International Journal of Social Economics

Social tolerance for human diversity in Sub-Saharan Africa

Prosper F. Bangwayo-Skeete Precious Zikhali
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Prosper F. Bangwayo-Skeete Precious Zikhali, (2011),"Social tolerance for human diversity in Sub-Saharan
Africa", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 38 Iss 6 pp. 516 - 536
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IJSE
38,6 Social tolerance for human
diversity in Sub-Saharan Africa
Prosper F. Bangwayo-Skeete
516 International College of Cayman Islands, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, and
Precious Zikhali
International Water Management Institute,
Southern Africa Regional Office, Pretoria, South Africa
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Abstract
Purpose – This paper seeks to investigate the individual-level determinants of self-declared social
tolerance towards six groups/practices in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): tolerance to linguistic differences,
racial distinction, religious dissimilarity, homosexuality, acquired immuno deficiency syndrome
(AIDS) victims and immigrants.
Design/methodology/approach – Using individual-level data from the 2005 World Values Survey,
the paper simultaneously estimates multivariate probit models for all six dimensions of social
tolerance.
Findings – Apart from the strong interdependency among all social tolerance indicators, the analysis
reveals that individual attributes affect tolerance towards the six groups differently. For instance,
education enhances social tolerance for all groups except homosexuals while access to media increase
tolerance for people living with AIDS.
Research/limitations/implications – Effective social tolerance policies can be enhanced through
joint targeting of the indicators considered. Moreover, tolerance-enhancing policies generally benefit
from improved access to education while improved access to media could increase tolerance for AIDS
victims.
Originality/value – The originality of the analysis lies in the joint analysis or determination of a
wider spectrum of social tolerance indicators. This paper can help to inform policies that are aimed at
reducing SSA’s recurrent inter- and intra-group conflicts attributed primarily to the region’s high
levels of ethnic and cultural fragmentation.
Keywords Social inclusion, Tolerance, Equal opportunities, Multivariate analysis, Sub Saharan Africa
Paper type Research paper

International Journal of Social
Economics
Vol. 38 No. 6, 2011
pp. 516-536
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0306-8293
DOI 10.1108/03068291111131382
1. Introduction
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse regions in the
world. This diversity has been costly due to conflict of preferences, racism and prejudices
which often lead to policies that are odious and counterproductive for society as a whole
(Alesina and Ferrara, 2005). The oppression of minorities under an ethnically diverse
environment may lead to political unrest, which in several instances degenerates into civil
wars as has generally been the case in SSA. Further, SSA’s ethno-linguistic diversity
diminishes effective governance and public policy via interest group polarization which
deters economic growth (Deumert and Mabandla, 2009; Montalvo and Reynal-Querol, 2005).
JEL classification: D01, I31, N37, O15
The authors would like to thank Ryan Skeete and Olutayo Adesina for their invaluable
comments.
 Consequently, the dismal performance of SSA’s economic development has been attributed Human diversity
to, among other factors, a high prevalence of ethnic conflict associated with increased in Sub-Saharan
linguistic and religious diversity (Lovász and Schipp, 2009; Montalvo and Reynal-Querol,
2005; Easterly and Levine, 1997). Yet, an ethnically diverse environment may also bring Africa
about variety in abilities, experiences and cultures that may be productive and may lead to
innovation and creativity which has proven to be true for New York and Los Angeles in the
USA (Alesina and Ferrara, 2005). 517
This ethno-linguistic fragmentation economic growth research is parallel to the
emerging economic research that promotes social tolerance as a necessary ingredient
for economic growth and social development. Social tolerance – broadly defined as
respect for human diversity[1] – promotes growth-enhancing factors such as trust and
cooperation between economic agents, democracy, the free movement of ideas and
individual talents (Correani et al., 2009). In doing so, it encourages peaceful coexistence
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among diverse groups and favours individual self-actualization which encourages

manifestations of proclivities and talents (Correani et al., 2009).
Economic studies in the field of social tolerance are limited. Correani et al. (2009)
constructed an overlapping-generations model and demonstrated that the incentives
that influence descendants’ predisposition to tolerance depend on both institutional and
social or cultural factors. Correani et al. (2009) developed a theory of tolerance which they
tested by investigating the determinants of social tolerance towards homosexuality in
Bulgaria, Poland, Romania and Slovenia. Their results suggest that an individual’s
income and country’s gross domestic product per capita enhance social tolerance of
homosexuals while widows are found to be intolerant of homosexuals. Females were
found more tolerant and age had a concave non-linear relationship with tolerance for
homosexuals. Becchetti et al. (2010) demonstrated the positive effect of economic growth
on tolerance towards immigrants in Germany. Dustmann and Preston (2004) used
British Social Attitudes Survey data to investigate the racial and economic determinants
of attitudes towards immigrants in England. Their study revealed dominant racially
motivated intolerance of immigrants. This was particularly strong towards the Asians
and Caribbean immigrant population who are ethnically more different from the British,
while racial attitudes hardly explained the tolerance towards immigrants from Australia
and New Zealand, who are ethnically closer to the British. An association between
labour market concerns and hostility to immigration was found only among better
educated and skilled workers, while antipathy towards immigration exhibited by
manual and poorly educated workers was associated only and strongly with racial
attitudes.
Empirical economic research on the determinants of social tolerance in SSA is even
more limited despite its crucial importance given the region’s huge ethnic and cultural
cleavages that retard economic development. Using the 1997 national South African
survey, Mattes et al. (2000) statistically analyzed South Africans’ views of immigrants
and immigration policy. The study revealed that, generally, the South Africans held a
negative view of immigrants and immigration. The negative attitudes were evidenced
across all income groups, age groups and groups with very different levels of education.
However, there were noticeable differences among racial groups with black Africans
and Asians adopting the most conservative attitudes. The recent Pewforum (2010)
report employed simple statistical analysis on survey data from 16 SSA countries
 IJSE to understand respondents’ knowledge of and attitudes towards other religions. The
38,6 study revealed religious and ethnic tensions in several countries.
While the need for social tolerance in SSA has been well acknowledged, there remains
a critical lack of empirical research that provides an understanding of what individual
attributes determine social tolerance, thereby constraining the ability to make informed
recommendations on how tolerance can be enhanced in SSA. In particular, the
518 observation that social tolerance is good for economic welfare – badly needed in SSA –
raises interesting questions: What factors affect social tolerance in SSA? How can these
factors be used to formulate policies that promote social tolerance in SSA? This paper
addresses these questions through examining individual socio-economic factors
affecting social tolerance in SSA. Given the long history of social intolerance in SSA, the
findings could advice policies that stimulate social tolerance.
Using the 2005 World Values Survey data, we employ multivariate probit models
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to simultaneously examine factors associated with different dimensions of social

tolerance. We focus on six dimensions of social tolerance: tolerance towards people of a
different race, language and religion, immigrants, people living with acquired immuno
deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and homosexuals. The use of multivariate probit models,
which are in the class of seemingly unrelated regression models, makes it possible to
capture interdependencies among different dimensions of social tolerance. The fact
that our study is applied to a wider spectrum of social tolerance dimensions in SSA and
accounted for interdependencies are novel additions to the existing literature. Previous
studies on social tolerance in SSA analyzed one or two of these dimensions in isolation
making the estimates suffer from estimation biases.
The rest of the paper proceeds as follows: Section 2 outlines the evidence of social
intolerance in SSA thereby motivating the study. Section 3 discusses the data used and
provides preliminary statistical analysis. Section 4 explains the empirical methodology
pursued in the paper while Section 5 presents and discusses the results. Finally,
Section 6 concludes and draws policy implications.

