Ethnic Competition and Modernization in Contemporary Africa

Geertz, Melson and Wolpe, Huntington and others have argued that modernization promotes potentially disintegrative forces in developing areas, and, in particular, often gives rise to powerful ethnic groupings. In this article, we elaborate this hypothesis in the context of the developing nations of black Africa. In so doing, we also attempt to demonstrate the relevance and usefulness to political scientists of the extensive work on modernization in Africa produced by students of related disciplines, and to draw from these studies evidence for our principal assertion: that in contemporary Africa, modernization and ethnic competition can and do co-vary.