Uncovering the Legitimacy of Possible Causes of Conflict in African States

Abstract

There has been prominent conflict and intense violence throughout African countries in the past and recent years. This paper will present research regarding the effectiveness of proposed causal mechanisms contributing to the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The plausible causes which may have led to the escalation of conflict in Rwanda during the 1990’s will be discussed. However, a key concept which seemed to lack further analysis when discussing the origin of conflict in Rwanda was the “why” aspect. As my research discusses, there has been similar causal mechanisms outlined and prevalent among various case studies in Africa. Therefore, an imperative question to ask is: Why has the intensity of violence differed between certain African countries that share the existence of similar causal factors? Specifically, I focus on the effectiveness of Belgian colonialism as a contributing factor to the Rwandan genocide and the lack of legitimacy of primordial classification (traditional and static claims depicting similar characteristics which are shared among groups and people). I compare the effects of these possible causes by analyzing the case studies of Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, in an attempt to explain the differences in the levels of violence witnessed in all three countries which were significantly affected by Belgian colonialism and ethnic classifications of people.