Mediating Ethnic Identities in Africa

Abstract

In recent times, African states have experienced multiple challenges. The most disturbing is the inability to evolve a sustainable culture of dialogue that is suitable for the mitigation of ethnic conflicts in contemporary Africa. It is this failure that has generated many other problems in other spheres. These problems, in concert, have made the socio-political space largely that of frustration, despair and disappointment. This accounts for the social design of unhealthy alliances and the basis for the affirmation of parochial primordial frivolities at the detriment of a trans-national identity. But why have the affirmation of these primordial alliances and its attendant conflicts remain daunting, intricate and resilient, in spite of the several attempts by scholars to mitigate it? The attempt in this paper will be to argue that extant discourse of the above concern fails because it ignores the value of the conditions for the practical realisation of agreement in situations of conflict. Specifically, the attempt here is to explore indigenous mediation strategies in arriving at trans-national identity in Africa, which will be inclusive other than the divisive structure that has exclusive character inherent in extant discourse.