Tribalism has no place here
Tribalism has led to many internal conflicts on the African continent.
In fact the bitter divide in South Sudan has escalated into ethnic violence with those loyal to President Salva Kiir, who is from the Dinka tribe, squaring off with those close to his sacked deputy Riek Machar, who is from the second largest group, the Nuer.
As we write this today, millions of people in South Sudan are displaced by this highly disturbing conflict and there appears to be no end in sight even though they have been ordered to cease hostilities.
Countries like Kenya and Rwanda also experienced political unrest, which was mainly fuelled by tribalism. Although there were levels of political conflict and protest in Kenya that rose in the middle of last year and 2013, the worst political violence was felt during 2007/08 after the contentious presidential elections, which opposition leader Raila Odinga controversially lost to then incumbent Mwai Kibaki.
There were accusations of “ethnic cleansing” when violence broke out in Kenya during the time and hundreds of people were killed and over 500 000 displaced. The Rwanda genocide of 1994 is also well documented. Some 800 000 people were slaughtered in just 100 days by Hutu extremists.
It is against this background that as a nation, we need to draw hard lessons from these conflicts because tribalism remains one of the thorns in the proverbial side of our country's development.
Our country is already beset by serious problems and challenges such as poverty and a high unemployment rate. We should be open and have honest discussions about tribalism with the view of dealing with it once and for all.
We may have our challenges as a country, but we should respect those who are different from us and embrace each other as one big happy Namibian family. Let's detest name-calling, derogatory attacks against each other and all other evils that have blighted our society.
In fact the bitter divide in South Sudan has escalated into ethnic violence with those loyal to President Salva Kiir, who is from the Dinka tribe, squaring off with those close to his sacked deputy Riek Machar, who is from the second largest group, the Nuer.
As we write this today, millions of people in South Sudan are displaced by this highly disturbing conflict and there appears to be no end in sight even though they have been ordered to cease hostilities.
Countries like Kenya and Rwanda also experienced political unrest, which was mainly fuelled by tribalism. Although there were levels of political conflict and protest in Kenya that rose in the middle of last year and 2013, the worst political violence was felt during 2007/08 after the contentious presidential elections, which opposition leader Raila Odinga controversially lost to then incumbent Mwai Kibaki.
There were accusations of “ethnic cleansing” when violence broke out in Kenya during the time and hundreds of people were killed and over 500 000 displaced. The Rwanda genocide of 1994 is also well documented. Some 800 000 people were slaughtered in just 100 days by Hutu extremists.
It is against this background that as a nation, we need to draw hard lessons from these conflicts because tribalism remains one of the thorns in the proverbial side of our country's development.
Our country is already beset by serious problems and challenges such as poverty and a high unemployment rate. We should be open and have honest discussions about tribalism with the view of dealing with it once and for all.
We may have our challenges as a country, but we should respect those who are different from us and embrace each other as one big happy Namibian family. Let's detest name-calling, derogatory attacks against each other and all other evils that have blighted our society.
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Namibian Sun
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