Surveys discover widespread perceptions of unfair remedy based mostly on folks’s financial standing.
Key findings
- On common throughout 39 international locations, a minimum of eight in 10 Africans categorical tolerant attitudes towards folks of various ethnicities (89%), completely different religions (85%), completely different political affiliations (82%), and completely different nationalities (80%). Just one-fourth (24%) say the identical about folks in same-sex relationships. o Ranges of tolerance have remained pretty steady over the previous decade. o Whereas intolerance for sexual variations reaches 94% in Uganda, Sierra Leone, and Niger, it’s not common throughout the continent: Fewer than one-third of respondents categorical illiberal attitudes towards folks in same-sex relationships in Cabo Verde (18%), South Africa (23%), and Seychelles (30%). o Evaluating areas, North Africa persistently ranks at or close to the underside in tolerance towards social variations, whereas Central and West Africa rank on the high.
- Family are the one folks whom a majority (58%) of Africans say they belief “quite a bit.” However majorities say they a minimum of “considerably” belief neighbours, different residents, folks from completely different non secular or ethnic backgrounds, and “different folks you understand.”
- Interpersonal belief is increased amongst rural residents, much less educated folks, Muslims, and West and Central Africans than amongst their respective counterparts.
- A majority (57%) say they belief their fellow residents “considerably” or “quite a bit,” starting from simply 26% in São Tomé and Príncipe to 86% in Mali.
- Six in 10 Africans (61%) say persons are “typically” or “all the time” handled unequally below the regulation.
- Virtually half (47%) say their authorities “typically” or “all the time” treats folks unfairly based mostly on how wealthy or poor they’re – about 3 times as many as understand widespread discrimination based mostly on ethnicity (17%).
- Perceptions of frequent authorities discrimination based mostly on folks’s financial standing are most pervasive in Tunisia (72%), Nigeria (67%), Eswatini (66%), Cabo Verde (66%), and Mali (66%).
- Solely 13% of Africans say they really feel extra hooked up to their ethnic identification than to their nationwide identification. The biggest share (45%) say they worth each identities equally.
With greater than 1,500 languages and dialects, Africa has skilled social cohesion – and its absence – as a posh interaction of unity and variety formed by colonial legacies, ethnic division, and political rhetoric. The Rwandan Genocide of 1994, South African apartheid, the mass expulsion of Nigerians from Ghana in 1969, and the retaliatory “Ghana should go” expulsion in 1983 stand as stark reminders of the devastating penalties of ethnic polarisation and failure to nurture a shared sense of identification and tolerance (Parker & Rathbone, 2007; Lawal, 2019).
Over the previous 20 years, the continent has seen some indications of a rising acceptance of variety. In East Africa, for instance, the United Nations Financial Fee for Africa (2016) cites Kenya’s Nationwide Cohesion and Integration Fee, Uganda’s Imaginative and prescient 2040, and Tanzania’s Imaginative and prescient 2025 as examples of efforts to construct extra inclusive societies. Different authors emphasise the significance of constructing social cohesion by decreasing social and financial inequality and making certain that the essential wants of all persons are met (Harsch, 2006; Saoudi & Louis-Sarbib, 2023).
But components of the continent nonetheless grapple with xenophobic assaults and discrimination, financial disparities, political instability, corruption, the marginalisation of sure teams, and different threats to social cohesion (United Nations Financial Fee for Africa, 2016; Masiko Mpaka, 2023; Mabasa, 2023; Schwikowski, 2023). Ethnic nationalism, non secular extremism, and rising scepticism towards public establishments exacerbate social tensions and undermine efforts to foster a way of belonging and solidarity amongst various communities (Ould Mohamedou, 2016; Bikus, 2022; Wortmann-Kolundžija, 2023). The LGBTQ+ group in Africa faces a few of the world’s harshest and most discriminatory legal guidelines (Ferragamo & Robinson, 2023).
Are African international locations doing sufficient to combat exclusion and marginalisation in a means that creates a way of belonging, promotes belief and peace, and affords all folks a good alternative of upward mobility? This paper explores social cohesion throughout 4 dimensions – tolerance, belief, discrimination, and identification – utilizing latest Afrobarometer survey knowledge.
Findings from 39 African international locations surveyed between late 2021 and mid-2023 present that Africans categorical pretty excessive ranges of tolerance for variations of ethnicity, faith, nationality, and political affiliation. The identical is just not true relating to sexual variations, though intolerance is just not common throughout the continent.
Africans are cautiously trusting: Whereas majorities say they belief different teams of individuals a minimum of “considerably,” solely kin get pleasure from “quite a bit” of belief from a majority of respondents, and almost half of respondents categorical little or no belief in folks from different ethnic and spiritual backgrounds.
Survey responses additionally replicate widespread perceptions of unfair remedy by governments, particularly on the idea of individuals’s financial standing.
Total, Africans categorical a robust attachment to their nationwide identities, however a majority contemplate their ethnic identities a minimum of equally essential.
Francisca Sarpong Owusu Francisca Sarpong Owusu is an assistant analysis analyst on the Ghana Middle for Democratic Improvement.
Libuseng Malephane Libuseng Malephane is the nationwide investigator for Lesotho.
