2 Many of the ethnic identities in Africa that today seem to be so strong were “invented” by the colonial powers for administrative purposes and have only weak origins in precolonial Africa. This view is not correct, however, and diverts attention from important underlying economic and political factors.Īlthough a person's culture is partly inherited it is also constructed and chosen, and many people have multiple identities. For this reason, there is a tendency to attribute wars to “primordial” ethnic passions, which makes them seem intractable. Many groups of people who fight together perceive themselves as belonging to a common culture (ethnic or religious), and part of the reason that they are fighting may be to maintain their cultural autonomy.
