BY MULUGETA GUDETA
According to recent data, Africa is the second largest continent by geographic area and the second most populous continent globally, with an area of approximately 30 million km2 and a population of 1.2 billion people.
According information from the World Population Review, “The top 23 ethnically diverse countries in the world are all African countries.” The same study further notes that, “African countries are the most diverse in the world. Uganda has by far the highest ethnic diversity rating, followed by Liberia. In the fact the world’s 20 most diverse countries are all African. There are likely many factors for this, although one might be the continent’s colonial legacy.”
“Africa’s rich history and culture are so diverse that it varies from one country to another but also within regions and countries. The culture of each ethnic group holds together the authentic social fabric of traditional practices and rites, art, music and oral literature through which identities are built.”
Wikipedia says that “Generally culture can be defined as a collective mass of distinctive qualities belonging to a certain group of people. These qualities include laws, morals, beliefs, knowledge, art, customs, and any other attributes belonging to a member of that society.” Africa has numerous ethnic nationalities all with varying qualities such as language, dishes, greetings and dances. However, all African peoples share a series of dominant cultural traits that which distinguish African Culture from the rest of the ethnic, culture, race, ethnicity, language, socio-economic or class and religion.”
Elaborating on the positive outcomes of ethnic diversity, another study maintains that, “Ethnic diversity is important for many reasons, including promoting creativity, fostering innovation, and aiding in problem-solving. By embracing different cultures and backgrounds, organizations can gain a better understanding of their customers, and markets and allowing them to create new products and serves that better meet the needs of a diverse population. By considering different perspectives, and experiences, teams can come up with better solutions to complex problems.”
Another view is that “By investing in culture, a nation can generate a more regional and global intellectual perspective for citizens therefore increasing its human capital through a widespread cultural mixture and construct a responsive society guided by decent standards, openness and resistance to racial intolerance and avoid social crisis.”
Africa is a huge country with huge potentials for economic development. Its combined population is only next to China and India, two subcontinents that are also driving the global economic juggernaut. Africa’s mineral resources are still largely untapped despite centuries of colonial and post-colonial exploitation. That is why Africa has now become the focus of great power competition for influence if not for indirect control. The global economic development is nowadays unthinkable without Africa’s active participation in trade and other areas.
It is rightly suggested that population size in itself is a driver of economic growth. Some studies suggest that the proliferation of cultural and other forms of diversity is a brake on economic growth. But the experience of China and India semen to disprove such propositions and negative perspectives. India and China could grow despite the fact that the former is ethnically diverse and multi religious entity while the latter is more homogeneous and faces no problems emanating from religious pluralism.
Africa can go the Indian way more easily because it reflects its problems as well as its opportunities. Every multi-ethnic country develops according to its own priorities and possibilities. India cannot imitate the Chinese path of economic and cultural development while China cannot become a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country comparable to India. Despite ongoing academic debates, the thesis whether ethnic diversity is conducive or not to economic growth is a purely academic issue. There may be countries that have achieved growth under cultural diversity and others that have grown under a culturally homogeneous environment. It all depends on specific circumstances and objective conditions.
There are many academicians, particularly from Western educational establishments, who have argued or written a great deal about the relationship between ethnic diversity and culture and economic development. Many of them maintained that if a society is fragmented among ethnic lines, the probability is that this society cannot develop at the required pace because diversity , which is synonymous to tribal or ethnic fragmentation, disperses resources, natural and human, and competition among the different groups is bound to make a bad situation worse.
The answer to question why Africa is so culturally diverse is of course complex but an overview of the issue suggests that culture and ethnicity are factors that are shaped by history and people’s interactions over many centuries and not something that is devised, intended or manufactured by anyone. “The Culture of Africa is varied and manifold consisting of a mixture of countries with various tribes that each have their unique characteristic from the continent of Africa. It is a product of the diverse populations that habit the continent of Africa and the African Diaspora.”
Whether the existence of several ethnic groups with varying cultural characteristics is a plus for economic development or an impediment to growth is a continuously debated issue that is polarizing even learned scholars or academic researchers. One assertion is that, “Higher ethnic diversity is associated with higher incidence of conflict and in turn civil conflict economic has been found to negatively affect economic growth. Hence ethnic diversity can negatively affect economic growth through conflict.”
There are also academic studies that are more balanced and looking into the pros and cons of cultural diversity as a driver or as an impediment to economic growth. According to a 2007 study by Horowitz and colleague, Diversity can be seen as a double-edged sword. Meaning that there is evidence for both negative and positive outcomes of diversity on growth.
On the other hand, in a 1997 study, Easterly and Levin “find an inverse relationship between ethnic diversity and economic growth. Their study finds that a large part of the poor economic performance of most African countries is explained by the large numbers of ethnic groups there. Another study by Alesina in 2003, that followed the line of Easterly, confirmed the negative effects of diverse ethnicity as well as language eon economic performance.
On the other hand, a study by other academicians had a different result. The researchers argued that ethnic and cultural diversity nurture technological innovation, generate new ideas and lead to the production of more diverse goods and services. “This is supported by their findings that cultural heterogeneity has a positive impact on GDP growth rate over large periods of time. Diversity had also positive outcome on economic development during the process of industrialization.”
It is apparently impossible to achieve consensus on these issues that can be argued from both perspectives. Who wins in the debate is equally pointless because there will be no winner or loser but a third party that can use both arguments in a balanced manner and work out solutions that take into consideration the realities of specific African countries. The truth is the function of ethnic diversity is not only economic. Ethnic diversity has more use than that. It helps cement ethnic identity in a positive manner as a shield against foreign cultural invasions that that tends to undermine the culture and traditions of economically underdevelopment parts of the world including Africa.
Cultural diversity leads to cultural exchanges and the opportunity for cultures to interact, absorb positive features from one another and promote the sense of unity in diversity. Thus, looking at diversity from only the economic perspective would be incomplete at least and dangerous at worst because it overemphasizes the economic aspect and ignores the other positive features of diversity. Obviously, Africa will develop not by following the instructions of Western scholars but by conducting its own studies in what is ailing Africans as far as diversity is concerned or turn cultural diversity in favor its economic development without forgetting its other positive features. In the final analysis, the existing consensus is that Africans consider cultural diversity an asset rather than a liability.
The Ethiopian Herald April 5 2023
