In “War and the State in Africa,” Jeffrey Herbst states that "

Intrastate conflict has historically been savage and chaotic; nowhere have these descriptors been more fitting than within African civil wars. A legacy of colonialism, ineffective governance, and regional conflict scars the continent, resulting in regular political instability within its territories. The Nigerian civil war of the late 1960s cost the lives of an estimated three-million people- the majority of whom were civilians who succumbed to starvation (NWE 2015). This conflict has traditionally been understood to have been caused by ethnic tensions within the state, and justifiably so (Falola 1999, 125). The ethnic cleansing of the Igbo that occurred throughout September and October of 1966 in northern Nigeria undoubtedly played a

Europe, in the late 1800’s, was starting for a land grab in the African continent. Around 1878, most of Africa was unexplored, but by 1914, most of Africa, with the lucky exception of Liberia and Ethiopia, was carved up between European powers. There were countless motivations that spurred the European powers to carve Africa, like economical, political, and socio–cultural, and there were countless attitudes towards this expansion into Africa, some of approval and some of condemnation.

In the second half of the twentieth-century, African countries were able to gain their independence and strive to create unified countries. However, many countries were plagued with civil wars and the issues left behind the colonial era. The adversities faced by these new African nations are at the hands of their old colonial powers and the neo-colonialism that has taken place. These new independent countries were left to unify their people of different backgrounds, create a strong government and economy, and leave the post-colonial legacy behind.

Development of society and the increasing problems of social relations and communications is a field of influence. This is violated segregation and integrity, whatever was social group or collectivity. Culture is integrated and becomes an international; all modern society is involved in the process of globalization. These entire described phenomenon increases the likelihood of ethnic, racial and religious conflicts in society. Combining ethnic groups and races sometimes occurs democratic and naturally, but more often causes social tensions and clashes. For any community striving to preserve its unique culture and history is actively fighting for their territory and identity. The main stress factors faced by ethnic minorities are prejudice and discrimination due to their minority status in a particular society. Emerge of a new ethnic group or religious movement contributes to the creation of new political leaders. In other words, conflicts appear due to social and cultural differences, the most sharp and extended, as occur due to the violent destroying of cultural differences. That is, embrace and destroyed religious, linguistic and other cultural norms. All of this ethnic group disintegrate and therefore meets

Nelson Mandela spoke, “I dream of an Africa which is in peace with itself”. Africa did have that peace, that sense of disclosure. Africans lived in a time when they did not have to worry about anyone else's religion, politics, or culture but their own; however, due to the European nation’s thirst for power, Africans now had to face those realities. Their individual countries began to turn against one another because of European influence. Some countries lost their roots and modernized to the European standards. Some countries, even lost hope in regaining the freedom they once had. Europeans wrote Africa’s single story through colonization, which left long lasting cultural, dehumanizing, and emotional effects upon each culture, furthermore changing

Even today, divisions in groups have been as a result of continued differences among the uniting groups. Humans have a tendency to incline towards the protection of their interest’s aid favors of their perceived groups. Such favourism makes them advocate fully for their interests posing a challenging opposing side to the interests of their unperceived groups. Many nations today are faced with such opposing groups having differing interests and ideals. People advocating for similar ideals tend to create strong ties of

In 1963 Ghana’s first nationalist leader and president, Kwame Nkrumah, argues that European imperialism has affected the people of Ghana because they are in a state of disunity. European imperialism has hurt Africa politically in such a negative manner that Nkrumah explains in three ways how to unify the people of Ghana with his own strategy. One way that Nkrumah mentions to unify the people is “Firstly, we should have an overall economic planning on a continental basis”. The African countries were split up into territories because of inter-African jealousy between the states. Therefore, they were not on the same page in regards to economy.

