Tribalism

tribalism

1. the state of existing as a separate tribe or tribes

2. the customs and beliefs of a tribal society

3. loyalty to a tribe or tribal values

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Tribalism 

in contemporary literature and in the political sphere, a concept that has a wide range of meanings: the surviving archaic institutions and organizations of clan and tribal societies; the archaic features in social development; the stage of relatively little ethnic differentiation; the mutual hostility of ethnic groups; the policy of ethnic chauvinism that grants advantages and privileges to an ethnic group as a whole or to some of its members; and the exploitation of ethnicity for political ends.

In the past as well as in the present, tribalism has been widely used by the colonialists in their efforts to hamper national liberation movements, and by the local forces of political reaction in their struggle for power. As interpreted by representatives of Africa’s progressive forces, the concept of tribalism is associated with all that is reactionary and damaging to national unity. The African progressives wage a firm struggle against all manifestations of tribalism and contrast it to the concept of “nation.”