African Identities

Gedamu, Tamu Alemu

doi: 10.1080/14725843.2026.2674137pmid: N/A

This article examines the dynamics of political elite polarization and its repercussions on the Ethiopian transition process in the post-2018 period, through the qualitative dialectical method. The study used Actor Network Theory to explain the problem. The research examines how competing elites developed their identities and deconstructed their opponents, thereby leading to polarization, and how these contradictions affected the transition process. The data for this study were obtained through 16 key informant interviews with political elites from the Prosperity Party, the National Movement of Amhara, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, and the Oromo Federalist Congress. Secondary sources of data were also available, including party manifestos, media briefings, reports from international organizations, and scholarly peer-reviewed publications. The study found three major dynamics of elite polarization: the formation of the Oro-Mara alliance, which led to the 2018 leadership change; the formation of counter-networks; and the polarization of the elite over competing versions of Ethiopian history, identity, and the 1995 constitution. The study found that the 2018 reforms were initially promising for democratic transformation. Yet they rolled back into authoritarian governance, causing significant repercussions, including political stalemates, internal fragmentation within the Prosperity Party, and armed conflicts across different regions of Ethiopia.

Shimekit, Mindaye; Adem, Teferi Abate; Tesfaye, Yihenew Alemu

doi: 10.1080/14725843.2026.2680268pmid: N/A

This study examined the roles of social customs, community bylaws, and enforcement mechanisms in conserving the sacred forests of the Zege Peninsula, located along Lake Tana, Ethiopia. It draws on rich qualitative data gathered through a combination of participant observations and semi-structured interviews. The data were analyzed using content and thematic analysis. This study employed political ecology and community-based conservation approaches to conceptualize its major findings. The findings reveal the intertwined roles of social customs and community bylaws in preserving the Peninsula’s forest, both rooted in a religiously sanctioned origin story derived from the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church’s covenant with God. The conservation tradition established through these customs and bylaws provided a platform for community-wide participation in the management of the sacred forest, including economically valuable forest products. Folktales and oral traditions have historically played a crucial role in forest protection, although their influence has declined in recent years due to socio-cultural and economic changes. This study also highlights that sacred forests and the community’s conservation traditions are increasingly threatened by socio-cultural changes, climate change, and pervasive poverty. These findings emphasize the urgent need for adaptive conservation strategies that effectively integrate traditional ecological knowledge and modern environmental management practices.

Dennis, Albert

doi: 10.1080/14725843.2026.2680282pmid: N/A

The creative industries in Africa have contributed in building the continent in diverse ways. In Ghana, the phenomenon is pervasive to include Fancy Dress masquerading, a masquerade tradition that started during the 18th century. An epicenter is Cape Coast, the former capital of the country. Driven by the concept of disguise, these masquerades have sustained the masquerade culture with intriguing stylistic spectacle. From personal observation since 2021, the masquerade tradition has given way to a concept that can be conceptualised as facekurade. This performance allows masqueraders to expose their faces to spectators, a longstanding custom that is frowned upon in the masquerading cycles. However, this trend has not received scholarship. The study was underpinned by the theory of practice and cultural adaptation theory. Relying on qualitative case study design with multiple data collection instruments, the study employed a purposive sampling technique to sample thirty- six (36) participants to explore considerations that have given rise to facekurade in Cape Coast. Findings were that wearing masks were associated with heat and physical discomfort; there was a need to expose wrongdoers; the costly nature of masquerade costumes, particularly the masks; the need to erase misconceptions about masquerading and, finally, the desire to follow emerging trends in masquerading. The paper argues that the dynamic nature of masquerading continues to shape the creative industries in Africa.

