المستخلص: |
The differentiation variables (racial, ethnic, and religious) are considered of the most important variables responsible for the outbreak of civil wars in Africa, although researchers may disagree on whether these variables are direct or secondary reasons in fueling and fanning conflicts. Some African conflicts are known to have deep historical roots before the imperialist presence in Africa, but colonialism and imperialism utilized those conflicts, making them a political card in the differentiation game, and thus tightened control over people and resources. Unlike before, those conflicts have been ethnic in the postcolonial era. National integration calls failed undoubtedly because they did not originate from African realities; rather, they were based on the visions of strange imperialists. Integrationist policies produced only passive individuals mentally uprooted from their origins, and hardly followed the Western nationalist model that ideally makes people loyal to state. To conclude, the dilemma is not ethnic diversity, but the inefficiency of African governments in building states based on political, social and economic infrastructures – states that attract their citizens and include all elements of a modern state that respects freedoms and delivers living means and conditions for the well-being of its citizens. Only then citizens will tend to like and work to protect states, and have a sense of common destiny
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