Ethnic Cleansing & Genocide in Africa

Competition among ethnicities can lead in a handful of the most extreme cases to genocide, which is the mass killing of a group of people in an attempt to eliminate the entire group from existence. Several areas of Africa have been plagued by conflicts among ethnicities that have resulted in genocide in recent years. Other countries have been either unable or unwilling to stop the genocide.

Ethnicities & Nationalities in Africa

Traditionally, the most important element of cultural identity in Africa was ethnicity rather than nationality. Africa contains several thousand ethnicities with distinct languages, religions, and social customs. The precise number of ethnicities is impossible to determine because boundaries separating them can be hard to define. Further, it is hard to determine whether a particular group forms a distinct ethnicity or is part of a larger collection of similar groups.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, European countries carved up the continent into a collection of colonies, with little regard for the distribution of these ethnicities. When the European colonies in Africa became independent states, especially during the 1950s and 1960s, the areas of the new states typically matched the colonial administrative units imposed by the Europeans rather than the historical distribution of ethnicities (Figure 7-58). As a result, most states contained a large collection of often dissimilar ethnicities, and some ethnic groups were divided among more than one state (Figure 7-59). Conflict among ethnicities is widespread in Africa, largely because the historical distribution of ethnicities bears little relationship to present-day nationalities.

Africa’s Many Ethnicities and Nationalities

The ethnic groups shown in dark brown have been divided among more than one country.

Ethnic Diversity, Ethiopia

he Gurage people are one of many ethnicities in southwestern Ethiopia.

Pause & Reflect 7.4.4

Why might the areas of individual ethnicities be much larger in northern Africa than in the rest of the continent?

Ethnic Cleansing & Genocide in Sudan

Several civil wars have raged in Sudan since 1983, resulting in genocide and ethnic cleansing. Sudan’s two conflicts that have generated the most victims are with Darfur and South Sudan (Figure 7-60). Ethnic diversity lies at the heart of Sudan’s conflicts. Sudan is around 70 percent Arab and 97 percent Muslim. The remainder belong to a large number of other ethnicities descended from groups living in Sudan prior to the arrival of Arabs in the twelfth century. The non-Arab ethnicities tend to live in the west, south, and east of Sudan.

Sudan and South Sudan

Darfur

Resenting discrimination and neglect by the Arab-dominated national government, Darfur’s black African ethnicities launched a rebellion in 2003. Marauding Arab nomads, known as Janjaweed, with the support of Sudan’s government, crushed Darfur’s mostly Christian black population, made up mainly of settled farmers. An estimated 300,000 people in Darfur have been victims of genocide and another 3 million victims of ethnic cleansing. Most of the ethnic cleansing victims live in dire conditions in refugee camps in the harsh desert environment of Darfur.

South Sudan

A war from 1983 until 2005 between Sudan’s northern and southern ethnicities resulted in the death of an estimated 2 million Sudanese and the ethnic cleansing of an estimated 700,000 (Figure 7-61). The war ended with the establishment of South Sudan as an independent state in 2011. In contrast to the predominantly Arab Muslim northerners, South Sudan’s two largest ethnicities are the predominantly Christian Dinka and the predominantly folk religionist Nuer. The north–south war was sparked by southern ethnicities attempting to resist northerners’ attempts to impose a legal system based on Muslim religious practice. Independence from Arab Muslim northerners has not brought peace to southerners, however. South Sudan’s diverse ethnicities have not been able to work together to create a stable government.

South Sudan Refugee Camp

Around 2 million South Sudanese are internally displaced (IDPs) and living in refugee camps.

Abyei

With the independence of South Sudan in 2011, conflict moved to the areas of Sudan along the new international border with South Sudan. Ethnicities aligned with those in the new country of South Sudan fought with supporters of the government of Sudan. The status of Abyei, a small border area inhabited by ethnicities aligned with both Sudan and South Sudan, was to be settled by a referendum of the people living there, but the vote was postponed. Until their status is settled, the people of Abyei are considered citizens of both Sudan and South Sudan. A peacekeeping force from Ethiopia is preventing either Sudan or South Sudan from seizing control of Abyei.

South Kordofan and Blue Nile

The two border areas also contain large numbers of ethnicities sympathetic to both Sudan and South Sudan. As in Abyei, a referendum intended to decide whether to place these territories in Sudan or South Sudan was canceled, leaving the future status unsettled.

Eastern Front

Ethnicities in the east have fought Sudanese government forces, with the support of neighboring Eritrea. At issue has been disbursement of profits from oil.