Globalisation, ethnicity to shape Africa’s destiny
The current worldwide economic crisis has brought home to us the fact that Africa’s destiny in the 21 century is going to be shaped by two opposing phenomena namely; globalisation and ethnicity, which are now undermining the very foundation of our nation-states.
By Peter Mulira
The current worldwide economic crisis has brought home to us the fact that Africa’s destiny in the 21 century is going to be shaped by two opposing phenomena namely; globalisation and ethnicity, which are now undermining the very foundation of our nation-states.
As a result of globalisation, nation-states are becoming increasingly interconnected and seamless, while ethnicity in Africa is pulling us back into our primordial groupings in an age, which is already controlled by developments in technology as well as international institutions such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund which have come to represent a system of decision-making which is above the nation-state. At the same time, sovereignty, which has hitherto been the foundation of nation-states, is giving way to supranational groupings like the European Union and others.
While the world is going through this ferment, Africa’s obsession with ethnicity appears more and more to be out of place. Ironically, ethnicity in Africa traces its history to the impact of the earlier european globalisation in the 15th century when wealthy European merchants started trade in spices, perfumes, silk and precious stones from the orient.
Such goods used to be transported overland by Arab traders from the Middle East to Italian ports where the cities of Venice, Genoa and Pisa became the centres of the nascent east-west trade. The wealth earned from this trade allowed people the pastime to pursue learning in classical Greek and Roman civilisations which led to interest in exploration and discovery of other lands, including Africa over the next two centuries.
As a result, European explorers came in contact with African coastal areas as they sought alternatives to the overland trade routes to the orient with the aim of cutting out Arab and Italian traders and maximising trade returns, a project which was helped by the new development of large nation-state formations.
Hitherto Europe had been a patchwork of small units governed by local lords, but during the 1400s, strong monarchies developed in Spain, Portugal, England and France which established national laws, courts, taxes and armies and built better ships.
This age of artistic and intellectual creativity came to be baptised as the†renaissance†whose spirit changed the way Europeans thought about themselves and the world and was the point of departure between European and African civilisations.
Unfortunately, as Europe was breaking away from the claustrophobia of small tribal units, Africa’s version of nation-states and globalisation was suffering reverses. Powerful African kingdoms and empires which had flourished between 300 and 1600 on trade in gold, copper and iron ore with Islamic north Africa started to decline and collapse.
While it lasted, this trade with the Arab north had brought a lot of wealth and Islamic ideas to West Africa resulting in a vast trading empire called Ghana, which existed between 300 and 1100. Ghana declined after the Almoravids people from north Africa overrun it in 1076, resulting in splintered units.
This empire was replaced by the Mali empire whose capital, Timbuktu, became a centre of Islamic art and learning, especially under its greatest king, Mansa Musa (1307-1320) who once travelled to Mecca with 12,000 slaves having sent 500 royal servants ahead of him.
The Mali empire was overrun by the Songhai people from the Niger delta who captured Timbuktu in 1469. Songhai became the largest empire in the history of west Africa before it was defeated by the Moroccan army in the late 1500.
Along the east coast of Africa, a number of city-states were benefiting from trade with Arab traders who exchanged cotton, silk and porcelain from India and China for ivory and metal from the interior. It can, therefore, be said that around this time Africa’s development was at par with Europe’s before their empires collapsed.
This triggered an era of mig triggered migrations into the hinterland between AD 1000-1500 of people who went in search of grazing land or soils to cultivate. The immigrants formed new communities wherever they settled which developed into tribes.
In Uganda, most of the early populations which settled here were farmers and cultivators who came from the cradle of the Bantu people in south-eastern Congo and who lived in clan villages. The idea of appointing chiefs who ruled over a number of villages developed at this time, giving rise to lineages.
Over this line of social organisation was added the Cwezi line of kings who are thought to have come from the present Libya and who ruled the whole of southern Uganda from Lake Albert in the west to Mt. Elgon in the east. The Cwezi developed new ways of government before they were replaced by two groups which arrived around AD 1500; namely the Luo and the Bito.
The Luo, who came from the former Nubia empire, splintered into sub-groups which included the Alur, Acholi and Langis. The Bito group came in via Ethiopia and were previously connected with the Cush kingdoms whose rulers at one time governed ancient Egypt.
The Bito, who established the Kitara empire, adopted the Cwezi system of government which they embellished with Egyptian royal customs established the Kitara. Another group formed the Buganda kingdom. Out of this history of social organisation, which was based on protection of each group’s space, was born the phenomenon of ethnicity.
A Nigerian scholar has defined ethnicity as a term representing a group “that consists of people who conceive of themselves as being of a kind. They are united by emotional bonds and concerned with the preservation of their type. With very few exceptions, they speak the same language and have a common cultural heritage.â€
Ethnicity is underpinned by two elements; the primacy of language and the myth of common descent, which are used as a means to keep people together and in isolation. The desire to acquire other people’s space led to our history of wars.
Another scholar has told us that “these definitions of ethnicity indicate that an ethnic group has both objective and subjective aspects. In objective terms, an ethnic group has a common name, culture, territory, political organisation and the myth of common descent which foists a common destiny.
In subjective terms, an ethnic group points to the importance of ethnic consciousness in defining itself and suggests that such a group has transformed from being an ethnic group-in-itself to an ethnic group for-itself.â€
How to balance these aspects within a larger grouping define the character and quality of that group.When Europe was faced with the advent of globalisation in the 15th century, it responded by regrouping in nation states and looking outward beyond itself, whereas Africa went in the opposite direction by fragmenting. Europe also used the experience of the past as a trajectory into the future whereas in Africa, we continued as we do today to use the past to remain the same.
