PDP2 - Using “Tribe” and “Tribalism”: to Misunderstand African Societies

PDP2 -  Using “Tribe” and “Tribalism”: to Misunderstand African Societies

Author Bio: The author of this article is David Wiley, a professor in the Department of Sociology and African Studies Center at Michigan State University. His studies are mainly focused on religious and social movements and urban development in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and South Africa. Wiley has also researched militarization in Africa. He has published many papers on different regarding Africa and this one being how tribe and tribalism is often used wrong by many people. Since David Wiley focuses his studies on a few countries in Africa, he mentions only a few of those countries in his article and does not give examples from many other countries outside of his research area. This means that he could be missing some important information on the topic that has taken place in other countries in Africa.

Date/Context: The term tribe and tribalism developed more contemporary meanings and uses during the 19th-century. This was during the rise of evolutionary and racist theories. The new uses and meanings were centered around labeling groups of people as less civilized and inferior. This article was written in 2013 which means that the meaning and uses of the term tribe and tribalism has evolved and changed over the long period of time between when the term began to develop more contemporary meanings and when the article was published.

Summary:This article essentially explains how the meaning of the term tribe and tribalism has changed and how this is changing our views on African Societies. The meaning of the term tribe began to change during the 19th-century and was used to label groups of people as inferior or less civilized. Many authors used tribe when describing a group with a common language, common culture, ancestral lineages, or common governments or rulers. Zimbabwe and South African governments used the term tribe and tribal to liberal movements that were beginning to go against their racial rule. They described the people in these movements as “tribally based” which was intended to mean disorganized and less civilized people. These movements were named the ZAPU and ZANU, ZAPU represents the Shona tribe and ZANO represents the Ndebele tribe. The labeling of these two groups was inaccurate because many of the members did not represent the Shona and Ndebele tribes. The differences in histories, leaderships, styles, goals, and memberships in Zimbabwe lead to the creation of ethnic identities which some called tribal identities. The term ethnicity is used to describe a group that has some similarities, but tribalism is the label used in Africa. Misnaming ethnicity in Africa can cause miscommunications and lead to errors. The U.S. foreign policy in Africa has made mistakes that led to, “...miscalculations of U.S. interests and errors of judgment.” These mistakes can lead to underestimating the situation. The usage of the term “tribe” by different journalist and scholars has contributed to shaping our views on African societies. Tribe is used to label groups of 100 people or millions of people which greatly reduces the amount of diversity that is found in Africa. The article concludes by saying that the term “tribe” could not be used to properly describe pre-colonial africa and has even less validity in contemporary Africa.  

Key Quotation: “‘Societies that are classified as tribal seem to be very diverse in their organization, having little in common.’ Morton H. Fried and this author contend that ‘the term is so ambiguous and confusing that it should be abandoned by social scientists.’”