Chidume, C. G. PhD

Abstract
The States in Africa emerged after the ruins of colonialism and imperialism beginning in the late
1950s. The States formed were based on the parochial economic interests of the colonizing powers
rather than consensus among the divergent groups inhabiting the geopolitical space. The
contemporary States in Africa failed to address the challenges of nation building and enshrine the
tenets of social democracy and good governance among the constituent sub-cultural groups that
constitute the various States brewed up further political conflict and crises. Under this
circumstance, marginalization and structural violence orchestrated upon the repository sub-groups
necessitated and motivated the formation of various militant groups. The data for the work is
sourced through primary and secondary sources, and presented through content analysis. The
theoretical framework adopted in the study is psycho-cultural conflict theory. The paper therefore
concludes that structural victimizations prevalent in Africa induce militant group formation and
operation that make peace and security difficult in the continent. It recommends that appropriate
and robust democratic institutions that will guarantee good governance should be sought by all
African States, and not merely the presence of civil rule as an option for peace and security.

Introduction
The emergent States in Africa were beset with the primary and fundamental challenges of building
purely democratic States amidst divergent and disparate ethnic groups. First, is the character and
nature of the States that remained after the manner of the colonial rule. The subgroups formed
nationalist and liberation movements not free from ethnic agenda. The nationalist movement was
essentially a coalition of disparate groups united by…

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