No region of the world is more closely associated with ethnicity than Africa. Public media fall back on this truth to explain conflicts. Policy analysts wishing to predict Africa's development have tried their hands at it. Social scientists too have spent a lot of intellectual energy attempting to understand its role in African society and politics. Thus, there is a rich and varied literature on the subject. The purpose of this chapter is to try to do justice to what has been written over the years and come up with an interpretation that acknowledges its significance but does not overstate its role as explanatory variable. This means examining how the concept is being defined in the scholarly community and how it compares for explanatory purposes with other potential variables.

BACKGROUND

Before proceeding to a closer analysis, it might be helpful to provide a brief description of how people in Africa experience ethnicity and how it differs from the way in which Westerners have used the term over the years. As suggested in Chapter 4, Africa's informal institutions, ethnicity being one of them, may be distinguished by the extent to which they are symmetrical and inclusive. Within these parameters, however, the most striking thing about these institutions is their malleability. They are constantly being reoriented and reshaped in response to emerging constraints and opportunities in society. That is why they are also tenable. They constantly recur to meet new challenges. Most Africans are used to this way of life. Constant social maneuvering, if not fun, is at least what they are ready to excel in. This is a reality that is very different from what people know in countries where formal institutions dominate. In Europe as well as in North America, certainty and predictability are among the most highly held values. Where the state is consolidated, it becomes an economic planning and steering instrument aimed at minimizing threats to the system. The public is being socialized into believing that society can manage itself through formal institutions without harm to individuals and groups.