ABOUNDING INTERNAL CONFLICTS IN AFRICA: AN ANALYSIS OF PREPOTENCY OF GREED OR GRIEVANCES

Abstract

Scores of inter and intra-state conflicts have been haunting African continent for the last many decades. These conflicts have their roots embedded in diversity of religion, ethnicity, identity, resources’ scarcity and political boundary delimitation concerns since decolonization of this vast land. Most of the conflicts in Africa emerged as an expression of economic and social deprivations as concluded by proponents of grievance. However, the recent addition of greed theory in conflict literature has reshaped the course of debate and discerns causes of conflict initiation in greed of conflicting parties having self enrichment motives. Greed theory has been put to test against three major African conflicts being most cataclysmic in terms of human casualties; Angolan, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwandan conflict. These conflicts had monumentally shocking impact on humanity. This article argues that Greed theory has selective relevance instead of universal application. Our qualitative research based findings with respect to initiation of these conflicts show weaker causal relation as professed by greed theorists. This research article is significant as it challenges the findings of greed theory’s generalization.