2. Social (in)tolerance in SSA

Four processes explain the sources of ethnic and cultural diversity and tensions in SSA
countries. The first is colonization, specifically the “scramble for Africa”[2] which saw
Africa being partitioned into artificial boundaries created by European colonizers as they
pursued social, economic and political domination in Africa. These political boundaries
that replaced cultural boundaries brought together many different ethnic groups within a
country with no reflection as well as capacity to accommodate or provide for the cultural
and ethnic diversity. By perpetuating ethnic, racial and cultural inequalities through
differential treatment of ethnic or cultural groups, colonization ensured a persistence of the
marginalization of certain ethnic groups across several generations. Ever since the
“scramble for Africa” the history of SSA shows a continent grappling with the challenges
of human and/or cultural diversity. Second, nation-building – simultaneously
homogenizing communities while downplaying social differences – resulted in the
oppression of minority ethnic identities (Dunaway, 2003). This poses a threat to peace
since these minorities are often in continual conflict with the state (Alonso, 1994; Amin,
1982). Third, the increasing ethnic fragmentation is due to postmodernism (Friedman,
1992) or new forms of economic and cultural globalization (Smolicz, 1998; Schulman, 1998).
Fourth, social intolerance is rooted in competition for scarce resources among different
 ethnic groups bound by similar beliefs/culture/tradition – where culture may be defined Human diversity
as socially inherited, shared and learned ways of living possessed by persons by virtue of in Sub-Saharan
their membership in ethnic groups. This often results in ethnic conflicts which are usually
compounded by intercultural miscommunication and misunderstandings (Avruch, 2000). Africa
Ethnic or cultural conflict remains a salient concern in SSA, especially given that the
region is characterized by massive poverty and obscene economic inequalities. Esteban
and Ray (2008) highlight the tendency of systematic bias towards ethnic conflict when 519
economic inequalities prevail. This implies that social tolerance is crucial in SSA.
Unfortunately, intolerance for ethnic diversity – where ethnicity can be broadly defined
as a group of people that share racial, linguistic and/or religious backgrounds – is
prevalent in SSA, leading to unfortunate consequences in several countries. In
particular, the region has witnessed numerous genocides which have been rooted in
social intolerance, particularly intolerance for ethnic and religious diversity.
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In Rwanda, the manipulation of racial and ethnic differences by President

Habyarimana’s regime to rally their supporters (of mainly Hutu origin) against a
purported common ethnic enemy (of mainly Tutsi origin) led to the 1994 genocide in which
around 800,000 Rwandans (mainly Tutsis) were killed (Hintjens, 1999). The Northern
region of Ghana – home to 17 ethnic groups that perceive themselves as indigenous –
experienced violent ethnic conflicts over land ownership in 1994-1995 referred to as the
“Guinea Fowl War” that cost at least 2,000 lives (Jönsson, 2009). Between 1982 and 1987,
Robert Mugabe’s predominantly Shona-led government carried out massacres in the
predominantly Ndebele regions of Matabeleland and the Midlands in an operation
referred to as “Gukurahundi”. The government’s attempt to consolidate power and quell
political opposition resulted in the massacre of around 20,000 people from the Ndebele
ethnic group (Mhlanga, 2009; Sisulu, 2007; Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace
in Zimbabwe (CCJP), 1997). The Darfur region in Western Sudan is engulfed in
an ethno-religious conflict that claimed 70,000 civilians and uprooted an additional
1.8 million between 2003 and 2005 (Straus, 2005). While the roots of the conflict are
debatable, the primary perpetrators of these genocidal acts are government-backed
“Arab” militia known as Janjaweed (predominantly Muslim) and the main civilian victims
are black “Africans” (predominantly Christian). In 2006, in Ethiopia, the Guji ethnic group
and their Borena rivals fought for land possession between the towns of Yabello and
Finchewa, about 400 km south of Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital. The conflict killed
at least 100 people and displaced thousands. In this arid southern region of Ethiopia –
inhabited by pastoralists – conflicts over water sources and pasture are common[3].
As alluded to earlier, the challenge associated with SSA’s ethnic diversity is that it
occurs in an environment characterized by scarce resources. In such an environment,
issues of ethnic or social diversity are often conveniently called upon and repeatedly
reinvented by politicians and ordinary people in an effort to access political power and
economic and social advantages. This has led to situations where governments are voted
along ethnic lines. This is compounded by the prevalent problem of ethnic nepotism in
SSA. Ethnic nepotism refers to a situation where members of an ethnic group tend to
favour people from their group over outsiders. As Vanhanen (1999) argues, the importance
of this in social life and politics increases when different groups of people have to compete
for scarce resources, as is the case in SSA. For example, the Nigerian Government has for
years been under the direction and control of a Northern interest group, predominantly of
Hausa/Fulani ethnic group. This group has never relinquished power willingly since
 IJSE independence in 1960. In Zambia, when the Nyanja ethnic group was in power under the
38,6 rule of Kenneth Kaunda, the Bemba ethnic group faced discrimination because they were
perceived as being sympathetic to the opposition. These examples illustrate that ethnic
tensions could be posing challenges to the creation of and maintenance of democracies or
non-coercive politics in SSA (Jalali and Lipset, 1992).
UNESCO (2005) estimates that approximately 2,000 languages are spoken in Africa;
520 making Africa the most multi-lingual continent. For example, Nigeria alone has
250 languages, Ethiopia has 84, Ghana has 79, Zambia has at least 70 and Mali has
50 languages. The high linguistic diversity of African countries makes the continent
difficult to manage: public policies tend to be implemented along the linguistic or
ethnic divisions, overlooking competence. Languages are primarily aligned with ethnic
divisions. For instance, the violence that marred Kenya’s 2008 presidential election was
of a tribal-linguistic nature. The violence led to at least a 1,000 deaths[4], and was halted
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by the United Nations intervention which created a unity government comprising

