Concerned by government statistics on Kenya's ethnic composition, Samuel Abonyo laments the enduring difficulty presented by the concept of tribe in Kenyan society. First developed under the auspices of colonial-era governance, the practice of tribal geography, writes Abonyo in this week's Pambazuka News, is still going on in today's Kenya. But what really is a tribe? What is the government actually counting? Figures on tribes, Abonyo concludes, remain at best inaccurate and at worst highly d...read more
Concerned by government statistics on Kenya's ethnic composition, Samuel Abonyo laments the enduring difficulty presented by the concept of tribe in Kenyan society. First developed under the auspices of colonial-era governance, the practice of tribal geography, writes Abonyo in this week's Pambazuka News, is still going on in today's Kenya. But what really is a tribe? What is the government actually counting? Figures on tribes, Abonyo concludes, remain at best inaccurate and at worst highly damaging in depicting false, divisive categorisations.