Ethnic Peace vs. Ethnic Conflict: A Tale of Two Resorts from Experiences in Tanzania and Ethiopia

Abstract

While questions of identity more define politics in the twenty-first century than economic or ideological concerns, what leads some nations down a spiral of violence/’ethnic conflict’/ while others can foster peaceful coexistence/’ethnic peace’/ is an unsettled issue. Much has been documented as to the negative impact of ethnicity and its politicization in Africa. But, are any arrangements more likely than others to contain and defuse or reduce the destabilizing political and social tendencies of ethnic pluralism in ethnicallysplit African societies? This article, by exploring the experiences of two purposefully selected case studies (Ethiopia and Tanzania), strives to locate factors that lead these nations to an opposite outcome in their ethnic pluralism. The study relied on extensive secondary sources and employed an interpretative approach. The study’s finding shows that Ethiopia’s and Tanzania’s marked difference in patterns of violence and instability in SubSaharan Africa is not just a coincidence. Instead, the different choices in their ethnicity handling during their critical juncture were pivotal to the opposite outcome. Based on lessons from the two countries, the article made imperative the importance of re-constituting ethnic relations and crafting a civil society to foster peaceful co-existence.