the two major political parties, with Raila Odinga as the Prime Minister and
Emilio Mwai Kibaki as the President. Such scenarios indicate that linguistic diversity is
another source of social intolerance in Africa, an issue that is considered in this paper.
Racism is also apparent in SSA and stems principally from colonization. This is
illustrated by for example South Africa’s apartheid racist policies and anti-Asian racist
policies in East Africa, particularly Uganda[5]. Other forms of racism are associated
with ethnicity. For instance, in October 2005, the government of Botswana resumed its
policy of forcing all Bushmen off their lands in the Kalahari Sands using armed police
and threats of violence or death despite their national constitution guaranteeing the
Bushmen the right to live there in perpetuity[6]. The former President of Botswana,
Festus Mogae, revealed his excessive intolerance of the Bushmen by asking: How can we
continue to have Stone Age creatures in the age of computers[7]? In Sudan, the Arabs
(claiming that Islamic law grants them permission) enslaved black Africans in the civil
war[8] and sexually assaulted female prisoners[9].
Religion is another source of conflict in SSA, where Christians are twice as many as
Muslims (Pewforum, 2010). This is of particular concern in the middle of the African
continent, a 4,000-mile swath from Somalia in the east to Senegal in the west (also called
the religious fault line by some observers), where Christians and Muslim are balanced.
For instance, most recently, between January and March 2010, Nigeria witnessed violent
religious clashes in which dozens of villagers in central Nigeria were killed. The killings
occurred near the City of Jos which is close to the dividing line between the country’s
mainly Christian south and Muslim north[10]. In documenting the presence of religious
conflict in Africa, the Pewforum (2010) report indicates that, although the degrees of
concern for religious conflict varied by country, they tracked closely with the degree
of concern for ethnic conflict in many countries, suggesting that religious and ethnic
conflicts are often related. The survey further revealed clear signs of religious tension
and divisions: Christians are less positive in their views of Muslims than Muslims are of
Christians; substantial numbers of Christians (ranging from 20 per cent in Guinea Bissau
to 70 per cent in Chad) think of Muslims as violent. In a handful of countries, a third or
more of Christians perceive many or most Muslims as hostile towards Christians, and in
a few countries a third or more of Muslims perceive many or most Christians as hostile
towards Muslims.
 SSA has the highest human immuno virus (HIV)/AIDS prevalence rate in the world, Human diversity
with about 23 million infections. It represents 67 per cent of all HIV-infected people in Sub-Saharan
despite the region’s population constituting about 10 per cent of the world population
(UNAIDS, 2006). Besides, malaria, AIDS is the leading cause of death in SSA. Empirical Africa
research has shown that AIDS is detrimental to economic growth in SSA (Lovász and
Schipp, 2009; Kambou et al., 1992). Akin to global trends, stigma and discrimination
is the dominant impediment to HIV treatment and awareness in the region. Hence, 521
policies that enhance tolerance of AIDS victims will not only reduce the stigma and
discrimination surrounding HIV, but will also improve the effectiveness of treatment
and awareness campaigns in SSA.
High levels of intolerance for homosexuality prevail in SSA, with both Christians and
Muslims being consistent on this. This is revealed in the recently published Pewforum
(2010) report which found that an overwhelming majority of respondents disapproved of
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homosexuality. In three countries – Zambia, Kenya and Cameroon – this was a massive
98 per cent. Interestingly, one of the countries with the highest numbers of people
(11 per cent) accepting homosexuals is Uganda, where an MP is trying to get legislation
passed which would punish homosexual acts with life in prison and even death in
some cases. Other separate reports have indicated African presidents as intolerant of
homosexuals. The President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, for example, has likened
homosexuals to prostitutes, dogs and pigs (Shoko, 2010; Epprecht, 2004). In September
1995, Zimbabwe’s parliament introduced legislation banning homosexual acts and
later persecuted the country’s ceremonial President, Canaan Banana, of sodomy in
1997 (Epprecht, 2004). In 2010, Zimbabwe’s new government of national unity’s
Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, also expressed his disapproval to give
homosexuals legal rights in the constitution that is currently being formulated[11].
Xenophobia, which refers to citizens’ opposition to migration and foreign citizens, has
risen in SSA. Studies have documented that anti-immigrants sentiments are primarily
concentrated in South Africa, Botswana and Namibia (MacDonald and Jacobs, 2005;
Crush and Pendleton, 2004; Campbell, 2003). Crush and Pendleton (2004) reported that
the negative attitudes in the anti-foreigners “troika” (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana)
was so pervasive and widespread across all personal attributes: the poor and the rich, the
employed and the unemployed, the male and the female, the black and the white, the
conservative and the radical. In contrast, within countries where there was greater
tolerance (Swaziland, Mozambique and Zimbabwe), those with the most to lose from the
presence of non-citizens – the unskilled and the unemployed – exhibit much more
negative attitudes than other groups. Xenophobia in South Africa has been particularly
disturbing. South Africa’s post-apartheid period (i.e. after 1994) has been marred by
increased incidence of xenophobia. It is reported that between 2000 and 2008 at
least 67 people died in what was identified as xenophobic attacks. Most recently,
in May 2008 a series of xenophobia-related riots left at least 60 people dead (Kersting,
2009)[12]. McDonald and Jacobs (2005) mentions that xenophobia is sometimes difficult
to disentangle from other psychological and structural influences such as racism,
nationalism and ethnocentrism.
The foregoing discussion provides evidence for social intolerance in SSA. The brief
accounts of ethno-linguistic-religious conflicts in SSA demonstrate the prevailing
manipulation of ethnic differences by politicians to consolidate power. They also
indicate the sad reality that prevalence of political parties organized along ethnic
 IJSE lines facilitates such manipulation. In addition, these accounts underscore the need for
38,6 institutions and policies that foster tolerance for ethno-linguistic-religious differences
with the hope of creating an environment where people find harmony in differences.
This paper seeks to inform formulation of such policies.
From an empirical and methodological viewpoint, the foregoing discussion highlights
the importance of focusing on the following six dimensions of social tolerance: tolerance
522 for people of a different race, language and religion, immigrants, people living with
AIDS and homosexuals. As evident in the discussion, the six dimensions are highly
interconnected; hence, we simultaneously model the individual-level determinants of
social tolerance for these groups in SSA.
The following section presents the data used in the empirical analysis.

