A billboard highlights Rwanda’s 100-day commemoration of the 1994 genocide.
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In 2003, Rwanda adopted a policy of ethnic non-recognition. However, for 100 days in a year, it centres ethnicity in the country’s psyche.
AAP Image/Darren England
Universal schemes aimed at classifying populations by ‘race’ or ‘ethnicity’ can force us into a game of competing for better positions within a racial hierarchy.
An armed man guards cattle in a village in South Sudan.
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The idea of what it means to be South Sudanese is not universally accepted in the young nation.
Countries that adopt ethnic recognition go on to experience less violence, more economic vitality, and more democratic politics.
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On average, countries that adopt ethnic recognition experience less violence, more economic vitality, and more democratic politics.
General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, left, and Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok at an October 2020 ceremony celebrating the peace deal.
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The transitional government has achieved a monumental milestone, but peace agreements in Sudan have been known to fall apart quickly.
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta (left), and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga
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The Building Bridges Initiative is best understood by recognising that Kenyan politics is fundamentally shaped by competition between political elites and their ethnic groups.
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta (left) shakes hands with the opposition coalition leader Raila Odinga to symbolise a truce in March 2018.
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Even in the most tense and dangerous of moments, the elite has found a way to come back together.
A picture of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed at the Nobel Peace Centre in Oslo, Norway.
Stian Lysberg Solum/EPA
The prime minister may have won the Nobel Peace Prize but he has failed to quell the violence in his own backyard
Many have been displaced by violence in the Central African Republic.
EPA/Stringer
The volatile conditions in the Central African Republic make the administration of justice difficult.
When Kenyans vote, ethnic conflict is never too far behind.
Reuters/Thomas Mukoya
One way to diffuse the tension when Kenyans choose a head of state is to take that decision out of their hands. This could help achieve ethnic cohesion.