Introduction: Ethnicity in Africa and the

Middle East

Ethnicity
The region covered in this volume is not only vast, but the populations are greatly varied
and have suffered from being classified by colonial officials into frequently meaningless
categories. [n a good number of cases, contemporary labeling for different people were
the direct result of colonial interference and attempts Lo classify people into categories,
often for easier recognition and labeling rather than for any real reason to combine or di­
vide peoples. These became hardened into the names used in the postcolonial period by
independence governments. As noted above, labels are not always useful and, in a num­
ber of cases in Africa, have set peoples against each other over competition for resources
or where one group was given privilege over others, such as the Hutu and Tutsi. Some
groups, such as the Samburu (Nilotic), have been separated from larger entities, in their
case the Maasai (Nilotic), and were not called the Samburu until into the 19th century.
For the purposes here, ethno-linguistics has been used to denote the different ethnicities.
Thus. Zulu and Xhosa are found in the entry Nguni rather than in separate, individual
entries. It was felt by the main author of the volume that ethno-linguistic groups have a
basis for distinction, wh.ile other labels are misleading or even wrong.
Ethnicity is defined by a shared historical experience, regional isolation, specific reli­
gion, kinship type, or language or dfalect of a language that distinguishes a population
from others. Ethnic groups can be fluid, such as Arab or Berber, and it is possible to
be both an Arab and a Berber at t11e same time. Ethnicity can be defined as much by what
a group is not as much as what it is; that is, ii can be defined by those who are not mem­
bers as much as those who are. It is possible to negotiate belonging to one group or
another and. when language is the main means of defining a group, such as with the
Arabs, it is possible to bave multiple identities. Generally speaking, language or dialect
is more of the marker of an ethnic group than, say, religion, though Jews are distin­
guished as much by their specific religious demands as by their historical experience no
matter what language they speak. Ethnic tolerance or intolerance in much of the region
under discussion (the Middle East and Africa) has become an issue more as a result of

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