Please excuse my rambling and spelling. I was discussing this very issue with Wilham Frost, my guide/friend and owner of Matlabas Game Hunters, last week before all of the recent developments.
I previously ment to say that the very problems that faced the original "freed" and independent nations of subsahara Africa are the very same problems that now face South Africa. Ineffective and corrupt governments run by one tribe to the detriment of all other tribes are constantly being overthrown by other generals, tribes... who once supported the original government that week.
South Africa currently has 11 official languages which "help" represent the numerous black tribes that settled there. Why this is important is the value of the tribe within Africa. In America, we are Americans, maybe Texans, but rarely do we place as much worth in say our tribe or extended family / community as the African. No American family choses to form its own family army. It is rare in the US anymore to have long standing feuds between extended families that result in sustained armed conflict or genocide. With exception the the Amish and other such groups, American family groups don't normally create large independent economic systems to sustain their members and exclude all nonfamily individuals. As a whole, we have melted together. We are not as concerned in our ancestry when we buy our groceries, pick our hunting partners, choose our spouse.
The African will choose his tribe over almost everything. The concepts of national pride and a national economy are a new concepts to him, artificially placed on him through colonialism. In SFA, numerous africans told me almost everyday that we americans only see a bunch of black people, but in truth each tribe was a distinct and different tribe with totally unique traits and such. At the time I considered that rude since I was paying them $ only to be insulted. Now I see that they were right and unfortunately, each tribe with its distinct history and interests are mad at and in conflict with each other tribe. From David Lamb's book, it appeared generally that the African tribes would only stop warring and killing their own for 2 occasions :
1. If they were ordered to by military force who could enforce such a prohibition,(Great Britain in Kenya) or 2. To condemn the whites within the African continent,( The Independent african countries meet annually to discuss the continent's numerous issues such as plague, Aids, genocide of their own neighbors just to name a few. Before the end of Apartoid... please excuse my spelling..., these very nations would conveniently overlook the several thousands of dead africans at their borders who were slain by africans and spend endless hours attacking the then white run government of SFA). My point, these tribes have no allegiance to their nation and rarely value institutions
such as hunting that would benefit the nation as a whole. The value of an institution is weighed in its benefit to the tribe.
Example. The equal opportunity systems referred to earlier in this string on its face face appears to be an afirmative action program similar to that was in a our nation. This program forces businesses in SFA to hire or attempt to hire blacks before hiring a white person. Problem 1. These black candidates for such a job position are provided by the ruling government. They may not be the most qualified. 2. The list of qualified black canditates picked by the ruling government are normally from the same tribe as the members of the ruling party. I could go on for a while over those two issues, but I won't. The biggest problem with the system is not the program's willingness to further the economic interests of the blacks in SFA. The biggest problem is the system's willingness to further the interest of the ruling party's tribe over the other tribes in SFA. The whites, Zulus, ... just another tribe to the other tribes. To be attacked, to be victimized... to the benefit of the offender's tribe.
If SFA (or the continent as a whole) is to have any stability, the population as a whole most overlook centuries of tribal anymousity and view themselves, white and black, as South Africans. They must see their fate is dependent on the success of SFA as a nation, not their tribe. Unfortunatly, SFA's neighbors are still decades later battling with the failed promises of their own independence. It now appears that SFA is facing this same grief.
I'm done rambling. Obviously, I'm not an expert and have only been to the motherland 1 time and have only read a few books on the continent. But to answer the question, is anyone else afraid of this, I'm very afraid. For my future trips I'll admit, but more importantly for my new friends, the Frost Family, who let me play with my bow and arrow with the Kudus. Bhill
Topic: Red Flags Everywhere (Read 5195 times)
