Ethinicity in African Politics

An American author of A Walk with Pursuit, Jason N. Versey,suggests that “it is the pursuit and attainment of political party power that divides and defines a nation. Not race,not religion, not national origin, not socioeconomic status, nor sexual orientation, no. These are all just sacrificial pawns of the political arena. If you want to know where common sense goes to die and where tribalism goes to be born, look no further than party politics.”
That said, another scholar, Christopher Hitchens, while commenting on the 2008 united States of America general elections noted that “people who think with their epidermis or their genitalia or their clan are the problem to begin with. One doesn’t banish this specter by invoking it. If I would not vote against someone on grounds of race or gender alone,then by the exact same token,I would not cast a vote in his or her identical reason. Yet, see how this obvious question makes fairly intelligent people say the most alarming and stupid things.
It is based on such a background that I want to tackle the subject of ethnicity as far as politics in Africa is concerned. The fact of belonging to a particular race. You can no longer see or identify yourself solely as a member of a tribe, but as a citizen of a nation of one people working toward a common purpose. This is what Africans have failed to do. We are divided along the tribalistic sentiments. We have failed to come together for a common purpose. It’s very unfortunate. Sometimes one wonders whether we shall ever outgrow this cultural bigoted mentality. Partly,some argue, that such a sentiment should be blamed to our colonial and post colonial history, which facilitated tribalised ethnicity, politics,security, economy among others. We have constantly and fallaciously heaped collective guild or praise on the basis of this historical consciousness of ourselves that we have normalised.
Besides, it’s absurd that we have built a society where people’s character is judged by their ethnicity and hardly by their own way (both positively and negatively): that even a complete stranger judges another by simply hearing their name-which they bundle with an entire ethnic group and dismiss or favour. The assumption that by knowing your ethnic group (name) one already knows you enough and your real attributes don’t count. And some of this ethnic prejudice is taught into us right from homes. Thus,even a person who has gone through school seeing good people from other ethnic group will conveniently invoke a negative stereotype in general terms when it serves their purpose at the time.
Such weaponised identity, that is, knowing and deliberately demonising another person’s identity in order to stir up ethnic outrage against that person and their views has consumed almost half of the African political stage. Quite often, those with political privilege load it over tribes whom they deem unworthy of economic and political leadership. It’s manifested through use of fake news and most importantly historical allusions.
Back to our communities, these tribal sentiments are much fostered by laziness to think openly and dig deeper into issues through voice of reason. Thinking is even more blurred when emotion is involved. It could explain why often kinsmen would jump-join into a tribal quarrel without even knowing what sparked the disagreement. Only to refer later “…by the way,what exactly happened?” These are witnessed scenarios so many a time.
This really and clearly explains why police officers even first ascertain ones tribe before making a statement. In other instances, because of lack of inclusive societies, you find some army officers remain in the same rank but constantly see young people promoted and the pattern shows a belonging to a certain tribe. More so,look at its manifestation through blackmail and the use of tribalistic mindsets against the targets. A muganda does not support Bobi Wine; “You see? They are like that,they never support their own any good. They’re traitors.” When he supports Bobi Wine, they are like “you see? They’re tribalistic! They support him because he is is a Muganda.” This is also applied to some other ethnic groups too.
Therefore, such a demonized specter,although has been a subject of discussion for many years, should not be taken for granted. It has been here. Its here. We must face it rather than run away from it. We should therefore encourage the voice of reason. We should encourage people to think over issues rather than basing on the existing tribalistic hullabaloo. The world now demands thinking more than ever before.
Secondary, we all have a big role to play so as to curb this busines. But the most important thing is to deal with the people in the education sector. The education experts,religious leaders among others should be at the front in sensitisation. This tribalism is too high in educational institutions.
Lastly, we need to build more inclusive and meritorious institutions so as to overcome the problem. Because our own political players have injected these sentiments into public systems (institutions) and into their own special people in those systems thus creating distinction between them and others. And we very well know that when people are marginalised, they go tribal.