Introduction

In the ever-difficult process of transitioning to democracy and stability in developing nations, one is hard-pressed to think of a phenomenon more detrimental, even antithetical, to that process than armed conflict. In addition to the destructive effect of conflict, especially civil conflict, on a state's institutions, it often perpetuates a “conflict trap” whereby economic development is undermined, which in turn may undermine the sort of institutional development which depends on economic stability. Given the high prevalence of civil conflict in Africa, examining what role religion may play in Africa's political and economic development must therefore seek to understand the role religious identity plays in some of Africa’s civil conflicts. Africa is the scene of a disturbingly high proportion of the world’s civil conflicts, yet the role of religion varies considerably. In cases such as the outbreak of armed conflict in Côte d’Ivoire in 2002, religious divisions appear to provide a major fault line along which civil conflict has been mobilized. In other cases, ethnic divisions form the basis for conflict even where both warring groups share a common religion, and that common identity of religion seems powerless to facilitate peace. In Rwanda, for example, Hutus and Tutsis are both predominantly Catholic, and many victims of the genocide there sought refuge in churches as the killing unfolded (Power 2002). Beyond the obvious failure of this common identity to stop the bloodshed, as well as the failure of such churches to serve as effective sanctuaries, some religious leaders have even been convicted for their role in facilitating the slaughter. By contrast, religious leaders in Kenya played a vital role in negotiating peace among warring ethnic groups in the Rift Valley during the early 1990s. In still other cases, the role of religion exhibits an ability to shift quite markedly in one or more civil conflicts. Just as Sudan’s decades-long North-South Civil War was ending, a conflict largely characterized as being between Muslim and Christian and animist peoples, the current conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan, began among peoples who share Islam as a common faith, divided instead by ethnicity.

Under what conditions do religious identity divisions become the fault lines along which civil conflict occurs? How does this phenomenon relate to ethnic conflict, and what accounts for the variation in the role of religious identity?