Ethnic Groups In Africa Research Articles

Building tribes: How administrative units shaped ethnic groups in Africa

AbstractEthnic identities around the world are deeply intertwined with modern statehood, yet the extent to which territorial governance has shaped ethnic groups is empirically unknown. I argue that governments at the national and subnational levels have incentives to bias governance in favor of large groups. The resulting disadvantages for ethnic minorities motivate their assimilation and emigration. Both gradually align ethnic groups with administrative borders. I examine the result of this process at subnational administrative borders across sub‐Saharan Africa and use credibly exogenous, straight borders for causal identification. I find substantive increases in the local population share of administrative units' predominant ethnic group at units' borders. Powerful traditional authorities and size advantages of predominant groups increase this effect. Data on minority assimilation and migration show that both drive the shaping of ethnic groups along administrative borders. These results highlight important effects of the territorial organization of modern governance on ethnic groups.

The emergence of praise-poetry recitation in the Ịjọ community

This article focuses on the emergence of praise-poetry recitation among the Ịjọ of Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. It argues that until the contemporary period, the Ịjọ had no such poetic form. The article therefore examines how Chief Adolphus Munamuna, Ọụbẹbẹ Kẹnị Ịzọn Ibe (The Chief Oral Poet of the Ịzọn Nation), was influenced by Yoruba bards to begin a poetic tradition that was previously alien to the Ijo community. It further compares the tradition, as it is practised by the Ọụbẹbẹ Kẹnị Ịzọn Ibe, with other ethnic groups in Africa, including the Yoruba, Hausa, Somali and the Bantu-speaking peoples of southern Africa where the culture of praise chanting continues to this day.

Kinship, double descent and gender politics amongst the Dimasas of Northeast India

ABSTRACT This essay is based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out among the Dimasas (of Assam and Nagaland) in Northeastern India. This Indigenous group has a system of double descent which places them separately from the other ethnic groups in the Indian subcontinent. In double descent, lineages are drawn through both the paternal and maternal lines of descent. The existing literature suggests that studies on double descent have mostly focused on ethnic groups in Africa, while not much research has been done on Dimasas or other Indigenous groups with double descent in the region. The paper attempts to fill the gap in South Asian anthropological literature on kinship discourses by focusing on the Dimasas of Northeast India. Further, by taking gender as an analytical tool, the paper attempts to explore the complex cultural contours of the double descent system, which intricately gets subsumed within the patriarchal setup in Dimasa society.

“My Outfit, My Identity”: An Ethnographic Study of the Akan of Ghana and the Basotho of Lesotho

Culture is a way of life. It is anything that identifies a group of people; it makes them unique or different from others. The most striking symbol of culture is an outfit or attire. What people wear or how they dress (their outfit) projects their cultural identity. The Akan of Ghana and Basotho of Lesotho are typical examples of ethnic groups in Africa whose cultural heritage and identities are epitomised in their outfits. These ethnic groups are proud of their culture and unapologetic in putting on traditional attire or dresses that culturally identify them wherever they may be found. Akan women wear kaba (a top dress) with a slit that is stylishly designed by professional dressmakers using colourful kente (gorgeous) or other textiles and fabrics with matching duku (headgear) and bead ornaments around the neck and the wrist. The men wear colourful kente and joromi (tie-dye) shirts, smocks (fugu), or dashiki made from embroidered natural cotton materials. The Basotho are known for wearing expensive and beautiful Seshoeshoe (named after King Moshoeshoe, the founder of the Basotho nation) and likobo (a blanket made from animal fur) outfits with matching hats (molia-nyeoe). This ethnographic study investigates the raison d’etre for the unapologetic display of cultural outfits among the two African ethnic groups. The study, which employed the qualitative research methods of interviews and observation for data collection, found that the two groups are fond of their uniqueness because of their belief that without culture one is lost. The study concludes that Africa’s rebirth is an encouragement for Africans to project and preserve their heritage and identities.

Historical African ethnic class stratification systems and intergenerational transmission of education

ABSTRACT This paper examines the role of precolonial class inequality systems in the intergenerational transmission of education processes amongst ethnic groups in Africa. Using ethnographic and household survey data from six African countries and grouping ethnic groups by the historical class system that existed within them, I observe variations in intergenerational persistence between them with varying levels of significance in the different countries included. The findings suggest that understanding intergenerational mobility within African countries should take into account the different historical ethnic group characteristics, although the mobility process does not evolve uniformly across countries. Country-specific colonial administrative systems and the immediate post-independence education policies are critical factors that also need to be taken into account to understand the changes in education-based intergenerational persistence from the precolonial to the contemporary period.

