Unlike Europe, there has been no long-term trend toward an ethnically cleansed African continent. Not that ethnic violence is lacking. As Horowitz (1985) showed, the building blocks of African politics are almost all ethnic. Parties, and factions of military officers, represent ethnic groups or regional groups that are also substantially ethnic. Most African states are weak, with little infrastructural penetration of their territories, prone to factionalism and some to disintegration. Their weakness often leads to repression and coups involving brutal murders of opponents. Civil wars bring mass killing that often takes ethnic coloration where different regions have majorities and minorities on different sides of the war. This has happened in Biafra, Angola, the Congo, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Wars between states used to be uncommon, though they have increased in recent years. Particularly destructive wars with ethnic overtones have recently surfaced in Central Africa, triggered by the events described in this chapter.

But a major restraining factor has been the sheer multiethnicity of African states. Tanzania is reputed to have 120 identifiable ethnic groups. Though its parties and factions are often organized along ethnic lines, any wishing to reach power must join in multiethnic coalitions with other parties. Elaborate bargaining then steers politicians into an instrumental view of ethnicity. This typically results in discrimination against ethnic groups denied a share in the patronage system that is so important in developing countries. But it does not encourage value commitment to organic ethnonationalism.