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Ethnic groups

Neighbours and family first : donors should consider the effects of political favouritism in Africa

Upphovsperson: Isaksson, Ann-Sofie
Utgivare: Uppsala
År: 2015
Ämnesord: Africa South of Sahara, democracy, Ethnicity, Ethnic groups, Foreign aid, Social inequality, Ethnic favouritism, Regional favouritism
In many African countries it is a known fact that a person belonging to the same ethnic group as the president is less likely to be treated unfairly by the government. The same is valid for people living in the president’s home region, regardless of their ethnic affiliation. Ethnic and regional favouritism are two distinct but parallel problems. This Policy Note, drawn from data involving 20 000 citizens in 15 African countries, explore the scope of favouritism and its implications for citizens and democratic attitudes.

Biafran ghosts : The MASOB Ethnic Militia and Nigeria’s Democratisation Process

Upphovsperson: Okonta, Ike
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | Uppsala, Sweden
År: 2012
Ämnesord: Nigeria, Biafra, Democratization, political development, Ethnicity, Ethnic groups, Interethnic relations, Social movements, nationalism, Political science, Statsvetenskap
The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), an ethnicmilitia, emerged in the Igbo-speaking region of Nigeria in 1999, shortly after military rule ended and Olusegun Obasanjo took office as elected President. MASSOB’s stated goal is the struggle for Igbo self-determination and the re-emergence of a new sovereign state in the eastern part of the country to be known as the ‘United States of Biafra’, thereby raising the spectre of a possible break up of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This Discussion Paper examines the circumstances of MASSOB’s emergence in a period of political transition and considerable uncertainty as the Nigerian armed forces began to prepare to relinquish their grip on power, and the specific ways the promoters of this ethnicmilitia movement have shaped Nigeria’s still unfolding democratization process since 1999.

Zangbeto : Navigating Between the Spaces of Oral Art, Communal Security and Conflict Mediation in Badagry, Nigeria

Upphovsperson: Hunsu, Folashade
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2011
Ämnesord: Grass roots groups, Traditional culture, Vigilantes, Human security, Peaceful coexistence, Ethnic groups, Social and cultural anthropology, Yoruba, Nigeria, Badagry, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
This Discussion Paper critically examines Zangbeto, a highly revered society, among the Egun people in the town of Badagry, near the city of Lagos, in south west Nigeria, that have creatively re-invented tradition to serve multiple purposes. It shows how Zangbeto has in the context of economic crisis and challenges linked to urban growth, adapted its roles to include communal policing, conflict mediation, oral art and entertainment, and the maintenance of communal order. In more ways than one, it captures the essence and multiple identities of Zangbeto within Badagry society. The involvement of Zangbeto in local policing or ‘night watching’ provides an alternative or an exception to the dominant representation of vigilantism in Nigeria as disorderly violence, sometimes for political or criminal ends. This paper also demonstrates how Zangbeto, drawing upon local Egun culture and traditional practices is able to maintain security and local order at the community level. It is argued that rather than act in an arbitrary and violent manner, Zangbeto operates through the combination of traditional symbolic actions and oral art in mediating local conflicts and preserving social harmony and local order. An interesting point relates to how Zangbeto co-exists peacefully with formal political and security institutions, and operates without causing tensions within Badagry town, where some inhabitants share different ethnic identities and religious faiths. The study also opens up a humanist perspective to how the aesthetics of Zangbeto’s cultural tropes of oral presentation, rhetoric and representation act as a powerful force for preserving cherished communal norms and values, and facilitating communication in ways that strengthen social cohesion. In this regard this paper demonstrates the wealth of possibilities that exist within Africa’s traditional cultures and oral arts for alternative grassroots based conflict mediation and security.

The bush is sweet : identity, power and development among WoDaaBe Fulani in Niger

Upphovsperson: Loftsdóttir, Kristín
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2008
Ämnesord: Ethnic groups, Pastoralists, cultural identity, Ethnicity, Traditional culture, Social change, Social and cultural anthropology, Fula, Niger, Social anthropology/ethnography, Socialantrolopologi/etnografi
In this book Kristín Loftsdóttir gives the reader a highly personal insight into the lives of the Wodaabe nomads of Niger, who are striving to make a living between the bush and the city. Spending nearly two years as a Wodaabe, within a Wodaabe extended family and alternating between the nomadic setting of the bush and the urbanised life-style of the capital, Niamey, she was in a unique position to observe the effects that increasing urbanisation and globalisation, together with the modern tourist industry’s preconceptions and demands, have had on the identity and power relations of the Wodaabe. Interwoven with the abstract scientific observations are the more personal reflections and analyses of a young white woman on living within, and sharing all aspects of, the everyday lives of the Wodaabe with the broad spectrum of reactions which this entails. These sensitively written and honest descriptions, including details of what the author at times experiences as her own shortcomings within her project, give a most interesting dimension to the work not always found in social science studies which means that this book should appeal to a wider readership than might initially be expected.

The changing forms of identity politics in Nigeria under economic adjustment : the case of the oil minorities movement of the Niger Delta

Upphovsperson: Obi, Cyril
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2001
Ämnesord: Structural adjustment, Ethnic groups, Minority groups, Petroleum industry, Nigeria, Niger Delta, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
This study attempts to capture the transformations in ethnic minority identity politics in the oil-producing areas of the Niger delta. In doing this, attention is simultaneously drawn to the factors informing the shift from peaceful agitation to violent protest as well as the dynamic of decay and renewal in the various ethnic minority movements that are active in the delta. It is suggested that part of the solution to the crisis in the delta will involve not only a thorough-going restructuring of the Nigerian state but also the re-orientation of the mode of operation of the giant oil multinationals in order to make them both more sensitive and accountable to the local communities.

From the mountains to the plains : the integration of the Lafofa Nuba into Sudanese society

Upphovsperson: Manger, Leif O.
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 1994
Ämnesord: Nuba, Sudan, Liri region, Sudan, East Africa, Anthropology, Ethnic groups, Traditional culture, Adaptation to change, Cultural integration, Social integration, Agrarian structure, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
This study of the Lafofa Nuba in the Sudan is the first comprehensive analysis of a matrilineal Nuba group. The author discusses the ways in which the Lafofa people in the Sudan are affected by centralisation of administration, commercialisation of agriculture, and the influence of Muslim culture. The study is a revision of the author's dissertation in anthropology.