Pathways toward Peace: Negotiating National Unity and Ethnic Diversity through Education in Botswana
Citation
Dryden-Peterson, S. and Bethany Mulimbi. 2017. Pathways Toward Peace: Negotiating National Unity and Ethnic Diversity through Education in Botswana. Comparative Education Review 61 (1) (February): 58–82.Abstract
This study examines how education can disrupt threats of conflict, specifically in the presence ofethnic diversity. We present a historical analysis of Botswana, using methods of process tracing
drawing on documents, in-depth interviews, and Afrobarometer survey data. Post-independence
Botswana engaged in redistribution of educational access across ethnic groups and promotion of
common civic principles of social harmony. At the same time, it constructed through schools
ethnically-based national identity, which excluded many minorities. Lack of recognition for
ethnic minorities remains a persistent challenge, yet it exists in a context of high commitment to
unity and the nation-state, even among minority groups, which may have allowed recent dissent
to happen peacefully. The paper defines mechanisms by which educational redistribution and
recognition can disrupt resource-based and identity-based inequalities that often lead to conflict.
This model holds promise for conflict avoidance and mitigation in multiethnic states globally.
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