Whenever the issue of tribalism comes up, we always hear the same old, tired argument that tribalism is unavoidable. It is as old as humanity, we are told. This need to politicise ourselves through smaller groups is a way to protect our social interests.
A tribe provides the sense of security that an individual is unable to attain on his or her own. Tribalism is a return to our roots, to our true identities. The list goes on.
Today, these arguments are not only erroneous. They are dangerous, too. Yes, while it is true that most Kenyans can trace their lineage back to any one of our 42 tribes, these identities played a very different role historically than they do today.
In Kenya’s pre-colonial history, one tribe basically dictated what language you learned to speak and in what approximate area you grew up.
Tribes got along very well in a pattern of healthy symbiosis whereby each tribe -nomadic or pastoral – went about their daily lives without much conflict with neighbours.
Most social groups were confident with their identity, and did not have issues with others.
That changed when colonial forces arrived in Kenya. Our linguistic diversity gave them a way to tear us apart, to pit us against one another.
Divide and rule, they called it. Since we had never seen a phenomenon like this before, it was all too easy for colonial forces to implement policies favouring certain tribes over others and using that to benefit their own objectives.
This system allowed the British to take control of our land and resources, and to subjugate our people. We know what happened next, and the long struggle for independence was a bloody one. But now we are wiser.
Now we have the benefit of looking back on history as an educated nation, aware of the destruction that geopolitics has the potential to unleash.
And for that reason, it is hard to understand why we are still letting tribalism get between us and our collective objectives as the Kenyan nation.
Cambridge historian John Lonsdale has said that “This conversion of negotiable ethnicity into competitive tribalism has been a modern phenomenon. Tribe was not so much inherited as invented.”
That is not to say that tribes themselves were an invention, but rather, competitive tribalism is a modern phenomenon that has led to so many of our internal problems. In the past six or so decades, the powerful have used it to keep themselves in power at the expense of others.
Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe said of the word tribalism, “A word will stay around as long as there is work for it to do.” It is an invented terminology, and it is time we did away with it. We must begin to associate tribalism with its foremost partner, corruption.
Corruption occurs when certain coteries are able to extract benefits for themselves at the expense of other groups. We saw it repeatedly under the Daniel arap Moi and Mwai Kibaki administrations, during such scandals as Goldenberg and Anglo Leasing.
But the current mood of politics in Kenya is different. President Uhuru Kenyatta put tribalism behind him when he extended his hand to opposition leader Raila Odinga.
If the two can develop a healthy working relationship, then there is no reason why the rest of us cannot.
The handshake essentially transcended tribal lines by showing the Kenyan people that in government, all voices must be heard.
All of us deserve the right to speak, and the right to get involved.
What followed was the Building Bridges Initiative report, which makes the same claims – Kenyans choose to identify as Kenyans before all else, and tribalism needs to be put behind us. It belongs to the relics of our parents’ and grandparents’ generations.
It has little to do with the goals and development agenda that we are working towards in 2020.
And those leaders who are using their tribal identity as a rallying cry have one goal in mind: using their ethnicity to profit. This is unethical, and we must not allow it to corrupt us. At this critical moment in history, unity is the new determinant of our politics.
Tribalism must be left to dusty history books.
