That is why Ethiopia is analyzed in the last chapter as a special case. The first two chapters deal with historical legacies (chapter one) in terms of ethnicity, nationalism, or regional discrepancies and inequalities, and various root causes of conflicts and separatist movements that (may) have their origins in multiple causes that include natural resources, unstable socio-political environment,...

Studying African conflicts, inequalities, and other forms of social, economic, environmental, political, or cultural imbalances, disputes, or antagonism leads us necessarily to the past. We have to know how modern African nations and states were born, what kind of challenges the postcolonial societies had to deal with, or how the past may influence the present, especially when mixed with other...

In this chapter, we will deal with multiple sources and contexts of inequalities, separatist movements, and conflicts in Africa with the use of multiple case studies. As we will see, conflicts and various political tensions or turbulences usually have more than one root cause or variable. Therefore, it is difficult to come up with any generalizing statements about the nature of conflicts in...

As has already been mentioned several times, there are obviously multiple root causes of conflicts (not only) in Africa which need to be taken into consideration. However, as a historian the author is convinced that a proper understanding of any kind of situation, and conflicts are that sort of situation, need a proper historical evaluation in order to find solutions for future reconciliation and...

What was quite common throughout the continent was a clash between keeping an integration of states against ethnic fragmentation. Ethnic identity, during colonial times, was approached from a primordialist and essentialist point of view. Ethnic identities were seen as fixed, which was true not only in the case of...

Amhara,1.23 , 2.77 , 3.3 , 3.6 , 3.7 , 3.22 ,...

Jan Záhořík (1979) is an Africanist/historian currently serving as associate professor at the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. His research focus includes modern and contemporary history and politics of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa, colonial and...