The manner African countries are arranged, especially regarding efforts that go into blinding people to the truth, reminds one of the film "Men in Black" in which those who are not on the inside and have seen an alien get their memory erased. The gadget in the film is very effective and, apart from memory, leaves no other side effects. In this real life example, however, the methods employed always work against the good of everybody. It results in unbelievably hateful and violent dispositions, and a general, intense malaise that takes away the creative force of the group. The harm is permanent and the damage is perpetuated for generations to come.
We have to remember when dealing with the prevention of ethnic violence in Africa that these are countries characterized by the failure of the state apparatus. What this says about the leaders of the regimes on duty is that they are grossly inept at almost everything except pulverizing their own fates and people, and, of course, self aggrandizement. Ruling party conduct where prevention of inter-ethnic unrest is concerned is the same as with everything else. It is inept, often irresponsible, ignores the problem hoping it will go away, abuses the problem for political gain (inadvertently worsens the issue), or feels it is doing the right thing but is in fact applying uninformed and ineffective methods that harm the people, and subsequently the welfare of the state.
Examples of African leaders who didn't just get their country into a terrible state by meddling with ethnic issues, but put their own selves in a lot of trouble as a result include Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast. According to Amnesty International, quoting UN refugee agency figures, some 670 thousand people remain displaced after Ivory Coast's post-election violence that happened in April and May this year. They are afraid to return for fear of ethnic reprisals. Aljazeera reports that ethnic cleansing is still going on in Ivory coast.
As is customary for the continent, the new president, Alassane Quattara, appears to have come into office eager to observe this African tradition. He is reported to be turning a blind eye to abuses of Gbagbo's ethnic group by his tribesmen, or others loyal to him. It is either the case that he doesn't care. Maybe he doesn't know he is making things worse. It could just be that his behaviour is due to helplessness, the kind felt before a formidable foe the likes of which the previous unscrupulous regime conjured up from the nether world, and then left without disclosing the incantation.
Regimes in Africa do not understand the power of the ethnic instinct. If they did, then they would never apply remedies akin to self harm to the issue. They do not care how their actions are interpreted, how they are judged and in what ethnic light they are viewed (regardless they are multi-ethnic). They definitely only realize how much harm they have done when it is too late. It may seem from this behaviour that a good number of leaders in this region appear to want a continent that can achieve very little, if by this they are easier to control, and take their people for granted. The conduct of many leaders on the continent also suggests they are more than convinced they have the situation under control. They feel they have done the necessary work and left no stones unturned.
To give an example, the Zambian regime has of late been very busy ensuring the multitudes in the country can count on timely consent by those political parties that will lose the elections. In light of post election result violence witnessed in a number of African countries, the fear has set in, and no politico in his right mind will act irresponsibly by procrastinating, let alone egging his supporters into battle, when election results are announced and the loser disagrees with them. It is now considered a duty for all involved to concede defeat in as timely and orderly a manner as can be, to settle disputes through available channels, in the name of peace and tranquility. This mood is being induced by constant repetition in words or pictures, those behind the campaign sure it will be effective. There is nothing wrong with this, but the problem is the ruling party is not considering the effects its own actions will have on how people react to results. They are sending this messge out while stepping on toes. This same tactic was actually also employed in Kenya prior to the post-election violence of 2007.
The failure of measures aimed at preventing inter-ethnic violence lies in the reality there is never likelihood, nor is there a fitting mentality where inter-ethnic violence is concerned. People will not always respond to a switch, and there is no social institution or technology that can control inter-ethnic violence. This truth is immediately verifiable if we check accounts by those who witnessed ethnic unrest first hand, and noticed that, every time it happened, it was sudden, not in the least anticipated, and ugly beyond belief. Charles Dickens wrote quite a bit on what he considered the forgetful nature of human beings. He described how difficult it was for people to imagine the neat clad, good mannered English gentleman engaged in lowly acts of violence, yet he had witnessed men of this stature turn from well clad gentleman into monsters, overnight, in major wars between European nationalities.
We can talk to, or read about, the living, today's Bosnians, Rwanda's Hutus and Tutsies, and others. They will most definitely inform that neighbours mass murdering each other, neighbours wielding machetes on each other, people hiding out in swamps and marshes for fear of being hacked to pieces, was the last thing they ever thought possible. In Rwanda before this tragedy, people were aware there was discrimination and tribalism, but thought the country was full of big cowards. They did entertain the idea, but always dismissed it as an impossibility because of this. Remember here that this is how those in Rwanda who were not too careful how they treated others felt, those who abused power in an impoverished environment where everything is in place for the ugly tribal instinct to materialize.
Today, most people in Rwanda who remember this mind-set regret it. In hindsight, they see they were not attentive enough. They believe a little bit more attention from a critical number of people is all it would have taken to avert the nightmare. I, however, do not see attentiveness to be much of a help in such a situation. The instinct never lends itself to such easy detection. It usually lies buried beneath veils of loyalty, ideology, political cause, etc. Usually by a precipitating event, the instinct comes to the fore, when least expected.
According to Jarle Simensen, Professor Emeritus, Department of Archeology, Conservation and History at the University of Oslo, ethnic unrest usually starts out as something else, "...But once the feuding parties have resorted to violence, be this on an ideological, political or other non-ethnic basis, we see in Africa, just as in the Balkans and the Caucasus, that ethnicity overrides all other forms of loyalty with a ferocity that belies belief, but is easier to understand if we bear in mind the role that nationalism has played in European history".
Ah! Europe. The place where the French fought the Germans because they were German, and vice-versa. Europe is the one place where we can ascertain that ethnic violence is a human condition, the place where the power inherent in the instinct is demonstrated in, for example, Napoleon's unwitting awakening and underestimation of German nationalism that cost the Holy Roman Empire dearly. Europe is one place that, unlike Africa, has found its own solution to this issue and, today, one of the few places where one would expect inter-ethnic violence (yet it does occur).
The most frightening reality is that a good number of Africans harbour some form of ethnic resentment. If things were to go wrong, the number of people who would milk the tribal instinct for all it is worth - particularly politicians with some bone to grind with ethnic groups they feel are the bane of their existence - far outnumber those who would be busy damming the flow, who would as such be fighting an uphill battle.
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