Ethnicity and religion in African

Politics

There are an estimated 1500-2000 African languages.

Of these languages four main groupings can be
distinguished:
Afro-Asiatic
(appoximately 200 languages) covering nearly Northern
Africa (including the horn of Africa, Central Sahara et the
top Nile)
Nilo-Saharian
gathering appoximately 140 languages with some eleven
millions speakers scattered in Central and Eastern Africa.
Niger-Saharian(Niger-Congo)
covering the two third of Africa with as a principal branch
the Niger-Congo which gathers more than 1000
languages with some 200 millions speakers. The Bantu
languages of Central, Southern, and Eastern Africa form a
sub-group of the Niger Congo branch.
Khoisan
gathering about thirty languages in Western part of
Southern Africa.
Source:
http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/african_languages.
htm

Over the course of 100 days (AprilJuly 1994), a genocidal campaign

against moderate Hutu and Tutsis in
Rwanda resulted in the death of
500,0001,000,000 Rwandans (20%
of the country's total population and
70% of the Tutsi then living in
Rwanda)

Hegemonial exchange
as an ideal type, hegemonial exchange is a form of
state-facilitated co-ordination in which a somewhat
autonomous central state and a number of considerably
less autonomous ethnoregional (and other) interests
engage in a process of mutual accommodation on the
basis of commonly accepted procedural norms, rules, or
understandings

Hegemonial exchange - problems

The lack of skill, or will, to balance all the ethnic groups
within the nation-state;
The massive inefficiencies that rule through hegemonial
exchange generate;
This basis of government only provides a limited degree
of representation for those in civil society.

Animism
animist beliefs: the belief that the physical world is controlled by
many kinds of spirits; of the earth, rivers, rain, sun, hunting, animals,
and so on. African religions also usually involve the worship of, and
communicating with, ancestors and ghosts of the dead who have
achieved partial divinity. Often this ancestor will be a real or mythical
hero who founded the ethnic group concerned. These beliefs give a
powerful political position to individuals, priests, lineage and clan
elders, rainmakers, diviners, prophets, and other figures who act as
intermediaries to the spirits. Witchcraft and sorcery are also still
given widespread credence across Africa today, as many respect this
traditional animist world of spirits and ancestors (Alex Thomson)

Desmond Tutu,
Anglican
Archbishop, one of
the leaders of the
anti-apartheid
movement