different environments and culture of their country. This in turn, merged individuals from different ethnic and religious background together, and with the help of a well established and widely used language (Kiswahili) the nation building with Tanzanian feelings was further cemented. The Education system and National Service in my view had what an American sociologist Merton King named as Latent and Manifest functions as far as ethnic identity and nation building are concerned in Tanzania. On the hand, one of the objectives of these institutions were to provide education and knowledge to young Tanzania. National service among other things aimed at preparing the young generation to be good civil servants who will serve their nation with commitment and integrity. On the other hand, it brought many educated young Tanzanians together, who could easily communicate by one language, it further facilitated intermarriage between people from different ethnic and religious backgrounds. This is a very important factor to my view as far as the existence of a national unity despite the existing ethnic and religious diversities. Intermarriage paved a way to a generation to whom Kiswahili become the first language or /and a mother tongue.

Ujamaa and villagization policy
Apart from all the factors discussed above, an attempt and endeavors to build a nation based on justice and equality played a vital role to building social cohesion and stability in Tanzania. Nyerere had a vision to build a nation based on African tradition of living together as extended family. According to him, as Komba (1995:36) suggests, the ujamaa setting was supposed to be governed by three fundamental principles, namely “living together, working together, and sharing equitably the fruits of their work as well as the means of production. Their culture encouraged them to think of themselves primarily as members of a large group, a community, and thus the needs of each as an individual tended to be superseded by his needs as a member of society”.

Last but not least, it is worthwhile to argue that, despite all the factors that Tanzania seem to have had, which might have created a conducive social-economic and political environment to transform Kiswahili to a national language and, one point must be emphasize, that the political vision, commitment and pragmatic measures and policies adopted by the government, especially after independence played a vital and unique role to build a stable unified nation. In the same vein, I wish to argue that the role played by our late Baba wa Taifa, Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere was remarkable and he is the real founder of this unity and stability in Tanzania. His reputation as the Father of the Nation “Baba wa Taifa” signifies a peculiar psychosocial and political feelings and meaning that Tanzanians associate with him. As Mazrui (2008:41-47) suggest “The late Julius Nyerere, for example, has bequeathed young Tanzanians a greater self-confidence and national pride…”

Kiswahili as a language of Eastern Africa
Today, Africa finds itself subdivided into three major linguistic blocks, namely;
(a) Francophone-The French Speaking countries
(b) Anglophone- The English speaking countries
© Lusophone- The Portuguese speaking countries
(d) Arabsphone- The Arabic speaking countries
This subdivision shows how Africa is still dependency on foreign culture, which might have been influencing its thoughts and world outlook. Mulokozi (idid) argue that on the one hand, the opponents of Swahili language as medium of instruction based on the argument that “English is a doorway to science and technology”, it is an international language and thus we need to learn it in order be able to communicate with other people. Thus, according to Mulokozi (ibid:69) their arguments are “technical and international”. On the other hand, proponents of Kiswahili as a medium of instruction and emphasize that language has “a pedagogical aspects, that children learn better in a language that they know best” Ryanga (2002:2) suggests that “Africa would do well to take, and go for a linguistic emancipation instead of continued linguistic dependency, by adopting existing indigenous language. One of the problems with the use of ”borrowed languges” is the fact that we are not competent with them and the languages exclude the majority of citizen in the process of discussing and participating in the decision making on vital issues which affect their life. As these language (English, French, Portuguese) are language of elites, who are the minority. Ryanga (ibid) further argue that “we need to accept the realization that the formation of economic regional bodies and political affiliation alone has failed to unite the African thought. Language may be the missing link in continental unity. Kiswahili is the only African language which has proved that it has a potential and unifying power. The commitment and vision to transform it to a national language has been successfully in Tanzania. Africa in general and East Africa in particular needs such an indigenous language. Several scholars have acknowledged that Kiswahili is a potential language to develop internationally particularly in East Africa. For instance, Ryanga (2002:3) suggest that

Kiswahili is hereby proposed as the most viable indigenous language that Africa has and probably one, which can be easily acceptable. As a lingua-Franca for East Africa since 19th century has now gained recognition beyond its traditional confines with a wide Spread in Africa

In contrast to other indigenous African languages such as Hausa, Arabic, Luganda, chiluba, Lingala, choking and others, Kiswahili is seen as a neutral, harmless, it has neither ethnic nor political connotation, it is easy language to learn, since its phonetic has less speaking and pronunciation complicatin. Ryanga (ibid) suggest that “Kiswahili is a language which is easier to further develop it from where it is current, to give it a wide stature than most of other indigenous language in east and central Africa”. Similarly, Mulokozi (2003) point out that the growth and spread of Kiswahili as a national language in Tanzania was supported by economic and social factors, and these factors still exists at East African level, thus, it is worthwhile to expect and suggest that it will also develop and expand as international language, starting with the East African sub-region. I did not mentioned political factor above, since I am of the view, political commitment and vision in Tanzania supported its development and expansion as a national language, that is a big challenge for its to be transformed into an international language, for instance in East Africa. Decision makers of these countries have a vital role to play for its development.

The viability of Kiswahili in East Africa
Kiswahili is one of the three African indigenous sub-continental languages. Other two are Hausa and Arabic. However, Kiswahili has been gaining more acceptance and sympathy than Hausa and Arabic through out Africa and abroad. It is the “most important African lingua franca” (Bull, 2003:234). Thus, the number of its speakers are estimated to be 110 millions (Mulokozi, ibid: 73; Ryanga, ibid: 6). As already mentioned previous in this paper, today, Kiswahili is spoken and taught in many African, Far East, Europe and America. In East Africa, Kiswahili has already emerged as Eastern Africa Language though to some extents informally. For instance, In Uganda, Kiswahili was undermined by Luganda, but Luganda has lost its popularity due to its association with Baganda. In Congo, there are more than 120 indigenous languages, the government choose four as national languages namely Choking, Chilumba, Lingala and Kiswahili (Ryanga, 2002). From all these four languages, Kiswahili has been gaining more and more sympathy and popularity. It is expanding not only in the army but also as a language of trade. In the same vein, Mulokozi (ibid) point out that since 1959, Kiswahili appeared to bridge the then leaders of freedom movement in Africa. Participants came from Francophone and Anglophone. They were able to communicate with the help of some members from each block who were competency in Kiswahili, who did interpretations.

The argument that Kiswahili is not only a national language for Tanzania and Kenya but also a language of the eastern and central Africa is very true, and indeed viable. Many scholars within eastern and central African and outside have acknowledged the fact that Kiswahili is spoken and understood in eastern, central and elsewhere in the world, and the fact that it is the only language in Africa which has the potential socially, economically, politically and technologically to be used as a eastern and central African official language and even the whole Africa. For instance, Ryanga (2002:5-7), Mulokozi (2003:72-75) and Chacha (2006) have provided example which shows that Kiswahili was used by eastern and central African states in political, economic and social discussions and debates. There are more than eleven countries in eastern and central Africa where Kiswahili is widely spoken and understood. This group of Kiswahili speaking countries include, Burundi, Comoros, Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe (Mulokozi, 2003:73; Ryanga, 2002:6; Bull, 2005:234).

As far as East Africa is concerned, it is worthwhile to put things very clear that political and economic endeavors in Africa such as Africa Union (AU) in general, and East Africa Community in particular can not be successful and effective in their purposes it they do not deal with cultural and language issues which could glue their unity. People’s participation in the sense that ordinary people take part on debate and decision on important issues affecting their lives can best be facilitated by a common language. So is to say that one language of communication would cement the feelings of patriotism and brotherhood. Due to some country in Africa to greatly rely and depend on foreign language (colonial language), in directly, this has been influencing thought and consequently major decision which affect them.

The current challenges
There are various challenges which Kiswahili has been facing as a national language. The first one is a educational one. There has been an attempt to suggest that Kiswahili should be further promoted and used a medium of instruction at secondary and post-secondary level, the challenge is that resources and expertise to translate the basic literature especially science subjects at this level remain to be problematic at this moment. Another challenge is the fact that, we are living in a faster technological and economical globalizing world, in which English remain as the widely used language especially in commerce, thus, opponents of the use of Kiswahili at these levels of education use this argument to discourage its development. There are more social factors as well especially, the current wave now after the liberalization of social services since 1990s, where the education system was not bypassed. The introduction of private schools from kindergarten, primary, secondary and tertiary level of education has caused the mushrooming of many private schools which use English as medium of instruction. In the same vein, there is a tendency among parents nowadays (led by elite) to regard competence in English language as a necessary condition for academic development of children. Thus, unfortunately, from my point of view, that an increasing number of parents speak English with their children at home and consequently, there are children who can not count in Kiswahili but in English and are becoming unfamiliar with Kiswahili language. This does not only deprived their rights to learn the language but also erodes their opportunities to learn and get familiar with the culture which is acquired and cemented thorough the language. Politically, A change in the importance attached to an ethnic identity may reflect a political change (e.g. with the introduction of neo-liberal policies and multiparty politics in Tanzania, ethnic feeling have been on the increase though not much manifested in actions.

