Ethnicity is a big issue in African politics and a way to understand many aspects of African culture and society. In this chapter, I move from broad generalities on ethnicity to the specific, drawing from the data on the national (Nigeria) to the subnational (Yoruba). The idea is to explore the nature of the problem of ethnicity at the level of both ideas and history, including its complicated minutiae which involve the role of tradition in modern politics. Both national and ethnic identities have been invented and reinvented. National identities are newer, created mainly during the twentieth century: the modern countries were colonial creations, and since independence, various governments have tried to foster a feeling of national consciousness. Ethnic identities are much older. The Yoruba, Zulu, Somali, and others had existed long before European conquest, living in villages, cities, and kingdoms. The groups remain today, reorganized into different modern countries and constituting the basis of identities different from that of the nation-state.

To start with the bigger picture, ethnic nationalism is very much widespread in Africa. It involves a commitment to an established cultural group, the old nation and identity that were constituted in the past and reinvented for modern purposes. Ethnicity is one of the most effective and least costly means of uniting a group to fight for their rights and demand privileges and justice. From wars to secession crises, ethnicity has been the most potent agency for seeking freedom and autonomy from rival political leaders and ethnic groups. Ethnicity is an agency of self-assertion, allowing members of a group to stand for their rights or even to complain that their share of the economic and political resources of a state are grossly inadequate compared to those of other groups. A group mobilizes ethnic nationalism to protect itself from other groups: it seeks equality and parity with other ethnic groups in access to modern education, contracts, jobs, and other opportunities.

Whether it is regarded as invented, imagined, or real, ethnicity is about creating a strong and unified identity among a group of people. In cultural terms, the members of an ethnic group strongly believe that they are united by history, tradition, and customs.