Ethnicity and Religion in Political Leadership in Africa - Essay Example

Ethnicity and religion play an important role in the political and leadership of Africa. This dates back in the colonial periods of the slave trade that left African communities divided and with suspicion and mistrust for one another. Ethnicity and Religion influence Africa political leadership to date.Ethnicity and religion dominate most political parties in Africa. Ethnicity is especially used as a political vehicle through which leaders get into power. Different tribes that speak similar languages come together to form a particular party, which will win due to the large numbers involved for example in Kenya, the Bantus formed a party of national unity which won the elections in 2007.

According to Odinga, in the African press, Nigeria is an example of a nation embroiled in the politics of ethnicity since independence. This happened after the 1993 military coup that made ethnic groups of I jaws, Yoruba’s, Igbo’s, Tiv’s Edo’s and Fulani to form a party (Odinga web)A religion difference, especially Islam and Christianity, determine political leadership in Africa. This is true in many countries that have an almost equal proportion of the two religions. A worse case of ethnicity is the one of Sierra Leon where the group in control of political power controls also the distribution of National resources.