World Ark Magazine - November/December 2008 - (Page 16)

and them, but what we can do to people across that line. The questions “Who are we?” and “Who are they?” lie at the heart of many conflicts across Africa and the world. The questions go to the heart of the concept of the nation-state. A nation is a group you are born into or feel you belong to. A state is a government based more or less around that nation. Together, these institutions can build an almost impenetrable solidarity. Most governments in the West are of this kind, where being a citizen creates a strong sense of belonging. Today Europe is the picture of stability, prosperity and six-week paid vacations, and it’s easy to forget how much blood was spilled to create those nation-states. Remember World War II? Remember the Hundred Years’ War? Remember Napoleon? “Africa hasn’t evolved into nation-states,” says John Stremlau, vice president for peace programs at the Atlantabased Carter Center for human rights. “All these governments in Africa are states, not nations. But look at the bloodletting it took in Europe to get an ethnically cleansed France or Germany before you could build the European Union. That was a 300-year project. Africa is only 60 years into independence. You wouldn’t want Africa to go through anything like Europe went through.” The state in Africa is a strange thing. Many can fight wars but can’t deliver the mail. Some can run an airline but not a highway system. This is at least partly because the state was a foreign (and recent) development. In the 60 years since Africa was decolonized, the roots of national identities haven’t gone very deep. The state often only includes a small number of people brought into the system as taxpayers and stakeholders in the government. For others, the state remains a foreign thing. Many people within Kenya view their own country as a separate, distant place encompassing only Nairobi and the surrounding region, where those wealthy enough to pay taxes live, Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina said. “In Kenya, which has one of the largest tax bases in Africa, if you move 100 kilometers from the capital, to the north from the south [but still inside the country’s borders], people will ask you: ‘Did you come from Kenya?’” Tribes or ethnicities are often much stronger indicators of identity, and African leaders sometimes encourage and exploit tribal and ethnic ties over national ones. © Getty/Randy Olson In Juba, sudan, a refugee girl eats a foraged mango. 16 November/December 2008 | WORLD ARK www.heifer.org http://www.heifer.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of World Ark Magazine - November/December 2008

World Ark Magazine - November/December 2008 Contents Letters For the Record The Good Life Asked and Answered Finding Peace in Africa Sierra Leone on the Mend The Roma: A People Apart Mixed Media Heifer Bulletin Heifer Spirit Calendar First Person

World Ark Magazine - November/December 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.