Greed, grievance, or graduates? Why do men rebel?

Education is widely known for its positive effect on conventional politics and nonviolent protest as well as its suppressive effect on violence. However, recent studies have connected education to violence through its effect on relative deprivation and frustration–aggression mechanisms. We address these divergent findings by presenting a theory of the conditional effect that education has on violence. To do so, we build on literature addressing education’s positive association with political participation, such as voting and protests, and question how this relationship translates to contexts in which conventional and nonviolent channels are unlikely to be effective – specifically, in cases of politically excluded ethnic groups. We argue that education increases ethnic group members’ resources and desire to address grievances. Yet, because the ethnic group is politically excluded, opportunities for conventional politics and nonviolent protest are limited. Educated ethnic group members are limited in political options, and are thus more likely to address their grievances through the support of rebel groups, increasing the probability of violence. Violence then occurs in localities where members of a politically excluded ethnic group are located and where those members have higher levels of education. Using geo-spatial data and statistical analysis, we demonstrate that education has divergent effects on violence in areas populated by politically excluded versus politically included ethnic groups in Africa and Central America. Areas with highly educated politically excluded ethnic group members are the most likely to experience violent events.

The Making of Contemporary Art in Tanzania

The Making of Contemporary Art in Tanzania

State Anti-Robbery Squad operations and restructuring in Nigeria: Semiotics of the #EndSARS protests

End State Anti-Robbery Squad (#EndSARS) protests represent symptoms of systemic issues in Nigeria. Those issues range from ideological differences of the various ethnic nationalities to the constitutional and structural imbalance in the political and economic equation. This paper attempts to put in perspective the implications of the over-centralisation of both political and economic powers. To do this, this research examines the events leading up to the #EndSARS protest, as well as the various signs and symbols emanating from the #EndSARS movement. Semiotics Theory is employed as conceptual framework and methodology to highlight the factors that ail Nigeria at the systemic level. Semioticians engage in a search for deep structures underlying the surface features of phenomena. With Semiotic theory as framework, this paper takes seriously the social conditions that led to the #EndSARS Protests, not neglecting the role of ideologies. The research has the potential to make useful contributions to both academic and socio-political cum economic knowledge for a meaningful national dialogue among contesting ethnic groups in Africa.

Underutilized African indigenous fruit trees and food–nutrition security: Opportunities, challenges, and prospects

AbstractThe diverse range of indigenous fruit trees in Africa is a source of untapped potential for food and nutrition security. Here, we review information on 10 indigenous fruit trees that are considered to be underutilized and explore their occurrence, distribution, nutritional components, phytochemicals, and medicinal potentials, as well as their associated challenges and prospects. The indigenous fruit trees, which occur across different ecological zones in Africa, are rich sources of vitamins, minerals, protein, and valuable phytochemicals. They also have recognized medicinal value and used as diverse therapeutic remedies by many ethnic groups in Africa. The key challenges to fruit tree sustainability include indiscriminate and illegal logging, low accessibility, and low acceptability, as well as inadequate research on their cultivation. We proposed a scheme to increase the value chain of underutilized fruit trees, which can contribute to the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and other stakeholders mainly through income generation. In addition to the concerted efforts of multidisciplinary research teams encompassing plant breeders, botanists, molecular biologists, food scientists, and horticulturists, there is an urgent need for governments and other international stakeholders to provide incentives and encourage the domestication, commercialization, and agro‐processing of underutilized fruit trees for future economic prosperity of Africa.

Sleep, bark, or bite: Do natural resources make the difference regarding peaceful or violent conflict?

Natural resources can create state-based and other conflicts through several causal mechanisms. Debate, however, has remained silent on forms of conflict, especially why violent or peaceful collective action occurs. Combining the literatures on nonviolent- and armed conflict with work on the resource–conflict link, we developed a number of hypotheses on how resources affect the conditions under which collective actors such as ethnic groups remain dormant, voice grievances peacefully or engage in violent rebellion. A grid-cell analysis of ethnic groups in Africa largely confirmed our expectation on the effect of resources. Resource deposits increased the risk that violent conflict would occur; the effect was reversed and ethnic groups become dormant when groups living in resource regions were politically included. We also found some evidence that lootable resources fuel violent but not peaceful conflict. However, the non-resource context best explained the difference between violent and nonviolent conflict. Democracy, political exclusion and geography such as distance from capital and transborder ethnic kin were key in explaining why violent and not peaceful protest emerged. Future research should dig deeper into mechanisms of how resources affect forms of conflict and should further study non-resource conditions that can have functionally equivalent effects.

