When we reach the apex of tribalism?
By Nhial Tittmamer de Nhial*
July 25, 2006 — When tribalism is the order of the day, the national patriotism and pride are down trodden and the nation gets enslaved by evil vices and love of wrong way of doing things. Corruption becomes rampant with no shields and ammunitions to defend and fight it because patriotic opinions expressed against such vices in the interest of the nation get discarded.
In this situation, there are no national figures of which the nation can be proud of because the available true nationalists and true patriots are not considered by the tribal minded folks by the virtue of not belonging to their particular ethnic background. The minds of the true patriots and nationalists become measured based on tribal assumption. The national pride dies and the ethnic pride takes the helm because the people appreciate everything done by individuals from their ethnic background no matter whether the action is wrong or right. The tribalism get higher and higher as the tribal loyalists do the wrong things and named as heroes by their fellow tribesmen and women for committing a grave crime against other ethnic group.
In Sudan, you become confused of what would be right or wrong because the wrong becomes right and the right becomes wrong. People become energetic and passionate when it comes to the promotion of the wrong way of doing things. We have been promoting the wrong way of doing things and call it the right way to do things.
We have been taking power by coup and we have called it the right way of doing things. We have been imposing the cultures of a particular group at the expense of other diverse cultures and we have called it the right way of doing things. We have been promoting dictatorship and authoritarianism and we have called this the right way of doing things. We have been massacring our people and we have called this the right way of doing things. We have been controlling the national wealth at the expense of many other people who are supposed to have the share of it and we have called this the right way of doing things. We have been praising our leaders in everything they do whether right or wrong and we have called this the right way of doing things. We have been suppressing the freedom of speech which is the determinant on whether our government is popular and we have called this the right way of doing things. We have discarded great things of national interest and we have called this the right way of doing things. We have been butchering ourselves because of belonging to different ethnic group and we have called this the right way of doing things. We have done everything wrong and we have called this the right way of doing things.
When we express our opinions, we do not only add an injury to the wounds but, also motivated by mere tribal hatred, we dig the wounds deeply and widely to make them remain there forever. This pushes the freedom of speech out of its honorable function.
It is time to start forgiveness and reconciliation. Desmond Tutu, South African Bishop and Nobel Peace laureate wrote the book, “No Future Without Forgiveness.” In fact, in Sudan, there is no future if we do not forgive each other. There is no future if we do not leave the wrong way of doing things and adapt the right way of doing things.
The right way of doing things will start when we repent, confess and forgive the wrongs of the past and start a new leave. If we keep doing the wrongs of the past, the past will hold us back and the present will escape from us and the future will be an alien to us.
The reconciliation should start to unite individuals with individuals, family with family, clan with clan, ethnicity with ethnicity, and religion with religion. In this way, the walls of tribal and religious motivated hatred will be thrown down by mutual trust and mutual love and the national pride and patriotism will be planted and grow without weeds and pests.
South Africa is one example on African continent that was docked by institutionalized racial and ethnic discrimination but it came out of that mess because the leaders accept to repent, confess and forgive each other. Sudan should take the example of South Africa. Our leaders should be ready to repent, confess, apologize and forgive and reconcile the nation for the interest of the future generations.Arrrogance does not only kill the arrogant but it only denies the arrogant the past, the present and the future. The horror to it is that there is no human being without the past, the present and the future. When the past is poisoned and kept, it poisons the present and the future. The past, present and the future are the place in which human beings dwell.
Our repentance, confession, apology, forgiveness and reconciliation will let us get rid of tribalism. This will give us the opportunity to put the foundation of the nation founded on love regardless of ethnic and religious background. This will let love instead of hatred reign in the land. By doing that, the nation will prosper because the great ideas of nation building will be embraced by all regardless of who propose them. Bad ideas that tear the nation apart will be discarded regardless of who propose them.
When tribalism reach the apex, where do we go from there? Well, we get reduced into ashes as the tribal motivated hatred culminates in intent destruction of one group in whole or in part. The reaching of the apex of tribalism is now happening in Darfur where the Janjaweed hunt the men, women and children with intent to destroy them in whole or in part because of their ethnic background. The reaching of the apex of tribalism is poised to tear the country apart from North to South and East to West. For Southern Sudan as one of the regions seeking her own nationhood to avoid the ethnic motivated marginalization by Arabs, I am worried about her destiny if the current state of tribal hatred is allowed to reach the apex. It is my wish that repentance, confession, forgiveness and reconciliation are given a chance to pave the way for the nationhood.
* Nhial Tittmamer de Nhial is a Sudanese residing in Canada.
He can be reached at either [email protected] or [email protected]