We should emulate Europe’s experience remembering that how we handle globalisation and ethnicity will determine the quality of our future. Perhaps Thabo Mbeki, the former South African President, was right when he argued in one of his books that Africa needs its own renaissance.
The writer is a lawyer
The current worldwide economic crisis has brought home to us the fact that Africa’s destiny in the 21 century is going to be shaped by two opposing phenomena namely; globalisation and ethnicity, which are now undermining the very foundation of our nation-states.
As a result of globalisation, nation-states are becoming increasingly interconnected and seamless, while ethnicity in Africa is pulling us back into our primordial groupings in an age, which is already controlled by developments in technology as well as international institutions such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund which have come to represent a system of decision-making which is above the nation-state. At the same time, sovereignty, which has hitherto been the foundation of nation-states, is giving way to supranational groupings like the European Union and others.
While the world is going through this ferment, Africa’s obsession with ethnicity appears more and more to be out of place. Ironically, ethnicity in Africa traces its history to the impact of the earlier european globalisation in the 15th century when wealthy European merchants started trade in spices, perfumes, silk and precious stones from the orient.
Such goods used to be transported overland by Arab traders from the Middle East to Italian ports where the cities of Venice, Genoa and Pisa became the centres of the nascent east-west trade. The wealth earned from this trade allowed people the pastime to pursue learning in classical Greek and Roman civilisations which led to interest in exploration and discovery of other lands, including Africa over the next two centuries.
As a result, European explorers came in contact with African coastal areas as they sought alternatives to the overland trade routes to the orient with the aim of cutting out Arab and Italian traders and maximising trade returns, a project which was helped by the new development of large nation-state formations.
Hitherto Europe had been a patchwork of small units governed by local lords, but during the 1400s, strong monarchies developed in Spain, Portugal, England and France which established national laws, courts, taxes and armies and built better ships.
This age of artistic and intellectual creativity came to be baptised as the†renaissance†whose spirit changed the way Europeans thought about themselves and the world and was the point of departure between European and African civilisations.
Unfortunately, as Europe was breaking away from the claustrophobia of small tribal units, Africa’s version of nation-states and globalisation was suffering reverses. Powerful African kingdoms and empires which had flourished between 300 and 1600 on trade in gold, copper and iron ore with Islamic north Africa started to decline and collapse.
While it lasted, this trade with the Arab north had brought a lot of wealth and Islamic ideas to West Africa resulting in a vast trading empire called Ghana, which existed between 300 and 1100. Ghana declined after the Almoravids people from north Africa overrun it in 1076, resulting in splintered units.
This empire was replaced by the Mali empire whose capital, Timbuktu, became a centre of Islamic art and learning, especially under its greatest king, Mansa Musa (1307-1320) who once travelled to Mecca with 12,000 slaves having sent 500 royal servants ahead of him.
The Mali empire was overrun by the Songhai people from the Niger delta who captured Timbuktu in 1469. Songhai became the largest empire in the history of west Africa before it was defeated by the Moroccan army in the late 1500.
Along the east coast of Africa, a number of city-states were benefiting from trade with Arab traders who exchanged cotton, silk and porcelain from India and China for ivory and metal from the interior. It can, therefore, be said that around this time Africa’s development was at par with Europe’s before their empires collapsed.
This triggered an era of mig triggered migrations into the hinterland between AD 1000-1500 of people who went in search of grazing land or soils to cultivate. The immigrants formed new communities wherever they settled which developed into tribes.
In Uganda, most of the early populations which settled here were farmers and cultivators who came from the cradle of the Bantu people in south-eastern Congo and who lived in clan villages. The idea of appointing chiefs who ruled over a number of villages developed at this time, giving rise to lineages.
Over this line of social organisation was added the Cwezi line of kings who are thought to have come from the present Libya and who ruled the whole of southern Uganda from Lake Albert in the west to Mt. Elgon in the east. The Cwezi developed new ways of government before they were replaced by two groups which arrived around AD 1500; namely the Luo and the Bito.
The Luo, who came from the former Nubia empire, splintered into sub-groups which included the Alur, Acholi and Langis. The Bito group came in via Ethiopia and were previously connected with the Cush kingdoms whose rulers at one time governed ancient Egypt.
The Bito, who established the Kitara empire, adopted the Cwezi system of government which they embellished with Egyptian royal customs established the Kitara. Another group formed the Buganda kingdom. Out of this history of social organisation, which was based on protection of each group’s space, was born the phenomenon of ethnicity.
A Nigerian scholar has defined ethnicity as a term representing a group “that consists of people who conceive of themselves as being of a kind. They are united by emotional bonds and concerned with the preservation of their type. With very few exceptions, they speak the same language and have a common cultural heritage.â€
Ethnicity is underpinned by two elements; the primacy of language and the myth of common descent, which are used as a means to keep people together and in isolation. The desire to acquire other people’s space led to our history of wars.
Another scholar has told us that “these definitions of ethnicity indicate that an ethnic group has both objective and subjective aspects. In objective terms, an ethnic group has a common name, culture, territory, political organisation and the myth of common descent which foists a common destiny.
In subjective terms, an ethnic group points to the importance of ethnic consciousness in defining itself and suggests that such a group has transformed from being an ethnic group-in-itself to an ethnic group for-itself.â€
How to balance these aspects within a larger grouping define the character and quality of that group.When Europe was faced with the advent of globalisation in the 15th century, it responded by regrouping in nation states and looking outward beyond itself, whereas Africa went in the opposite direction by fragmenting. Europe also used the experience of the past as a trajectory into the future whereas in Africa, we continued as we do today to use the past to remain the same.
We should emulate Europe’s experience remembering that how we handle globalisation and ethnicity will determine the quality of our future. Perhaps Thabo Mbeki, the former South African President, was right when he argued in one of his books that Africa needs its own renaissance.
The writer is a lawyer