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History of Ethnic Tribalism in Post-colonial Nations

Humans by nature want to belong to groups, we are hard wired to be to seek meaning, to believe that humans have a purpose and we are valuable individuals in a world of meaning which comes with abstract prescriptions of the ways to live, a belief about the nature of reality, that ultimately defines us but also separates us from others.

 

Chaos erupts when our belief system is challenged because if we meet another person with an alternative conception of reality, we generally do so by undermining the confidence to which we subscribe to our own beliefs which temporarily exposes us to the sneaky conclusion that humans are individually insignificant.

 

The British have always been conscious of ethnic differences in controlling a nation but with the exception of Singapore and now Rwanda, no post-colonial nation has ever made a real headway. The differences goes from prescriptions of ways to live organized by religion, the origin stories of several ethnic groups be it Oduduwa coming from heaven, Chukwu, Babayiga from Mecca to subtle changes in facial structures created by decades of mating along the lines of ideas.

 

The first omen of disaster is a widely multiethnic nation without a strong overarching national identity to hold groups together and often the way post-colonial nations were created, it was done in a way that pitted groups against groups. Libya, Nigeria, Rwanda, by the Germans, Singapore, Iraq, Afghanistan.

 

The second omen is an economically dominant minority like Igbo’s in Nigeria, the 3% Chinese in Indonesia, the Sunnis in Iraq, Tutsis in Rwanda, Whites in South Africa and Each time when power gets split and suddenly democracy is introduced – majority rule, you find the majority using their new found power to oppress the economically dominant minority.

 

Under the ottomans, the Sunnis minority were favored, they were also favored under the British because like we said Britain liked to pit groups against groups. Saddam Hussein himself was a Sunni and after he was suddenly overthrown and democracy was introduced, it did not result in prosperity like the Americans thought, the newly dominant Shia used their power to oppress the Sunnis.

 

In Nigeria, the Hausa/Fulani population were backed by the British simply because they knew when people vote along the lines of their ethnic identity. The majority would always win.

 

Singapore had race riots between Chinese and Malays who hold majority of the wealth but also hired just mostly other Chinese. Nigeria had series of bloody coups when the cat (The British) left the room.

 

The Hutu killed the Tutsis, the 60% Shia immediately democracy was introduced in Iraq used their newly found power to punish the Sunni minorities.

 

What propelled Rwanda and Singapore was a benevolent dictator seizing power, working for the prosperity of the country without Ethnic groups calling for secession or fighting amongst each other.

Lee Kwan Yu in Singapore and Paul Kagame in Rwanda but the strength of an institution isn’t in how fast it get things done but in how difficult it is because this it takes time to make things go wrong too. Dictatorship is a Russian roulette not to be messed with leaving us with just one solution. Building a national identity that can connect ethnic groups.

 

Claims is making an attempt at solving this by first solving the problem associated with our origin stories and religion to give way for the commonality and the objective principles of human nature using Reason.
His claim is that the supernatural doesn’t exist and we are being held hostage by pages of literature and if one can prove that the supernatural exist, you watch away with good governance.

 

Onah Emeka Paul

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Tags: Ethnicity Onah Emeka Paul Tribalism
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