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Ethnicity & Political Violence A Kenyan Perspective with Reference to Mathare and Kibra Informal Settlements

Musya, Justus K. (The Kairos Book Publishers, 2023)

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Abstract:	Besides addressing the original and the deleterious effects of negative ethnicity on Mathare and Kibra Informal Settlements, within the city of Nairobi, this book also theorizes on the broader philosophy behind ethnic tensions, and to an extent, xenophobic behaviours troubling the post-colonial Africa. In particular, the role of inequalities in causing ethnic grievances, its role in fuelling ethnic mobilization, its global perspective, its regional dimension, its national dimension, and its local perspectives have all been surveyed so as to guide us in addressing divisive citizenry. By the time we are done with reading these dimensions of ethnic perspectives, we are driven to start thinking deeper. And indeed, we are enabled to think critically and creatively and brought to the understanding of the problem: namely, the negative ethnicity (derogatorily called tribalism) and we are simultaneously driven to start working towards solutions and/or problem-solving. Put differently: why shouldn‟t ethnic diversity help us appreciate our great favours from God, as plurality is God‟s economy for the world? Why should Africans utilise ethnic cards to mobilize electoral politics? Why should we vote in a person simply because he or she is from our local ethnic group? Does it matter who messes up or builds the country; aren‟t they the same practical terms? In the worst case scenario, we are driven to ask: Why use ethnic mobilisation to instigate political violence that will eventually lead to displacements, as in the case of post December 2007 disputed elections where over 400, 000 were displaced from their farms; and Kenya became a home of internally displaced persons (IDPs)? Besides the above, this book theorizes the philosophy revolving around ethnic conflicts. How can these theories help in vi understanding ethnic conflicts? The author has ably strived to make sense out of this. In a nutshell, negative ethnicity is caused by lack of vision among the leaders and/or elites of society. In some cases, historical injustices, rooted in colonial hegemony, have had their share of promoting ethnic divisions and conflicts. Take for instance, the amalgamation of Nigeria of 1914, for instance. Yes, it created the North and South, can we view it as a marriage of inconvenience, particularly when we recall the terrorist activities in the north? Certainly, the amalgamation of North and South Sudan since 1956 left a scar within the rank-and-file of Southerners, the black Africans, who felt that the Arabs in northern part were enslaving them. This resulted in endless wars between the Arabs and the black Africans. In 1983, the Sudanese People‟s Liberation Army (SPLA) was formed so as to battle the then Arab-dominated government of the northern Sudan. This was followed by the formation of the Sudan People‟s Liberation Movement (SPLM), as the political wing of SPLA. The formation of SPLM on 16th May 1983 came after the Arab-dominated Sudan‟s government reneged on the so-called Addis Ababa Agreement of 1972. This agreement was previously signed by the then Sudanese President Gaafar Nimeiry (1930-2009), who reigned from 1969 to 1985, and the then rebel movement, Anyanya leader, Joseph Lagu, on 27th February 1972. It is in this Addis Ababa Agreement where the Southern Sudanese were to be given economic, social, political, religious, and educational rights. The signing of the Addis Ababa Agreement of 1972 had thus brought down the long ranging conflict. Prior to this, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan had ceased after independence in 1956, as it now became Sudan. This came after both the Egyptian and the British governments recognised Sudan as an independent country; and eventually terminated vii their respective shares of sovereignty over it. Reneging on the 1972 Addis Ababa Agreement of recognising the Southern Sudanese religiosity by Field Marshal Jaafar Muhammad Nimeiry (1930-2009), who served as President from 25 May 1969 to 6 April 1985, and his decision to begin Islamist rule, speaks for the nature of African conflicts: a phenomenon where we „suspend‟ our governing „constitutions‟ from family to national levels without any iota of shame. Ripples are that we become our own enemies who fuels conflicts that can be ethnic, racial, social, political or xenophobic based. Thus the Sudanese case, of reneging on a memorandum of understanding, ushered in a conflict between the practitioners of Islam religion (northerners) and the Christians and traditionalist of South Sudan, a contestation that did not die till 2011 when South Sudan became an independent country under the SPLA/SPLM in 2011. Back to negative ethnicity, we appreciate that conflicts are also caused by religious intolerance, as the Sudanese case has demonstrated. Religious intolerance is manifested by blind religiosity or blind denominationalism that doesn‟t see anything good in others. Equally, blind ethnic loyalty doesn‟t see anything good in other ethnic groups existing in the same country. It is a psychological disorder that needs to be diagnosed through public education. As a social construct, it can be deconstructed through re-educating, de-education, and be eventually reconstructed for the betterment of society. A society that fails to educate people on the dangers of negative ethnicity or racial-national prejudices faces extinction from the map of the world. The height of madness in any nation reaches its climax when a notoriously religious continent and her countries allow religion to become the opium of, and for the people, thereby eulogizing religio-denominational intolerance and dehumanisations. When politicians use religion to confuse viii the vulnerable poor-weak-and-hungry citizenry, as they strive to promote the Big Man‟s Syndrome and/or Messianic political leaderships, the true rapture gets closer and closer. It could as well mark the proverbial “last days.” Are we under borrowed time? In Uganda, the contestations between the Anglicans who were mainly members of Milton Obote‟s (1925-2005) Uganda People‟s Congress versus the Democratic Party under Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere (1932-2022), whose supporters were mainly Catholics, polarised Uganda for a long time; and has remained a wound that takes long to heal. When a religiousinclined society views some politicians as Mosaic-Messiah‟s, while their contestants are effectively portrayed as Devilincarnates, it becomes a preparatory route for ending the life of a nation. Besides this, all forms of marginalization, resource control, and lack of vision among the emerging leaderships in Africa, must be re-evaluated from time to time so as to ensure that ethnic plurality does not become a curse. Rather, our rich cultural diversity has to remain our strength rather than as our weakness; and indeed, it has to remain the source of health and wealth of a nation. Having said this, I wish to recommend Justus K. Musya‟s book: “Ethnicity & Political Violence: A Kenyan Perspective with Reference to Mathare and Kibra Informal Settlements.” It brings back the theme of Ethnicity that ought to be addressed from time to time. With negative ethnicity, ethnic balkanisation, banditry, refugee crisis, religious intolerance, narcotics, dangerous liquor, terrorism, economic mismanagement, suspicious and mysterious pandemics, and bad politics, threatening the very existence of the African populace in the twenty-first century, a sharp-shooter, of Musya‟s level, is needed to outfox the enemy; and eventually call the society back to its conscience. We thus need the likes of Musya to come and say: “Look here! We are staring at danger; hence stop mishandling ix ethnic cards. Use it to enrich the society rather than impoverish the very society that God so much loved.” The book is recommendable to scholars of all nations under the sun! Referring to the Africanist scholars in particular, the aspiring scholars, and readers and leaders of all walks of life. This is your book, and indeed it is a little encyclopaedia on how to handle the ethnic card
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URI:	http://repository.daystar.ac.ke/xmlui/handle/123456789/4184 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/372645819_Ethnicity_Political_Violence_A_Kenyan_Perspective_with_Reference_to_Mathare_and_Kibra_Informal_Settlements_by_JUSTUS_K_MUSYA

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