In this age, every human being is expected to have evolved enough to view his fellow humans as equal to him irregardless of the variations of language and tribe. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
A few months back, I was having a big talk with some friend of mine called Wambo and somewhere along the line I joked to her about marrying her one day. Believe me dear reader, that still is the worst joke I ever pulled to this very moment. She replied in Kiswahili saying, “Si kwa ubaya but mama yangu haezikubali hata uingie kwetu, si wewe ni mluya?” I translate, “No offense but my mum will not allow you inside our compound, you’re a luhya right?”
I do not recall very well how the conversation ended but those words have since made me have a different perspective of her, she was primitive, stupid, perhaps even brainless. Before then, she had always seemed like a very good friend but her tribalic nature, whether it was jest or not, changed everything forever.
Tribalism narrows down to not just offering favours to people of the same tribe but also speaking vernacular in local Whatsapp groups and online forums, which consist of many other members from different tribes. I am not saying that people should not embrace their tribes and culture, but clearly we need to do so in ways that do not offend others. Before we can expect the racist whites to stop being racist to us, we first need to fix the flaws in our very own local systems.
Tribalism is the greatest potential divisor of the entire country. In Kenya, we have not less than 42 tribes. Imagine if everyone was tribalic, where would we be?
Next time, before you pull that tribalic answer, rethink, then think again.
Smart Sanity 