3. Data and descriptive statistics

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Data for seven SSA countries – Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Rwanda,
South Africa and Zambia – from the 2005 wave of the 2005 World Value Surveys (WVS)
are used in the empirical analysis. Along with data on the socio-economic status of the
respondent, the WVS data contains attitudinal indicators of social tolerance, which
allows us to investigate how attributes of respondents determine their self-declared
social tolerance. The sample comprises 12,097 individuals: the bulk of the respondents
are from South Africa (around 25 per cent). Burkina Faso, Ghana and Mail each account
for close to 13 per cent of the sample while Ethiopia, Rwanda and Zambia each constitute
around 12 per cent.

3.1. Variable construction and relevance

3.1.1. Indicators of self-declared social tolerance. Our main dependent variable of interest
is whether an individual self-declares tolerance for a given group/practice. Respondents in
the WVS sample were asked the following question: “On this list are various groups of
people. Could you please mention any that you would not like to have as neighbours?”
This list includes, among others, “people of a different race”, “people who speak a different
language”, “people of a different religion”, “immigrants/foreign workers”, “people who
have AIDS” and “homosexuals”. The construction of social tolerance indicators is based
on this question with the assumption that if a respondent mentions any of these categories
of people then the respondent is socially intolerant towards that particular group.
If a group is not mentioned it is assumed the respondent self-declares tolerance for
that particular group. We accordingly constructed six dummy variables to capture
self-declared social tolerance, i.e. each dummy variable takes the value of one if the
respondent is socially tolerant and zero otherwise. These are denoted as races, language,
religion, immigrants, AIDS and homosexuals, for “people of a different race”, “people who
speak a different language”, “people of a different religion”, “immigrants/foreign
workers”, “people who have AIDS” and “homosexuals”, respectively[13]. As the
preceding section illustrates, the choice to focus on these six dimensions of social tolerance
was guided by their relevance to SSA.
3.1.2. Control variables. Our empirical analysis controls for the socio-economic
characteristics of the respondent, i.e. individual-level attributes. These include
respondent’s age, gender and marital status. Existing literature indicates that religion,
especially viewed from the Christianity-Islam divide, impacts social values and attitudes
in SSA. We, therefore, control for religion through dummies for being a Christian as well as
 being Muslim. We also introduce a dummy for whether the respondent is black, the major Human diversity
ethnic group in SSA[14]. in Sub-Saharan
A dummy for whether the respondent has at least one child is used with the
understanding that having children influences the kind of neighbours one would like to Africa
have, as parents are concerned about the values that their children might pick up from
neighbours. In addition, the study controls for the respondent’s need to uphold traditions
as reflected by what the respondent believes should be passed on to children or the 523
values children should be encouraged to learn at home. We accordingly base the
construction of this control variable on the following question posed in the WVS: “Here is
a list of qualities which children can be encouraged to learn at home. Which if any, do you
consider important?” This list includes, among others, values that emphasize conformity
to traditional social norms such as “obedience” and “religious faith”. To construct the
variable on traditions, we adopt the approach of Bangwayo-Skeete et al. (2009) and
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Granato et al. (1996). Dummies for “obedience” and “religious faith” are constructed,
i.e. both variables take the value of one if the respondent mentions the quality as
important and zero otherwise. A score of conformity to traditional norms is constructed,
i.e. “obedience” and “religious faith”, simply by adding up their respective dummies.
This implies that an individual who believes in the importance of both “obedience” and
“religious faith” gets a score of 2, which is the maximum, one if they believe in either of
the two and zero if they believe in neither of the two. The variable tradition is, thus,
an ordered variable which is increasing in the value an individual places on tradition.
Education is expected to raise the individuals’ awareness of different groups and
hopefully their capacity to co-exist with such differences. This is controlled for via an
ordinal variable taking nine levels as follows:
(1) no formal education;
(2) incomplete primary school;
(3) complete primary school;
(4) incomplete secondary school: technical/vocational type;
(5) complete secondary school: technical/vocational type;
(6) incomplete secondary: university-preparatory type;
(7) complete secondary: university-preparatory type;
(8) some university-level education, without degree; and
(9) university-level education, with degree.

Media portrayal of certain groups or social practices is expected to influence individual

attitudes towards those groups/practices. Accordingly, we control for the respondent’s
access to different media to examine the role of media in shaping social tolerance. We
compute the overall or aggregate index of access to media using principal component
analysis (PCA). PCA statistically weighs the different sources of information used by the
respondent in the last week (these include daily newspapers, radio or TV, printed
magazines, books, internet and/or talking with friends and colleagues). A component
with an eigenvalue greater than one was retained (see Jolliffe 1986 for more details
on PCA).
The effect of unemployment on tolerance is captured through a dummy for whether
the respondent has a full-time paid job or not. The expectation is that employed
 IJSE individuals might have higher exposure to diversity than unemployed individuals. It is
38,6 also possible that if an individual is involuntarily unemployed, the discontent that comes
with being unemployed might affect the individual’s tolerance of other people such as
immigrants who might be viewed as a threat to the individual’s ability to get a job.
Related to this, we also control for whether the respondent believes competition is good
in as far as it stimulates hard work or whether it is seen as harmful because it brings out
524 the worst in people. To the extent that immigrants could be perceived as bringing
competition to the society, the respondent’s beliefs regarding competition could
be indicative of whether the respondent would be more tolerant of them. The variable is
measured on a ten-point scale where 1 ¼ “competition is good – it stimulates people to
work hard and develop new ideas” and 10 ¼ “competition is harmful – it brings out the
worst in people”.
Social and economic distress potentially determines how an individual interacts
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with others, especially people that are perceived as different from the individual. In line with
this, we control for the economic or income status of the respondent, measured through four
dummy variables, which indicate whether the respondent belongs to the upper, middle,
working or lower class. In addition, we control for the level of satisfaction the respondent is
with the financial situation of their household via a ten-point scale variable which is such
that 1 ¼ “completely dissatisfied” and 10 ¼ “completely satisfied”. The extent of the
respondent’s satisfaction with their life is controlled for with the assumption that when a
person is content with their life they are less likely to perceive different groups/practices as
a threat to their happiness and as such would be expected to be more socially tolerant than if
they were dissatisfied with their life. This variable is coded on a ten-point scale such that
1 ¼ “completely dissatisfied” and 10 ¼ “completely satisfied”.
Further, the self-reported health status of the respondent is used an as additional
explanatory variable for AIDS. This is an ordered variable such that 1 ¼ “very poor” and
5 ¼ “very good”. We also introduce a dummy for whether either or both of the respondent’s
parents are immigrants. This is used as an additional explanatory variable for immigrants
with the expectation that this would influence their tolerance for immigrants.
The generalized contact hypothesis underscores the role of participation in social
networks in enhancing tolerance of different groups/practices: the wider the circle of social
networks an individual participates in, the higher the likelihood of being exposed to people
that are perceived different. To measure the extent of the individual’s social networks, we
rely on variables that capture membership in the following voluntary organizations:
church or religious organization; sport or recreational organization; art, music or
educational organization; labour union; political party; environmental organization;
professional association; humanitarian or charitable organization and/or a consumer
organization. For each of these organizations, a dummy was created that takes the value of
one if the respondent is a member and zero otherwise. Each social network is expected to
present the individual with different networking and social learning opportunities,
implying the impact on different tolerance indicators would differ by social network.