Concluding remarks
This paper has attempted to discuss the socio-economic and political factors that contributed to the nation building and stability in Tanzania. It has focused on some cultural factors which seem to exist in pre-colonial communities, which facilitated the establishment of social cohesion, peace and stability between different ethnic groups and religions. It is argued that Kiswahili as a national language was able to evolve and develop as a national language due to cultural factors what existed before which had started to bring different people from different ethnic groups together. Trade was also a motive for some people to learn the language. Colonial policies further promoted the language, which continued to strengthen unity among different ethnics groups. After independence, the Government deliberately was keen to promote and transform it to a national language, several policies, measures and institutions were established to support its development. Last but not least, in short, the paper argues that the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere had played a peculiar role to build a stable nation despite its ethnic and religious diversities. As far as East Africa is concerned, the paper argues that the current wave of globalization through trade liberalization, promotion of Foreign Direct Investment, economic integration of countries and sub-continents offers unprecedented opportunity for Kiswahili to develop, expand and penetrate in all spheres of life as it is the case for Tanzania. The fact that one of the factors which facilitated its development in Tanzania since 19th century was trade and commerce, and today, globalization generally refers among other aspects to economic integration and cooperation. We need to streamline Kiswahili in this process. Economic cooperation between sectors of economy, firms and countries should be guided by our decision makers (politics) to use it as official trade language. There are so many ways that can be adopted politically to facilitate this process, such as business schools should be encourage to incorporate Kiswahili as language of trade, advertisement should be in Kiswahili, labels of products should be written in Kiswahili, business contract and legal terms in commerce should be translated and written in Kiswahili and many other endeavors. No one today think about whether Kiswahili can or is an international language, the question is rather how fast and better can it be made to develop, expand and facilitate the process of building an identity for all its speakers.
Reference
Bull, A.F., (2005) “Looking back thirty Years and Forward: The Story of the East African Swahili Committee”. Journal of the Institute of Kiswahili Research, 2005, pp.232-234
Chacha, D.M., (2006) “Kiswahili and The African States: The Legacy of Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere”. Journal of the Institute of Kiswahili Research, Vol. 69, 2006

Komba, D., (1995) “Contribution to Rural Development: Ujamaa & Villagization”. In Legum C. and Mmari, G., (Eds.) Mwalimu: The Influence of Nyerere, Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota

Mazrui, A.A., (2008) “Conflict in Africa: An Overview”. In Nhema, A & Tiyambe Zeleka, P., (Eds.) (2008) The Roots of African Conflicts: The causes and Coasts, Pretoria: UNISA PRESS

Mpangala, P.G., (2000) Ethnic Conflicts in the Region of the Great Lakes: Origins and Prospects for Change, Dar Es Salaam: DUP

Mulokozi, M.M (2003) “Kiswahili as a national and international language”. Journal of the Institute of Kiswahili Research, Vol.66, 2003 pp. 68-80

Ohly, R., (1978) Language + Revolution= Kiswahili, Dar es Salaam: DUP

Omari. C.K. (1995) The Management of Tribal and Religious Diversity”. In Legum C. and Mmari, G., (Eds.) (1995) Mwalimu: The Influence of Nyerere, Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota

Ryanga, S., (2002) “The African Union in the Wake of Globalization: The forgotten Language Dimension”. Journal of the Institute of Kiswahili Research, Vol. 65, 2002, pp. 1-15

Whitelely, W., (1969) Swahili: The Rise of a National Language, London: Methuen & Co Ltd

ETHNICITY BACKGROUND AND ISSUES : THE CASE OF RWANDA

1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Social Studies in their historical perspectives have among others carried out extensive research in wanting to know the origins of peoples and their final settlements in areas they came to occupy. The ultimate findings indicate the birth of Nations and Nation-States.

They have raised questions on the origins, migrations trends, affinities, attitudes of the people as they move to settle and these later have informed researchers and readers about findings but meanwhile people continue to settle and feed the history of migrations.
It is in that experience that Scientists, Archeologists, Anthropologists, Travellers and early Missionaries have used now and then the vocabulary and familiar terms of race, ethnicity, ethnic group, tribe and clan to describe societies they “discovered”. Societies had their own names and their own organisations. The case in a point is ancient Rwanda which for centuries used the term “Ubgoko” and its plural form “Amoko” to describe the components of Rwandan society.

With the scramble for Africa, the “newly found lands” were reshaped and the new description of the people given the context and time came to be the reality of the day. The case in a point was the use of above terms or labels to people who had other ways to describe themselves. These new exotic terms were used, interiorized and even accepted as the new way of seeing oneself. Rwanda has not been exception.

As a country, Rwanda has had a history of migrations centuries back. It has had a history of peopling Rwanda and eventual expansion of the Kingdom of Rwanda. It has also known the official history of being explored and be ushered in the colonial history as the newly found land by Travellers and Missionaries. The history of contact of Rwanda by German first and Belgium second tells it all (1). The reactions and consequences we shall come to them later.

This paper seeks to present an overview of what it was before Rwanda met the West. It will further present the experience of contact and the cultural clash it provoked. The misunderstanding and the planted seeds of divisionism between Hutus, Tutsi, and Twa will be brought to surface. The paper will also indicate the current efforts Rwanda has undertaken to heal the wounds of divisionism and Genocide in Rwanda.

______________________________
1. Peres A. Pages, Louis de Lacger cited by Jean Pierre Chretien in Le Defi de l’Ethnisme, Paris, Karthala,1997, p.64

2. AN OVERVIEW OF RWANDA BEFORE COLONIZATION

“The history of Rwanda is a cultural history for a long time. Our work is not to summarize it but rather to indicate and know the existence of several written materials which allow to escape the weight of the official racial mythology of colonial era. First of all that history is a progressive crystallization, since the 1st millennium B.C, of a people who speak Bantu language, practicing agriculture, using iron and had animal husbandry tradition. (…) The Great Lakes Region is for sure a Carrefour of ancient settlements emanating from several linguistic families such as central Sudan, Cushitic nilotics and Bantu- but Rwanda, like Buganda, Burundi and other kingdoms is the result of the political and cultural construction both of which allow us to reaffirm the existence of an old “people’s nation”(…) The paradox of the Rwandan society is not surely the existence of some sort of pluriethinic unity but the continued hereditary cleavage which is felt for centuries despite a remarquable cultural unity.” (2)

The above entry point serves to get to know Rwanda simply by indicating that Rwanda like any existing society has had a history of existence. The transmission of knowledge of how people migrated and settled in different areas in Africa and else where may use written or non written means. Rwanda as a society relied for too long on oral tradition and as a consequence the transmission of knowledge has passed from generation to generation through tales and stories. All the myths of origin and peopling of Rwanda are in a mythological language and even in the recent past such myths as they are told, they are taken as historical truths. What is written today remains the privilege of learned few and Rwanda’s general public still enjoys such stories by the word of mouth, and today’s extensive use public and private radios depict that past

In Rwanda’s myths of existence, we learn that the origin of Rwandans emanates around two persons : Kigwa and Gihanga. According to the recent research (3) we can distinguish through tales the following:

- The birth of Kigwa in the world beyond marks the beginning of the tale. Kigwa’s arrival on earth with his companions, the Bimanuka, they introduced seeds, fire wood-carving, tanning and hunting. Kigwa and his group are at the root of various clans thus the reproduction of the Bimanuka from whom we have clans Bega, Baha, Bakono clans.

____________________________
2. Chretien Jean Pierre, Le Defi de l’Ethnisme, 1997, p.65 (translation by the Author of
the paper)
3.”Myths of origin” in History and conflicts in Rwanda, IRDP, 2006, pp.29-42
- Another version of the myth talks about an alliance of intruders and natives: When Kigwa had arrived for the first time in the current Eastern Rwanda at Mubari, he found a country ruled by King Kabeja of the Bazigaba clan. With time, Kigwa marries Kabeja’ daughter or granddaughter. This cemented the future relationship and life continued.

- We are also told of the birth and the adventurous life of Gihanga, Kingdom founder. In his youth, Gihanga is either at Mubari (East) or at Bugoyi, around Rwerere. The story goes further to show Gihanga with many faces: he reflects his father or forefather Kigwa as a civilizing hero, son of a blacksmith and a blacksmith himself. He is known to be skilful in wood-carving and tanning. He is an adventurer ready to conquer royal power in the then Rwanda and in the neighbouring countries: Burundi, Nduga, Bukunzi ….

The ushering in of the founders and their genealogies announce the current clans we have in Rwanda

- The dynastic clans descended from Gihanga
Nyiginya
Shambo
Hondogo
Tsobe
- The queen mothers clans descended from
Ha
Kono
Ega
- The Basangwa butaka clans or natives
Zigaba
Gesera
Singa

The three main Biru or (ritual kings) were derived from three clans:

- Tsobe
- Kono
- Singa
-
In a recent book written by one Rwandan in diaspora, Benjamin Sehene (1999) (4) recalls the oral tradition tales which brought the three sons of Gihanga together. According to the legend, Gihanga is the father of the three ancestors of Banyarwanda : Gatwa is the ancestor of Twas, Gahutu is the ancestor of Hutus and Gatutsi is the ancestor of Tutsi..

4. Sehene Benjamin, Le Piege Ethnique, Paris, Editions Dagorno, 1999, pp.13-16

It is further reaffirmed in told myths of a strong link between Gihanga and Kigwa legends and Ubwiru. The three most important Biru families or ritual kings are linked strongly to Gihanga. It is the latter who instituted Rwoga, the first Rwandan dynastic drum the ancestor to Karinga. The two are royal drums symbols of power. All the tales of myths of origin indicate the essence of social-political organization of the Kingdom of Rwanda. They legitimate the basis of an organized monarchy and highlight the then social-political order of things, the cement of power and conquests which are behind the construction of enlarged Rwanda. The meaning and lesson leant from such tales is the existence of the political vision that puts emphasis on the building and reinfocement of the Kingdom based on people is diversity in unity and togetherness.

