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27 November 2012 Last updated at 09:44 GMT
Viewpoint: How tribalism stunts African democracy
By Calestous Juma International development professor at Harvard University
Political violence soon took on an ethnic dimension after Kenya's disputed 2007 elections
Africa's democratic transition is back in the spotlight. The concern is no longer the stranglehold of autocrats, but the hijacking of the democratic process by tribal politics.
Kenya's 2007-08 post-election violence revealed the extent to which tribal forces could quickly bring a country to the brink of civil war.
The challenge to democracy in Africa is not the prevalence of ethnic diversity, but the use of identity politics to promote narrow tribal interests. It is tribalism.
There are those who argue that tribalism is a result of arbitrary post-colonial boundaries that force different communities to live within artificial borders.
This argument suggests that every ethnic community should have its own territory, which reinforces ethnic competition.
The last 20 years of Somalia have shown the dangers of ethnic competition and underscore the importance of building nations around ideas rather than clan identities.
Much attention over the last two decades has been devoted to removing autocrats and promoting multiparty politics.
But in the absence of efforts to build genuine political parties that compete on the basis of ideas, many African countries have reverted to tribal identities as foundations for political competition.
Leaders often exploit tribal loyalty to advance personal gain, parochial interests, patronage, and cronyism.
But tribes are not built on democratic ideas but thrive on zero-sum competition.
As a result, they are inimical to democratic advancement.
In essence, tribal practices are occupying a vacuum created by lack of strong democratic institutions.
Tribal interests have played a major role in armed conflict and civil unrest across the continent.
'Clever and calculating'
But the extent to which it blunts efforts to deepen democracy has received little attention. This is mainly because much of the attention has focused on elections.
According to US-based pro-democracy group Freedom House, 19 African countries were considered electoral democracies in 2012, down from 24 over the 2005-08 period.
These trends conceal the influence that tribal politics exerts on the democratic process.
It took Kenyan political parties nearly a decade to unite and defeat Daniel arap Moi's regime.
Leaders of the different opposition parties were primarily focused on pursuing their tribal interests rather than uniting around a common political programme.
They in effect played into the hands of the government in power that could divide them along tribal lines.
The opposition parties were unable to find common ground through coherent party manifestos.
According to research carried out on Kenya by Stephen Keverenge at the US-based Atlantic International University in 2008, 56% of 1,500 respondents did not know that their parties had manifestos.
The manifestos are generally issued late because much of the effort goes into building tribal alliances.
The new constitution of Kenya seeks to address the issue of ethnicity by ensuring that a president needs broad geographical
support to be elected.
A winner must receive more than half of all the votes cast in the election and least 25% of the votes cast in each of more than half of the country's counties.
But tribal leaders are clever and calculating.
They are quick to dress in the latest fashion and co-opt emerging trends to preserve their identities.
They buy influence and create convenient alliances, shopping for international support in power centres such as London, Paris, and Washington DC.
Their sole mission is self-preservation, with the side effect of subverting democratic evolution.
For them tribal politics is a zero-sum game, so they are prone to using hate speech and inciting violence.
Intellectual input
The way forward for African democracy lies in concerted efforts to build modern political parties founded on development ideas and not tribal bonds.
Such political parties must base their competition for power on development platforms.
Defining party platforms will need to be supported by the search for ideas-not the appeal to tribal coalitions.
Political parties that create genuine development platforms will launch initiatives that reflect popular needs.
Those that rely on manipulating ethnic alliances will bring sectarian animosity into government business.
Whoever is elected as president will spend most of his or her time on tribal balancing rather than on economic management.
Party manifestos are fundamentally documents in which parties outline their principles and goals in a manner that goes beyond popular rhetoric.
They arise from careful discussion, compromise, and efforts to express the core values and commitments of the party.
Building clear party platforms requires effective intellectual input, usually provided through think-tanks and other research institutions.
Most African political parties lack such support and are generally manifestos cobbled together with little consultation.
Tribal groupings see themselves as infallible but parties have to be accountable to the people.
By stating a vision for the future, political parties provide voters with a ways to measure their performance.
Forging platforms fosters debate within parties that transcends tribal and religious differences.
'Road to doom'
Such debates are a central pillar of democracy.
Building modern political parties and associated think-tanks is, therefore, the most urgent way to counter tribal politics.
Policy debate is a key element of democracy.
Specific manifestos would foster healthy political competition that would force parties to distinguish themselves from each other.
Conversely, such debates would also help to illustrates areas of common interest.
Indeed, it is becoming clear that issues such as infrastructure - energy, transportation, irrigation, and telecommunication - and youth employment are emerging as common themes in African politics irrespective of ideological differences.
The predominance of such issues will select for pragmatic leadership over ideology.
It is therefore not a surprise that African countries are increasingly electing engineers as presidents.
In 2012 six African countries put engineers in top political offices.
This reflects the fact that at the local level, politics is primarily a long footnote on demands for power, transportation, irrigation, and communication.
Closely linked to these foundational concerns are demands for access to education and health.
Political parties are unlikely to differ on essential points, but they might offer different approaches.
So long as democracy offers the best chance for sustained growth and prosperity, tribal politics must be replaced by genuine party platforms and modern democratic institutions like think-tanks.
Otherwise Africa's road to doom will continue to be paved by tribal intentions.
Calestous Juma is professor of the practice of international development at Harvard Kennedy School and co-chairs the African Union's High Level Panel on Science, Technology and Innovation - @calestous on Twitter.
