Africa

B

2

Formation of Ethnic Identities

If ethnicity is considered synonymous with how people are identified, both by themselves and others, then throughout Africa, language serves as its primary marker. Language links people to a specific place of origin, which, in turn, signals a shared cultural history. In South Africa, for example, the Zulu and Xhosa speak languages that are almost identical, but the minor differences are enough for people to make the distinction between the two groups. This is important to their sense of identity because the Zulu and Xhosa have followed very different paths over the last several centuries of history. Some peoples have even deeper roots. The Songhai identity existed even before the group ruled a vast West African empire in the 15th and 16th centuries.

By way of contrast, the ethnic identities of many other peoples are more recent and often derive largely from external sources. The Gogo of central Tanzania are a case in point. In the mid-19th century they lived in many small clan-based chiefdoms that had no sense of being part of a wider Gogo group, even though they shared the same language. However, the phrase “gogo” was a part of several of the clans’ names, and their Nyamwezi neighbors picked up on this as a way to refer to all of them. When Arab and Swahili traders arrived in the area in the mid-19th century, they adopted this designation and passed it along to the first Europeans to enter the area. Because of repeated use, the name Gogo became accepted, eventually by the people themselves.

This process of naming groups on the basis of language similarities gained speed during the colonial era. This was done largely for administrative purposes, allowing colonial rulers to appoint chiefs to recruit labor and collect taxes from so-called tribes occupying specific designated areas. Anthropologists followed suit and classified ethnic groups by language similarities and locale. Without these external effects, it is unlikely that many of the overarching African ethnic identities now taken for granted would have developed.

The Hutu and Tutsi of Rwanda and Burundi demonstrate that factors other than language play roles in the formation of ethnic identities. Prior to the colonization of these regions, “Hutu” and “Tutsi” designated what might best be called classes, with the former referring to farmers and the latter designating cattle keepers. The two classes shared a common language, and people moved from one to the other by way of marriage or the ownership of cattle. When the Germans and subsequently the Belgians colonized the region, they assumed that the Tutsi were rulers, and thus privileged them with education and positions of authority in the colonial state. By the mid-20th century the boundaries between Hutu and Tutsi identities hardened to where they started to conceive of themselves as separate peoples. Since the independence of Rwanda and Burundi, this separateness has periodically led to one group treating the other as a hated enemy in efforts to rule the countries. In a real sense, they now conceive of themselves as separate ethnic groups.

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Way of life, not language, is what differentiates some ethnic groups from each other. In Tanzania, the Masai and Arusha speak the same language, but those who herd cattle are known as Masai, while those that gave up herding to become farmers are known as Arusha. Similarly, not too long ago, whether or not a person herded sheep distinguished Khoikhoi from San in the Cape region of South Africa. In these cases, people who changed occupations ended up changing their ethnic identities as well.

A person’s religion sometimes is the crucial factor defining his or her identity. This is what differentiates Christian Copts from their Muslim neighbors in Egypt. In addition, people sometimes identify themselves as Arabs simply because they adopted the religion of Islam and developed supposed genealogical links to the Prophet Muhammad.

An interesting case of ethnicity involves the pygmy hunter-gatherers of equatorial Africa, among whom the Mbuti of the Ituri region of the DRC are best known. While there are indications that the various pygmy groups had their own unique languages at some point, they all adopted the languages of the nearby Bantu farmers with whom they interacted. In this case, occupation, residence, and physical differences all came together to create a sense of ethnic distinctiveness that both sides recognize.

Liberia is home to Americo-Liberians, a people who trace their ancestry to freed slaves from North America. Use of English, the Protestant religion, and a wide array of other American cultural traits immediately set them apart from their indigenous African neighbors, over whom they ruled until being ousted from power in 1980.

Upon independence, most African countries sought to create national identities for their people. These have yet to develop to any significant degree, and thus ethnic identities—whether forged long ago or only relatively recently—are what most people hold onto as an indication of where their true loyalties reside. Ethnic politics have thus become commonplace in Africa, with Rwanda and Burundi illustrating the extreme end of the scale. Zimbabwe is wracked by hostility between Shona and Ndebele. In Nigeria, Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa compete, sometimes violently, with each other and with other minority groups. At the other end of the scale, ethnic politics is of little importance in Tanzania, which is so diverse that no group is particularly powerful. Sometimes older ethnic rivalries become submerged beneath other differences. This has happened in Sudan, wracked by a decades-long civil war between the Islamic, Arabic-speaking north and the non-Islamic, non-Arabic-speaking south. This conflict has put on hold long-standing disputes between the Dinka and Nuer of the south, which could surface again if the civil war were resolved.

