Tribalism in Zambia: A Scourge

When the author of this article raised the issue of tribalism in Zambia way back in August 2008, the article had a humongous fallout from people who labelled this author as being tribal. The majority reacted by heaping invectives and scorn on this author and but it was clear that they had failed to understand why the issue was initially raised. There were also many Zambians who acknowledged and supported the author that tribalism had aggressively started to make ugly inroads back into the Zambian society. The author at the time argued that tribalism was heinous as qualified citizens were denied jobs and opportunities on account that they were not of the same tribe or ethnic group and their interviewer.

During the leadership of the venerable former president Kenneth Kaunda, Zambians co-existed without tribal boundaries. Zambia was more of a One-Nation than a many nations that it seems to be now. Tribalism was resurrected and enhanced during Chiluba's reign. But that goes for corruption which became more entrenched and refined during his leadership.  Tribalism is taking place in different ways like favouring relatives and tribesmen for jobs that they are ill-qualified for. The most important thing is to recognize that a Zambian is Zambian regardless of their ethnicity, tribe or regional grouping.

President Rupiah Banda has come out at the right time to express his total disgust for tribalism and that is a quality of good leadership. Every leader who is anybody in Zambia must take it upon themselves to start preaching against the scourge and words must translate into deeds. It is important for the Zambian leadership to confront tribalism head-on inasmuch as the scourge is retrogressive.