"The Dark Continent"
Whenever one discusses the problem of group conflict, he is immediately tempted to begin with Africa. Africa is cursed with a cancer called tribalism. It parallels the curse of self-centered nationalism among European states. This group-oriented tribalism lies at the root of the recent Nigerian civil war. Tribalism has also unleashed the potential of another group struggle in Kenya since the 1969 murder of Kenyan politician Tom Mboya.
The past wars in Ethiopia, the Sudan, Tanzania, the Congo, Zambia, Uganda and others — almost all have their tribal component.
A tribesman owes his first loyalty to fellow tribesmen, much as a citizen of a nation gives his allegiance to that nation. Members of one tribe often fear and hate another. The Western ideal of nationalism — itself a catalyst precipitating ethnic war — is broken down to a grass-roots tribal level for Africans.
In Europe there may be twenty nations — tribes grown great — who explode periodically into national war. In Africa there are about 6,000 tribes. These range from a few thousand members to many millions in population.
They compete for all the necessities of life. And today many of them compete for political power.
The differences in tribes are matters of geography, culture, history, level of development, social organization, religion. At times the differences are physical — as in the case of the tall Hamitic Watusi and shorter Bantu Hutu.
Infused into this constantly tense situation is the added historic memory of Arab enslavement of black men. Few realize that Arabs penetrated almost the entire east coast of Africa. They were in control over most of the northern part of Africa. Islam today is the religion of North Africa and perhaps a third of the black population of east Africa.
Added to this is the legacy of the sometimes discriminatory and cruel "white man's burden" in Africa.
While Europe, and especially Britain, held sway in Africa, the simmering coals of racial conflagration — against white, brown and black — were held down. But shortly after World War II, the monolithic pre-eminence of Europe began breaking down.
Continent in Chaos
Agitation for independence was the cry. In the late 1950's and 1960's, nation after nation in Africa was granted independence. Curiously with the departure of the white man's power, group and race war — against black, white and brown — increased.
The following examples and statistics are NOT pleasant. But they graphically portray the curse of race and group hatred. These words are written in the hopes that those who read them may be able to impart their influence so that any further racial or group conflagration can be avoided.
Consider a quick summary of some news events from January, 1964:
*ZANZIBAR . . . Approximately 12,000 Arabs die in less than two weeks.
*TANGANYIKA . . . Army mutinies, President Nyerere goes into hiding.
*CONGO . . . State of emergency in Kwilu province, beginning of tragic civil war, hundreds of thousands killed.
*UGANDA . . . Army mutinies.
*RWANDA-BURUNDI . . . 10,000 Watusi killed in Rwanda, bringing total to about 100,000 dead.
*ANGOLA . . . Portuguese drop napalm onto guerrillas in "rotten triangle."
In a summary analysis for the book Africa Addio, author John Cohen added: "During the month of January, 1964, then, just about every country south of the Sudan and the Congo — more than half of the African continent, which alone is bigger than the USA, Communist China and India put together — was involved in mutiny, rebellion, civil war, or some other form of extreme violence or threatened violence" (p. 10).
But tribal hatreds did not stop in 1964. They have continued. In 1966 it exploded with the full fury of tribal war in Nigeria.
Nigeria's Tribal War
Before the Eastern Region seceded from Nigeria in May, 1966, 30,000 Ibos had been massacred by other Nigerian tribes. The Ibos rebelled and set up their own state, Biafra.
Then the stark tragedy of tribal war — some have called it genocide — began. Nigeria invaded Biafra to reunite the country.
The death toll in Biafra started at an estimated 400 per day — and was to climb to a tragic 10,000 per day. This was the effect primarily of starvation.
By the end of 1968, the estimate of deaths within unoccupied Biafra was put at three quarters of a million. Even the most conservative estimate of deaths was half a million. Others reported an estimated half a million dead in the Nigerian occupied area.
The fighting continued throughout 1969, the war not ending until January, 1970. By the end of the war, one estimate put the death toll due to starvation at perhaps TWO MILLION.
Kikuyus, Killing and Kenya
Kenya is known as the nation of big-game hunting, movie scenes, safaris. But Kenya is also the home of racial strife. In 1952, the hunt was on. But wasn't for big game. The hunt was on for the Mau Mau. Before that strife ended, it was to cost 200 million dollars and result in the deaths of 13,000 black human beings.
The Mau Mau consisted of embittered members of the Kikuyu tribe They were disenchanted with the whit(man for settling on land which the tribe formerly had used for grazing. Paradoxically, the Mau Mau were a product of the slums of Kenyan cities such as Nairobi and Githunguri. But soon the criminal toughs of Nairobi gained control of the relatively peaceful Kikuyus on the reserves.
Disloyal Kilcuyus who refused the tribal oath were tortured and killed. For example, in the last 10 days of September 1952, the year that the Mau Mau terrorists began, 14 Kikuyus were murdered for informing the police. In early October a loyalist, Chief Waruhiu, was assassinated.
The message came through loud and clear. The Kikuyus flocked to ceremonial centers to take the oath. Some oath sessions saw 800 initiates at a time brought in.
As usual, in Africa black men suffered most at the hands of other black men. By the end of 1952 only six Europeans had been murdered. In the same period of time 135 Kikuyus and 37 other Africans were known to have been butchered by the Mau Mau.
The turning point of Mau Mau "success" came on March 26, 1953. On this day more than 200 homes were wired closed in a town called Lari. Petrol was tossed on them and flaming torches created fiery infernos.
Those who got out suffered incredible tortures. Stories of the massacre were many and terrible. One woman was held from behind while her child's throat was slowly sawed through. Another person had his body chopped in half. Later his blood was drunk. Pregnant women had their bellies split open.
The next morning officials found charred bones across the plain. No one really knew how many died. The official estimate was 97.
There is yet one final irony in all this. The black Mau Maus had NOT, in this case, murdered whites. The citizens of Lari were bladc, they were fellow Kikuyu tribesmen. It was this kind of butchery that turned away the vast majority of Kikuyus from the Mau Mau minority.
Today, the Mau Mau are history.
Crisis in Kenya — NOW
But group troubles are NOT ancient history in Kenya. They are there now.
In 1969, Tom Mboya, a black cabinet minister, was murdered. Suddenly Kenya was threatened with tribal explosion. Some thought it could parallel the intensity of hatred in Nigeria.
Mboya came from the Luo tribe. Fellow Luos were positive he had been murdered by Kikuyu tribesmen. Luos began to unite in opposition, cursing Prime Minister Jomo Kenyata and his Kilcuyu tribesmen.
Meanwhile, the Kikuyus also became frightened. They began taking oaths — the traditional Kikuyu way of achieving group unity — in the face of danger.
To date Kenya has not blown apart. It is hoped that it will not.
The Hutu-Watusi Conflict
In Rwanda-Burundi beginning about 1959, Bantu Hutu tribesmen went on a rampage that caused the deaths of at least 50,000 Watusi. Some estimate the maximum figure might actually be 130,000. The most likely figure, others say, is between 80,000 and 100,000.
The very tall Watusi had their eyes cut, then were bashed to death. Others had their legs hacked off by the Hutu, to "cut them down to size." Others were buried alive, burned, thrown into crocodile-infested waters with hands tied behind their backs or heads tied to knees.
It was race war. But the distinguishing characteristics were not specifically color. They were length of leg, eating custom, tribal affiliation. The ultimate cause, of course, was the historical relationship between Hutu and Watusi.
Watusi had once lorded it over the Hutu and as usual, "The Watusi system was based on an explicit belief in their own racial superiority" (Africa Addio, John Cohen, New York: Ballantine Books, 1966, p. 34).