Tribalism In Africa

It is common to interpret African politics in tribal terms. Tribalism is perceived to be the central unifying concept for the analysis of African life. In Africa, the concept has a colonial origin and its function was tied to nineteenth century, imperialism meant the rule of the powerful monopolies, trusts, combines and cartels controlled by the financial oligarchies of the various European countries along with the consequent reduction of the market competition which characterized the earlier period of capitalism. In Africa, imperialism combined these features with foreign European control of the local apparatus of state. The financial oligarchies organized production to satisfy their needs for profit and capital accumulation as well as to

At the ideological level, foreign values such as profit motive and individualism were reinforced by the educational system and the new Christian churches. These values enabled the Africans to carry on production in the interest of the financial oligarchies, (Nnoli, 1978:2) Ethnicity often intrudes into African politics. In view of the ethnic consciousness that has developed over several generations of the colonial and neocolonial history of Africa, it cannot be otherwise. However, this ethnic ideology itself needs to be explained. Several dangers attend an attempt to explain the ethnic phenomenon in Africa. First, it may succeed in keeping ethnic sentiments aflame by bringing it to the forefront of the consciousness of the reading population. Second, it may generate divisive inter-ethnic controversy. Ethnicity is a very sensitive issue in national

Archie Mafeje has noted that tribalism is not only an anachronic misnomer which impedes cross-cultural analysis by drawing invidious and highly suspect distinction between Africans and other people of the world, but that it also oversimplifies, mystifies and obscures the real nature of economic and power relations among Africans themselves and between them and the capitalist world (Mafeje, 1971:253) cited in Nnoli. Magubane has convincingly argued that a focus on ethnicity impedes a serious effort to understand African societies because it ignores the ownership of the primary productive forces, the material basis of society, and the nature of the social system (Mugabane, 1969:538) cited in Nnoli (1971:10). Similarly, Richard Sklar views the focus on ethnicity as obscuring the fact that in Africa, ethnic movements may be created and instigated to action by the new men of power in furtherance of their own special interests which are time and again constitutive interests of emerging social classes. In this way ethnicity becomes a mask of class privileges (Sklar, 1967:6) As Karl Marx has clearly demonstrated social life, including politics, is determined primarily by social production, what is produced, how it is produced, and how what is produced is distributed. It is characterized by social movement, which is a process of natural history governed by laws, which are independent of human, will and consciousness