非洲族群冲突的类型分析

Ethnic Conflicts in Africa:A Typological Analysis

当代非洲族群冲突肆虐,其数量与规模极其庞大,冲突形态高度复杂。为了简化和透视纷繁的冲突现象,以便探求冲突的机制与趋势,有必要建立一种类型学予以揭示之。在这一分析架构中,非洲族群冲突可以区分为民族分离运动、种族灭绝、选举型族群冲突与资源型族群冲突诸类型。民族分离运动是民族国家族群冲突的最高形态,是分裂国家的民族主义行为;种族灭绝的施害者利用强大的国家机器或武装,针对特定族群施行大屠杀行为,伤害性极大;民主选举是当前非洲最重要的政治斗争场域,是许多非洲国家沿族群边界开展的“零和”游戏;石油、金属矿产等是当下最炙手可热的宝贵财富,而土地、牧场、水源等基础性资源是非洲占绝大多数农村人口的“生命之源”,基于这些资源的冲突覆盖了非洲每一个国家和地区,构成非洲族群冲突数量之最。

Conflicts among ethnic groups are rampant in contemporary Africa,which are extremely large in number and scale,and highly complex in form.Therefore,it is necessary to establish a typology to simplify and penetrate the complex phenomena of ethnic conflict in Africa,which will help the discovery of the mechanism and trend of these conflicts.Under such an analytical framework,ethnic conflicts in Africa can be classified as national secession movement,genocide,electoral ethnic conflict and ethnic conflict over resources.The national secession movement is the highest form among ethnic conflicts in a multi-ethnic country,which is a nationalistic act to split a country;in a genocide,the perpetrators,with the help of powerful state machinery or armed forces,commit mass murder of particular groups of people,causing great damages;the democratic election,at present,is the most important political arena in Africa,where a“zero-sum”game is played by groups of people along ethnic lines in many African countries;since mineral resources,such as oil and metal,are the most scrambled and precious wealth at present,while fundamental resources,like land,pasture and water,are the“source of life”for the vast majority of the rural population in Africa,conflicts over these resources happen in every country and region in Africa and constitute the largest number of ethnic conflicts in Africa.