Africa is one of the most ethnically fragmented regions of the world. In some countries, ethnic and racial diversity interact with socioeconomic and political dynamics to create distinct group inequalities — horizontal inequalities. High levels of political, economic and cultural horizontal inequality can predispose such societies to conflict (Stewart, 2008). Managing diversity is therefore an important aspect of statecraft in Africa (see Mustapha, 1999, 2002), even if the results have not always been successful. One key aspect of managing diversity is the attempt to make state institutions more representative. States in Africa have moved at different speeds in their pursuit of representativeness. Some, like Ghana, have informal — but virtually institutionalised — mechanisms for accommodating different segments of the population in the political, economic and cultural life of the country; in others, like Côte d’Ivoire, the inclusive mechanism has been highly personalised and dependent on the goodwill of the president (Langer, 2007). This paper examines two types of formal inclusiveness: the Federal Character Principle in Nigeria and Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment in South Africa.