Word: tribalization
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...court art of Ife and Benin demonstrates that the ancient Africans could achieve a naturalism comparable to that of Egypt, Greece and Renaissance Italy. But Africa's unique contribution to world art is the violently expressionistic wooden sculpture and highly stylized masks of tribal art-the art that impressed and excited Picasso and Matisse and strongly deflected the course of modern art. Oddly enough, this tribal art owes much of its vitality to the wood-eating white ant of Africa. Because of its depredations-and some help from natural decay-each generation of carvers had to create new images...
Black Africa's tribal problems have only been intensified by the borders that it inherited from its onetime colonial masters. Europe's 19th century exploiters fashioned frontiers that afforded them the greatest prestige and economic gain. They frequently cut tribes or peoples in two-or sometimes three. One legacy of colonial mapmaking can be found in East Africa, where Somalia claims parts of Kenya and Ethiopia because of the large numbers of Somalis in those countries...
Even for countries without border problems, the very welter of tribes in most of Africa's new nations presents a formidable problem. In Tanzania, for example, there are 120 tribal groups speaking at least as many distinct languages. Yet many African countries may be better off with many small, weak tribes than with a few strong rival groups. In the early '60s in Rwanda, the squat Bahutu literally cut the tall, stately Watutsi down to size by whacking their legs off. Thus ended the age-old Watutsi hegemony over the Bahutu. Two smoldering guerrilla wars are ethnic...
...most extreme proponents of secession argue that the present African states are creatures of colonialism and should be dissolved. New nations, based on tribal boundaries, they insist, would be truly legitimate political entities. Such countries, so the argument goes, would be free of the civil strife and rivalries that now plague the continent...
Whether Gowon will be able to restrain the tribal hatred and blood-bred vindictiveness of his army and his people remains to be seen. Few observers question the sincerity of his intentions. They see him as a reluctant leader who nurses a nostalgia for the private life he has left behind. "I should be doing all the things young men of my age are doing," he once said. "Instead, here I am in this prison. Honestly, this is a prison." The leadership of his stricken country was thrust upon him suddenly, almost by accident, in July 1966. He was chosen...