The problem of politicised ethnicity

This article, in general, is a reaction towards this often unchallenged neo-liberal conception of Africa's 'trouble' with a Western notion of democracy, and in particular, to an article published on the BBC's website by Prof. Calestous Juma titled, How Tribalism stunts African Democracy. _Particularly I am opposed to the insistence on the word tribe and its corollary, tribalism.  It comes to us from ancient references to communities external to dominating civilisations like Rome. 

It carries demeaning references to backwardness, atavism and barbarism.  Describing small groups bound by a common bloodline and eking out a living at very low levels of social and economic organisation, it is a conception that misunderstands the social organisation of African people, and subsequently wrongly analyses the impact of ethnicity in African politics. __