C

Religion

If religion is defined as a set of beliefs and practices related to moral behavior on earth and to life after death, then each African society developed its own distinctive version. Despite the diversity, several common themes are fairly widespread. One is the belief in a creator, who brings the universe into being and then departs, perhaps to the sky or to some distant place like a mountaintop. Another commonality involves the importance of ancestors. Death does not end one’s existence, rather it moves one to a non-earthly realm to congregate with those who have gone before and those who will come after. Various rituals, including sacrifice, are conducted to honor and placate ancestors, to ensure that they help rather than cause trouble for the living. This is often referred to as “ancestor worship,” which is a misnomer: It is not so much worship of ancestors as it is recognition of the importance of community—past, present, and future. A third commonality is the presence of religious specialists, including rainmakers, healers, diviners, and priests, represented in various proportions depending on the African society in question. Yet another common element is the pervasiveness of religion in everyday life. Spirituality is present in sacred places, art, music, dance, storytelling, and ceremonies such as name giving, initiation, and marriage. Indigenous religions remain widely practiced throughout sub-Saharan Africa. In many countries, adherents to indigenous belief systems make up more than 20 percent of the population, and in some—notably Liberia, Benin, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, and Mozambique—more than 50 percent.

The first world religion to reach Africa was Judaism, which spread into Egypt sometime during the 2nd millennium bc. Subsequently, Jewish people may have converted various Berber communities to the west. In addition, during the 1st century bc Jewish migrants crossed the Red Sea from the Arabian Peninsula and settled in the northern highlands of what is now Ethiopia. Over time, they won converts from the local populations and eventually formed a distinctive Jewish community called Beta Israel (referred to derogatorily as Falashas in Ethiopia).

During the first centuries ad Christianity spread across North Africa, more by conversion than migration. In Egypt, the Christian sect of Monophysitism gained preeminence, and Egyptian Monophysites became known as Coptic Christians, or Copts (see Coptic Church). From Egypt, Coptic Christianity spread south to Nubia, and reached Abyssinia during the 4th century, becoming the state religion of the Kingdom of Aksum and subsequent Ethiopian states. Catholicism prevailed over rival Christian sects in northwestern Africa with the help of Saint Augustine, an Algerian and one of the framers of Western theology.

In 639 Islam began its march across North Africa (see Spread of Islam). For the most part, even though Islam was brought by conquering armies, conversion was mostly voluntary. Converts were quickly won in northwestern Africa, where many people saw Islam as a vibrant spiritual and material alternative to a decaying Christian world. Scattered Catholic communities did, however, manage to survive in North Africa into the 15th century. Conversion to Islam moved more slowly in Nubia and in Egypt, where the Coptic Church is still strong.

In the 8th century Arab merchants brought Islam to coastal communities along the Horn of Africa, and the religion subsequently spread inland to other peoples, notably the Somali. In the 12th century, and possibly earlier, Islam gained adherents farther south along the Indian Ocean coast in what is now Kenya and Tanzania.

Another wave of Jewish immigration occurred in the late 15th century, when Christian armies reconquered the last Muslim-ruled areas of Spain. Jews in Spain were given a choice between exile or forcible conversion to Christianity, and many Jews crossed into North Africa, where they lived in peace with their Muslim neighbors.

In the mid-19th century, European missionaries reintroduced Christianity to Africa, and the process of winning converts picked up speed during the colonial era. Virtually all of the major branches of Christianity, and many of the minor ones, established mission stations in Africa, leading to an intricate pattern of religious denominations. Africans found conversion to Christianity attractive because the missionaries offered health services and educational opportunities for their children.

