The Study On Relations Between Tribalism And Political Modernization In Sahara African Countries

Many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa were politically turbulent after gaining independence. Among all the factors causing unrest, tribalism is the key point, so the research on tribalism’s origin and development is especially important. This article sets the African big country Nigeria as the object of study, and the main research points include the origin of tribalism, the influence of colonial governance on tribalism and the influence of tribalism on the politics of Nigeria, aiming to finding the relations between tribalism and political modernization, especially the block of tribalism to political modernization. There are many tribes in Nigeria, among which Hausa—Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo are the three biggest tribes with typical tribalism, furthermore, the three tribes have different religious beliefs, which makes tribes relations more complicated. On the other hand, in order to make the British colonial governance in Nigeria more effective, the colonial government took Zoning governance and indirect governance, which intensified tribalism. After gaining independence, Nigeria experienced a slow political process, and didn’t get rid of the influence of tribalism. The three biggest tribes almost determined the political development, and impuissant civil government with low capacity, can’t bring Nigeria people out of the political and economic trouble. During several decades, military coups often happened, and Nigeria politics fell into the bad cycle between civil governments and military regimes. Nigeria can’t walk out of the political trouble and form stable and effective regime. Therefore, how to deal with the influence of tribalism on politics and form normal and modern politics becomes an important issue. Many great Nigeria politicians, for example, Obasanjo realized tribalism was the cancer to Nigeria politics. They tried to weaken the influence of tribalism on politics from all the aspects, such as "states building plan", the restriction on forming parties by constitution. On the other hand, They tried to cultivate the national spirit and national identification and make more and more Nigeria people out of the tribalism and identify the national spirit, which could be used to make up for the inborn disability of Nigeria spirit. Surely, removing the tribalism and forming the national spirit are not an instant process, but a long and tough process, which can’t be finished in a short moment and require the hard work of the whole Nigeria people. Tribalism was very popular in Sub-Saharan Africa and many countries suffered a lot like Nigeria. Tribalism factors were involved in many massacres such as Rwanda massacre, which then shocked the world. Their national development is also restricted by tribalism and some countries even fall into unrest even war. The research on Nigeria can provide experience for other African countries.