From Divided Pasts to Cohesive Futures: Reflections on Africa

Description

Today, the cohesion of multi-ethnic societies is at risk across the globe. Throughout history, to the present day, African countries have been facing this challenge. Historical inequalities and social division undermine cohesion and sow seeds of instability. How can Africa build a future where ethnic and other differences are a strength, a driver of growth and development, rather than sources of division and instability? Drawing together historians, economists and political scientists, each an authority on Africa, this book delivers a comprehensive study of that question through an exploration of the continent's divided histories, to understand where Africans stand now, and to reflect on how they might now work towards a more trusting society. Numerous case studies, statistical expositions and theoretical reflections bring conceptual clarity to the often poorly understood processes and contexts of social cohesion, not only in Africa, but across the developing and developed world.

Hiroyuki Hino is DUCIGS Fellow at Duke University and Visiting Professor at the University of Cape Town, where his field specialities are African economic development, social cohesion and poverty in Africa, and economic policies in Africa. He is a co-editor of Youth and Employment in Sub-Sahara Africa: Working But Poor (2013) and Ethnic Diversity and Economic Instability in Africa: Inter-Disciplinary Perspectives (Cambridge, 2012). Arnim Langer is Director of the Centre for Research on Peace and Development (CRPD), Chair Holder of the UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Peacebuilding and Associate Professor of International Politics at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. In addition, he is currently holding an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship for experienced researchers at Ruprecht-Karls-Universitat Heidelberg. He has published numerous articles and book chapters on matters of ethnicity, inequality and conflict. John Lonsdale is a fellow of Trinity College, University of Cambridge where he retired as Professor of Modern African History. He was co-winner of the Trevor Reece prize in Commonwealth history (1992) with co-author Bruce Berman, for Unhappy Valley: Conflict in Kenya and Africa (1992), he has co-edited and contributed to Mau Mau and Nationhood (2003); Writing for Kenya: The Life and Works of Henry Muoria (2009); Ethnic Diversity and Economic Instability in Africa (Cambridge, 2012); and S. H. Fazan's memoir, Colonial Kenya Observed (2015). Frances Stewart is Emeritus Professor of Development Economics, University of Oxford. Her previous publications include Advancing Human Development: Theory and Practice (2018) with Gustav Ranis and Emma Samman; Horizontal Inequalities and Conflict: Understanding Group Violence in Multiethnic Societies (2008); and War and Underdevelopment, with E. V. K. Fitzerald and others (2001).

'This book ... argues optimistically that Africa, thanks to reductions in inequality and devolved state power over the years, can overcome ethnicity-fueled differences and prosper.' R. I. Rotberg, Choice