With Njoroge Kinuthia
What is it with ethnic affiliation? Why do you (if you do), think your tribesmen and women are better or special than the rest? Are they more intelligent, more beautiful or extremely kind to you? Tribalism, of course, is an incomprehensible, mind-boggling matter, no wonder it keeps the man called Mzalendo always on his toes.
But it happens that Americans – the architects of democracy and equality – are also tribalists, sorry racists. They dislike each other based on the colour of their skins.
Anti-black attitudes
Opinion poll results released last week by the Associated Press showed that more than half of all Americans have negative attitudes toward African Americans. To be precise, 51 per cent of Americans express explicit anti-black attitudes. On this basis, some of them will not vote for cousin Obama – not because his policies are bad – because he is black!
That America also has “tribalists” should give Kenyan tribalists some solace. But here’s the difference: You’ll never hear of mass ethnic murders in the US, like happened here in 2008.
