OPINION: Should being tribal be judged on its ‘negatives’ only?

Somewhere among a pile of forwarded videos and images I stumbled upon one allegedly about Karatu. A local leader, (don’t exactly remember his name) is said to have banned a Kilimanjaro group. Intention?

... Discourage tribalism.

Every Tanzanian knows we are unique on this matter. Our brothers and sisters across the continent have suffered decades of THAT negative rot of tribalism. Our founding father, Mwalimu Nyerere was from a tiny tribe yet guided this nation for over a quarter of a century without trouble.

Many African countries are led by strong, dominant tribes. In most places it would be unthinkable for an unknown Zanaki statesman to lead-let alone propagate- the philosophy of unity. But that is what makes Tanzania extraordinarily, special, on this song.

Now.

It is not only Africans who suffer from the malady. I have been around Asians, Europeans, Latin Americans and the issue of “tribe” can be manifested in many other different ways.

You just need to attend a function; and note how you will be left out. I have been to places where the event had people of various nations ...yet come time to mingle, and groups would sing and speak and jostle with each other and totally ignore those who do not belong, (i.e. don’t speak the language, know their food, etc.)

And that is perhaps what tribe is.

We Tanzanians might leer and abhor and condemn tribalism but yet need to look at this term, closely.

Tribe actually means, “A social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect...”

May we kneel down and analyse the “raw meaning” of the word? Words that ring in our ears are “blood ties” (families), “dialect”, “common culture”...

You can add more, but, COMMON CULTURE is significant.

All tribes love fun, sport and more fun. There is a tomato game in East Spain called Tomatina.

It involves throwing tomatoes at each other and might seem “rough” to an outsider. But those involved LOVE and relish the messiness of squashed red tomatoes. Tomatina...Tomatina....

The Maasai jumps might appear equally strange to an outsider. But these are the “common things” that unite those East Spaniards or East African Maasais.

Subsequently then, when we say tribe, it should not just signify “bad” or negative energy.

For several decades, I have been around Brazilians, and please note! They are obsessed with birthdays. Celebration of a young person’s 15th birthday, for example is a huge soccer match, a massive family affair. Birthday songs are massive, yes.

You hear added lines to the chanting and everyone joins, going bananas. Whereas, for us, birthday singing might even be a recent phenomenon...I doubt if we have a Swahili birthday tune. I have heard Kenyans (here in London) singing a version of Happy Birthday in Swanglish, and adding “Hii Ni Keki sio Ugali...” (This is a Cake not Ugali), but, the melody of the chant is still THAT ONE (said to have been) composed by the two American sisters, Patty and Mildred Hill in 1893. Although disputed, this most famous of all English songs, has been translated to at least 18 languages, according to Wikipedia.

Charmingly, we should accept one main idea.

Common cultural values unite a group or a community of people.

And this is where I am questioning the Karatu incident. Like majority of online videos, there are hardly any in depth details about the incident.

Efforts to get information were slightly futile and I ended up with just an idea. Which idea? That there were a group of Chaggas (or maybe Pares), wanting to meet regularly in Karatu, and that this Kilimanjaro unit was stopped.

That the intention was to discourage tribalism.

Having little information I would just like to ask questions. Was the Kilimanjaro group social? Was it meeting to drink “Mbege” or discuss weddings, Xmas, etc?

I was reading statistics in a London paper last Monday regarding families across the globe. A research by Inter continental Hotels Group concluded that an average family has members living 2,000 miles away across the globe. Meaning we are getting more and more scattered.

So what folks?

One of the reasons that a group of people with “common ties” would like to meet regularly could be to cement their “common values.”

I live overseas and do not know any Tanzanian whose “overseas born children” can speak Kihaya, Kizaramo, Kipare or Ki-Nyaturu, fluently.

Swahili of course, but not tribal, ethnic lingo. And that is where I see the importance of tribal ties. Not for political ethnic cleansing but letting our future generation KNOW where they hail from.

Roots.