3. BELIEFS, NORMS AND VALUES.

The religious dimension of Rwanda’s existence, according to legends is “Imana y’i Rwanda” It is said that “Imana yirirwa ahandi igataha I Rwanda” translated as God spends the rest of the day elsewhere but comes to Rwanda at every sun set. That protection of the Most High was a strong belief because it indicated and addressed the security of the people. When Christianity came to Rwanda the first Missionaries did not have much difficulties to convert Rwandans they only had to manipulate the King and his entourage the rest followed.

In that past, there was a code of conduct based on values, positive values which cemented the spirit of being a Munyarwanda, a philosophy of respect of one another, counting on skills and ability, solidarity for collective good. Values of upright, solidarity, bravery, courage, respect, selflessness and work were cherished. In that context there were also anti values identified and labelled as taboos which once known to every Munyarwanda young and old, men and women could be avoided and guard against because they were a threat to security and stability of the people and their well being. These are the negative values such as laziness or “kuba ikigwari”, selfishness, hatred, divisionism, impolite.

The code of positive values, and the deliberate choice to identify positive and negative values one learnt them in the process of growth and through “Itorero”. This was a great moment of education to inculcate a sense of direction thus forging out the spirit of nationhood through togetherness. That training, it was hoped, would lead to the up coming of a citizen who knows what it is to be a true and reliable Rwandan. You could be Tutsi, Twa, Hutu, that did not matter. After all, the social mobility of the Rwandese remained the key to strengthen the Kingdom. There were intermarriages which reduced the differences and distinctions among the social-groups. The principle of “Ukwihutura” existed. It meant that a Hutu who had several cows and got married to a Mututsi girl became Mututsi. Likewise, a poor Mututsi who did not have cows and became a cultivator and got married to a Muhutu girl, he became Muhutu. If the King saw in any one the competences and skills required to serve the monarchy one would be appointed without discrimination. The King had direct deputies who served as the council for consultative purposes; he delegated powers to the head of the army, land chief and cattle chief. This mechanism led every one in charge of duties to realize and understand that they collectively had to work and through collective efforts build and defend the monarchy.

During that period, the Banyarwanda in the spirit of togetherness ensured a harmonious life. They identified themselves in clans and lived with common culture, there was no separate land for Batutsi, no separate land for Bahutu and no separate land for Batwa. They lived together, speaking the same language, Kinyarwanda. Briefly, the Banyarwanda had a sense of belonging to one monarchy and nobody was considered more Rwandan than the other.

4. RWANDA WITH COLONIAL EXPERIENCE.

Rwanda had a double fold colonial experience. First came the Germany colonial era (1885-1919) (5) followed later by the prolonged Belgian Trusteeship over Rwanda,(1916-1962).(6) The colonial experience was dominated by the interpretation and reinterpretation of monarchical history of Rwanda turned into a new image of colonial history as colonial masters understood it. Both colonial masters maintained the pre-colonial monarchy each trying to do with it. Germans found a strong organized monarchy with a powerful leadership. The sense of unity in diversity existed and people lived harmoniously. The sense of self protection, defence of the monarchy and rising as one when life was in danger all were signs leading Germans to prefer working closely with the King. After the First World War which saw Germans out of the colonial business in Rwanda, then came Belgians,

King Musinga in 1918 together with the Belgian General Malfeyt who is also the Royal Commissioner: Source1.

The experience of contact with colonial masters like else where in Africa demonstrate that indigenous were relegated at the second level and entire power lay in the hands of the master. It is him who picked any one he wanted among the colonized peoples to execute his will and whether one wanted or not colonial interests were paramount. This was exactly the case in Rwanda. The colonial master after realizing that the Kingdom of Rwanda was well organized in structures, he could only build his own colonial power by getting the King and the rest would follow. Indeed that is what happened.

5. Gudrun Honke et al, Au plus profound de l’Afrique, Lee Rwanda et la colonization allemande 1888-1919, 1990, p.120
6. Rumiya Jean, Le Rwanda Sous le Regime du Mandat Belge 1916-1931, Paris, Harmattan, 1992, 249p.
-Read also, Jean Pierre Chretien, L’Afrique des Grands Lacs: Deux mille ans d’Histoire, Paris, Aubier, 2000, 410p.

King Musinga was not allowed to remain with strong powers as any other Kings used to have before colonial era. From 1917, King Musinga had to see his prerogatives and powers curtailed. The down fall of King Musinga is seen from the progressive dismantling of the Monarchy: from a real Monarchy to a nominal Monarchy (1917-1931)”(7). This happened especially under Belgian military occupation (1919-1926). In1917 “One of the first measures undertaken by the Royal Commissioner, in agreement with the Belgian Government, was to strip the indigenous sovereigns from their unconditional right over the life and the goods of their subjects. This “ius gladii” (sword right) was reserved for the King of Belgium. The King remained an honorary title only. Other majors taken were: the declaration of religious freedom in favour of Catholic Church (1917), Traditionally, The King had the highest integrity, his decisions were always right and beneficial, and his judgement was without appeal. In 1922, the undermining of the King’s legal power was executed, it was decided that the King would be assisted in his legal prerogatives by the delegate of the Resident at Nyanza. Then came the limitation on the nomination of political appointees (1923) where King Musinga was notified of the prohibition to appoint or revoke chiefs, notables, heads of provinces without prior consultations with the Resident. Lastly, came the abolition of ubwiru and umuganura (first harvest festival) institutions in (1925). King Musinga was the King without a Kingdom and any form of resistance to what was said and done would be interpreted as a rebellious attitude against the too powerful colonial rule. His dethronement and subsequent exile to Kamembe in 1931 was a strong message to warn the traditional ruling elite.

Reading Rwanda’s attitudes and mentality and having carefully observed the traditions of the Kingdom, Belgians chose to put on the throne King Mutara III Rudahigwa thought to be responsive. The coming of King Mutara Rudahigwa who was considered acceptable by both Belgian colonial power and Catholic Church showed how much colonial masters feared going it alone but preferred to work closely with the institution of monarchy. By this time it became easy for colonial power to vision Ruanda-Urundi as part of administrative structure to be attached to the Belgian Congo colony. In line with this evolution, we note the introduction and reinforcement of christian culture to the detriment of cultural identity. According to Rev. Brard “Missionaries had nothing good to expect from a Rwandese. That is why they did everything to abolish his practices and beliefs and to create another religious identity” (8) Then came education with church schools which admitted many converted ones and it is from this early breed that was born the new classe known as evolue. On economic front, there came the use of money as an economic yard stick to transact business. All these influenced the indigenous colonized peoples alike and obliged them to coop up with the new changes. They had to consider the new order as a reality to recon with. There was no visible resistance to this power of occupation, life went on.

7. ————, History and Conflicts in Rwanda, IRDP, 2006, pp.144
8.————- Ibid; IRDP, 2006, p.156

The journey of undermining the Kingdom, leading to the erosion of monarchical traditional power was in the making. The reading and interpretation of socio-political landscape of Rwanda went hand in hand with the undermining and sapping of King’s power. The introduction of the identity cards labelled Hutu, Tutsi, Twa categories, marked the beginning of seeing Banyarwanda in terms of social groups which came to be labelled as three distinct ethnic groups. The establishment of identity cards formalized the division of Banyarwanda, thus polarized the once unified society.

The theories of Bahutu being of bantou origin, Batutsi being of hamitic orgin and the Batwa as pygmoid led to the colonial innovation of reading of the social-political situation of Rwanda. Finally, this colonial experience of administration contributed to the beginning and perpetuation of ethnic stereotyping. With time people went to schools and joined Churches and learned they were Bahutu, Batutsi and Batwa. The notion of being Munyarwanda had started dying slowly. The people’s consciousness now attacked and Rwandans adopting the colonial reading of themselves they became the victims of that early divisionism. The identity of being one, the dignity of being Munyarwanda died slowly leaving space for colonial dignity and evolution of new Banyarwanda groups known as Evolue.

The second colonial reading of Rwanda was the interpretation of relationships in monarchical Rwanda where ubuhake ubukode, ubudehe, were described as forms of exploitation by one group against another and colonized Bahutu, Batutsi and Batwa internalized the reading especially the Bahutu elite came to beilieve so and later used that argument to hate Batutsi. The divisive roots were not limited to that. The colonial power by using Batutsi elite as officials to reinforce unpopular colonial measures such as taxation, forced labour, exertion of pressure to grow cash crops; giving them preference to have access to education and other colonial benefits such as posts, the consciousness of injustice increased and widened further the gap between Bahutu and Batutsi. Later as we shall see the Bahutu elite will use it as an argument to pinpoint at Batutsi as the source of their troubles. This situation created the impression that these were different peoples. The Batwa remained aside of the society.

As the erosion of traditional power continued, the colonial power gained political momentum thanks to the establishment of the colonial politics of divide and rule which became the order of the day. Until 1950, the Belgian rule had established a highly authoritarian rule and a centralized administrative structure which touched all sectors of life. The dual colonial enterprise between the Catholic Church and colonial politics worked unhampered. One would not be far from the reality of the time if we assumed that the successive Bishops of that Church among others Mgr. Classe and at a later stage Mgr. Perraudin were instruments and tools of colonial ideology that sought to strengthen colonial rule in Rwanda. Church power and its influence right to the royal court and among the chiefs served as an indication that you convert the King and Chiefs you have the whole Kingdom. The consecration of Rwanda to Christ: Christu Umwami Ingoma yawe yogere hose, by the King indicated a new mentality among Banyarwanda who became Catholics, later others became Protestants and Muslims. We should remember that in this context the undermining of traditional power from the King went on until the abolition of the monarchy in 1959 and the establishment of the Republic in 1962.