However, Christian missionaries made little headway in Islamic strongholds and the continent therefore became divided between an overwhelmingly Islamic north and a more Christian south. Roughly speaking, latitude 10° north serves as the dividing line from West Africa until East Africa, where it swings south of the equator to about 8° south. While Christians are few in number north of the line, Muslims are more common to the south of it. In Malawi and Mozambique, for example, 15 to 20 percent of the population count themselves as Muslims. Violence sometimes erupts between Islam and Christianity along the dividing line. This has been an ongoing social issue in Ethiopia for 800 years. Since 1970 Chad and the Sudan have seen ongoing strife and civil wars between the Islamic north and Christian-indigenous south. Sectarian violence has also occurred in Nigeria since the late 1990s. For the most part, however, the two religions are not in competition with one another and the continental dividing line seems unlikely to change.

New churches combining Christian doctrine and rituals with indigenous African ones are becoming increasingly common. Zambia and Zimbabwe have provided particularly fertile grounds for the growth of these syncretic churches. In Zimbabwe, 40 percent of the population claims membership in a syncretistic church, compared to 22 percent in more conventional Christian denominations.

D

Cultural Activity

Africa’s cultural traditions are extremely diverse. Traditionally, art, music, and oral literature served to reinforce existing religious and social patterns. During the colonial period, some educated city dwellers rejected traditional African cultural activities in favor of Western cultural pursuits, but a cultural revival sprang up with the rise of African nationalism and independence in the mid-20th century. Arabic written literature has a long history in North Africa, while European-language literature has developed more recently. The governments of most African nations sponsor national dance and music groups, museums, and to a lesser degree, artists and writers. See African Art and Architecture; African Music; African Literature; African Theater.

E

Education

Africans value education, and all governments see improving educational access and quality as essential to national economic and political development. Despite scarce financial resources, many countries have made noteworthy achievements in raising literacy rates in recent decades. Adult literacy rates of 70 percent or more are characteristic of East, Central, and southern Africa, except, notably, in Somalia, Angola, Ethiopia, and Mozambique. Gains have been less impressive in West Africa: Many countries still have literacy rates below 60 percent, and the rates in Niger, Burkina Faso, and Sierra Leone are among the world’s lowest. Cameroon, Ghana, and Nigeria are notable exceptions, with particularly high literacy rates. Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria in North Africa have rates of 90 percent or higher. Females have significantly lower literacy rates than males across most of Africa.

Compulsory school attendance, starting at either 6 or 7 years of age and lasting until the ages of 11 to 16, is now universal in Africa. In many instances, education is free. A major obstacle to universal education is the problem of providing enough teachers, schools, and classroom materials to meet children’s needs, especially in remote rural areas. Huge national debts, the economic austerity measures designed to eliminate them, and military expenditures have all limited the funds that most countries have available to devote to education. Another obstacle to ensuring that all children receive education is the fact that they are still an important part of the workforce across Africa. They provide childcare, work farms and herds, and perform a range of other menial jobs, such as drawing water and collecting firewood. Parents may also lack the financial means to send their children to school, or may be forced to choose which ones can go and which ones cannot. Boys are usually given preference over girls in access to education and they typically stay in school much longer. The rationale for this is based on future income-earning potential: As matters currently stand, males have access to more and better paying jobs than females. Deteriorating economic conditions have actually led the income-earning and literacy gaps between males and females to widen even more.

Universities have space for only a tiny fraction of secondary school graduates and competition to secure admittance is intense. Those who are admitted are not guaranteed a good education, however. University libraries are often poorly stocked and, most critically, lack up-to-date scientific journals. Computers are few and Internet access rare. Most campuses were built in the 1950s and 1960s and have deteriorated, the more so because of limited funds for maintenance. The quality of higher education is also affected by frequent student protests over issues ranging from poor living conditions to politics. On many occasions governments have responded with force and closed campuses for considerable periods of time. While faculties are usually of high quality, with many members having been trained in Europe and North America, the conditions severely constrain what they can do. As a result, many look outside Africa for employment, which contributes significantly to Africa’s brain drain.

F

Health

A combination of new diseases and reemerging old ones is putting the lives of millions of Africans in serious jeopardy. At the top of the list is HIV/AIDS, which is devastating much of sub-Saharan Africa. National health services are under serious stress as more and more funds and personnel have to be devoted to treating and caring for AIDS victims. This has drawn attention and resources away from other health problems, such as malaria and other infectious diseases. While various environmental and social issues can be identified as the cause of these afflictions, the real culprit is poverty. Until poverty is controlled, Africa’s health situation will remain precarious, and doubly so for the most vulnerable: children.