Wednesday, January 31, 2007

A Change Of Venue For Today

Today is when I send you off to African Path to read my latest post. Enjoy!

9 comments:

Chatterly said...

i have read that post, it is a good one, will comment later on that...now get down to PART 5!!!! please?

Ichiena said...

Arrrghh! Blogger!

OK, here goes...again...sigh!

True true Aco. Though I think it's changing with each new generation. I realise i do not think about where my pals come from or use it to judge etc. It actually hits me when i am asked the tribe of someone i have known for a while and I dont know! So, there's hope.

Anonymous said...

Yesterday, I gave one of my buddies a new contact so that they can get information on a degree they want to pursue.

"Where are they from?" I was asked.

I gave a physical city name.

"No, you misunderstood me. What tribe are they?"

"Does it matter? They will help you regardless of tribe."

Sad ha?

Aizoh said...

True and real sad.I think our politicians are largely to blame for this. They use their tribesmen as pawns to achieve their own political ends.Luring them into the false belief that they can only benefit from resources if one of their own leads so "let's stick together". When they loot, they eat alone. When caught and they get what's coming to them for that, they gather their tribesmen around and tell them "We are being finished".

Anonymous said...

Well put! Like ichiena says, it is changing with each new generation.

My children for instance, after being subjected to the issue of race-black vs white(in South Africa), now refer to themselves first as Africans, secondly as Kenyans. If I try going further to explain tribe, they get totally lost-it does not feature anywhere in their mind. They cannot speak the language in the first place and whereas i am not particularly proud of this fact, it in a way keeps matters simple.

3N said...

aco, on this one I say Kenyans we are ages away from nationality being more important than tribal alliance.
It is not a coincidence that Kenyan communities settle according to tribal lines here in the US.
What I wonder is whether tribalism and in essence what results to ethnocentrism is harbored by a human's natural instinct to stick to their own.

Rista said...

Wena! you are a bad bad man. Fine... take your time, why don't you, with Part 5.

mama shady said...

read the post!heh!yup, theres hope but we got a long way to go.i think in a way those ethnic lines are fainter in the uk than in the us.but they're beginning to be drawn with more syke. I also dont like it when people purposefully only have friends from the same tribe!aish!lets diversify, ebu let's try and infiltrate one of those kirende's;)

Girl next door said...

Tribal identity is still very necessary today. Even when miles from home. I can identify with some of your experiences. I've been to events where people speak their language the whole time knowing that you don't understand. This group, tribe X, are dominant where I live and make it very clear who belongs with them. I have a couple of buddies from the group but rarely attend their events. Used to hang out with fellow tribemen who were helpful till I got to know their true colors and ulterior motives. So while tribal identity can be relevant to survival, it's individuals who matter.