5. TERMINOLOGIES AND SYMBOLS Vs REALITY.

“From now on words did not have the same meaning and relations became simply and purely those of class taking over slowly ancient feudal relationships. The specificity of this is that it was based on racial differences” (9)

To begin with the very people who had been used to call themselves Banyarwanda, they began seeing themselves as Batutsi, the privileged; Bahutu, the underprivileged but numerically many hence the beginning of words majority vs minority. The ethnic identity as a term became rampant in colonial daily language and Batutsi, Bahutu, Batwa meant simply and purely three ethnic groups. Come to think of it, the people who share by nature everything: culture, spiritual beliefs, Imana y’I Rwanda, Kinyarwanda language, same taboos since there is no appropriate terminology of “ubwoko”, the term ethnic groups is accepted and used.

The dictionary meaning of ethnicity is far from Rwanda’s reality. For the interpreters of Rwanda’s reality, it is difficulty to find in English the proper word for Ubwoko. The word that comes closer to its meaning is clan which to many readers and observers Ubwoko translates the very reality for Banyarwanda. In fact as seen above, before the Batutsi, Bahutu, Batwa came to be labelled as three different ethnic groups, they identified themselves as clans where they shared the names of the clans as shown above. Another distortion lies in the interpretation of the words Ubuhake, ubukode which used to determine social relationships among Banyarwanda later they were turned into symbols of division and exploitation of Abahutu by Abatutsi. By dividing Rwandans in order to rule them, colonial masters at intervals of their rule changed the nature of things in Rwanda by creating a social, economic and political order full of tension a predecessor to future conflicts of interests. The end results of the changes and reforms introduces by colonisation will later be blamed on Tutsi elite and sweep all the others with them.

6. LIVING WITH COLONIAL REALITY: CONSEQUENCES ARE MANY.

One observable experience of the time was for Rwandans to slowly get used to the new order of things. This is the logic of a conquered people who are subjected to the erosion of the traditional way of life and Rwanda’s mentality. They are unable to resist hence the acceptance of the colonial reality leading to the development of colonial mentality. The power of occupation was double fold: political power in the hands of Belgium while spiritual power was exclusively entrusted with Catholic Church. Rwandans participated at both levels at different times. The Colonial power used Tutsi Chiefs, Clerks, for colonial administration and diligently they fulfilled colonial objectives even when, to the indigenous, these were questionable. Rwandans knew it, they were like any other colonized Africans, colonial power was paramount you had to be with it or not to be with it and bear the consequences. Those who chose the former and climbed on colonial bandwagon, they shared the responsibility and certainly benefited whatever was offered by the new order like employment, education, and colonial welfare.

9. Pierre Biarnes, L’Afrique aux Africains 1980. p.430)
Translation by the Author of this paper.

Those who chose the latter were seen to fall into the culture of resistance. However Rwandans because of being overpowered and fell plea to colonial yoke chose the path of passive resistance.

In Rwanda, the Tutsi who were in power during the Kingdom era and they were preferred and retained by the new power, they were enrolled and carried on. The execution of the colonial will by the Batutsi elite became at a later stage a charge against them by Bahutu elite who put them in the collaborative role. Strange enough, the same elite seems not to see anything wrong in the detestiful colonial rule. Those who were not taken in the collaborative role fell into resignation and that is where we see in Rwanda the origin of non commitment mentality and ntibindeba, ntibinturukeho mentality. This laisser faire mentality was a terrible development leading to the alienation of Rwandans now away from their usual way.

The continued choice to identify oneself with colonial images through benefits of work, education, health, and christian mentality all this led to the forging of a new Rwandan divorced with the past and obliged to navigate in a colonial ship not knowing exactly where the ship will land.

7. 1959 THE TRAP OF ETHNICTY BETWEEN BATUTSI AND BAHUTU

For entirely political reasons and strong need to plan ahead and take power at the advent of shaking colonial yoke, we are in the period of Pan-Africanism, Batutsi, Bahutu and Batwa came to be organized in political parties and started the race to Independence. That political struggle for power was characterized by the urgency of self determination with a background of a poisoned history of existence packed with wrong interpretation of Rwanda’s history, and a distorted cultural identity.

“At the eve of independence, the Rwandan elite (elites and counter elites) had re-interpreted the founding myths of the
country and its history as transmitted through the deforming
prism of Hamitic and Bantu myths (—–). The Hutu leaders
opposed the nationalist movement that requested the departure of the Belgians and insisted on “the end of the black Hamitic colonizers yoke”, the emancipation of the majority Hutu, while the extremists were calling for the Tutsi to go back to Abyssinia. The publication of this racial theory was carried out by colonizers and missionaries before independence. It was taught in schools and disseminated through political speeches.” (10)

During the 1950’s four developments characterized the period which saw the rising of radicalism in the country. The first was the King’s realization that things were going wrong and his people had been divided and worse the claims of rights were now high on the agenda.

10.—————History and conflict in Rwanda, 2006, pp69-70

King Mutara III Rudahigwa participated in the Administration of the Country with the help of the Conseil Supérieur du Pays which had limited powers. Through this remaining voice despite the limitations, cracks in the already weak traditional power and the increasing demands awakened the King. He knew the divide line between Tutsi and Hutu, the exploitation of the card of ethnicity had paralysed the two social categories who see the cheater and the cheated, the exploiter and the exploited. This reading of the social-political history will continue and reach1959 the turn of Rwanda’s history. The King had tried to reduce the level of inequality through the system called ukugabana ubutaka or sharing the land. He had seen that he could use colonial power in its loop holes to introduce changes and lead the Country to relative peace without aggression of the colonial master. This move was not in the interest of colonial perspective and that is how the King could not be allowed to reach his goal. The unresolved question surrounding his death left the Country in disarray.

Second, the new Associations around economic, social, cultural and religious initiatives were mushrooming and many of them were organized around ethnic lines predicting the rise of further claims and possibly widening the gap even further between Tutsi and Hutu.

Third, this is the period when most of the colonized countries were getting organized following the rising of Pan-African aspirations for self-determination and eventual independence. Rwanda was not exception to this.

Fourth, Colonial power and Catholic Church were aware of this evolution. They were ready to change the guard:

“When the struggle for independence started in Africa, the
Rwandan leaders in power also started thinking about the
indépendence, which provoked a change of alliance by the colonizers. The latter decided to work with the Hutu. The Hutu were then sensitised on the oppression they underwent during the Tutsi rule. Around 1957, the Hutu elite with the support of their new allies exploited this theory and rallied many Hutus to the recurring massacres against Tutsis who were considered as invaders and oppressors. The Rwandan politicians who took over after\ independence used this distorted history to divide manipulate and mislead Rwandans in a series of conflicts that culminated in the 1994 genocide that saw the death of over amillion R Rwandans(11)

King Mutara Rudahigwa on throne. He is seen with Resident Coubeau, Major Duvivier & Chief of the Post Stevens
Source 2.
11. Ibid; 2006,p.16

The pro King political party UNAR which claimed the pursuit of self determination to the point of antagonizing the colonial might, this led the colonial power and the powerful Church to change the alliance in the hope that they will have more time to continue with their colonial agenda. By shifting from the Tutsi elite to Hutu elite spearheaded by Grégoire Kayibanda the game of ethnicity was now full swing and the widening gap between Tutsi and Hutu was irreversible.

Any analysts of the Rwandan socio-political history, would see that all Rwandans operated under colonial rule and all suffered differently the effects of the politics of divide and rule. Whether you were used to serve for colonial interests or you suffered the yoke of it, the common denominator of that suffering was that all Rwandans were colonized and their being together with their values were diluted and replaced slowly by others.

Between 1959 and 1962, Rwanda embarked on a new unprepared democratic experience. Political parties were born, these major developments of the time showed ethnic divisions, rivalries and produced conflicts. Civil Societies Associations were formed; they became politicized and highly partisan. Rwanda was now divided into two camps, the first camp was comprised of PARMEHUTU and APROSOMA exclusively for Hutu political elite ready to claim rights for all Bahutu even for those who didn’t know what was happening. This camp had the blessing of the colonial administration and the weight of the Catholic Church was assured. The second camp was comprised of UNAR with the major component of the Tutsi political elite with Bahutu who for a long time had served and remained loyal to the King. Many Batwa were in this camp. The political picture was clear. The society was paralysed by divisionism and the sectarian ideology progressively took over. The camp of Mbonyumutwa, Grégoire Kayibanda took upon itself the political claim of being social revolutionalists rejecting the monarchy and all the associates. Fights and massacres broke out in 1959 and peace was no more in Rwanda. In symbolic words by Pierre Biarnes in his book L’ Afrique Aux Africains “the Republic of the Bahutu”(12) came into being and thousands of Batutsi, Bahutu and Batwa went into exile.