3.2. Descriptive statistics

Table I reports variable definitions and descriptive statistics of the data used in the
analysis.
The summary statistics for the explanatory variables indicate that around 51 per cent
of the surveyed respondents were male and the average age of respondents was 35.
 Variable name Variable description Mean SD
Human diversity
in Sub-Saharan
Dependent variables
Races 1 if respondent is tolerant towards neighbours from a different race, 0
Africa
if intolerant 0.81 0.39
Language 1 if respondent is tolerant towards neighbours who speak a different
language, 0 if intolerant 0.82 0.39 525
Religion 1 if respondent is tolerant towards neighbours from a different
religion, 0 if intolerant 0.82 0.39
Immigrants 1 if respondent is tolerant towards neighbours who are immigrants, 0
if intolerant 0.76 0.42
AIDS 1 if respondent is tolerant towards neighbours living with AIDS, 0 if
intolerant 0.74 0.44
Homosexuals 1 if respondent is tolerant towards homosexual neighbours, 0 if
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intolerant 0.34 0.47

Explanatory variables
Education Highest education level attained by the respondent 4.05 2.37
Gender Sex of the respondent (1 ¼ male and 0 ¼ female) 0.51 0.50
Age Age of the respondent 34.65 14.53
Married 1 if respondent is married or living together with a partner, 0 otherwise 0.53 0.50
Children 1 if respondent has at least one child, 0 otherwise 0.65 0.48
Unemployed 1 if respondent does not have paid employment, 0 otherwise 0.54 0.50
Upper class 1 if respondent belongs to the upper class, 0 otherwise. Used as a
reference variable here 0.03 0.16
Middle class 1 if respondent belongs to the middle class, 0 otherwise 0.41 0.49
Working class 1 if respondent belongs to the working class, 0 otherwise 0.20 0.40
Lower class 1 if respondent belongs to the lower class, 0 otherwise 0.37 0.48
Christian 1 if respondent Christian, 0 otherwise 0.64 0.48
Muslim 1 if respondent is Muslim, 0 otherwise 0.24 0.43
Black 1 if respondent is Black, 0 otherwise 0.88 0.32
Life satisfaction Respondent’s satisfaction with own life 6.02 2.49
Financial Respondent’s household’s satisfaction with finances 5.30 2.58
satisfaction
Media Principal component index on media/sources of information used by
the respondent in the past week 1.12 0.71
Church 1 if respondent is a member of a church or religious organization,
0 otherwise 0.78 0.41
Sport 1 if respondent is a member of a sports or recreational club, 0 otherwise 0.37 0.48
Arts 1 if respondent is a member of an arts, musical or education
organization, 0 otherwise 0.30 0.46
Labour union 1 if respondent is a member of a labour union, 0 otherwise 0.22 0.41
Political party 1 if respondent is a member of a political party, 0 otherwise 0.33 0.47
Environmental 1 if respondent is a member of an environmental organization,
0 otherwise 0.23 0.42
Professional 1 if respondent is a member of a professional organization, 0 otherwise 0.22 0.42
Charity 1 if respondent is a member of a charitable or humanitarian
organization, 0 otherwise 0.23 0.42
Consumer 1 if respondent is a member of a consumer organization, 0 otherwise 0.18 0.38
Tradition Traditional values index 1.17 0.73
Immigrant parent 1 if at least one of the respondent’s parents is an immigrant, Table I.
0 otherwise 0.07 0.25 Descriptive statistics of
Health Self-reported state of respondent’s health 3.89 0.93 variables used in the
Competition Whether the respondent thinks competition is good or harmful 7.35 2.61 empirical model
 IJSE The average education level attained is almost four implying that on average the
38,6 surveyed respondent started but did not complete secondary schooling. Christians
account for 64 per cent of the respondents, and Muslim 24 per cent. With regards to the
income status of the respondent: about 3 per cent belong to the upper class, 41 per cent to
the middle class, 20 per cent to the working class and 37 per cent to the lower class.
A relatively high self-reported life satisfaction is reported (a mean of 6 is recorded); while
526 an average score of 5 is reported for the respondent’s satisfaction with the financial
situation of their household. Around 54 per cent of the respondents do not have paid
employment. Interestingly, 78 per cent of the respondents are members of a church or
religious organization while the least participation is recorded for consumer
organizations (18 per cent of the sample). Also of interest is that an average
respondent believes that either “religious faith” or “obedience” is an important quality to
pass on to children (the average value of tradition is 1.17).
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With regards to tolerance indicators, the summary statistics show that around
81 per cent of respondents proclaim tolerance for neighbours of a different race, while
this is 82 per cent both for neighbours who speak a different language, and neighbours
practicing a different religion. An average of 76, 74 and 34 per cent of the respondents
indicate tolerance for immigrants, people living with AIDS, and homosexuals,
respectively. The low tolerance of homosexuals is in tandem with perceptions that
homosexuality is “un-African”, sentiments popularly echoed by SSA’s top politicians such
as Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe; Morgan Tsvangirai, the Prime Minister of
Zimbabwe[15] and Olusegun Obasanjo, the former President of Nigeria[16].
A disaggregation of the social tolerance dimension by country in Figure 1 shows that,
true to its status as the “rainbow” nation of SSA, South Africa has the highest levels of
tolerance for all the groups under analysis except for tolerance towards immigrants. The
low level of tolerance for immigrants relative to other indicators is in tandem with
the recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa. Many poor South Africans regard
immigrants as contributing to socio-economic evils such as high unemployment of locals
and crime. Burkina Faso has the highest proportion of respondents reporting tolerance
for immigrants. Rwanda, on the other hand, lags behind all countries in social tolerance
for people of a different race, neighbours who speak a different language, neighbours of a
different religion as well as immigrants. The low levels of tolerance for ethnic diversity
in Rwanda could be reflecting the long-lasting impacts of the 1994 genocide that the
country experienced. The country that is least tolerant of homosexuals is Ethiopia.

