Colonial Style and Post-Colonial Ethnic Conflict in Africa

Abstract

Though European colonialism had a profound and lasting impact on the development of contemporary Africa, there are few studies that assess these effects empirically. This study explores one facet of the colonial legacy: ethnic conflict. Despite the pervasiveness of ethnic strife across the continent, grievance-based approaches have had only limited success in modeling ethnic conflict in Africa. Using a structural approach, we argue that the distinctive colonial styles of the British and French created fundamentally different systems of ethnic stratification, which left contrasting legacies for post-colonial ethnic conflict. Specifically, the indirect, decentralized rule of the British fostered an unranked system of ethnic stratification, while the legacy of the centralized French style approximated a ranked system. Because unranked systems foster competition between ethnic groups - which can readily spiral into conflict - we posit that the British colonial legacy is positively related to both the frequency and intensity of ethnic conflict. French colonies, on the other hand, were left with a centralized bureaucratic power structure that impeded ethnic mobilization and suppressed nonviolent ethnic challenges. Using the Minorities at Risk III dataset, we first compare the ethnic struggles faced across former British and French colonies. Next we test the impact of this colonial legacy on two facets of ethnic conflict, rebellious actions and civil war. Results indicate that, after controlling for other salient factors, a British colonial legacy is positively associated with ethnic conflict.

Corporate Governance and Human Resource Management

“…The colonial experience in much of Francophone Africa was relatively short, and this was associated with the development of institutional arrangements that proved relatively fragile, regardless of variations in legislation [Blanton et al, 2001, Mamdani, 1996]; however, it should also be considered that the Francophone colonies were concentrated in West Africa, an area with a high incidence of tropical diseases, posing serious developmental challenges regardless of regulation [Sachs, 2001].…”

An examination of the Sierra Leone war

“…11 Robert Blanton argued that state conflicts are often a result of ethnic rivalry (Blanton et al 2001) President Qaddafi denied directly sponsoring the war in Sierra Leone, his stand was corroborated in the RUF/SL pamphlet "therefore, the theory and accusations that we receive weapons and ammunition from Libya…are nonsense…" Sankoh (1995). http://fas.org/irp/world/para/docs/footpaths.htm.…”

Institutional Design and Ethnic Violence: Do Grievances Help to Explain Ethnopolitical Instability?

“…The country references in particular raise questions about the relevance of other factors such as colonial legacies or the degree of ethnic diversity, and the manner in which their specific interaction with institutional design affects the prospects of ethnopolitical stability. 61 Scholars investigating the relationship between political institutions and ethnic violence typically recognise the multicausality of violent ethnic conflict, as they acknowledge that political institutions influence political processes by structuring other factors -such as the balance of power between classes, the behaviour of political actors or the salience of ethnic cleavages -which equally have to be taken into account in order to explain the incidence of violent ethnic conflict. 62 Following recent debates about the values of political representation, there are, however, three main arguments why chances of political representation provided by institutional design might be particularly relevant for the likelihood of ethnic violence.…”