Mr. Mbonyumutwa the short lived President of the first Republic of Rwanda
Source 3 .
12. Biarnes Pierre, op. cit; 1980, p.426

8. THE FIRST AND SECOND REPUBLIC IN RWANDA (1962-1994)

The first Republic led Rwanda to Independence which was celebrated on 1/7/1962 under close supervision of Guy Logiest and Mgr. Andre Perraudin. Rwanda had had a disastrous turn of events having Bahutu called “Rubandanyamwinshi” to legitimate and hammer in Rwanda the politics of exclusion. The section of Banyarwanda who at different stages of pogroms fled the country were labeled as minority, inyangarwanda (those who hate their mother land), inyenzi (cockroaches), inzoka (snakes). The politics of exclusion, divisionism and hatred continued hand in hand with political discourse of diaborisation and dehumanization with extreme virulent dose of hate of the others. Worse, any one who remained in Rwanda and was suspected of connivance with refugees was exposed to inhuman treatment.

Civil rights to the non “rubandanyamwinshi” camp were denied. More so when the identity card read Tutsi you could never expect anything. President Mbonyumutwa became the first to lead the “Bahutu Republic” but had a short period. He could even pass unknown as having ruled Rwanda. President Gregoire Kayibanda who took over after him is renown for his radicalism and his reign of power will be renown for cultivating hatred, fear and suspicion and segregation.

President Grégroire Kayibanda First President of the First Republic of Rwanda
Source 4

Gregoire Kayibanda became the first republican dictator in Rwanda. Under him all Batutsi even those suspected to look like them lost rights. When he had silenced the Batutsi, he became suspicious of the Bahutu from the North (Abashiru and Abagoyi). The politics of exclusion was no longer destined to Batutsi but now it embarked on Bahutu too. The question of ethnicity as a factor for political alliance did not count any more. Kayibanda’s suspicion of the Bahutu from the north to take power from him led to their slow expulsion from close centers of power. The fear of the northerners led him to political tension and forgot Batutsi who were no longer a menace. In this political atmosphere there is no room for dialogue and debate on crucial issues of national concern. The list of those excluded kept rising any thing could happen.

This is exactly what happened. In 1973 the mass killings indicated that the society hid a violent conflict because of intolerance and hatred. The same year a Military Coup d’Etat led by the in coming President Juvenal Habyarimana marked the end of that Hutu north-south divide and tension among the Bahutu between Abanyenduga vs Abashiru and Abagoyi. The studies on ethnicity in Rwanda’s case have another chapter to interrogate history and try to understand the argument on ethnicity as a unifying factor for common ground in order to claim partisan interests.

H.E Major General, President Juvenal Habyarimana, Second Republic of Rwanda
Source 5

The Second Republic was characterized by temporary peace and hope, This did not totally address all the issues which for a long time paralysed Rwandan society.
The Military Coup d’Etat had some Banyarwanda killed, others thrown into prison; few managed to escape and joined several other Rwandese in exile.

Like his predecessor, President Habyarimana enrolled every Munyarwanda in MRND. While the party remained highly ethnic in thinking and deeds, it added what Kayibanda had not managed to do. He cultivated the politics of regionalism another form of exclusion and established a quota system in education the famous “iringaniza”. Divisionism, regionalism camouflaged hatred of Batutsi became rampant. Impunity became a recognizable culture. President Juvenal Habyarimana was in good books with Donors and at one time in 1986 at a Francophone Summit in La Baule, President Francois Mitterand of France described President Habyarimana and Rwanda as a good democratic example for others to emulate.

Internal revendications for more political space and the pressure exerted by Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF ) a political front for Rwandese in exile, obliged President Juvenal Habyarimana to reconsider his hard line and admit to accommodate other political expressions. It is against this background that the President ushered in a political liberalization in the country by allowing the formation of political parties during the period (1990-1994). This period also saw the coming of the first human rights organizations. The process of search for solutions to end the ills in Rwandan society had now come to address issues of the return of all Rwandan refugees and abolish all the causes that lead to the stateless situation and finally address issues of security for all and pave the way to rebuilding the nation

GENOCIDE AND CHALLENGES OF REBUILDING RWANDA SINCE 1994.

“There are some who think that the Tutsi genocide ideology rose during a period of political crisis, when all Africans were claiming their right to independence from the colonizers and when Rwanda’s Hutus, long excluded from the management of their country, found defensive means to get rid of their “old oppressors”. Stereotypes that had been taught to Rwandans had created a “superiority complex” among Tutsis and an “inferiority complex among Hutus, which persist in some quarters to this day. The systematic misrepresentation and exploitation of historic events by successive leaders certainly contributed to the intensification of hatred between the two main ethnic groups-ultimately leading to genocide” (13)

Looking back at the development of this paper, the quotation above captures the content of what characterized the long standing issues of divisionism among Banyarwanda, the deliberate choice of antivalues accepted as new Rwandan values leading to the exacerbation of hatred, greed for power thus widened the gap of incomprehension and intolerance. As a consequence, Rwandans killed other Rwandans in 1959, 1962-3, 1973. In April 1994, it was the climax of mass murder, the genocide of Batutsi ever recorded in Rwanda’s history.

Behind this culture of violence developed several years back, there is bad governance which characterized the history of Rwanda. People were instructed to kill and they killed. They followed blindly all the directives without questioning the effects of the murder gestures. No positive critical thinking which could have led to the resistance of the evil.

The interests of political and church leaders weighed high thus down playing national priorities which could have put Rwandans first. The preference of exclusion and hate of the other destroyed the Country. The aftermath of 1994 Genocide of Batutsi still shows seeds of suspicion of the other especially observed during Gacaca session and when people are discussing, it is not unusual to stop the conversation because an intruder comes in. The healing is slow but steady because of the will to overcome evil.

The recent Parliamentary research showed that despite 1994 Genocide, some Rwandans still have the deadly ideology, the genocide ideology. The International Community bound by the Geneva conditions on this crime which is above all crimes and pronounced the historical words of NEVER EGAIN still show the backing of the negative forces which committed such an abominable crime.

13. A Time for Peace, A publication by IRDP, 2008, p.73

H.E President Pasteur Bizimungu
Source 6

The coming to power of the Government of National Unity in July 1994 had first to take stock of the weaknesses and strengths that still existed. A destroyed society, torn apart and reduced to ashes, that was the heritage of the new Government. The challenges were many. President Pasteur Bizimungu backed by the liberators of Rwanda embarked on what looked an impossible task to put Rwanda on the map again. The issue of security and protection of those who could be saved featured high on post genocide agenda. Putting together the different pieces of a torn and a devastated society was a difficult task to undertake. Several questions non answered led to self examination, an exercise which took a whole year : What could explain the destruction of the society? Is it the divide between Bahutu and Batutsi? Is the struggle for political power an explanation to the loss of lives and property? The many years of divisionism, conflict, service to colonial and church interests can they continue to serve as an explanation to what happed to the Rwandes? Has there been a long standing history of violence that could explain the atrocities that happened to Batutsi? A part from the history of self determination charged with tension, struggle for power and years that followed, centuries back Bahutu, Batutsi and Batwa lived together, they served the Country and defended it. What happened in the minds of destructors of the nation?

The recent research indicate that Rwanda’s social groups of Bahutu, Batutsi and Batwa others will continue to call them ethnic groups, are part of that national diversity. They exist and it is a reality. To claim that Genocide was possible because of the divide between the two major groups of Bahutu and Batutsi is not true. Genocide was possible because of continued bad leadership which lured people into the crime.

“Amoko” were used as catalyst to commit the abominable crime. More than ever before, Rwanda recognizes that the diversity is the wealth of the nation. What it lacks is self confidence, the rediscovery in itself of the lost dignity of a Munyarwanda. The long colonial and neo-colonial beliefs in post independence Rwanda have built attitudes to the point of believing that Rwanda’s social groups are foreign to each other. Rwandans after Genocide are faced with the imperative duty of working together for the good of all and learn to believe that they have a common destiny.

Rwanda today is not a primitive society where killings justify the revendication of one’s identity. Those days are gone and that was a total contradiction in Rwanda’s reality. The challenges remain on poverty and ignorance lines. For years now, Rwanda is counted among developing Countries. The Country’s trends of development show it, yet the mentality and attitudes send the picture of a society still reasoning in primitive society lines. The level of education is low. The pyramid of education indicates the enrolment rate in Primary Schools to be over two million pupils while Secondary Schools enrolment stands at 288,000 students and only 44,000 in High Education Institutions. According to educationists, if the level of education is low the few educated ones tend to be pulled down by the many who are not educated. Add poverty situation you have it all.

Rwanda Government has captured the above drawbacks. In Rwanda’s Vision 2020, the document on the Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy 2008-2012 (EDPRS), fighting poverty and putting accent on quality education are some of the priorities to enhance the development in Rwanda.

H.E President Paul Kagame: “We are moving to the next level” Source: 7

The Government today led by H.E Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda since 2003 realized that every thing went wrong in the past because of bad leadership. Today’s example to inspire the mechanisms of good governance spear headed by good leadership has encouraged the exercise of putting in place democratic institutions to guide Government business where all able and capable Rwandans participate. Laws have been put in place and the three levels of Government namely Executive, Legislature and Judiciary are functioning. To get Rwandans used to laws is an impotent angle of rule of law since people do not necessarily have to live together and accept each other but rather their living together is facilitated and geared to the accepting laws which they respect and after all they have participated in making such laws through a process of consultation. This has been missing in Rwanda’s political culture. In the past, laws were imposed and people never took them seriously. It is interesting today to see the level of the debate and peoples’ contribution.