100

80 Races
Language
Percentage

60 Religion
40 Immigrants
AIDS
20
Homosexuals
Figure 1. 0
Self-declared social Burkina Ethiopia Ghana Mali Rwanda South Zambia
tolerance, by country Faso Africa
Country
 Overall, relatively high tolerance levels are exhibited in the sample. Except for tolerance of Human diversity
homosexuals, all tolerance indicators have an average above 50 per cent. Regardless of the in Sub-Saharan
high levels of tolerance, a steady and sustained commitment from the authorities is
required to maintain or improve the tolerance levels. This is because the tolerance Africa
equilibrium is unable to ensure its own stability. A minimal change in the expectations of
agents could force the system to converge towards intolerance equilibrium, which is
considered undesirable but stable (Correani et al., 2009). This makes our study even more 527
relevant in informing policy for maintaining and expanding tolerance across all groups.
The discussion in Section 2 suggested interdependency between different tolerance
indicators. We, therefore, test for this using pair-wise correlation tests. The results are
reported in Table II. The Spearman correlation tests show highly significant (at 1 per cent
level) correlations between various pairs of the six dimensions of social tolerance.
Albeit low, homosexuals has low, negative and significant pair-wise correlation with other
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indicators. The highest correlations are revealed among races, language, religion and
immigrants. As discussed earlier there is a thin line between these indicators, for example,
speaking a certain language can be used to classify you as black or white (a racial
dimension) and even with, for example, blacks, speaking a certain language can be
informative of your tribe and in some cases religious affiliation. Migrants are often of
different race, religion and/or language.
The high and significant interdependencies among dimensions of tolerance in
Table II reinforce the appropriateness of the methodology adopted in the next section
which allow for such correlations to avoid biased estimates.

4. Empirical framework
The objective of the paper is to examine individual-level determinants of six dimensions of
social tolerance: races, language, religion, immigrants, AIDS and homosexuals.
As the correlation-matrix presented in Table II suggests, declaration of tolerance for a
particular group could be correlated with what the individual says about tolerance for
another group, i.e. the six dimensions of social tolerance could be interdependent. This could
be due to the presence of unobservable characteristics that affect reported tolerance towards
different groups. Accordingly, we estimate a six-equation multivariate probit model that
takes this into consideration. The general model specification is represented as follows:

Social Tolerance*im ¼ am þ b m X im þ 1im

ð1Þ
SocialToleranceim ¼ 1 if SocialTolerance*im . 0; 0 otherwise;

Races Language Religion Immigrants AIDS Homosexuals

Races 1 1
Language 0.517 * 1
Religion 0.493 * 0.518 * 1
Immigrants 0.442 * 0.439 * 0.416 * 1
AIDS 0.315 * 0.325 * 0.330 * 0.247 * Table II.
Homosexuals 20.217 * 20.249 * 2 0.280 * 2 0.262 * 2 0.059 * 1 Pair-wise correlations
using Spearman rank
Note: Significant at: *1 per cent level correlation coefficient
 IJSE for i ¼ 1, . . . , N individuals in m ¼ 1, . . . , six equations. Social Toleranceim is an indicator of
self-declared social tolerance, our observed dependent variable while the unobserved latent
38,6 equivalent of this variable is denoted by SocialTolerance*im . As the preceding section
illustrates, the data allowed us to disaggregate Social Toleranceim into six different but
possibly interrelated dummy variable indicators of social tolerance denoted by races,
language, religion, immigrants, AIDS and homosexuals. Hence, we have six equations
528 representing each of the social tolerance dimensions. The probability that an individual
mentions any of the six groups is presumed to be a linear combination of a vector of the
respondent’s observed socio-economic characteristics denoted by Xim. The unobserved
characteristics are captured by the error term 1. The parameters to be estimated are the a’s,
b’s and variance-covariance matrix of the error terms.
A multivariate normal distribution is assumed for the error terms, each with a mean of
zero. Further, the errors terms are assumed to have a variance-covariance matrix which
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has values of one on the leading diagonals and correlations rjk ¼ rkj as off-diagonal
elements. The assumption of unit variance of the error terms enables identification of the
parameters being estimated (Wooldridge, 2002).

5. Results and discussion

A multivariate probit estimation was employed to estimate the system of equations
presented in equation (1). The correlation matrix associated with the results is presented
in Table III.
Table III reveals evidence of interdependency among indicators of tolerance. Apart
from homosexuals all estimated error correlation coefficients are positive and
significant. The likelihood ratio tests for joint significance of the error correlation
coefficients reject the null hypotheses that these are jointly not different from zero
(x 2 ¼ 4,681.25). This further justifies our choice of multivariate compared to univariate
probit models. It suggests that there are accuracy advantages in using the multivariate
system to estimate the effects of individual attributes on tolerance.
Table IV reports the main results of multivariate probit estimation for the six equations.

5.1. Background characteristics and social tolerance

The results provide evidence that education enhances tolerance for neighbours of
a different race, language and religion, immigrants and people living with AIDS.
Education normally occurs in an environment which allows an individual to interact
with a relatively diversified group, promotes tolerance of wide and possibly different
ideas thereby enabling the individual to learn more about different groups or cultures.
This is in line with what the learning hypothesis postulates on tolerance (Bobo and
Licari, 1989; Jackman and Muha, 1984; Schuman et al., 1997; Kingston et al., 2003).
Furthermore, education enables individuals to be able to process and assimilate
new things, which could make them more comfortable with diverse neighbours.
Interestingly, education has no significant impact on tolerance for homosexuality.
Male respondents tend to be less tolerant of homosexual neighbours compared to
women. Law (1988) posits that the disapproval of homosexuality by most societies
reflects a reaction to the violation of gender norms rather than a disapproval of sexual
practices by homosexual individuals per se. Thus, individuals who are more concerned
with preserving traditional concepts of masculinity and femininity would tend to
exhibit intolerance for homosexuality. As our result suggests, men might be more
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Races Robust SE Language Robust SE Religion Robust SE Immigrants Robust SE AIDS Robust SE Homosexuals

Races 1
Language 0.616 * 0.017 1
Religion 0.562 * 0.020 0.614 * 0.017 1
Immigrants 0.503 * 0.018 0.555 * 0.0169 0.510 * 0.018 1
AIDS 0.389 * 0.020 0.381 * 0.020 0.373 * 0.021 0.345 * 0.020 1
Homosexuals 2 0.308 * 0.020 20.344 * 0.019 2 0.447 * 0.019 2 0.304 * 0.018 2 0.136 * 0.020 1
Note: Significant at: *1 percent level
in Sub-Saharan

coefficients
Estimated correlation
Human diversity

Africa

Table III.
529
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38,6
IJSE

530

Table IV.

estimation results
Multivariate probit
Variable Races Robust SE Language Robust SE Religion Robust SE Immigrants Robust SE AIDS Robust SE Homosexuals Robust SE

