"Did tribe exist before colonialism? if we understand by tribe an ethnic group with a common language, it did. But tribe as an administrative entity that distinguishes between natives and non-natives and systematically discriminates in favor of the former and against the latter - defining access to land and participation in local governance and rules for settling disputes according to tribal identity - certainly did not exist before colonialism. One may ask: did race exist before racism? As differences in pigmentation, or in phenotype, it did. But as a fulcrum for group discrimination based on "race" difference, it did not. The consensus among contemporary scholars of race is that while race does not exist, racism - a system of discrimination legal or social, based on the perception or conviction that race is real - does not exist. Like race, tribe became a single, exclusive, and total identity only with colonialism." - Mamdani, Define and Rule
Posted on: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 04:13:46 +0000
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