When space for dialogue is created quite a lot is done in terms of sharing of ideas and it allows to pay attention to different concerns. In a recent study conducted by the National Electoral Commission, Rwanda National Civic Education rose issues of national character and interesting to all. There are issues related to how Rwandans should be reflecting and referring to themselves through their own values.

During the presentation of the book, it was an occasion to share the proposed aspects of the Rwandan culture characterized by such values of competition, courage, politeness, wisdom, telling the truth, sociability, patience, nationalism, good quality of work, to be reasonable and work with perseverance and reach the goal. These were opened to the discussions and debate. It was interesting to note that some participants were not ready to prescribe to the above mentioned values immediately because they had other Biblical values which they were following. Members of opposition political parties defending political interests, Members of the Civil Society whose claim is to be the voice of the voiceless, ordinary people and others participated in the debate which was in all intent and purpose very lively.

Reflecting on their sad past, Rwandans are in the process of drawing positive cultural values in Rwandan tradition to help them distance themselves with negative colonial and modern values that tend to yield bad results in the society. If we are looking at putting work first, and the tradition provide the example of “Umuganda”, we adopt that. If we are looking for the expression of solidarity as a value, the tradition provides “ubudehe”, we adopt that. The programme of supporting each other in good or bad times in the spirit of realization of the neighbour’s difficulties, one sees this in the programme of “Girinka”. This means that aspects of Rwanda’s culture which were denigrated and described as negative, atavistic, backward, pagan, indigenous acts which are not adapted to modernity are now coming back because they have more meaning to unite and reconcile Rwandans thus make them feel Rwandans again. Getting resources from Rwandan culture to unite people and reconcile them go hand in hand with a whole range of proposed programmes for the development of the Nation.

All the programmes call upon people to participate and make them their own. The politics of decentralization of political and economic powers are aimed at making Rwandans participatory in the governance of the nation through the decentralized structures. Power is given to the people through their elected council members. The National Electoral Commission is responsible for all the electoral process in the Country to ensure equity, transparency and discipline. To manage that important democratic activity, it conducts different levels of trainings and administers all the process of consultations and elections. Together with the education of the masses on what concern them in public affairs.

Rwanda Government has chosen the path of making Rwanda a human capital and a knowledge based economy relying first on its people, “Akimuhana kaza imvura ihise” Putting accent on improved education is one way of facing future development plans which go hand in hand with training. The youth is very important and by putting emphasis on Basic Education the Country looks at uplifting education as a way of combating ignorance a deadly disease noticed in Genocide:

“ Because the genocide came as the culmination of a long process in which people were taught to hate one another and ultimately to commit this crime, we believe that through education we can also make sure that it never happens again” (14)

This education process from Basic Education to Higher Education will certainly help Rwanda answer questions on how to reduce the high level of ignorance and eradicate poverty.

In 2003, Rwandans adopted the Constitution after three years of consultation and open debate. It guides the democratic experience of New Rwanda and remains the guarantor of security, peace, forward looking and fareness. The national symbols of the new flag and the Court of Arms depict the current and new way of forging the new Nation out of the ashes of Genocide. The making of the symbols attracted all Rwandans through an open competition not because there was money put on the good production but the pleasure one yield out of knowing that I am a citizen and I am called upon and be allowed to participate. This was important because it was inclusive, it was an antidote of exclusion which was felt in Rwanda’s affairs.

(14) A time for Peace, IRDP, 2008, 55p

CONCLUSION

“Before, we had no conflicts here, People had cows; a Mututsi
could be a Muhutu’s cattle keeper, or vice versa… No illiterate
Rwandan has ever caused these conflicts. Only the elite caused
these problems. Why? Greed”.(15)

The above words of a farmer summarises part of the problem but does not explain it all. In this paper, we have tried to show the origin of antagonisms between the Bahutu and the Batutsi, the major social groups in Rwanda. We have brought light on their differences which are not based on ethnic antagonisms as portrayed in the course of Rwanda’s history but rather we have pointed at the built up climate of suspicion between the two social groups as an outright consequence of the cultivation of ethnic ideology. Since late 50’s the cultivation of ethnic virus which expanded and reached unimaginable proportion in 1959, 1963, 1973 drew two parallel paths : the set up of what Pierre Biarnes calls, in his book L’Afrique aux Africains, “La Republique des Hutus”(16) and Tutsis relegated to exile. That entertained ideology became ever since part of life. It had people who believed in it, others took it up because it served their immediate interests.

The manipulation of that ideology became possible in every day life to the point where concepts of Hutu majority and Tutsi as a minority invaded the young democratic experience of the time. This is the origin of the Hutu slogan of “ rubandanyamwinshi” a concept which some people still believe in as the basis of democracy in Rwanda. The ethnic ideology was sown, natured and allowed to grow unchecked until it became an instrument of division, destruction impossible to do away with. Today all Rwandans have become victim of that ideology because at its zenith, it landed the whole nation into the abominable crime of the genocide. Now that there is nothing else to wait for after having touched the depth of the evil, Rwandans are trying hard to overcome the nightmare caused by the Genocide of Batutsi in 1994. The healing process will take a long time but the essential and quite encouraging episode of recovery is on. Rwandans have made an analysis of their past. It took time but it finally came to accept the sad and dark history Rwandans went through. The root causes of troubles were those ideologies Rwanda is trying to deal with and address them with determination.

The acceptance of Rwanda’s diversity is accepted but what is illegal is to use one’s “ubwoko” to earn what one has no right to. The declaration of anti corruption laws and all mechanisms put in place to enable Rwandans live in a secure and peaceful society remain the guarantor of a stable and a reconciled society. The fatal ideology of genocide is still a threat to Rwanda. It is rampant in Great Lakes Region and beyond. Rwanda is busy reorganizing the Country.

___________________________
Society by up rooting the seeds of the country’s destruction and plant a new the seeds of unity and reconciliation, thus leading the country to a united and a reconciled society ready to face the challenges of rebuilding a bright future for Rwanda.

(15) A Time for Peace, p.35
(16) Pierre Biarnes, l’Afrique aux Africains, 19, p.426

It has put in place the democratic institutions, forged the structures of economic and political governance to ensure that citizens own the process of recovery Rwanda has embarked on. To cement all this, Banyarwanda have rediscovered positive cultural values which had been denigrated by the detractors of the unity of Banyarwanda. With time and given the political will embedded in the Country’s good governance, people’s rejection of divisive ideologies but determined to be part of the healing process and engaged in the development of the Nation, all place Rwanda in an era of peace and development guided by the national vision 2020 and carefully studied economical tools and above all a clear minded leadership.

REFERENCES AND RECOMMENDED READING

Biarnes Pierre, L’Afrique aux Africains, 20 ans d’independence en Afrique Noire,
Francophone, Paris, Armand Colin, pp.426-437

Chretien Jean-Pierre, Le Defi de l’Ethnisme (Rwanda et Burundi: 1990-1996) Paris,
Karthara, 1997, 400p.

Erny Pierre, Rwanda 1994- Cles pour comprendre le calvaire d’un peuple, Paris,
Editions L’Harmattan, 1994, 256p.

Prunier Gerard, The Rwanda Crisis, History of a Genocide, Kampala, Fountain
Publishers, 2006,424p

Rumiya Jean, Le Rwanda Sous le Regime du Mandat Belge (1916-1931), Paris,
Editions L’Harmattan, 1992, 249p.

Rutazibwa, Privat, Les crises des Grands Lacs et la Question Tutsi, Reflections sur
l’Ideologie du genocide dans la sous-region, Kigali, Editions du
C.R.I.D, 1999, 215p.

Sehene Benjamin, Le Piege Ethinique, Paris, Editions Dagorno,, 1999, 222p.

Vallois V.Henri, Les Races Humaines, Que Sais je, Paris, Presses Universitaires de
France, 1969, 128.

.——————-History and Conflicts in Rwanda, A publication of the Institute of
Research and Dialogue for Peace ( IRDP), Kigali,2006, p.408

——————L’etat de droit au Rwanda, IRDP, 2005, p.210

——————Voices of the People, IRDP, Building lasting Peace in Rwanda, 2003,
p.238

—————– A Time of Peace, Convassing the views of Rwanda’s People in the
Search for Lasting Peace, a publication of IRDP, Kigali, Pallotti Press,
2008,155p.

—————–Rwanda National Civic Education Policy, A publication of National
Electoral Commission, 2007, 29p

—————– Rwanda Decentralisation Strategic Framerwork, Minaloc ., 2007 p.80

INTERNET SEARCH:

www.on linedictionary.com/ethnicity.co

www.findarticles.com/ethnicity in africa.fr

www.sidamaconcern.com/eth.html, Issue of political ethnicity in Africa, The Journal of Third World Studies, Spring 2004

PHOTOS SOURCES:

Source 1: Jean Rumiya, Le Rwanda Sous le Regime du Mandat Belge, (1916-1931),
Harmathan, 1992, page,128.

Source 2: Idem; p, 128

Source 3: Christophe Mfizi, Les Lignes de Faite du Rwanda Independent, Office
Rwandais
d’Information,1983 p.33.

Source 4: Idem; p. 34

Source 5: Idem: p.55

Source 6: Courtesy of the President’s Office in Kigali, Rwanda

Source 7: Hobe Rwanda Magazine, Years of Visionary Leadership, 2009 p.8

ABBREVIATIONS

Parmehutu: Parti du Mouvement pour l’ Emancipation Hutu

Aprosoma: Association pour la Promotion Social de la Masse

UNAR: Union Nationale Rwandaise

EDPRS: Economic Development and Poverty Reduction Strategy, 2008-20012

GLOSSARY

Ubuhake: “….A clientele institution through which an individual, inferior in terms of
prestige and wealth, offers his services to another who in tern provides
him with the usufruct of one or more cows. “ according to J.J. Maquet in
Le Systeme des relations dans le Rwanda ancient, Turvern, 1954, p.154.

