Editing Multinational state (section)

===Africa===
{{further|Ethnic groups in Africa}}

Most countries in [[Sub-Saharan Africa]] are former colonies and, as such, are not drawn along national lines, making them truly multinational states.

====Ghana====
{{further|Ethnic groups in Ghana}}

There is [[Demographics of Ghana|no ethnic majority in Ghana]]. The plurality group, the [[Akan people]], are a [[meta-ethnicity]] (that is, a collection of similar but distinct ethnicities). While Akan is the most-widely spoken language in Ghana,<ref name="Introduction To The Verbal and Multi-Verbalsystem of Akan">{{cite web|title=Introduction To The Verbal and Multi-Verbalsystem of Akan|url=http://www.ling.hf.ntnu.no/tross/osam.pdf|work=ling.hf.ntnu.no|year=2013|access-date=16 November 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140407085659/http://www.ling.hf.ntnu.no/tross/osam.pdf|archive-date=7 April 2014}}</ref> English is the official language of government. <ref name="The Ghanaian Government states that English is the official language">{{cite web|quote=English is the official language of Ghana and is universally used in schools in addition to nine other local languages. The most widely spoken local languages are, Ga, Dagomba, Mumpruli, Akan and Ewe.|url=http://www.ghanaembassy.org/index.php?page=language-and-religion|title=Language and Religion|publisher=Ghana Embassy|access-date=8 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301155437/https://www.ghanaembassy.org/index.php?page=language-and-religion|archive-date=1 March 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Ghana – 2010 Population and Housing Census">{{cite web|url=http://www.statsghana.gov.gh/docfiles/2010phc/Census2010_Summary_report_of_final_results.pdf|title=Ghana – 2010 Population and Housing Census|work=Government of Ghana|year=2010|access-date=1 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130925192147/http://www.statsghana.gov.gh/docfiles/2010phc/Census2010_Summary_report_of_final_results.pdf|archive-date=25 September 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==== Kenya ====
{{further|Ethnic groups in Kenya}}

[[Kenya]] is home to more than 70 ethnic groups; the most populous of which are the [[Kikuyu people|Kikuyu]], at about 20 percent of the population.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.africa.upenn.edu/NEH/kethnic.htm|title=East Africa Living Encyclopedia|website=www.africa.upenn.edu|access-date=2017-01-05}}</ref> Together, the five largest groups—the Kikuyu, [[Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania|Luo]], [[Luhya people|Luhya]], [[Kamba people|Kamba]], and [[Kalenjin people|Kalenjin]]—account for 70 percent of Kenyans.<ref name=":0" /> The major impediment to nation-building in Kenya is the schism caused by the failure to align the mystically bonded ethnic groups to the state so that the state territory can simultaneously be the national territory and vice versa [https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/3TWRGEUCHBGIJED5AJJU/full?target=10.1080/14725843.2024.2439423#abstract (Katiambo, 2024, p.6)]. According to [https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/3TWRGEUCHBGIJED5AJJU/full?target=10.1080/14725843.2024.2439423#abstract Katiambo (2024]) although the hegemony of the nation-state should ideally lead to each state having one nation,  regardless of Kenya’s deliberate nation-building efforts aimed at reversing the fragmented ethnic nations of the colonial epoch, the nation-state is still in competition with ethnic sub-nationalism. 

==== Nigeria ====
{{Further|Ethnic groups in Nigeria}}
[[File:Nigeria linguistical map 1979.svg|thumb|250px|right|Map of Nigeria's linguistic groups]]
The largest nation in [[Nigeria]] is the [[Hausa-Fulani]], which accounts for 29 percent of the country's population. However, the group actually encompasses two distinct ethnicities: the [[Hausa people|Hausa]] and the [[Fulani]] (or Fulbe). While both ethnicities are found in large areas of [[West Africa]], it is only in Nigeria that they are classified as a single ethnic group for political expediency. Nigeria is also made up of many other ethnic groups like the [[Yoruba people|Yoruba]], [[Igbo people|Igbo]] and [[Ibibio people|Ibibio]]. Prior to colonialism, they were not self identified as one ethnic nationality but are so today along with the three Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo which classification does carry between each group of who is part of and not part of the group aside from them Nigeria as about 250–500 other ethnic nationalities considered minorities with some large enough to control the outcomes of elections in states such as the Igala and Urhobo. While some are so small that they only show up in one local Government area.

====South Africa====
{{Further|Ethnic groups in South Africa}}
[[File:SAPS language.png|thumb|250px|Map showing the dominant languages in South Africa]]
Present-day [[South Africa]] is the successor state to the [[Union of South Africa]], which was formed from four British colonies in 1910.

South Africa has eleven official languages ([[Afrikaans]], English, [[Southern Ndebele language|Ndebele]], [[Northern Sotho language|Pedi]], [[Sotho language|Sotho]], [[Swazi language|Swazi]], [[Tsonga language|Tsonga]], [[Tswana language|Tswana]], [[Venda language|Venda]], [[Xhosa language|Xhosa]], and [[Zulu language|Zulu]]) and formally recognizes several other languages spoken by minority nations. Speakers of each language may be of a different nationality—for example, some members of the [[Southern Ndebele people|Ndebele]] and [[Tswana people|Tswana]] nations speak Zulu, and groups such as the [[Thembu people|Thembu]] and [[Hlubi people|Hlubi]] speak Xhosa.

As is the case throughout Africa, the nations of South Africa mostly correspond to specific regions. However, large cities such as [[Johannesburg]] are home to a mixture of national groups, leading to a "[[melting pot]]" of cultures. The government has continuously attempted to unify the country's various nationalities and to foster a South African identity.

Many of the nationalities found in South Africa are also found in bordering countries, and in some cases, more members live in South Africa than in the country where the group originated. For example, there are more [[Sotho people|Sotho]], Tswana, and [[Swazi people|Swazi]] people living in South Africa than in the bordering nation states of [[Lesotho]], [[Botswana]], and [[Eswatini]], respectively. In the past, this has led to conflict. Lesotho still claims large swathes of South Africa, and attempts have been made to cede some South African territory to Botswana and Eswatini. All three states were intended to be incorporated in the Union of South Africa, but those plans never came to fruition because of power struggles within their [[apartheid]] governments.