Background characteristics
Education 0.041 * 0.010 0.034 * 0.011 0.034 * 0.011 0.021 * * 0.010 0.042 * 0.010 0.000 0.009
Gender 2 0.055 0.037 0.028 0.038 0.042 0.039 0.009 0.034 2 0.006 0.036 2 0.095 * 0.033
Age 0.000 0.002 0.003 * * 0.002 0.003 0.002 20.000 0.001 0.003 * * 0.001 2 0.002 0.001
Married 0.107 * * 0.045 0.062 0.047 2 0.006 0.049 0.067 * * * 0.041 0.045 0.045 0.037 0.040
Children 2 0.046 0.052 20.101 * * * 0.055 2 0.006 0.058 20.052 0.048 2 0.029 0.052 2 0.057 0.047
Muslim 0.223 * 0.080 0.082 0.081 0.068 0.087 0.214 * 0.074 0.072 0.075 2 0.132 * * * 0.073
Christian 0.080 0.057 0.031 0.060 2 0.035 0.067 0.111 * * 0.051 0.112 * 0.059 0.013 0.050
Black 2 0.183 * 0.061 20.162 * * 0.065 2 0.097 0.068 20.128 * * 0.052 0.301 * 0.057 2 0.236 * 0.046
Tradition 0.026 0.026 0.012 0.026 0.038 0.027 0.040 * * * 0.024 0.019 0.025 2 0.073 * 0.023
Immigrant parent 0.150 * * 0.059
Media
Media 0.030 0.030 20.020 0.032 2 0.028 0.031 20.012 0.028 0.056 * * * 0.030 0.042 0.027
Socio-economic characteristics
Unemployed 2 0.014 0.040 20.044 0.040 2 0.030 0.042 20.003 0.037 2 0.068 * * * 0.039 2 0.037 0.035
Middle class 0.419 * 0.100 0.365 * 0.100 0.305 * 0.108 0.279 * 0.096 0.245 * * 0.106 2 0.170 * * * 0.094
Working class 0.528 * 0.106 0.462 * 0.106 0.382 * 0.113 0.314 * 0.101 0.378 * 0.111 2 0.147 0.098
Lower class 0.500 * 0.108 0.396 * 0.107 0.317 * 0.115 0.273 * 0.102 0.241 * * 0.111 2 0.243 * * 0.100
Life satisfaction 2 0.005 0.009 0.010 0.009 2 0.001 0.009 0.008 0.008 0.001 0.009 0.003 0.008
Financial
satisfaction 2 0.006 0.008 20.008 0.009 2 0.010 0.009 20.011 0.008 2 0.010 0.008 0.020 * 0.007
Competition 20.002 0.006
Health 2 0.016 0.021

Social networks
Church 2 0.152 * 0.054 20.189 * 0.057 2 0.101 * * * 0.059 20.140 * 0.051 2 0.091 * 0.052 2 0.057 0.047
Sports 2 0.056 0.045 20.092 * * * 0.047 2 0.047 0.048 20.028 0.043 2 0.054 0.045 0.042 0.042
Arts 2 0.014 0.048 0.047 0.050 0.059 0.050 0.013 0.046 2 0.022 0.048 0.092 * * 0.045
Labour union 0.049 0.053 0.100 * 0.055 0.099 * 0.057 0.031 0.050 0.010 0.053 2 0.092 * * * 0.049
Political party 2 0.000 0.042 20.007 0.043 2 0.026 0.045 20.036 0.040 0.006 0.041 2 0.042 0.039
Environmental 2 0.092 * * * 0.055 20.088 0.057 2 0.057 0.059 0.017 0.053 2 0.063 0.053 0.063 0.051
Professional 0.011 0.057 0.080 0.061 0.044 0.061 0.042 0.055 0.033 0.057 0.044 0.052
Charity 2 0.103 * * * 0.054 20.132 * * 0.055 2 0.136 * * 0.057 20.129 * * 0.052 2 0.158 * 0.053 0.121 * * 0.050
Consumer 2 0.072 0.059 20.062 0.064 2 0.043 0.061 20.018 0.059 2 0.027 0.061 2 0.045 0.057
Constant 0.230 0.170 0.439 * * 0.178 0.344 * 0.187 0.386 * * 0.164 0.193 0.185 2 0.263 * * * 0.156
Log pseudo-
likelihood 219085.909
Wald chi2 3526.38

Notes: Significance at: *10, * *5 and * * *1 per cent; all estimations control for country-specific dummy variables
 concerned about masculinity vs femininity concepts and as a result are more likely Human diversity
intolerant of homosexuals than women. Correani et al. (2009) and Orcés (2008) also in Sub-Saharan
reported females to be more tolerant than men towards homosexuals.
Age is found to enhance the likelihood of tolerance of neighbours who speak different Africa
language as well as neighbours living with AIDS[17]. This suggests that tolerance for
these groups could be influenced by life experiences that become more relevant with age.
Tolerance for both people of a different race and immigrants is found to be more likely 531
when a respondent is married than when they are not.
Although Muslims tend to be more intolerant of homosexuals, they are tolerant of
people of a different race and immigrants. Christians, on the other hand, tend to be
tolerant of immigrants and people living with AIDS. Being black is associated with
intolerance for all groups except people from a different religion. In addition, results
indicate that individuals who have the desire to uphold traditional values such as
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“religious faith” and “obedience” are likely to be tolerant of immigrants but intolerant
of homosexuality. The intolerance towards homosexuality is as expected given the
overwhelming number of Africans who consider homosexuality to be an abomination in
the African tradition (Pewforum, 2010). Similarly, individuals with children are likely to
be intolerant of neighbours who speak a different language. As expected, having at least
one immigrant parents increases the probability of tolerance for immigrant neighbours.

5.2. Media and social tolerance

Access to different forms of media is found to increase the probability that an individual
tolerates neighbours living with AIDS. This could be due to the massive AIDS
awareness campaigns that SSA countries have embarked on in an attempt to curb the
spread of the epidemic. These campaigns have also sought to reduce the stigma attached
to HIV/AIDS thereby fostering social tolerance for AIDS victims.

5.3. Socio-economic characteristics and social tolerance

Relative to individuals belonging to the upper class, individuals belonging to middle,
working and lower class exhibit higher likelihood of tolerance for people of a different
race, language, and religion, immigrants and people living with AIDS. However,
with regards to tolerance for homosexuals, upper class individuals are more tolerant
of homosexuality relative to people from the middle and lower income classes. This is
consistent with Correani et al. (2009) who also found a positive impact of income on
tolerance for homosexuals. The positive and significant impact of financial satisfaction
on tolerance for homosexuality reinforces the finding that higher incomes are associated
with increased likelihood for tolerance towards homosexuals.
Interestingly, we find that unemployed individuals are more likely to be intolerant of
people living with AIDS.