Ubukonde:The property of the person known as umukonde or one who cleared the
land first.

Ubwoko: Clan, plural form Amoko

Gacaca: Traditional court system. After Genocide, this system was readapted to
introduce a system of justice whose aim will be to allow Rwandans to
reconcile.

Imana : A polysemic word. It could mean God, Supreme Being, also to have good
luck or chance (Kugira Imana)

Umutware w’Ubutaka – The Chief of the Land

Umutware w’Umukenke – The Chief of Pastures

Umutware w’Ingabo – The Chief of the Army

Guterekera no Kuraguza – Forms of traditional ways of worshipping Lyangombe
and Nyabingi

Leveraging Africa’s Diversity For An Improved Image and Branding

By MARY  KIMONYE- CEO BRAND KENYA BOARD

INTRODUCTION

The Twenty First Century has presented nations of the world with unique challenges which if not adequately and appropriately addressed may negatively affect the livelihoods of the worlds 6 billion people and throw the entire world into a crisis.

Already we are experiencing the effects of global warming, international terrorism, substance abuse, environmental degradation and of cause globalization and the run away technological development.

Whereas some of the developments of the century are positive and have eased the way nations of the world relate, exchange goods and services, others are causing tensions and each nation is wondering “How do we survive”.

Technological developments for example have shortened distances but also complicated commerce and industry. The poor nations of the world most of who are in Africa and who cannot keep up with such developments find their share of worlds resources dwindling.

Globalization has opened up interactions, smashed psychological and physical boundaries and intensified competition for investments, tourism, inward migration of factors of production and individual nations influence and persuasions in world affairs.

The question most nations of African are grappling with is “Where to find the competitive advantage that is so much needed to remain relevant in world affairs. Much of this relevance is dependent on how others see and perceive the African countries.

Africa stands out in the minds of the world as the Dark Continent – a backward place where disease, poverty, ethnic strife, crime and poor governance are the defining characteristics. Whereas all this exists and are challenges, African governments are struggling with there is a lot of good in Africa.

The richness of the African cultures, the great endowments in minerals, good agricultural climates, warm friendly people present unique and positive assets which can be propelled  to position Africa as truly the next frontier for the development of the world.

The first world happened in Europe&America, Asia and the Middle East are currently holding the development of the world, the tallest buildings, the biggest factories. Indeed the fastest growing economies are now to be found in Asia.

Africa can be positioned to be the next frontier. The huge deposits of unexploited wealth, the youthful dynamic populations and the resiliency of the continent will in coming years, present Africa as the preferred option for investments trade and industry as well as sources of labor. But for this to happen and for the African people to benefit fully, clearly well thought strategies of improving Africa’s image must be put in place.

Africa must take the lead and tell her story. Africa must consciously direct the content that reaches the ears of the world whether through the net, print or electronic media.

Africa’s Leaders must begin to think image and take the lead as the PR agents for their respective countries and for the continent as a whole. In sum Africa must look to leverage her diversity to create and maintain the desirable image. Africa must Brand and Rebrand herself.

For the East Africa countries, their stories and challenges cannot be divorced from those of the rest of Africa.

In terms of Branding what the Eastern African countries need to worry about, is “how to wriggle themselves out of the generally held perceptions of Africa as the backward continent .Successful attempts have been made, Egypt is able to attract tourists and investments, South Africa has been working on its Brand “alive with possibilities” is a common phrase to many of us.

Because of their commonality the East Africa country would benefit more from joint Branding efforts.

This paper will forward proposals on how the East Africa countries could leverage their ethnic diversity to create competitive advantage that will turn the region into an attractive place for business work and leisure and improve the inflow of the much needed foreign exchange.

AFRICA’S DIVERSITY: A BLESSING OR CURSE?

Africa is truly a continent of contrasts. A mosaic of colour, that in a manner of speaking could be said to “capture the world in one”.

Popularly known as the “Motherland”, Africa is the cradle of mankind and the home of ancient civilizations, occupied by some 900 million people of all races striding***** sq. kilometers. Africa is the third largest continent and Africa’s personality and character is very well captured in its rich diversity.

The climates of Africa range from deserts to rich tropical rainforests. In these are huge deposits of all types of resources the oil rich North, expansive gold and copper belts of the South western and Central Africa and a diversity of agricultural products.

The people of Africa speak over 2000 languages with diverse cultures and heritage. These cultures and heritage remain some of Africa’s greatest attractions to the world.  Those who know Africa most possibly know the sounds of the African drum, which  virtually every african tribe beats to signity good things like harvest, winning of tribal wars, the birth of children and of course marriage and many  other good fortunes. Africa has an awesome experience, informed by the many struggles of her people, through history: colonialism, slave trade, tribal wars, neocolonialism, and more recently, globalization which has left the Africa leaders struggling with ways of generating enough capital to develop their countries within the world monetary and trade systems where they have little or no say but where so much is expected of them.

It is also informed by Africa’s natural beauty, the alluring beaches, the snow capped mountains right on the equator, the variety of wildlife, the ruggedness of the Africa savannah and the Great Rift Valley; The question is why  does Africa despite all this suffers negative images. A continent that is so richly endowed, yet still houses the world’s poorest people. Why has the richness of Africa’s diversity not been fully exploited to position Africa where it should ideally be?

In his book Africa is Rising Vijay Mahajan presents a very encouraging view on Africa, and says, “despite all the attention it has received for its social, medical, humanitarian and political challenges, it is still undervalued as a consumer market”.

Africa has 900 million consumers who need all manner of goods and services. The world cannot afford to ignore Africa or even to brush it a side as the “backward” continent.

According to the Population Reference Bureau 2007 world population Data Sheet, Africa has 41% of its population being below 15 years. This makes it one of the youngest markets in the world. These young Africans are dynamic, and connected with consumer demands that mirror the west, it is in these young people; in their energy, enthusiasm and resilience lies the true brand assets of for Africa.

Through music and sports this young generation of Africans is slowly but surely foot printing the world. Africa’s strength and its greatest competitive advantage does not lie in its many minerals like oil, diamonds and gold but in the youthful talent and vibrant creativity of its people.

Africa has produced countless entrepreneurs, business people, academicians, sportsmen and political leaders. The nations of Africa and indeed E.A must tapp into this hidden “soft” wealth to transform themselves into domitable global brands.

AFRICA’S BRANDING AND IMAGE BUILDING

What is branding?

Branding is as ancient as civilization. The earliest indication of branding was somewhere around 100B.C in the Greek islands. The literal meaning of the word brand is to burn or to put an indelible identification mark.

Historically, branding has been applied a lot by marketing firms, foods and services. In this respect to brand means to use a term, symbol, design, phrase, colour or a combination of these to identify and differentiate the products of different producers.

Branded products reap benefits normally in terms of premium pricing, customer loyalty, easy identification and recognition as well as traceability.

What is place branding?

The Branding of nations and regions can be looked at within the context of Place Branding. This covers all initiatives of giving places be they cities, towns, Nations or regions distinctive and attractive characters based on the unique differentiators of these places.

The concept of Place Branding is fairly new and often confused with traditional advertising and promotion.

Place branding is however a more encompassing concept that deals with developing a places image and identity consciously in order to improve the places attractiveness,. It’s a holistic concept that demands the involvement and contribution of everybody.

In a continent like Africa the leaders whether political, religious or community, together with the business people, the policy makers, the citizens, investors etc would all be critical in the continents branding.

By definition, place branding involves applying the concepts and practices of marketing to the social, political, economic, and cultural development of a place. The results is an improved image of the perception of others towards the place whether a country, city or even a continent. It also results into an improved identity i.e.  How the citizens and others in the place see and conceive of the place. Place branding then assumes that a place can be treated just like a product by a critical mass of people.

Such people then hold a generalized perception about the place which then informs or determines the nature of their interactions with the place. Through the use of strategic communication and marketing and backed by reality on the ground, the place can then generate awareness about itself, affection and preference towards itself and of course choice. Countries that have built strong brands have been able to reap enormous benefits in terms of improved influence in worlds affairs, greater inflow of capital, increased investments, social cohesion, greater demand for products and services, improved tourism and premium pricing.

A well branded country gives its citizens an “identity” that serves as a focal point and rallying call for harnessing the nations human potential. Strong nation brands are also able to better withstand crises.

When people express their preference for Indian Cuisine, Italian Shoes, French Perfumes, German Engineering, Egyptian Heritage, African Culture, they do so as a result of the brand images of these places. Is it then possible for a critical mass of people, say investors to express their preference for a continent? Yes, depending not so much about what is said of that continent but rather the context within which the continent exists and in which its messages are received. Branding a continent is then driven by the reality of the continents context.

The fundamental question to ask is, “What is the prevailing African context or culture?”. If such context is predominantly negative then people respond negatively-No desire to visit, wariness/ suspicion, less resources etc. It is within that context and these reactions that Africa and indeed East Africa must find and secure a vantage place for herself in the world. This in essence is where Branding comes in.

WHY BRAND AFRICA.

