Does Tribe Matter?

At the dawn of Uganda’s Independence a suave electrifying Prime Minister from the North wedded a Southerner. Was it a love bite? Was it political? Or was it both? Nevertheless, soon the educated, the soldiers, the prison warders and the policemen hailing from the North followed in the prime minister’s—later the president’s—footsteps.
Today the products of those marriages have come of age, and some of them are playing front-row seats in the country’s conversations.

First, let us jump across the pond to the US of A where the product of a brief union between an African tribesman and a European tribeswoman has suddenly become a world’s superstar. His mixed-tribe background, coupled with a keen intellect, helped him build a successful coalition to win an election, uplift the spirits of his nation and the world. As he jokingly referred to himself as a mutt, can our local mongrels equally bring together the North-South divide to work towards a common goal? Put another way; are these mutts the answer to the vexing downsides of tribe/race? Or is the Obama phenomenon just a coincidental random occurrence leaving us still with the question: does tribe matter?

Tribe should matter in culture as it adds to the tapestry of music, language, beauty and other qualities that makes the world richer. Imagine a world where most Acoli have become mongrels having had Bagisu or Banyarwanda mothers who have not encouraged the finer art of Larakaraka dance. The world would be cheated of a vibrant seductive music and dance that has pulsated the hearts of many of our fellow homo sapiens.

To say that tribe should not matter is to say that family, community or nation should not matter. The problems that arise from tribe are the same problems that are emblematic of conflicts between families, communities and nations—greed, hate, bad faith, chauvinism—just plain evil. And so, while pretenders speak of and use laws against what they call sectarianism, they stack key positions of government with their own tribe. A good faith effort would have been to recognize tribal tendencies—even from revolutionary liberators—and work towards practical solutions.


Well packaged, this Acoli Lukeme music and dance could contribute to World Peace through aerobic exercise from Beijing to San Francisco!