(2 of 5)
Whether by hunting or herding or harvesting, a basic tribal function is subsistence in a harsh environment. As relatively powerless people, tribesmen believe in magic, usually hate outsiders and respect any kinsman who survives long enough to grow old.
At some point in history, all men belonged to tribes,*and most of them resisted efforts to integrate them into nation-states. The Scots were tribal until well into the 18th century, and the Welsh partly so. Even the modern West is not wholly free of tribalism, as witness Canada's French-speaking separatists and the bitter divisions between Walloons and Flemings in Belgium.
What makes tribes different from nations? Unlike tribes, nations are inclusive and pluralistic; they contain large bodies of unrelated citizens governed by complex political institutions through such abstract notions as patriotism. What caused most of the world's tribes to become part of nation-states was a combination of forces that widened loyalties to ever larger political units. As farming and industry advanced, tribes became economically interdependent. Most were consolidated by the military force of empires, such as the Roman and Chinese; the growth of great religions, intertribal languages, technology and unifying national crises did the rest.
Among Africa's first known tribal groups were the artistically talented Bushmen, who scratched out their lively rock drawings of hunters and wild animals in the Stone Age. Some 7,000 years ago, the Hamites came across the Suez, bringing a rudimentary knowledge of agriculture, and soon they intermarried with Bushmen and early Negroes to produce new races. Over the continent's vast distance, these groups scattered into the polyglot tribes that fractionalize Africa today. Each went its own way. Some tribes raised empires based on hereditary rulers. In other tribal cultures, outstanding men or women and sometimes even children were elected chiefs. Many tribes shaped profound attitudes toward life that now haunt modern Africa's advancement. The Ibos developed a culture that stressed personal competition, and are thus born overachievers. In contrast, a Fang finds individual excellence so reprehensible that the talented are treated as outsiders or even outlaws. Yoruba see nothing wrong with saving money, while the Tiv see worthwhile wealth only in the number of women they acquire. French Sociologist Jacques Binet found the forest people of Gabon "afraid of wealth: the possession of money was sinful to them."
The variety is endless. An African's language may be spoken by a million other people or by only a few thousand. A man may believe that work is degrading—or the proof of manhood. He may have been taught that eating people is wrong; then again, he may relish them. He may believe in the lofty concept of one god who lives on a nearby mountain; or he may believe there is a god in every tree in the forest.
Murderable Strangers