Fundamentally African countries are not only in competition with each other but with those in other regions. To stand, African nations need compelling reasons to present to the world. A deeper look at the majority of African countries gives both positive and negative reasons to embark on branding.

a)     Positive Reasons (Drivers of the Continent Branding)

First, Africa possesses an array of strong Brand assets whose potential has not been fully exploited.

-People (Africa Icons)

-Cultures/heritage

-Climate

-Minerals

-Geographical features.

-Wildlife

-Sports

Secondly, many countries of Africa have built strong social and governance systems which can be sold to the rest of the world as useful models.

Thirdly, due to the geographical and climatic conditions of Africa, some of the worlds highest quality agricultural products are to be found here. There are strong exports, but rarely do they carry the names of their countries of origin (tea, coffee, cut flowers, cocoa etc)

Lastly, the African population remains an important source market not only for skills but also for talent in such areas as music, dance and technology. Companies looking to house their corpo0rate headquarters away from the very expensive cities of the world would find Africa a very viable option. Already industry and the private sector are thriving in many African states.

b)     Negative Reasons Why We Must Brand Africa

-         Limited or non existent African voice in world affairs.

-         Wanton exploitations of Africans natural resources by others, led especially by multinationals corporations.

-         Low levels of pride, confidence and patriotism among a majority of Africa’s people towards their motherland.

-         Challenges of poverty, unemployment and diseases.

-         Predominantly negative perceptions held world wide towards Africa.

-         Lack of control and limited control of content on Africa leading to over projected nations of insecurity, corruption and inequality, poverty and general deprivation as well as understated achievements and positive values.

-         Social economic challenges among them overstrained infrastructure, basic services and unemployment and of course bad press.

TO WHAT EXTENT DOES AFRICA NEED BRANDING.

Put very simply to the extent that the continent is low in “place value” i.e. uniqueness and distinctiveness. Fundamental questions need to be asked, for example to what extents can the nations of Africa make claims of being unique, distinctive and attractive.

In other words, possessing some competitive advantage over others. If they are lacking in these, then they can be viewed as depressed or distressed places which need a new image. Put against the key measures of attractiveness i.e. livability, investability and visibility,  Africa can generally be described as depressed though some nations may not fully fit this classification.

To reverse this depressed state certain fundamental steps must be taken by Africa states. These steps are mapped directly on those aspects of the countries that give them a bad image.

-         Governance must be addressed.

-         Infrastructure must be improved.

-         The costs of doing business must be addressed.

-         Challenges of security must be addressed.

-         Urban congestion and provision of basic services must also be addressed.

-         All the symptoms and causes of society’s decay must be addressed among then crime, idleness, debt, poor services, inequality etc.

-         The countries products and services must be delivered in an efficient and accessible way.

When all these are dealt with then the nations should be in a position to take up the two critical actions towards repackaging themselves by:

1. i.      Designing the right mix of each country’s attractions.
2. ii.      Setting attractive incentives for potential, visitors, investors and buyers of goods and services. Until these are in place then African countries can use communication to challenge the notion that Africa is risky and unsafe and also reinforce the fact that Africa is an attractive place to visit, live and invest.

WHAT MODEL SHOULD AFRICAN NATIONS USE TOWARDS BRANDING AND IMPROVING THEIR IMAGES?

Nation branding is not a short term quick fix action, but a strategic and consciously thought out process that is systematic in its very nature. The situations and challenges Africa countries are experiencing and which are denting their image cannot be advertised away. Solutions must be sought and deliberate actions taken to improve the context within which they exist.

To succeed at nation branding a country must design a home grown approach that takes cognizance of its uniqueness and the needs and aspirations of its people and potential target audiences. In general however a generic approach could be employment. This approach many follow certain key steps:

1. i.            It is advisable for the branding initiative to be within a high level agency led by a collaborative planning group of visionaries from diverse disciplines and groups (investors, business people, academicians, policy makers and professionals).
2. ii.            The planning group should begin by dissecting the country to extract its DNA i.e.  to clearly isolate the countries strengths, weaknesses, principal assets, key brand builders and also brand destroyers. The process should lead to development of a catalogue of the countries problems and their causes as well as the countries attractions and their status, resources, values and opportunities.
3. iii.            Based on the diagnostic, the planning groups should then develop a clear vision of the long term solutions to the country’s problems taking into account all key aspects i.e. politics, economy, social, policy etc.
4. iv.            Out of this vision the planning group should develop a strategy (ies) for the country’s transformation in terms of:

–Policy and Governance

- Investments

- Basic services

- Infrastructure

- New attractions

- Behavior and attitude

- Charge

-People

1. v.            The country should then roll out a communication program both internally and externally to communicate its improved status and image.
2. vi.            Finally real time collaborative mechanism of support and image monitoring and evaluation is put in place, and brand champions identified to (convey and embody the vision).

ETHNIC DIVERSITY TOOLS FOR BRANDING.

Our ethnic diversity has unique and very ageless tools that can be used to propel the African nations to more prominent standings in world affairs.

Among these are;

1. i.            National Attitudes and Values

A country’s national psyche can be a strong differentiator and a formidable force. Kenya’s transformation in the period 2003-2007  when it attained a 7% growth had among others things a lot  to do with the then prevailing attitude of optimism among the population.

Countries with strong nationalistic attitudes have been known to evolve cohesive and stable societies-Tanzania and several other nations around the world are cases in point.

The “English way of life” has often been sited as one of the reasons for Britain’s economic decline in the last century. This way of life is characterized by ‘stable, cozy behaviour’. The non saving culture of America, informed by over confidence and a high sense of security in the might of their nation has seen many suffer greatly under the current world financial crisis.

Needless to say a welcoming friendly attitude is a big image booster. Kenya has been a beneficiary of this for many years.

1. ii.            Music and Dance.

The love for music across all cultures is indisputable. Music has become a universally unifying force and indeed a strong income earner for many communities in Africa. This is the one product that Africa must use very effortless to communicate herself and tell the world her story.

1. iii.            Sports

Africa is awash with all manner of captivating sports, many from ancient african traditions. From football to long distance running the might of the African people has left the world awe struck. Watching African runners on the tracks of America and Europe is a truly spectacular experience. If modernized and institutionalized sports can change the face of Africa.

1. iv.            Art

African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many casual observes tend to tend generalize “traditional” African art, the continent  is full of peoples, societies, and civilizations, each with unique visual special culture. The definition also includes the art of the African Diaspora, such as the art of African Americans. Despite this diversity, there are some unifying artistic themes when considering the totality of the visual culture from the continent of Africa. African Art with its emphasis on the human figure, visual abstraction, sculpture, performed art and non linear scaling can be a real image booster.

1. v.            African Cuisine

Africa is home to hundreds of tribes, ethnic and social groups. This diversity is also reflected in African cuisine from the ingredients used to the preparation and techniques of cooking. From the culinary dishes of North Africa to the southern African’s braais and Eastern Africans Swahili and traditional dishes Africa is truly has a banquet ready for the world to feast on.

1. vi.            Religion

Religion in Africa is multifaceted. Most Africans adhere to either Christianity or Islam as they are most prominent. This does not mean that other religions are not represented, but in smaller percentages. Religion plays a big role in African culture and through it identities and ways of life are shaped thus resulting in having a diverse and enriched populous. This makes Africa a vibrant place as anyone in the world can easily fit in.

1. vii.            Dress and Fashion.

Every continent has its distinct sense of style and Africa has not been left behind. Africa has become a leader in some fashion trends and has influenced fashion in America, Europe and the rest of the world. West Africa’s Agbada and Buba, Eastern Africa‘s Kikoy, kitenge, Umshanna, Omwenda and Gomesi and the North African’s Bui bui and Kanzu (which has been modernized to today’s fashion trend), Africa’s fashion industry is growing and diversifying each day thus boosting the economy and image of the continent.

CONCLUSION

The diversity of Africa has often been exploited for the wrong reasons. Regimes have used tribal and racial diversity to sustain themselves. However, as the people of Africa get more knowledgeable and exposed and as economic challenges push Africans to less communal living styles, this negative use of diversity cannot be sustained.

African nations must wake up and appreciate the richness of this diversity and use it to tell the world about Africa. The Africa youth possess vitality, creativity and energy that matches their counterparts in the rest of the world.

This needs to be channeled into the social and economic policy development of the Africa countries. In this modern world driven by knowledge and technology and with dwindling resources, only nations that are able to positively impact the world will win in the global competition with her rich cultural heritage and racial and ethnic diversity, Africa is truly poised for take off.

New Name for Every Kenyan

A BBC report indicates that communities in the Rift Valley have
started re-arming themselves in preparation for 2012; this time not
with arrows, machetes and rungus but with guns.

As much as the government and the whole Serena process may want
Kenyans to believe  that national healing and reconciliation are
taking place, the situation on the ground, especially in the Rift
Valley is still very shaky. The 2007/2008 displacement and violence
in that part of the country was shocking in its execution.

How do we exorcise the ghost of ethnocentrism in this country?
Drastic times call for drastic measures. Here is one that I think
Kenya should try.

For us to unify the country no Kenyan should be allowed to keep
his/her ethnic name. We must start a process of renaming ourselves in
a way that does not reveal where we come from. A typical Kenyan name
should read something like Dan Smith or Michelle Williams. New
national identity cards would be issued.

And considering the fact that our ethnic languages are markers of
ethnic identity, the only two languages that people should talk, while
in public, are English and Kiswahili. Like with smoking, Kenya should
legislate against the use of ethnic languages in bus stops, hotels,
bars and all other public places!

Esther Rawlings