Thursday, February 07, 2008

"Tribal Conflict" in Kenya by Alex Thurston
Among the many things that infuriate me about the lack of adequate international news coverage in America, the bullshit trope of "tribal conflict" in Africa ranks pretty high.
In the fantasy world of many journalists, as well as many Americans, foreign peoples - especially Africans and Middle Easterners - fight because they "always have." The only tragedy, in the eyes of these self-proclaimed experts, is that now tribal conflicts are played out with modern technologies of warfare.
But the tragedies that grip Kenya, Darfur, and Somalia, to name a few, aren't tribal conflicts transplanted into modern times, the only difference being that spears have been exchanged for AK-47s and machetes. Rather, the direct intervention of foreign governments in these countries, from the time of colonialism to the present, plays a major role in creating and exacerbating ethnic conflict, as do concrete economic and political conditions of poverty, inequality, and disenfranchisement.

Take this story about Somalia, published a year ago, which asserts that "clannism" is the major problem.....
LINK to con.

1 comment:

Kadira said...

This is an excellent article and the subject matter should really be part of African studies in public schools.