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Africa: Social Cohesion in Africa: Bonds, Belonging, and the Common Good

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Africa: Social Cohesion in Africa: Bonds, Belonging, and the Common Good


Most citizens express tolerance for ethnic, religious, and national differences but want to limit immigration.

Key findings

  • Across 38 African countries, interpersonal trust declines sharply as social distance increases. On average, 81% of Africans say they trust relatives “somewhat” or “a lot,” vs. 58% who trust their neighbours and around half who trust people of a different ethnicity (49%) or religion (48%).
  • o Tanzania, Guinea, and The Gambia stand out with relatively high interpersonal trust levels, while Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, and Ghana consistently rate among the least trusting countries.
  • Africans are more tolerant than trusting. Large majorities would welcome or accept living next door to people of a different ethnicity (87%), religion (84%), political party (81%), or nationality (77%).
  • o Acceptance of refugees is somewhat weaker (69%), and only 22% would not mind having homosexual neighbours.
  • Immigration exposes a clear boundary of social inclusion. Africans are evenly divided on whether immigrants make a positive (45%) or negative (44%) contribution to the economy, and most favour admitting fewer or no foreign job seekers (64%) and refugees (70%) into the country.
  • Almost nine in 10 Africans (85%) say they value their national identity at least as highly as their ethnic one. A plurality (46%) say they feel equally attached to both.
  • While a majority (56%) of Africans say the government “never” treats their ethnic group unfairly, four in 10 say this happens “sometimes” (24%), “often” (11%), or “always” (6%).
  • A majority of Africans believe that powerful interests often influence judges (51%) and that people are often treated unequally under the law (59%).
  • Informal solidarity remains strongest within families: Almost half (47%) of respondents say they sought assistance from relatives during the past year to make ends meet, while one-third (33%) turned to friends or neighbours and 12% to a religious or community organisation.
  • However, this strong informal solidarity does not translate readily into collective civic action: Only 15% of Africans say they joined others to raise an issue with the government during the previous year.


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Social cohesion refers to the extent to which people feel they belong to a shared society, trust one another, cooperate for the common good, and believe public institutions treat citizens fairly (Burchi et al., 2026). In Africa, where diversity, mobility, and uneven development shape social relations, migration provides an important test of social cohesion by raising questions of belonging, identity, and inclusion.

Using Afrobarometer Round 10 data from 50,961 interviews in 38 African countries (2024/2025), this Pan-Africa Profile examines interpersonal trust, social tolerance, identity, attitudes toward immigrants, institutional trust and fairness, and cooperation for the common good.

The findings show that while trust weakens as social distance increases across the wider society, social tolerance remains high: Large majorities accept neighbours of different ethnicities, religions, political affiliations, and, to a lesser extent, nationalities. Immigration marks a boundary of inclusion: Fewer than half of Africans believe immigrants benefit the economy, and majorities favour admitting fewer foreign job seekers and refugees, with South Africa expressing some of the continent’s most restrictive views.

Most Africans value their national identity at least as highly as their ethnicity; many value them both equally. But perceptions of unequal treatment by the government and the legal system are widespread, and many Africans believe that judges often pay more attention to powerful interests than to the law.