ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces an African condition in the twenty-first century. By an ‘African Condition in the twenty-first century’, the chapter means the inclusionary and exclusionary – sometimes rational and at other times irrational – relationships, interactions or non-interactions between geographical entities, between racial entities, between linguistic entities and between religious entities in Africa. In these relationships, interactions or non-interactions, one entity negatively relates, interacts or refuses to interact with another entity for the gains of the former and to the detriment of the latter or even to the detriment of both entities. Constitutive of the relationships, interactions or non-interactions are differential treatment in which members of one entity are given preferential treatment that advantages them while members of another entity are ill-treated in ways that disadvantage them. This can be either formal (ingrained in laws and procedures), informal (for instance, systemic biases) or both formal and informal. The chapter presents a conception of an African condition in the twenty-first century and then describes the different ways of analysing or understanding the African condition.
