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lurker
509 Posts |
 Posted - 10 Feb 2008 : 21:08:48
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good people , i have questions for you .
in light of the horrendous inter-tribal violence in Kenya after their elections, i would ask...
Does tribalism have any value in the modern world.?
Would Africa be better off, more united and less violent if tribalism was phased out?
Is tribalism discriminatory/racist?
It seems to be in the Indian caste system.
Does it have a place in the modern world?
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kayjatta
2978 Posts |
Posted - 10 Feb 2008 : 23:33:14
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Tribalism should not have a place in the modern world, Lurker. However, the reality is that there are different tribes just like there are different races in the world. But tribe per se is not a threat to our peace and civilization. Even in Kenya where recently tribal violence has flared up into bloodshed, the different tribes had lived together peacefully for many years albeit with tension not too far beneath the surface. The last straw that seems to have broken the camel's back in Kenya is the flawed presidential election that perpetrated the rule of the majority Kikuyu tribe.
What is important in understanding the Kenyan conflict is the economic and political inequality that led to the eruption of tribal conflict. To understand the causes of kenya's tribal conflict, in my view, we need to understand what political scientist refer to as 'reinforcing cleavages' and 'cross-cutting cleavages'. I have already discussed these concepts in my discussion of Sam Sarr's paper on 'Tribal politics in the Gambia'. But in a nutshell, if Kenya's economic cake and its political power had been equitable distributed across all the people of Kenya irrespective of tribe, there will perhaps be no resurgence of tribal conflict(see 'cross-cutting cleavages'). The political and economic disparities that exist among the different ethnic groups is what in effect kicked off tribal awareness and tribal conflict. This is the so-called 'reinforcing cleavages'.
Tribalism can only be phased out in countries that structure their development agenda such that economic and political power does not favor one tribal group disproportionately to the disadvantage of others. In the Gambia, despite Sam Sarr's ill-conceived, allusion to 'tribal politics' no ethnic group is favored over others in terms of access to economic and political power and privilege. Hence the Gambia's long standing inter-tribal accord.
I also have to mention that many of today's Africans have a poor tribal identity. With the exception of such as Kenya where tribal awareness is enforced by economic and political discrimination by the majority ethnic group, many Africans, particularly of my generation have very vague tribal identity. For example, I am a Mandingo by tribe, from a muslim family, went to a catholic school with wollof, serer, jola, manjago, serehule, (etc) kids,speak wollof fluently, speak some jola,married to fula woman, attend mosque occasionally, attend mass occasionally, speak better English than Mandingo.I feel too complicated/complex to fit into a mandingo stereotype. This phenomenon, more or less, could be true of many Africans of my generation.
Therefore, as a last word, i would like to say that African history is no longer( may be has never been) driven purely by tribal forces but by economic forces. Thank you for the questions you asked. |
Edited by - kayjatta on 11 Feb 2008 05:08:48 |
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