Hizkias Assefa

SARRAOUNIA
"Ce n'est pas la force, mais la persévérance, qui fait les grandes
oeuvres". Samuel Johnson
HIZKIAS ASSEFA
Né en 1945.
de guerres civiles en Afrique, Amérique latine
et Asie.
Hizkias Assefa est professeur
spécialisé dans l’étude des
conflits.
Il travaille à Nairobi au Kenya
en tant que médiateur et
facilitateur en matière de
processus de réconciliation dans
un grand nombre
Il a également travaillé comma avocat et
consultant au profit de la résolution des conflits
et de la construction de la paix dans des
situations de crises humanitaires au profit des
Nations unies, de l’Union européenne et des
Organisations non gouvernementales qu’elles
soient nationales ou internationales.
Ethnic conflict in
the Horn of
Africa : Myth
and reality.
(extracts)
_ Most of the wars waged in the Horn of
Africa during the past 30 years have benn
described in terms oh ethnic conflict, both by
the adversaries themselves and by external
analysts.(...)
_In the context oh the Horn, many concepts, such
as nationality, tribe and now clan, have been used
interchangeably with that oh ethnic group, and it
is very difficult to distinguish between them. A
commonly used definition is that an ethnic group
is acollectivity of people who share the same
primordial characteristics such as common
ancestry, language and culture (People have
included religion in the category of shared
culture). (...)
_Ethnicity then refers to the behaviour and feeling
that supposedly emanates from membership oh an
ethnic group. (...)
Il est l’auteur de nombreux livres :
- Mediation of Civil Wars ;
- approaches and strategies : The Sudan Conflict
(Westview Press, 1987) ;
- peace and reconciliation as a paradigm : a philosophy
of Peace and its implications on Conflict, Governance
and Economic Growth in Africa (Majestic Press,
1993) ;
- process of Expanding and Deepening Engagement :
Methodology for Reconciliation Work in large-scale
Social Conflicts.
_A major question that arises from the above
definition of «ethnic group» is wether people must
share commonalties in all the criteria mentioned to
be members of the same ethnic group or to share
the same etnicity. There are instances in the Horn
in which belonging to the same religion seems to
suffice to classify people as members of an etnic
group, although they might differ in other criteria.
(...)
_There are also cases where commonality in
language and religion has not signified
membership oh the same ethnic group. Espacially
where groups have interacted for a long time,
there are situations where people might overlaps
in one of these etnic criteria (religion, language,
culture or ancestry) but lack commonalties in the
rest.(...)
_Some have argued that membership of an ethnic
group is not determined by objective factors such
as sharing common primordial characteristics.
They point to subjective factors such as
perception, belonging, self-identification, and the
like.(...)
_The definition of ethnic groups and the
distinction between people based on ethnic criteria
is difficult, inconsistent and confusing. One could
come up with different results depending on
wether one uses objective or subjective criteria;(...)
_You may not be able to define it, but you know it
when you see it. The trouble with that attitude is
that if we are not agreed on what the
phenomenom is we might be wasting our energy
by focusing on the wrong problems or by
prescribing a remedy for a problem that has not
been diagnosed correctly. As we will see in greater
detail later, doing so could even run the risk of
making the situation worse instead of remedying
it.(...)
_Ethnic similarities and differences are the basis
for social harmony or discord. Thus, it is expected
that those who share a common ancestry,
language, culture and religion should have a
relationship of solidarity and harmony with each
other but one of the cleavage and conflict with
those who do not share their ethnic identity. This
concept is also full of problems. There are societes
in the Horn where ethnic similarity has not
assured social harmony nor avoid the outbreak of
large-scale conflict. Especially where there is not
perception of external threat, there is a great deal
of evidence that ethnic group have divided into
lower-level identities and fought each other with
as much zeal as they might fight other ethnic
groups. Alternatively, there are also societes in the
region where ethnic diversity has not been a
prescription for violent conflicts.(...)
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