Book excerpt: Discusses ethnicity in Africa in terms of history and the management, resolution, and prevention of conflicts. Groups some 700 ethnic groups that exist in Africa into six main categories, looks at how ethnicity was used to organize and protect chiefdoms and empires in the past, and inquires into why ethnicity has become more destructive in contemporary Africa. Investigates these questions using the imperial, the liberal, and Marxist models, and finds the liberal model to be the most applicable. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR