| Sumario: | Part of a special section on conflict and conflict resolution in Africa. Drawing on land disputes between the Igbos and the Idomas of Nigeria, the writer demonstrates that ethnicity might not always be invoked when two or more ethnic groups are involved in a conflict and that the way in which conflict between two groups is explained by the contesting groups represents a conscious political choice. He considers the case of the Agila Development Association (ADA), which rejected the ethnic label in a land dispute between the Igbos and the Idomas, in order to demonstrate that the ADA leaders deliberately chose to characterize the dispute in nonethnic terms so as to improve their probability of success over the Igbos. He argues that the type of identity invoked in a political struggle is a function of factors that include the issues involved, the audience to which the appeal is being made, the kind of organization leading the struggle, the likelihood of success, and the internal consensus within the organization engaged in the invocation.
|
|---|