Owens-Ibie, Nosa; Nnabuihe, Onyekachi E.; Aondover, Eric Msughter

doi: 10.1080/14725843.2026.2672423pmid: N/A

Extant practices of digital governance, including platform regulations and state–platform interactions in contemporary Nigeria, have produced new patterns of marginalisation within the social media environment. Conventional explanations of minority tend to view the phenomenon often from the ethno-linguistic, religious and regional perspectives. As such, existing engagements tend to gloss over the ways that digital regulatory practices highlight unequal treatment, selective enforcement, and informal repression to produce differentiated exclusion within digital spaces. Yet, evidence emanating from the state-social media regulatory interactions shows that certain actors, practices, and communicative positions within the social media are marginalised. This paper situates minority beyond the conventional configuration and conceives it as a relational condition of power, vulnerability and unequal treatment within digitally mediated public spheres. Drawing on theories of the public sphere and emerging scholarship on digital authoritarianism and communication rights in Africa, the article contends that social media actors, particularly politically dissenting communities are increasingly subjected to regulatory, economic, and algorithmic restrictions that make them functionally marginal despite the criticality of digital platforms in contemporary political communication. Rather than portraying social media as innately marginal, the study shows how processes of minoritisation operate within the prevailing digital ecosystem reshaping participation, visibility and democratic engagement.

Ayalew, Tigist; Amera, Alemante; Yosef, Dawit

doi: 10.1080/14725843.2026.2663036pmid: N/A

This anthropological study examines the knowledge and practices among blacksmiths in Libo-Kamkam, Ethiopia. Indigenous Knowledge Theory is used as a lens to frame the concepts and themes of the study. The objectives of the study are to explore the knowledge transfer, sustainability, and implications of indigenous knowledge system within blacksmithing in the study area. Through comprehensive ethnographic fieldwork that includes interviews, FGDs, and participant observation, the findings reveal how forging, resource recycling, and precise temperature control are examples of indigenous knowledge that are passed down through community collaboration and familial learning. These practices enable blacksmiths to produce essential farming implements adapted to local ecology. The study also indicates how the blacksmiths manage the coexistence of ancestral pride and social stigma. The findings also highlight major threats to its survival, such as stigma, limited institutional support, and shortage of raw materials. In order to maintain blacksmithing as a rural livelihood and cultural legacy, the study recommends institutional support, and promoting indigenous knowledge in the cultural policy of the country.

Ayenew, Anteneh; Teferra, Zelalem; Teshome, Solomon

doi: 10.1080/14725843.2026.2679034pmid: N/A

This study aims to explore the occasions in which social morals are expressed within the studied society, focusing on the perspective of folk beliefs. To achieve this objective, data collection was conducted in seven kebeles selected from the total of twenty-four kebeles in the district using purposive sampling techniques. Informants were identified based on factors such as age, climate, lifestyle, gender, and social status. In the process, both purposive and the network sampling methods were employed as needed. Relevant primary field data were gathered through observation, interviews, and focus group discussions. Accordingly, the collected data on social morality were systematically organized using a content categorization approach and analyzed descriptively, with informants’ responses and explanations serving as the primary basis for evidence. Then, the study reveals that social morals in the Dejen district are predominantly expressed through slaughtering, food and drinks, farming, marriage, birth, death, holy water, religion, gender, age, respect, generosity, darkness, plants, greetings, crops, honesty, clothing and jewelry, addiction, and body parts. Finally, addressing the global decline of morals requires collective efforts to preserve and transmit social moral values to future generations, ensuring their continuity amid modern cultural influences.

Bakenne, Nureni Aremu; Adenekan, Shola; Bamidele, Seun

doi: 10.1080/14725843.2026.2672430pmid: N/A

The universalist conception of peace as the mere absence of conflict often obscures indigenous understandings rooted in active ethical and spiritual practices. This paper foregrounds Yorùbá epistemologies to advance a framework for conceptualising peace as àlàáfíà, an active moral equilibrium grounded in spiritual authority, justice, and communal responsibility. Drawing on a critical reflection methodology, we examine the cosmological foundations of Yorùbá peace thought, including the interplay between Ayé (the physical world) and Ọ̀run (the spiritual realm), the role of the Òrìṣà, and key philosophical concepts such as Ìwàpẹ̀lẹ́ (good character), Ìrẹ́pọ̀ (harmony), Orí (inner consciousness), and Tòrò (serenity). We analyse the symbolic and ritual significance of the dove (ẹyẹ àlà / Ẹyẹlé) within Ifá divination, oríkì traditions, ìjálá poetry, and ritual practice, alongside other peace symbols including Ọ̀kín (peacock) and Màrìwò (palm frond), which reveal layered indigenous meanings that resist reduction to singular emblems. We argue that Yorùbá cosmological perspectives, rooted in the veneration of the Òrìṣà and sustained through oral and performative traditions, offer necessary alternatives to liberal pacifist paradigms and provide ethical and communal frameworks for peace-building. This approach opens possibilities for transformative theorisation in peace studies and engagement with indigenous epistemologies in the global South.

