非洲大湖地区族群政治探源

The Origin of Ethnic Politics in the Great Lakes Region of Africa

非洲大湖地区不但具有族群政治的显著特征,而且有独特的历史发展轨迹。非洲大湖地区在历史上发展出相对成熟的王权体系,素有官方“修史”和群体分类实践的传统,具体体现于内容丰富的口述传统。但当地社会群体并没有卡斯特体系中那种严重的排他性,且群体成员的身份认同呈现出明显的流动性。19世纪下半叶,西方探险家和传教士进入非洲大湖地区,对该地区诸王国和社会的认知构成了一种以“原住民主义”为本质特征的殖民话语,并对后续的殖民统治政策产生重要影响,进而重塑了非洲大湖地区原有的群体分类实践和历史进程。面对殖民主义,绝大多数非洲统治精英决心维护主权和独立,但具体应对策略不尽相同,既有军事斗争和外交斗争,又有各自的政治调适方式。19世纪末至20世纪50年代末,随着族群政治化,非洲大湖地区族群政治最终形成。族群政治未必注定会导致族群冲突,但无疑给独立后非洲大湖地区国家在处理族群关系和制定族群政策上带来巨大挑战。族群政治是20世纪90年代非洲大湖地区爆发大规模族群冲突的背景,也是今天刚果(金)东部地区冲突的根源之一。只有把族群政治纳入合理的现代政治框架下,非洲大湖地区实现政治稳定和自主发展才有可能。

The Great Lakes region of Africa not only has the significant features of ethnic politics,but also has its unique historical trajectory.The Great Lakes region of Africa has developed a relatively mature royal power system in history,and has the tradition of official"historiography"and group classification practice,which is embodied in the rich oral tradition.However,local social groups did not have the severe exclusivity of the caste system,and the identities of group members are clearly fluid.In the second half of the 19gth century,Westen explorers and missionaries entered the Great Lakes region of Africa.Their cognition of the local kingdoms and societies constituted a kind of colonial discourse characterized by"Nativism",which influenced the subsequent policies of colonial rule,which in turn reshaped the local group classification practices and historical processes.In the face of colonialism,the vast majority of African ruling elites were determined to safeguarsdovereigntyy and independence,and the strategies were different,including military struggles and diplomatic struggles,as well as their own ways of political adjustment.From the end of the 19th century to the end of the 1950s,with the politicization of ethnic groups,ethnic politics in the region finally took shape.Ethnic politics may not necessarily lead to ethnic conflicts,but it will undoubtedly be a great challenge to deal with ethnic relations and formulate ethnic policies for newly-independent countries in the Great Lakes region of Africa.Ethnic politics was the background of large-scale ethnic conflicts broke out in the Great Lakes region of Africa in the 1990s,and it is also one of the root causes of conflicts in the eastern region of DRC.Political stability and autonomous development in the Great Lakes region of Africa will only be possible if ethnic politics are integrated into a rational and modern political framework.