Here’s a question – what adjective can you use to describe an inward-facing society that places an extremely high premium on social cohesion, uniformity and productivity, and maintains a very high standard of living for its constituents while overtly and unashamedly going to great lengths to exclude outsiders of any description? You could call it a lot of things. You could call it Japan or South Korea. You could call it a utopia with a dark underbelly. You could also call it a tribalistic society. All three descriptions would be correct.
To the Nigerian reader who is unacquainted with how the Japanese run a society however, the word “tribalist” would seem to be a misnomer. In our West African reality, “tribalism” has more to do with stuffing government appointments with members of the president’s ethnic group and using state power to distort the economy for the benefit of his/her family members. Tribalism in our context means denying university admission to kids from one state who have 3-digit JAMB scores, while admitting those from another state with 2-digit scores in the exact same exam.
I am here to tell you today, that what I have just described has nothing whatsoever to do with tribalism, and should not be referred to as such. Call it extended nepotism. Call it prebendalism. Call it rank foolishness if you like – just don’t call it tribalism. Here is why.
Read also: Corruption, tribalism, religion hamper development – Osinbajo
“Real” tribalism can be a good thing
The Japanese are possibly the world’s most tribalistic civilisation. While Japan does have some internal diversity as well as a significant population of ethnic Koreans as a legacy of its WW2 activities, it is practically impossible to distinguish the ethnicity “Japanese” from the nationality “Japanese.” The culture is so averse to outsiders and mixing in fact, that there is a specific word in the Japanese lexicon denoting a non-Japanese human being – “Gaijin.”
The pointedness with which Japanese culture excludes outsiders, is exceeded many times by its desire to invest in Japanese people and improve their lives. Unlike what we call ‘tribalism’ in this part of the world, which is really just a way to fight against perceived external enemies
As a ‘Gaijin” in Japan, you may have access to the country’s world class education and infrastructure, plus the world’s 3rd largest economy amongst all the other great things that Japan has to offer. You will never however, be allowed to forget that you are not a part of Japanese society, and are essentially a guest. Japanese citizenship is notoriously difficult to obtain – even for the mixed offspring of ethnic Japanese and Gaijin born in Japan. Even Japanese ethnic Koreans like SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son continue to complain of widespread exclusion and discrimination almost a century after they settled in Japan.
Despite everything I have just mentioned, Japan consistently maintains a near-perfect Human Development Index (HDI) ranking of 0.915, and has a per capita GDP of over $39,000. For context, Nigeria has a per capita GDP of just over $2,000, which means that people in Japan enjoy average wealth worth 20 times that of people in Nigeria. Why is there no contradiction between Japan’s unhidden tribalism (some would even say racism) and its high performing economic and social indices?
The simple reason lies in the “what” and the “why.” Japanese tribalism is born out of a belief that Japanese people are or should be ichiban – the best. The pointedness with which Japanese culture excludes outsiders, is exceeded many times by its desire to invest in Japanese people and improve their lives. Unlike what we call ‘tribalism’ in this part of the world, which is really just a way to fight against perceived external enemies, Japanese tribalism actually has a positive end goal for Japanese civilisation. The goal of tribalism according to the Japanese is to promote the interests of the tribe, the whole tribe, and no one but the tribe.
African tribalism – Infinity war with no Endgame
The example mentioned at the outset of two JAMB candidates, say from Abia and Katsina who get admitted or denied based solely on their ethnic origin is a key example of how African tribalism cannot hold a candle to that of the Far East. Where the Japanese tribalistic solution for getting more Japanese students into higher education would be to invest specially in their kids’ secondary education to produce superior outcomes to other people, the Nigerian solution is to destroy higher education instead by reducing its entry standards.
The Japanese understand that it does not benefit them if they destroy their universities, civil service and national institutions by reducing standards to benefit under-achieving Japanese candidates. Over time, when such systems become filled with mediocrity through the low cutoff-mark pipeline, they implode and create systemic failures across the country and society. We are seeing this in Nigeria and elsewhere across the continent already.
Rather than run with the fool’s errand of trying to punish outsiders at the expense of their own institutions and their own future, the Japanese solution is to boost their own competitiveness and productivity. As inward-facing and nativist as Japanese society is, Japan has thus built one of the world’s most formidable export supply chains, extensive diplomatic heft, a surprisingly competent military and even an annual foreign aid budget that topped $15 billion in 2019.
The Japanese vision of tribalism has the endgame of promoting the interests of the tribe and making the tribe superior to others through hard work. The African vision of tribalism does not give a hoot about the tribe or its interests, but rather focuses exclusively on how to fight, punish and exclude whatever out-group are its designated ‘enemies.’ Other civilisations use fear or hatred of outsiders to push themselves to achieve development. African civilisations see fear or hatred of outsiders as the goal in itself.
Someday, I hope that Africans will learn how to take their ethnic and micro-ethnic grudges and convert those things into real, Japanese-style, forward-facing tribalism. For now, all we have is some talk about “juicy appointments” and low cut-off marks.
Somebody please make it stop.
