In the late twentieth century ethnic diversity became more important then nationality. Nationality is described as the status of belonging to a nation and ethnicity is characteristics that derive from the distinctive features of particular places on Earth. In other words, ethnicity is the way someone is based souly on their environment and not on any biological factors.
Communist leaders used to (while they were in in charge) discourage ethnic groups from expressing their cultural uniqueness. Because of this, writers and artists could not show their true colors but were forced to commit to “social realism” which was all about Communist values. Against the Communist to not recognize ethnic groups was other Eastern Europe countries.
The Soviet Union is a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between the years 1922 – 1991. The communist party of the soviet union was the government and the political organization of the country.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union
This party was the oldest and for a long time the only ruling communist party in the world so therfore carried a very heavy influence on many other countries which is how the movement of not showing ethnic identity traveled so fast and far. http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0813072.html
Nationalism is very important in forming peoples cultural identity’s. In the 1990′s, elasticities began to make their own nation-states and minorities pressed to be able to study different languages. However, even after the communism fell, ppl formed to the ideology that encouraged traditional culture features like language and religion. Elasticities fought to be the majority in completely independent nation-states. Places that disagreed made peaceful transition to independent countries but made sure not to touch territory occupied by ethnicity. An example of a nation-state is Slovenia. The close boundaries between the Slovene ethnic group and the country itself has brought the country peace and stability. Many places have a very difficult time converting from communist economic system and fitting into the global economy.
Sub-Saharan Africa has become a major place of conflict with ethnic groups who are trying to become dominant. Specificity, these problem areas have been Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Sudan.
Ethiopia is located along the Red Sea and is an independent state in which Eritrea was awarded too by the United Nations. Ethiopia banned Eritrea’s major language Tigrinya. Rebelling against this, Eritreans stated a 30-year fight and rebels defeated army in 1991. Two years later Eritreans became an independent state. War again flared up in 1998 due to arguments about boarder location. Ethiopia won in 2000 and took possession of disputed areas. Ethiopia remained having complex ethnic groups.
In Sudan a civil war has raged since the 1980′s between the black Christian and the animist rebels in the south and Arab-Muslims dominated in the North. The government in the country has been trying to make everyone tied to Muslim ethnicity so the black southerners resented. The country adopted laws to segregate sex’s in public. Men and woman were separated at schools, weddings, parties, and picnics. Female sports had to be help in private and players were not allowed to wear tight-fitting clothes. in places were this was unavoidable there were laws about behaviors such as what each sex could and could not wear.
In Somalia there was overwhelming amount of Sunni Muslims who spoke Somali. However, this population was divided into 6 major clans and further more into a large amount of sub-clans. Some clans tried to adapt their own flag and currency.The national government collapse and clans and sub-clans took control of their areas. The Islamist militias took control by 2006.
Discussion Questions:
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1. What is the difference between ethnicity and nationality?
2. In the communist era, what reasons did ethnic groups have for wanting to show their ethnic identity?
3. what were the four main places of ethnic conflict?
Relation:
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Some ethnic conflict, as shown in the above summarizing paragraphs, took place with segregation in Sub-Sahara Africa. In the United States today, there is much segregation going on. In the 2008 presidential election, the US elected Barak Obama, our very first mixed racial president. This arrised many conflicts but also overcame many. The entire United States began chanting “Yes we can!”. This shows that despite all of our differences in this extremely diverse country, we all have come together and overcame it all. Although we still suffer from conflict, each and every day we are becoming more and more as one.
