Negative Ethnicity : From Bias to Genocide

"e;Negative ethnicity"e; is Koigi wa Wamwere?s name for the deep-seated tensions in Africa that the world has seen flare so terrifyingly. The genocide in Rwanda and "e;ethnic"e; killing in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, and elsewhere stand out as examples. Wa Wamwere argues that these clashes cannot properly be described as ethnically motivated; ethnicity, a positive distinction, has nothing of the hatred here at work. Negative Ethnicity gives a new picture of the force behind untold deaths on the continent, dispelling the myth of an intractable conflict waged along simple, ancient lines.Negative Ethnicity explains the roots, colonial and pre-colonial, of the current "e;ethnic"e; tensions. It goes on to describe how, for most Africans, ethnic identity is ambiguous, and analyzes why that fact is obscured. The culprits are many: chronic poverty, a broken education system, preying dictators, corrupt officials, the colonial legacy of hate, the ongoing exploitation of the West.Negative Ethnicity is both a history and a manual for change, intended to introduce Westerners to the crisis and to give Africans a new understanding of it. Perhaps never before has the problem been addressed with such clarity and insight.