Negative Ethnicity and Its Impact on Good Governance and Development in Africa

Associating the poor state of development of African countries to reasons of colonialism is no more plausible. This is because almost all of these countries have gained political independence and are self-governing. Like African countries, China, Hong Kong, India and South Korea were colonized. But after their independence, because of purposeful leadership, sheer determination and forthrightness, today, they have recorded discernable developments. While colonialism might have militated against the development of African nations in the past, this paper argues that the negative ethnicity is a key factor today impacting negatively on good governance with resultant underdevelopment. The paper argues that multi-ethnic nature of most African nations has rich resources which could contribute to good governance if properly harnessed. The paper recognizes that today competitive ethnicity is the bane for bad governance and conflicts in some African countries. By employing a descriptive-historical approach the paper draws a lot from historical antecedents of ethnic challenges in Africa from available literature. It also examines ways the multiple talents and capabilities that abound in multi-ethnic Africa could be utilized for its development through good governance.