The paper makes the premise that all genocides are rooted in history and focuses on ‘genocidal conditions’, which are any conditions that lead to mass deaths. The author argues that in addition to Africa’s genocides being rooted in its different pasts, communities, identities, historic relationship with the West, and the related colonization and slavery, it is also rooted in contestation over the use of and control over economic resources and economic conditions. The author believes that the marginalization of the economic dimension among the genocidal conditions is tragic, particularly since many mass deaths are a result of public policy or neglect thereof.
