Thoughts on the fear for tribalism and regionalism (Part 2)

LAZARUS KAIRABEB, SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE NAMA TRADITIONAL LEADERS ASSOCIATION WRITES:

It appears now that competition become intense amongst groups, the same politicization appears to be changing to "political ethnicity", which easily can translate into ethnic ideologies for those leaders coming from numerically large ethnic groups unable to resists the temptation of using ethnic ideology to consolidate their political base. This could best describe the unfolding developments in the Namibian political discourse.

It is for the latter reasons that I find President Geingob’s argument of connecting "scaremongering, scapegoating and xenophobia” to economic dislocation that can ripen populations for some kind of intractability, much more relevant as it also embraces possibilities for tilting the scale toward behaviour which are not apprehensive of tribal or ethnic concerns. Obviously, like I stated earlier, this depends on how socio-cultural structures exert definite pressure on certain groups in the society.

Here I want to import his argument of the factors that may obscure “economic, historical and social” realities through the blanket introduction of a protean concept such as nationalism in Africa. I am not saying it cannot work. Far from it, but how to make it logically interconnected to derive all-inclusive systematic uniformities in economic mobility for all, because currently it doesn’t seem to be working effectively?

For instance my observations of the post-colonial state formation is that besides the tightening competition for political power among ethnic groups of the north where the ruling party wants to brace its political muscle, the term "nationalism" has become an instrument of negotiation amongst those ethnic groups that are prominent in the Namibia political power struggle. Locally conceived ethnicity, bordering on ethnic nationalism, and local politics are the new phenomenon.

This is evidenced by the flood of recent independent candidacies in the north that are drawing significant number of votes and thereby questioning the worth of the ruling party’s political representative approach. Lately, we also hear voices questioning the quality of representation in government from the north-eastern regions of Kavango.

IT IS ABOUT BENEFITS

More so, the current debate is progressively becoming resilient in socio-cultural discourse, partly due to the increasing expression of cultural identity as a means to have more access to socio-political resources in the country. More often, these days, and strikingly so, we observe the use of regional interest in a conservative manner for negotiating political inclusion and access to national resources in fishing and mining areas.

I think therefore, ascribing the current tendencies blindly as being induced by tribal leanings, would not be entirely true. There are too many other matters of importance that are feeding the situation.

Southerners have no shares in the many companies created for purposes of economic redistribution and no place in the rationalized access to national resources – and this fact alone may led to group consciousness, which is the best place to start negotiations from.David Wiley, of the Michigan State University once noted:

“Misperceiving and misnaming ethnicity in Africa, however, is not a small error. As the Confucian Analects note, 'if names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. If language is not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success.'

"Misnaming African ethnicity as tribalism has long bedevilled U.S. foreign policy in Africa, leading to miscalculation of U.S. interest and errors of judgment. When we respond to a political movement as only a tribal reality, we misjudge its strength, its potential organization, and the breath of its appeal, as we clearly did in labelling as tribal groups the three political liberation movements of Angola.”

That was the lesson American academics decoded from the mistakes made by their politicians.

He further went on to note:

“The success of the term ‘tribe’ in shaping our perceptions of the African societies may be seen in the widespread usage of the term by African journalists and scholars. Because, English, French, Portuguese, and occasionally Afrikaans were the languages of the schools and the city, tribe, tribu, and the other cognates defined the language of urban and political interaction and defined the categories into which rural and urban societies were allocated during the colonial period. Now, prominent African leaders use the term in appealing for 'an end to tribalism,' referring to the urban and national struggles for political power in utilizing ethnic and language ties as a means to aggregate power and authority, They too miss the ethnic dynamic and mistakenly link the urban ethnicity to the rural societies.”