African Citizenship
Can we use identity and citizenship to explain Africa’s conflicts? (How best can we explain it?)
For many decades Africa has encountered many wars and conflicts with majority of them being intrastate. Nations have either been under threat, in the midst of civil war or on the road to negotiating peace. The effects that come with armed conflicts have been damaging to nation’s growth and security (Akokpari, 2008: 92). This essay is going to argue that the question of citizenship and what it means to be a citizen is closely associated with African conflict and therefore one of the ways to explain its causes. However this does not reject other causes that are a result of African conflict. I will start by briefly explaining the concept of citizenship
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He mentions the Banyarwanda community; a cultural group of people who live in Rwanda as well as outside its borders of Uganda and Congo. They are the largest ethnic group in East Africa. Those that live outside Rwanda are known as the cultural diaspora and are divided into nationals, migrants and refugees. Under British colonialism indigenous people were said to belong to an ethnic group while non-indigenous belonged to races and so colonialism was “the dividing line” (Mamdani, 2002: 494) in determining who is indigenous. The political crisis in the Luwero Triangle is best explained through the lens of citizenship. In the Buganda region of Uganda citizenship rights were associated with whoever resided on the land. The issues of rights became a crisis when the Baganda ranchlords felt the government was giving preference to the non-indigenous Banyarwanda. This led to the citizenship requirement being changed from residence to ancestry which meant that land could only be claimed if an ancestral history could be established. Many of the Banyarwanda lost their claims to land that they had previously owned (Mamdani, 2002: …show more content…
Individuals are excluded from citizenship because of colonial history that laid the foundation for post-colonial tactics. Linked to that is citizenship discrimination that the state actively does which strips many of their rights showing how the power to define who is a citizen and who is not can shape the politics of solidarity and conflict in Africa. This however, does not deny that there are other factors that contribute to causes of African conflict but rather puts emphasis on identity and citizenship as having a significant role.
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References
1. Adejumobi, S. 2001. Citizenship, Rights, and the problem of conflicts and civil wars in Africa. Human Rights Quarterly. Vol. 23, No. 1: 148-170.
2. Akokpari, J. 2008. You Dont Belong Here: Citizenship, the State and African Conflicts. Reflections on Ivory Coast. Roots of African conflict: The causes and costs: 88-105.
3. Mamdani, M. 2002. African states, citizenship and war. International Affairs. Vol. 78, No 3:
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