On positive tribalism for Eritrea and by extension for Africa
“Like most people who write on Africa, I pin my hopes on the emergence of a breed of young, educated, technologically aware Africans who, less burdened by the rigid demands of tribal loyalty and free of the inferiority complexes of the colonial era, will stride confidently towards the future. But we are not there yet.”—-(Michela Wrong, Make Tyranny History, Live 8’s Aims are Laudable: But Africa’s Tarnished Leaders Must First Be Held To Account, The Observer, June 5, 2005 )
By Yohannes Woldemariam*
Nov 6, 2006 — In 1947, a Nigerian politician, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, described Nigeria as a little more than ‘a geographic expression.’ Almost 60 years since those words were uttered, a constellation of ethnic, regional, religious, and class conflicts continue to plague Nigeria. From 1967-70, a bloody and destructive civil war resulted in 3 million deaths. The religious schism between Muslims concentrated in the north and parts of the southwest and Christians in the middle belt and parts of the southeast still haunt Nigeria. Regional and sectarian tendencies are threatening to unravel many other countries in Africa. We have also witnessed tragic consequences in Sudan, Angola, DRC, Rwanda and Eritrea is by no means immune. The plague of tribalism threatens to unravel the Ethiopian empire as well.
Huddling together in small clusters of kinship, tribes, clans, fraternities, sororities, etc. is a universal human trait. This trait can be used both in a constructive or destructive way. Typically, an Eritrean belongs to some Addi located in a certain region of the country. The Addi is a unit of social organization consisting of a number of families, clans, or other groups who share a common ancestry, culture and leadership.
Depending on the times and one’s individual circumstances, the Addi or the nation may pull one towards itself much more powerfully. Addi obsession may potentially have a destructive tendency but one shouldn’t be unduly ashamed of Addi loyalty. We have witnessed how it is possible to conflate Addi loyalties into a single national reservoir to benefit the country as during the time of Gedli (the struggle for independence). We must acknowledge that there is such a thing as positive tribalism as much as there is negative tribalism.
Tribalism becomes destructive when some elites become totally drunk with their Addi’s genteel exclusivity and superiority. Some use it to whip up profound bigotry and to serve their own personal ends. These individuals make it their business to split hairs. But when you put Addi identity and other modes of primordial identification on the balance, the difference between people of one Addi and the other only exists in the heads of self-serving persons. It is not in the genes; the shape of forehead, the size of lips, the height; it is not in anything in the physical realm.
If we deem that national energy will ultimately serve us much more effectively than our scattered Addi identities, the challenge is to put every Addi’s strengths and deliberately throw those strengths into our collective destiny. A new form of Addi or tribal identity with a group of people sharing an occupation, interest or habit must evolve. In this form of tribe, we use the same language grounded on our skills, interests or professions. This will bond us together. We review each other’s situation and support each other in learning the ropes. We can focus on being the best tribe member while maintaining our individual identities. I call this positive tribalism.
For inspiration, let us trace the experiences of five leading groups across centuries of commercial empire building. Families of Jewish merchants and financiers have helped create cross-border trading and banking institutions. Anglo-American tribes, led by the migrations of Britain’s dissenting Calvinists, settled the New World, spread a common system of financial accounting and commercial law, and made English the global language of business. The Japanese, driven from their resource-poor home islands have relied on clannish discipline and loyalty to forge world-spanning enterprises that dominate international markets. Emerging as powerful future tribes are overseas Chinese and Indian clans, which are beginning to control important global networks that finance, manufacture, and distribute products ranging from textiles and costume jewelry to personal computers and software.
Grounding in the family is the secular glue that continues to hold these successful tribes together despite the harsh experience of living as strangers in strange lands, and reinvigorates their commercial success. Extended kinship bonds serve, both as a source of emotional strength, and as the foundation of business relationships that transcend national boundaries. These networks provide the patient capital, ironclad contracts, partnerships based on trust, and reliable labor supply that help their enterprises bridge distances from New York to Tel Aviv, Melbourne to London, Los Angeles and Vancouver to Tokyo, Hong Kong, or Mumbai.
On the other hand, negative tribalism and racism cannot benefit any nation because it is likely to explode into conflict from which no belligerent group can emerge unscathed. What happened in Rwanda and what is now happening in Darfur and Ethiopia is a case of tribalism exploited by elite politicians through tribal political activism. We have to decide what it is that we really want. Is it working, prosperous Diaspora communities and functioning countries or mere “geographic expressions”?
* Yohannes Woldemariam is U.S. based and writes commentaries. He can be reached at [email protected]