Ethnicity as a tool of Political Violence

Politically instigated ethnic conflicts are common in Africa like South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo, to mention a few, have fallen victims of such conflicts. While the phenomenon of ethnicity stems back to the period of migration and settlement, the narrative was intensified by the British colonial administration which displaced some “perceived” indigenous communities in order to create room for the White Settlers. The settlers required labor which the displaced Africans were not willing to offer. The Colonial administration therefore was determined to force the Africans to work on these farms by putting into place laws that would ensure this was done. Africans from different communities were therefore forced to seek employment on the created ‘White Highlands’ and when the white settlers left, these immigrants who came to seek for employment formed schemes and bought huge chunks of land from their employers hence remained in the region many years after the colonial rule. The phenomenon of negative ethnicity continues to eat into Africans democratization struggle especially during election periods when politicians rally members of their ethnic communities for support.