Deal With Tribal Issues.

Western journos covering Africa often fail to see the underlying ethnic squabbles that are at the root of so many of our problems. Some African intellectuals also deliberately omit ethnic issues from their analyses, for reasons of not wanting to be seen as "backward" or even "barbaric". Well, we're African, & we're the ones who must sort out our own affairs, and so waving away acute, pertinent issues of ethnicity, tribe, clan, totem and language just won't do. These issues must be tackled head on. If they're not acknowledged and tackled head-on, they have a tendency -- like vipers -- to turn around and bite us in the rear end. Kenya's post-election violence of '08 is a prime example of festering, tribal problems that were left unattended to and then erupted into anarchy at a crucial moment in Africa's democratic journey. We Africans must not be blind to our own realities. We must strive to sort out our own mess.