Using Culture to Enhance Ambience: Artistic Inspiration from Leather Crafts

The choice of a theme and concept in any design work is fundamental to driving the success of a project. In this paper, the author draws attention to the use of material culture of the Maasai, Swahili and the Luo of Kenya as sources of inspiration for deriving designs to be applied on leather. The culturally inspired leather crafts have enabled the promotion of the Kenyan identity and the richness of Kenya’s artifacts. Grounded on the results of a study, and with a focus on the various techniques of leather decoration employed independently or in combination, the paper exploits the use of leather by the three cultures upon which the execution of the project was done. In the study, the author adopted use of other materials alongside leather to enhance its aesthetic value as a piece of art work or as a decorative upholster. The study being experimental in nature, data was mainly collected via various observations made in curio shops, guest houses and markets dealing with leather crafts in the industry. To demonstrate that material culture of the Luo, Swahili and Maasai (and by extension those of other ethnic groups in Africa) form an important, rich and largely untapped source of artistic inspiration for leather crafts and other art areas, the author displays photographic data indicating the culture in which each artistic work is embraced .

MEDICINAL USES, BIOLOGICAL AND PHYTOCHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF HELICHRYSUM FOETIDUM (L.) MOENCH. (ASTERACEAE)

Helichrysum foetidum is a medicinal plant species with various medicinal applications among different ethnic groups in Africa, Asia, and Europe. This review was aimed at providing a critical appraisal of the existing medicinal uses, biological activities, and phytochemical components of H. foetidum. Literature search for information on medicinal uses, biological activities, and phytochemical components of H. foetidum was conducted using various online search engines such as Scopus, Google Scholar, Mendeley, and Web of Science. Additional information on these aspects was sourced from the university library. Literature studies revealed that H. foetidum is mainly used to induce trances and as herbal medicine against wounds, sores, dysmenorrhea, eye infections, influenza, and as a sedative. Phytochemical compounds identified from the species include chalcones, diterpenoids, flavanols, flavonoids, phenolics, phenols, and proanthocyanidins. Pharmacological studies revealed that H. foetidum extracts and compounds have antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antioxidant, protease-inhibiting, and cytotoxicity activities. There is a need for advanced phytochemical and pharmacological evaluations and clinical trials aimed at evaluating the therapeutic potential of H. foetidum in Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Choosing Whom to Target: Horizontal Inequality and the Risk of Civil and Communal Violence

Do different types of inequality spur violence with different targets? This article explores whom violent movements choose to target when they take to arms, by comparing civil conflicts, which target the state, to communal conflicts, which target other ethnic groups. Different types of ethnic group disadvantage relate to conflict through different mechanisms. Political exclusion is expected to promote the choice to target the central government rather than other ethnic groups, while economic disadvantages should increase the risk of both civil and communal conflicts. The different expectations stem from two important differences between political and economic horizontal inequalities: only the government has the authority to change the political distribution, while there can be many avenues to economic redistribution; and blame is more straightforwardly assigned to the government for political than for economic disadvantages. Statistical analysis of 155 politically relevant ethnic groups in Africa (1991–2009) provides support for both propositions.

Korean Variant Archive (KOVA): a reference database of genetic variations in the Korean population

Despite efforts to interrogate human genome variation through large-scale databases, systematic preference toward populations of Caucasian descendants has resulted in unintended reduction of power in studying non-Caucasians. Here we report a compilation of coding variants from 1,055 healthy Korean individuals (KOVA; Korean Variant Archive). The samples were sequenced to a mean depth of 75x, yielding 101 singleton variants per individual. Population genetics analysis demonstrates that the Korean population is a distinct ethnic group comparable to other discrete ethnic groups in Africa and Europe, providing a rationale for such independent genomic datasets. Indeed, KOVA conferred 22.8% increased variant filtering power in addition to Exome Aggregation Consortium (ExAC) when used on Korean exomes. Functional assessment of nonsynonymous variant supported the presence of purifying selection in Koreans. Analysis of copy number variants detected 5.2 deletions and 10.3 amplifications per individual with an increased fraction of novel variants among smaller and rarer copy number variable segments. We also report a list of germline variants that are associated with increased tumor susceptibility. This catalog can function as a critical addition to the pre-existing variant databases in pursuing genetic studies of Korean individuals.

English

Mystroxylon aethiopicum has been used by many ethnic groups in Africa for the management of hemorrhagic diarrhea, stomachache, respiratory tract infections, urinary tract infections coughs, hypertension and gonorrhea. This study was carried out to identify low molecular weight phytochemicals present in the root bark extract of M. aethiopicum with the aid of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) technique. The GC-MS analysis revealed the presence of various low molecular weight phytochemicals which belongs to four groups of secondary metabolites namely sesquiterpenes, dieterpenes, monoterpenes and fatty acids. The presence of these phytochemicals in the plant extract may be positively associated with pharmacological properties of M. aethiopicum and therefore justifying the ethnomedical usage of the plant. Key words: Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis, pharmacological properties, phytochemicals.

Regime Stability and the Persistence of Traditional Practices

I investigate the role of national institutions on the persistence of cultural norms and traditions. In particular, I examine why the harmful tradition of female genital mutilation (FGM) persists in certain African countries while in others it has been successfully eradicated. I argue that people are more willing to abandon their institutions and traditions if they are sure that the government is durable enough to set up long term replacements for them. If the regime is weak, people revert to their traditional cultural norms. I exploit the fact that ethnic groups in Africa were artificially partitioned by national borders and, using a country-ethnicity panel dataset, I show that one standard deviation in political regime durability explains at least 14% of the standard deviation of the share of circumcised women. The results are robust to an array of control variables and robustness checks. I confirm that the results are unlikely to be spurious by using within nation variation in regime durability induced by leaders' deaths from natural causes.

Yoruba Indigenous Medical Knowledge: A Study of the Nature, Dynamisms, and Resilience of Yoruba Medicine

The Yoruba people, whose major homeland is southwestern Nigeria, are one of the major ethnic groups in Africa. They have a long history of highly sophisticated sociocultural and political systems. Like other ethnic groups in Africa, the Yoruba have an impressive system of indigenous medicine. The Yoruba indigenous forms of medical practices are still in existence up until today in spite of the influence of colonization, westernization, and modernization. The Yoruba medicine has its distinct nature, forms, and methods, and it has been very resilient to the imposed western medical system since the colonial period. Against this background, this paper examines the nature, forms, and methods of the traditional Yoruba medicine. The paper discovers that the traditional Yoruba medicine is typified by the use of herbs, roots, concoction, verbal incantations, and so on. It is also found out that among the Yoruba, health and religion are intertwined and therefore, the efficacy of Yoruba medicine is dependent on the approval of the Yoruba gods and goddesses (Orisha). In other words, important aspects of Yoruba medicine are belief system and spirituality. The paper concludes that, in spite of the great influence of modern western medicine, the Yoruba indigenous medicine is very resilient and it continues to play a vital role in the health management system among the Yoruba in contemporary Nigeria.

L´Architecture Dogon

The purpose of this paper is to offer a brief review on the architectural style of the Dogon tribe from Mali, who is one of the most famous ethnic groups in Africa. Known for their amazing mask dances and wooden sculptures, they show us how the complex Dogon cosmogony is a part of their daily life because it explains the origin of the world and the traditional customs. The Dogon developed a style of mud architecture what amazes us with its variety because all the buildings in their village, such as granaries and toguna have a particular significance. The remarkable earthen architecture, social organization and religion are inseparable, everyday life mingle with the ritual life.

Personal Identity and “Life-Here-After Poetics”: A Critique of Maduabuchi Dukor’s Metaphysics

This essay examines Maduabuchi Dukor’s perspective on the African conception of man, personal identity and“life-here-after”. This is with a view to showing that although, Dukor’s views represent what obtain among some ethnic nationalities in Africa, this nevertheless does not provide a basis for generalising across the whole of Africa, as there are countless number of ethnic groups in Africa to which Dukor’s general claims may not be applicable. Given the varieties of metaphysical conceptions of man and destiny in Africa which we are yet to fully explore, and given also the inherent contradictions in some of these conceptions, which calls into questioning, the veracity of claims made therein, it will amount to a major logical error to make sweeping generalisations that would be representative of the whole of Africa. Such generalisations would remain a non-holistic, but partial representation of the African conception of man and human destiny.

Explaining ethnic bloc voting in Africa

What explains bloc voting among ethnic groups in Africa? Using the Herfindahl Hirschman Index of Concentration on partisan preference data from the Afrobarometer, this article tests several hypotheses regarding the explanation as to why some ethnic groups: (1) express voting preferences as a bloc; (2) express voting preferences as a bloc for the governing party or the opposition. This article found that the geographic concentration of the group best explained general bloc voting. In terms of the direction of support, the degree to which a group is discriminated against and politically mobilized explains bloc voting against the governing party, whereas bloc voting for the governing party is explained by the extent to which the governing party is politically dominant. This suggests that the prospects for patronage helps explain voting as a bloc for most all groups, except those that face discrimination and are politically mobilized.