Vol-6 Issue-2 2020 IJARIIE-ISSN(O)-2395-4396 11847 www.ijariie.com 1405 The Contemporary Conflict in Africa: Enemy within or without? Nigeria's Experience OGELE, Eziho Promise Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences Rivers State University, P MB 5080, Nkpolu- Oroworukwo Port Harcourt, Nigeria. e-mail: promiseogele2017@gmail.com 08036677126 Abstract The paper examined the contemporary conflicts in Africa with a view of determining whether they are internally induced or externally influenced using Nigeria as a case. The African continent is currently bedeviled with various internal conflicts, which has impeded the socioeconomic and political development. Africa has become a continent with negativity in terms of human security globally. The continent has not had favorable vertical relationships with her counterparts ranging from the slave trade period to the colonial era. However, Nigeria has the largest concentration of black African population on earth, with an estimate of two hundred and six million people, and two hundred and thirty ethnic nationalities. Nigeria was engulfed in a civil war that lasted for 30 months barely 6 years after the attainment of political independence in 1960. The civil war led to the destruction of lives and properties worth billions of dollars. The contemporary conflicts in Nigeria have been internally induced, particularly the Boko Haram terrorism, herdsmen/farmers conflict, poor leadership, ethnic strife, the existence of Overlords, among others. The investigation was informed on the fact that there have been several accusations of external forces in contemporary conflicts in Nigeria and Africa in general. The paper adopted qualitative methods of data gathering techniques using content analysis. The paper unraveled that most of the contemporary conflicts in Nigeria and Africa at large are internally induced, though with a relative external capitalistic undertone. The paper recommends amongst others a regular security conference among African countries to harness her potential in conflict management. Keywords: capitalism, conflict, crisis, ethnicity, terrorism. INTRODUCTION Conflict is as old as mankind. “Conflict is inherent to the human condition. It arises when individuals or groups hold divergent interests and values" (Picciotto, 2011, p.51). The African sovereign states have been engulfed in several conflicts since they attained political independence in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s from the imperialist’s rule. However, the complex nature of these conflicts is a combination of several factors such as social, political, economic, among others. Empirical evidence has proven that some of these conflicts are caused by Africans who are surrogates to external forces. Africa is the second-largest continent in the world. The continent is endowed with both human and natural resources. Hence, has been an attraction of external forces. A few centuries ago, the African continent suffered direct, indirect, and cultural violence by both internal and external forces, which harmed the socio-economic and political development of the continent. During the slave era, millions of Africans were seized and carted away beyond the continent by the Arabs in the Middle East, and the Europeans to the West Indies respectively (Palmer and Perkins, 2004, p.505). Boddy-Evans disclosed that “Britain had had some success in halting the slave trade around the shores of Africa, but the inland story was different. Muslim traders from north of the Sahara and on the East Coast still traded inland, and many local chiefs were reluctant to give up the use of slaves"(Boddy-Evans, 2017). The invention of machines led to the abandonment of the slave enterprise for another phase of exploitation. Anikpo (1985, p.39) noted that: