Africa's intrinsic make-up is very prone to factional fighting. Wars between tribes and ethnic groups make it extremely difficult for African countries to become democratic. This is one reason why democracy has eluded the continent for many decades.
Take for instance Cote d'Ivoire. Recently in Cote d'Ivoire, the two final contenders of the presidential elections, Laurent Gbagbo, the incumbent from the South, and Alassane Ouatarra - the winner of the elections according to the Electoral Commission - from the North, are both fighting for power. The country is split with northerners supporting Ouatarra and southerners backing Gbagbo. If calm is not restored, the current street fighting and sporadic outbreak of violence may degenerate into another civil war.
In Nigeria, there are three major tribes, the Hausas, the Yorubas and the Igbos. In the past, power has alternated between the Hausas and the Yurobas and the Igbos have always been sidelined since they make up the minority. But recently, Goodluck Jonathan, former vice-president who became president after the death of Omaru Yar' Adua is from the South. He has declared his intention to run for president in the next presidential elections. Hausas and Yurobas are conniving to throw him out of office. Again, the country maybe split into two or three factions, with each faction backing different candidates.
In Cameroon, president Paul Biya has been in Power since 1982. Cameroon has more than 200 ethnic tribes and spoken languages in addition to being Anglophone and Francophone. Paul Biya has exploited the differences to his advantage since he came to power. There are 10 provinces/regions in Cameroon and the Anglophones constitute the North and South West Regions. The North West Region has scores of villages and tribes with different ethnicities, values and customs. When a person from one village is appointed to a high ranking position in government, the villagers are very proud and they consider it a victory over the other villages. This makes the neighboring villages very jealous and they fight to win many seats during the next local elections for the ruling party. In return, they are rewarded with government positions during the next cabinet reshuffle. These contentions sow deep division at regional levels between the tribes and ethnic groups. The divisions are so entrenched they extend to other aspects of society such as business, development, etc. and hamper any concerted efforts towards achieving a common good. It makes the people to focus their resources and energy on trying to outdo each other and it distracts them from holding the government accountable for its misdeeds and inefficiency.
Paul Biya uses the same strategy at the inter-regional level. The Cameroon constitution requires that the president and prime minister should be Anglophone and Francophone. Since Paul Biya is Francophone, he has to appoint an Anglophone premiere. This is where Paul Biya's strategy of divide-and-rule works best. But before I go into that, it is important to understand the anglophone problem in the country. The anglophones are highly marginalized and hold very few positions in government. Their grievance have been expressed in many forms; some groups call for the secession of the anglophones from the francophones to form a new country and Bamenda, capital of the N.W. Region is major seat of the largest opposition party in the country, SDF.
If the anglophones come together, and with a little support from a few francophone provinces, they can unseat the Biya regime. So it is absolutely critical for P. Biya to make sure they remain divided, and the post of prime minister has come in handy for that. When Paul Biya appoints a north westerner, the south westerners are angry. They consider it a victory for N.W. and they work to make sure they outperform N.W. in the next election cycle. This has been going on for a while and the seat has been rotating between North and South West provinces for the last 28 years. It has kept the Anglophones divided and jealous of each other for three decades.
This makes democracy very elusive. Thanks to this divide and rule strategy, Cameroonians have forgotten that during elections, the seat to be contested is the presidency, and not mayorship, nor a ministry, nor the prime ministers office. They have, by default, surrendered the presidency to Paul Biya. In otherwords, Paul Biya Cameroon is like a constitutional monarchy except that, the president is the most powerful person in the country. He not only appoints the prime minister, but also Governors of the different regions, ministers, directors of state-owned companies, parastatals, government delegates, etc.
With the exception of being bilingual, Cameroon is not alone. This same principle applies to most African countries where there are dictatorships and multiple ethnicities as with Nigeria and Cote d'Ivoire.
Contrasting to Europe where most countries are nation-states, Europe is very stable and democratic. In eras where multi-ethnic "states" existed, such as the Austra-hungarian empire, France under Napoleon, Rome, the same situation applied. There were wars, social unrest, marginalization of various ethnic groups, etc. The same as we see with Africa today. The sad problem is, the boundaries imposed on Africa by their colonial masters are there to stay. The Hausas in Northern Cameroon and Northern Nigeria are never going to join together to form a single nation and the Igbos and South Western Cameroonians, who have similar cultures and traditions will never unite to form a single nation.
This doesn't mean Africa is condemned to fight forever or that democracy will elude us forever (Botswana, Ghana, Mauritius, etc. are doing fine). What Africans have to do is, they have to stop treating their fellow Africans as strangers, as the others. They have identify values common all tribes and unite around those values. Until the rise up above their differences and come together to confront their problems, African cultural and ethnic diversity will be a curse and not a blessing.