Tomora, Dereje Dakamo; Jirata, Tadesse Jaleta

doi: 10.1080/14725843.2026.2677561pmid: N/A

This article examines Qale Qasi’ra, a traditional children’s game of the Sidama people in southern Ethiopia, as an indigenous pedagogical tool that nurtures holistic child development. Using ethnographic observations and interviews with children aged 6–12, the study demonstrates how the game cultivates cognitive precision, patience, emotional resilience, fairness, and social cooperation. By situating Qale Qasi’ra within decolonial and cultural-historical psychology frameworks, particularly the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) tradition developed from Vygotsky’s work, the article highlights its value as a form of play-based learning and peer pedagogy. Findings show that traditional games are not merely recreational but function as culturally embedded systems of education, identity formation, and moral reasoning. This article underscores the enduring relevance of indigenous knowledge in contemporary early childhood discourse and argues for recognizing indigenous games as culturally responsive pedagogical resources that can enrich formal education while respecting Ethiopia’s cultural diversity.

Mark, Tekena Gasper

doi: 10.1080/14725843.2026.2677560pmid: N/A

Over the past decade, Nigerian comedy has shifted decisively toward short-form digital skits circulated across Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and TikTok. While humour in Nigeria has long functioned as a vernacular practice grounded in shared sociocultural knowledge and ambivalent negotiation of authority, digital platforms have reorganised the structural conditions under which comic performance is produced, circulated, and monetised. Although existing studies address humour as social commentary, embodied performance, and digital self-fashioning, less attention has been paid to how platform infrastructures reshape comic form within uneven political-economic environments. Drawing on qualitative textual and structural analysis of twelve high-visibility Nigerian social media skits posted between 2023 and 2025, supplemented by illustrative analysis of sixty audience comments, this research asks how Nigerian digital comedy operates as vernacular performance and how platform mediation reshapes its structure and meaning. The study develops Digital Vernacular Comedy (DVC) as a conceptual lens for identifying recurring tendencies such as narrative compression, character seriality, metric-conditioned circulation, affective synchronisation, and entrepreneurial embodiment. It argues that vernacular comic traditions persist while their meanings are extended, layered, and reconfigured within algorithmic visibility regimes, participatory circulation, and precarious platform economies.

Adjei-Cudjoe, Benolia; Inusah, Rasheed Seidu

doi: 10.1080/14725843.2026.2679714pmid: N/A

This paper examines African socialism as a recurring political and ontological formation rather than a fixed ideological project. It argues that African socialism emerges from a communal ontology disrupted by colonialism, develops through postcolonial state formation in the 1960s–1970s, undergoes militarisation and institutional transformation in the 1980s–1990s, and is reactivated in contemporary Sahelian politics. Drawing on Mbiti’s conception of relational personhood and temporal circularity, it conceptualises African socialism as collective continuity in which political legitimacy is grounded in communal life rather than liberal individualism. The study shows how early post-independence states translated indigenous ethical systems into development projects centred on collective welfare, before facing economic dependency, external constraint, and structural adjustment reforms that reshaped governance trajectories. It further explains how military regimes appropriated socialist symbolism and institutional forms while retaining the language of collective sovereignty and national renewal. Finally, it analyses the coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger as a reactivation of socialist memory, where unresolved questions of sovereignty, dignity, and economic control re-emerge through anti-colonial and anti-dependency narratives. It concludes that African socialism persists as cyclical political memory shaping postcolonial struggles over authority, autonomy, and collective existence.