  In Sub-Sahara Africa, during the last four decades thirty-five major armed conflicts have occurred, taking the lives of almost ten million people. There is a high correlation between the risk of conflict and a low ranking on the Human Development Index (HDI), due to the weak capacities and inability of these poor countries to guarantee the security of its citizens, rebellions and conflict have a high occurrence rate. United Nations has observed that conflicts

In a Western perspective, Africa is perceived as a poor, insecure, and violent continent. Although this statement is ignorant and disregards the multidimensional issues that are in each of the 54 countries, security and violence is a general issue in most African countries. African countries have not endured an easy history, and their history continues to create present conflicts. Their violent colonial past has left certain countries with ethnic rivalries and left their legacies with agents of security. Although the colonial past of African countries have been the leading cause of many of their current problems, they cannot be blamed for everything. Additionally, there is a positive correlated relationship between the state and the violence

There is an abundance of reasons for the lack of unity in African nations, but according to If You Shouldn’t Call It Third World, What Should You Call It? By Marc Silver. When using phrases such as “Third World” and “Developing Countries” we are misrepresenting what these countries are. If society is using derogatory labels to represent the whole country, how can a country come together as a unit. These countries are being encompassed into one word, a term that can be seen as insulting and misleading. Africa is underfunded and needs aid, and according to Marc Silver we are talking, “about countries that need to develop better health care systems, better schools, better ways to bring water and electricity to people”. (Silver, 3) If the native

Rivals were sometimes united, while at other times, whole families were split between different colonies. Artificial borders along with combined or unnaturally divided groups created problems that hurt African colonies during European rule. These boundaries continue to create problems for the nations that evolved from the former colonies. (“The Age” 784)

Many complexities determine the nature of decolonization, and even the nature of nationalism, or lack there of. Nationalism was, and Shepard’s and Chafer’s theory is that it continues to be, in Africa, a direct consequence of colonialism, and the two are closely tied and possibly even correlated, although the nature of nationalism in Africa differed for each nation. Parts of Africa, like Algeria, found strong, nation-wide support towards a singular nationalist movement, where as others, like in the case of the Mau Mau and the loyalists in Kenya, found schisms within their own community regarding how the nation should be decolonized and how sovereignty should be addressed. As a result, many nations found that they upheld the same colonial structures that oppressed them in the first place, or at least worked closely with such colonial institutions. The reasons for such differences have to do with the colonial powers and how they viewed the decolonization process. Although both the French and British wanted to retain influence throughout the process, the methods through which they decolonized were vastly different. Surprisingly, even though the French found themselves in bloody conflict in Algeria, they were able to retain significant influence over their colonies in West Africa and the sub-Saharan. Just as diverse as Africa is demographically, it also proved to be just as diverse in how African nations

This editorial tells the reader that the worldwide public opinion on African imperialism in 1960 was negative. The United Nations represented the global opinion and they stated they thought of this interaction as bad. Before Congo was granted their independence, the Belgians treated the Natives brutally. They would enslave the women and children of the tribes and force the men to work collecting rubber all day. If the job was not completed satisfactorily, the worker would have their hands chopped off. The tribes women were subjected to rape, violence, and the tribe itself experienced much torture. It is therefore understandable that the people of the Congo were not hospitable to any Belgian they came across after being forced to abide to their

So, picture this: its 1961, the African colonies are declaring independence from their mother countries. This time period in in the heat of the moment between racial wars, under the supremacy of unruly dictators, and the citizens of some of these countries have no voice. Therefor we should begin our tour in the heart of Africa: the Congo, then spread to the other countries of Africa and expand to the rest of the world.

Modern African states have several problems ranging from corruption, to armed conflict, to stunted structural development. The effects of colonialism have been offered as a starting point for much of the analysis on African states, but the question of why African states are particularly dysfunctional needs to be examined, given the extent to which they have lagged behind other former European colonies in many aspects. In the first section, I will consider the problems with African states from the level of the state. That is, the nature of the states' inceptions and the underlying flaws may explain some of the issues that have been associated with African states today. Next I examine the development of, or lack of, civil