5.4. Social networks and social tolerance

Results from the impact of membership in different social networks suggest that, contrary
to the contact hypothesis[18], not all social networks enhance social tolerance.
Membership in a church/religious organization is associated with reduced tolerance for
all but the homosexual group. The negative effect of religious group membership on
tolerance towards other races, religion, language, AIDS victims and immigrants concurs
with the concept that religious organizations tend to reinforce in-group ties (Uslaner, 2005).
 IJSE Religious organizations are usually formed along racial and linguistic lines. The black
38,6 majority usually attend black-dominated churches, while whites and Asians attend
churches dominated by their respective ethnic groups.
We also find that: membership in a sports organization reduces tolerance for people
who speak a different language; memberships in an arts or educational organization
promotes tolerance for homosexuals; although labour union membership reduces
532 tolerance for homosexuality, it raises tolerance for people speaking a different language
as well as people of a different religion. The likelihood for tolerance for neighbours of a
different race is reduced by membership in an environmental organization. Interestingly,
membership in a charity organization stimulates tolerance for homosexuals but reduces
tolerance for the other groups.
The negative impact of some social networks on tolerance could be explained by the
“similarity argument” which argues that individuals develop social ties among
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themselves based on their similarity (Zerfu et al., 2009). Under these circumstances, it is
possible that social networks might be comprised of people with homogeneous
attributes, which could bind a homogenous group together but could also strain
inter-group relations. As a result, individuals might exhibit intolerance for groups that
are perceived different and the social networks they are involved in.
In sum, the differential impacts of social networks on tolerance underscore
the different ways in which social networks impact tolerance for different groups. In
particular, they highlight the need to be cautious of using aggregated indicators of social
networks and social tolerance as these could mask these informative differences.
Policymakers are thus recommended to desist from using findings from partial analysis
of determinants of specific dimensions of tolerance to generalize across other
dimensions. This might erroneously lead to unintended results.

6. Conclusions
The history of SSA reveals a continent grappling with the challenges of human and/or
cultural diversity. In some extreme cases, intolerance for human diversity, especially
ethnic differences resulted in civil unrest, wars and genocides. Fostering social tolerance
could help ease these tensions and create an environment conducive to economic growth
and protection of civil liberties. Well-informed policies need to be formulated to facilitate
this. Such policies require a comprehensive understanding of individuals’ attributes
that enhance tolerance. This paper contributes towards such an understanding.
Individual-level determinants of social tolerance towards people of a different race,
language and religion, immigrants, people living with AIDS and homosexuals are
investigated. Social tolerance is presumed to facilitate harmonious co-existence among
heterogeneous persons.
Overall, our results show that individuals’ attributes exert different influence on
social tolerance for the analyzed groups/practices. This finding is crucial for policy
as generalizations of the effects of individual attributes across different dimensions
of tolerance might lead to different impacts that might not necessarily be intended.
Specifically, education is positively related to social tolerance for all dimensions except
for homosexuals where it is found to have no impact. Hence, policies aimed at fostering
social tolerance would benefit from improved access to education. Of additional policy
relevance is the positive impact of access to media on tolerance for people living with
AIDS. This result is testimony to the success of media in creating awareness
 of HIV/AIDS and subsequently making people more tolerant of AIDS victims in SSA. Human diversity
The result encourages governments, health and development practitioners working on in Sub-Saharan
HIV/AIDS-related issues to take advantage of the positive and significant impact of
access to media on tolerance for people living with AIDS. Africa
The finding that the impact of social networks on tolerance depends on the nature of
the network as well as the tolerance indicator suggests that policymakers should take
these differences into consideration and accordingly promote participation in networks 533
that cultivate social tolerance, in line with policy goals and priorities.
Of additional significance is the high-positive interconnectedness of the following
twin social tolerance types: races and languages; races and religion; races and
immigrants; religion and immigrants; religion and language as well as language and
immigrants. Their estimated correlation coefficients exceed 50 per cent suggesting that
policymakers should jointly target each highly correlated pair of groups to achieve
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effective intervention.

Notes
1. Persell et al. (2001) define social tolerance as related to the acceptance of persons and groups
perceived as different. Complete social tolerance entails “full recognition and acceptances of
the identity and uniqueness of differences that are seen as not reducible to invisibility by
their bearers”. In its “Declaration on the Principles of Tolerance”, UNESCO defines tolerance
as “respect, acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world’s cultures, our
forms of expression and ways of being human. Tolerance is harmony in difference”.
2. The “scramble for Africa” refers to the partitioning of Africa into European colonies
following the 1884 conference in Berlin organized by Chancellor Otto von Bismarck of the
then Prussia aimed at regularizing the scramble for Africa. The Berlin Act of 26 February
1885, stipulated how Africa was to be partitioned into European colonies. For more details
see, for example, Packenham (1991).
3. www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2006/06/mil-060614-irin01.htm
4. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7172038.stm
www.reuters.com/article/idUSN25257790_CH_2400
5. www.odysseustrust.org/lectures/221_east_african_asians-sharma.pdf and www.
ugandamission.net/aboutug/articles/amin.html
6. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/botswana/1501756/Bushmen-
forced-out-of-desert-after-living-off-land-for-thousands-of-years.html
7. http://motherjones.com/politics/2005/01/exiles-kalahari
8. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/sudan/1463215/Arab-militia-
use-rape-camps-for-ethnic-cleansing-of-Sudan.html
9. www.brandeis.edu/projects/fse/Pages/islamandslavery.html
10. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8555018.stm
11. www.newzimbabwe.com/NEWS-2109-Mugabe,þ Tsvangirai þ slam þ homosexuals/
NEWS.aspx
12. www.xenophobia.org.za/
13. We acknowledge the fact that the meaning of the term race could change depending on the
region or country being considered implying that it can be viewed as a social construct. For
example, it could be interpreted as a tribe or racial color (e.g. black vs white). However, given
 IJSE that a separate question on tolerance to people of a different language is asked, we consider
race as inclined more to color.
38,6
14. We treat black as an ethnic group in line with the way the question on ethnicity is formulated
in the WVS, in which ethnic groups are classified as, e.g. Caucasian white, Negro Black, etc.
15. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8588548.stm
16. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3955145.stm
534
17. The test statistics for the significance of square of age suggested an assumption of a linear
relationship between age and all dimensions of social tolerance is appropriate.
18. The contact hypothesis postulates that under appropriate conditions interpersonal contact is one
of the most effective ways to reduce prejudice between majority and minority group members.
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Further reading
Stephen, S. (1998), “National integration and foreign policy in multiethnic states”, Nationalism
and Ethnic Politics, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 110-32.

Corresponding author
Precious Zikhali can be contacted at: P.Zikhali@cgiar.org

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