Most African countries have state or district divisions that reflect cultural distinctions. All government monies are distributed to these entities and all revenues are collected from them. By examining the per capita expenditures and receipts by district one can develop a clear understanding of the relative power held by each group. Looking more closely at which districts receive development projects, credit, roads, communications networks, public health facilities, and schools completes the picture.
In Africa, administrative units often are as cultural specific as political parties. Discrepancies between regions are often thought to result from "differential development" rates. It's simpler than that; they result from institutionalized discrimination. Some African states have invested considerable sums on public education in the belief that it would eventually eliminate racial prejudice most commonly referred to as tribalism.
But, education imparts values and ideas - usually those of the dominant group - thereby reinforcing feelings of superiority or inferiority depending on the relationship of one's group to the central government. Education alienated many people from their own cultures, and at the same time, created unrealistic expectations of the state. Kenya, for example, is teeming with educated people who cannot find jobs but who no longer know how or are willing to farm.
New African states made people dissatisfied with their own cultures while at the same time growing bureaucracies filled capital cities and attracted large amounts of consumer goods.
Rural people began to flock to the cities. It is no wonder that the urbanization rate for the continent has increased so dramatically in the last 25 years. Perhaps the most important reason that African states attack cultural identity is that the existence of separate or distinct societies poses threats to the centralization of power and control of resources.
In some cases groups have been allowed to continue to practice certain cultural or religious beliefs if they agree to renounce their political and economic autonomy. However, as the power of states grows or is threatened, the rights of distinct cultural groups are curtailed even further. The groups that dominate the state and its resources also control the benefits accrued from recognition by other states - foreign assistance, investments, weapons, alliances.
During periods of economic prosperity they rarely share assets equally with the dominated groups. During periods of economic austerity, such discrimination frequently accelerates into persecution, as dominant groups attempt to maintain their own economic, political and social positions.
As a result of persecution and discrimination, Africa has produced half of the world's refugee population. As a result of policies aimed at generating foreign exchange, African states have reorganized agriculture in order to generate cash crops for export. Africans in many drought-affected countries, now starving in unprecedented numbers, are not allowed to grow food crops. The foreign exchange generated from cash crops is most often used for funding development projects which benefit the politically dominant groups in the country, importing luxury consumer goods or purchasing weapons with which dominant groups maintain power.
Africans believed that the development of strong states after independence would improve their lives as well as the status of their countries in the world. It has probably done neither. While the new states demanded allegiance, which often meant the abandonment of long-standing social and political systems, little was returned from the central government to local areas.
While governments promised a number of services, they have rarely delivered them. As a result of global recession and declining revenues, African governments can no longer fulfill such promises even if inclined to do so.
Great analogy in differentiating between the word Ethnicity and Tribe but the writer seems to lack better knowledge when it comes to what ethnic group has the majority in Afghanistan.
Throughout history the Pashtoon tribe had the majority in the country, keep in mind that not every Pashtoon tribe speaks the Pashto language. This majority has remind in place despite of the fact that the Pashtoon tribes have lost more men, women and children in wars since , first by the Russians, then during the civil war and for the past 12 years of the US invasion.
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Like this: Like Loading Fearon, James. Available right here. Upendra, a Graduate having an Honours degree in Languages flow, has scholastic experiences and knowledge on international relations and politics. Ethnic groups and tribes belong to factors of social stratification. Fig 1. Spanish Us Citizens Those belonging to one particular cultural team share typical similarities in religious, traditional, linguistic and racial identity. Fig 2. The Surma tribe Frequently, tribes ch se never to reside in towns or cities, rather they prefer to live secluded as one team within the areas that are remote.
What is the distinction Between Ethnic Group and Tribe? Available right here Image Courtesy 1.
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