ISBN 9789966724489
Pages 254
Dimensions 234 x 156 mm
Published 2010
Publisher Twaweza Communications, Kenya
Format Paperback

Ethnic Diversity in Eastern Africa

Opportunities and Challenges

edited by Kimani Njogu, Kabiri Ngeta

In most of Africa, there is evidence of politicised inter-ethnic rivalry and ethnic mobilisation to acquire, maintain or monopolise power as competition for resources intensify. This volume demonstrates how ethnic diversity can be managed at a number of levels in order to improve the lives of citizens. As the contributors show, ethnicity as an identity is fluid and malleable. It can be deconstructed in order to reduce its saliency. Evidently, strong ethnic affliation has also been viewed as a major barrier to human and economic development although ethnically bound welfare organisations do influence the economic and social life of citizens especially in the rural areas, In most of Africa, it is through ethnic identification that competition for influence in the state and in the allocation of resources becomes apparent. Occasionally, governments have sought to address this challenge through ethnic and regional balancing in political appointments. But this does not always work. Drawing on experiences from Eastern Africa and beyond, the contributors discuss how ethnic diversity can be a resource for the region.

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Review

"A significant characteristic of this book is its very predominantly African perspective, which is often juxtaposed against Western perspectives of diversity in the African context...Ethnic Diversity in Eastern Africa: Opportunities and Challenges would be most useful to those who have had extensive and substantive exposure to African ethnolinguistic studies"

The African Book Publishing Record

About the Editors

Kimani Njogu

Kimani Njogu, an Associate Professor of Kiswahili and African Languages, is a Director of Twaweza Communications and Africa Health and Development International (AHADI). He is a translator of significant works into Kiswahili and has been involved in developing socially committed entertainment programs globally. He has provided training on culturally sensitive and issue based entertainment programming in Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, India, China, St. Lucia, Grenada, Madagascar, Peru, Pakistan, Palau, Nigeria, Laos, Mexico and Peru, among other countries. Kimani is also a writer, literary critic and columnist and his Kiswahili book Ufundishaji wa Fasihi: Nadharia na Mbinu on the teaching of literature won the 2000 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.

Kabiri Ngeta

Kabiri Ngeta studied at Kenyatta University, Yale University and is currently a political scientist and researcher based in Arusha Tanzania.

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