Minorities and the State in Africa By Michael U. Mbanaso and Chi ...

obviously existed, but their boundaries were often changing as a result of wars, conquest, and migration. The emergence of the modern state during the colonial period created a continent that forcibly grouped ethnic and religious groups among many other forms of differentiations. The result, especially in the postcolonial era, is a continent tainted by political violence, tensions between and within ethnic groups, discrimination, and serious violations of human rights. Thus, in Africa, where most states have one or more minority groups, the emergence of new nations brought the issue of the right to national self-determination to the fore. The development policies pursued by states often paid little attention to the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples. Often minorities have responded to the policies formulated by the dominant groups, with little success for achieving inclusion. In some cases, the reaction and responses of minorities have led to conflicts and further suppression of minority rights.

Most states in sub-Saharan Africa today emerged out of the colonial experience. Important characteristics of many of the new states that emerged at the end of colonialism included ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity. Because the colonial powers that created these states were insensitive to the ethnic makeup of these states, what emerged in Africa were states that consisted of not only a multiplicity of ethnic and linguistic groups but the arbitrary division of ethnic groups across national borders, thus making many indigenous peoples a minority. Indeed, “a cursory glance at African boundaries with their lines of longitude and latitude provides the clue that the divisions between States are not coterminous with population distribution; it suggests that the States are artificial, not organic.”⁵ These newly constituted structures create problems within states rather than between states.

Although minority agitation has a long history in Africa, it has acquired new impetus in the new global environment because of emerging fresh claims and interests and the extensive use of the media, including the Internet, to globalize these claims. The new focus on minority issues came in the face of persistent crimes committed against such groups. Such crimes compelled the United Nations to set up a subcommission to