You can join the debate now by using the form below or via Twitter using #bbcafricadebate or BBCafrica on Facebook and Google+
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-20465752
The tribalism of Africa is no worse than the religious divisions in Islam, Christianity, Judaism, or the divisions in politics that afflict many western countries.
Andy Steele, Esbjerg, DenmarkThe tribalism of Africa is no worse than the religious divisions in Islam, Christianity, Judaism, or the divisions in politics that afflict many western countries.
Leaders who focus on tribe are only responding to the mindset of the voters. In the 1992 elections in Kenya, Kibaki's DP had the best manifesto, but he only came in 3rd in the election. The opposition won in 2002 through blatant manipulation of tribal loyalty. Kenyans were presented with the lie that they were voting for a collegiate presidency of tribal chiefs called the NARC Summit. When the lie was exposed after the election, it became easy for politicians to exploit the situation and lay the ground-work for the 2007 -08 post election violence. If a presidential candidate fails to use his ethnicity to his advantage, his opponents will use it against him. This happened in 2007 when the elections were turned into a vote against the president's tribe, with disastrous consequences. . The new constitution will not make a difference - tribal alliances will overcome the 25% requirement. It is already evident that candidates from smaller communities and those lacking !
Boniface, Nairobi, Kenya
Tribal/Regional politics are not an African problem! It happens all over the world - Burma (Rohingya), China (Xinjiang), Bosnia (Serbia), Ukraine (Russian Regions) etc. Most democracies " even in the west use regional or cultural alliances to win elections. The UK Labour party relies on the North of England, Scotland and Wales while the Conservatives rely on the South East. The recent US elections had a similar regional flavour to them " North Vs South. India has a flourishing democracy (and it will be called that by western journalists!) based on religious, regional and caste systems. What Africa needs is education and a larger educated middle class that can rise above tribal sentiment â€" and even then some regions may decide they want to be separate entities. Some African states like the "Democratic" Republic of Congo are too diverse to remain unitary states.
Andrew, London, UK
Never underestimate the pull of the tribe/clan/family/gang. When people have very little, the group offers comfort by giving the feeling of belonging. Behaviour that is not of the group automatically excludes members. It is a very frightening thought for the individual. So better the tribe than nothing. This is true all over the world. Universal, free education would help dissolve the ties that bind and restrict advancement. But, no right thinking leader would advocate their own demise. Keeping the people in darkness is essential to maintaining power. The people need to have a clear,viable and safe alternative to the status quo otherwise change will simply not come.
Don MacAskill, Kirkcaldy, Scotland
Professor Calestous Juma has hit the nail right on the head in Africa politics. Professor may not know but its a fact that, this tribal politics is what some Ghanaian leaders searching for political power are using these days.I will urge Ghanaians to stop, tell in the face and reject any political leader who tries to use tribalism to gain power in Ghana.
Nana Abban-Mensah, Tarkwa, Ghana
I totally agree with this article. We should not vote for presidents based on tribe and popularity terms. I am happy to say that the kenyan electorate where I come from has really matured. I mean even watchmen and housegirls who have not finished even high school education are taking issues now. I mean in this era of rapid globalization and africa integrating it is time to tackle issues. Kenya has intelligent people and we can rally everyone else to focus on issues.
Hellen Wangari, Nairobi, Kenya
This article deals with the origin of the tribal problem - the existence of colonial-era national boundaries - in a trite aside. It gives no consideration to the actual historical impact of these boundaries on inter-tribal relations and specifically, to the fact that it left some ethnic groups at a genuine disadvantage. Glib and sweeping demands for non-tribal political parties are no substitute for a case-by-case consideration of the specific problems of inter-ethnic relations, country by country.
Mr Henderson, Teddington, UK
Great article!, but something needs to be said though about the role of the African media and civil society in fostering democratic engagement. This is where most people receive information on politics and one just needs to look at their reporting this year viz a viz the elections to see that their reporting focuses purely on the tribal alliances. There is no critical journalism on party manifestos or plans. In addition, opinion polling by research organizations focuses on what margins aspirants would win by. So where do we begin? Disorder and patronage have been used as political instruments and are entrenched within the political system so how do we change this?
Fiona Ngarachu, Southampton, UK
We witnessed the beginnings of "tribal" politics this elections season here in the States. Persons in my neighborhood were approached by precinct captains that were confused that the ethnic/race of the resident didn't match what was expected to be seen on the placards displayed on the properties. Several friends were openly chastised on social media for not being "black enough" when they came out for the Republican candidate. It is frightening to image the US, India or the UK turning to tribalization.
Richard Blaine, Washington DC, US
MY TAKE
This was a discussion back in 2012, Looking way back in 2012 and now I would like those smart buddies over here to look whether things have changed with the current trend with the Jubilee Govt in power for 10 months now also looking at the CORD strongholds taking under consideration the current preliminaries of ODM party election and also the confrontation between silk community and Kisumu indigenous population over a monument to commemorate centennial celebration of the minority silk community in Kisumu.
Moreover whether the devolution process has been effective as far as its implementation and also citing how the media law and procurement have reflected the new constitution that was launched on pomp and fare. How is general perception on a common Kenyan i.e.a Jua Kali striving to win a bread for the day looking at the recent Parastatals' heads and board members nominations on ethnic lines and ultimately, his nominations being challenged in courts as did not follow the laid down procedures?
NB
I invite constructive discussion and argument! insults and derailing the topic on any sort is unacceptable and punishable!!
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