I needed to eat a quick meal before my night shift started, so I combed the streets in search of a decent but affordable restaurant; those two terms however do not go together in Lagos and so I didn’t find any. I had to ask an apparently Yoruba lady, who then pointed to a store but added, “they sell only Igbo food, you will have to get to the junction to get Yoruba food”. I was reminded of two facts. One was that Nigerians were still very conscious of how different we are based on our tribes. The second was that I was back to Lagos where the Yoruba would classify me as Omo Igbo (an Igbo child) while the Igbos never failed to say, “sorry, I thought you were Yoruba because you look like them”. In the North, I was simply classed as Yoruba, often without question. My tribesmen, the ‘Esan’ people group of Edo State seemed to be relatively unknown to people from the majority tribes. So like my other minorities, I am simply identified as being from Edo State when asked about my tribe, because I often saw they were about to develop a headache wondering if I had perhaps mentioned a Ugandan tribe. Tribe was very important, it was a vital question everywhere I went – at interviews, at the bank, airports, churches and yes, even a hospital consulting room. Even those with much bigger problems like an enlarged heart, temporarily shoved aside their worries just to inquire about my tribe. So yes, tribe was definitely important but I believe it is more ingrained in the hearts of those from the majority tribes in the country.
When I first moved to Lagos from Benin, I realised that although the two cities were quite close, people in Lagos didn’t often as much as know what ethnic groups were predominant or what they spoke or ate. Whereas, people in Benin could often tell everything about Lagos and the Yoruba even if they had never left their homes. I often felt that while those from minority tribes had taken time to study a good number of groups in the country, those of majority tribes had chosen the easier path of classifying everyone into three tribes, in order to continue building prejudices with ease. I had decided to conceal my English name, forcing them to battle pronouncing my tribal name, which is quite easy by the way, because I want them to identify me and situate me properly by tribe and tongue not on the basis of my being a tribalist but on the basis of cultural identity, Tribalism is as much a problem to us in Nigeria as is racism in the US. Why many social media savvy Nigerians choose to expend their energies talking of racial prejudices while ignoring the cancerous effects of tribalism in their own country still confuses me. People often only talk about tribal issues when there has been killings somewhere based on tribal prejudices or when certain federal appointments seemed to be in favour or disfavour of a certain tribe. There must however be an increase in sincere conversations aimed at truly eradicating tribal sentiments. The truth is that, whether you are Hausa, Fulani, Idoma or Esan, you are simply a ‘black African’ once you cross to the Western world, so why not here? The West is blind to our tribes, so why can’t we be? Why is it so important for people to indicate and prove their local government of origin? Why must we always ask if one speaks a particular language and use that in a discriminatory way as if languages can’t be learned? Why can’t we just say “we have a competent CBN Governor” rather than “we have an Igbo CBN Governor”?
Watching the closing ceremony of the just concluded Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, I was amazed to know that the country has tribes too. Of course, they do have their racial issues too, but they have been able to use tribal differences only for entertainment purposes. Well, I look forward to the day when our diverse cultures will only be used for entertainment, and for those who trust in culture as a moral defender, a recourse to values that enhance our positive identities. We are blessed to be all blacks, you may be light skinned or chocolate, or whatever but the truth is that we are all darn ‘blacks’. So I am looking forward to the time when we will seek the progress and development of everyone and every area because we are all Nigerians. I look forward to a time when we will demand for the best men and women to handle jobs and not just because they are our tribesmen. It might sound like old story, but social media is changing people’s minds the world over; gender equality and debates about LGBTQI rights are now news largely because of social media, so dear Nigerian youth talking about #blacklivesmatter, would you kindly start the #tribesdon’tmatter movement.
Imoisili Ehinomen is a medical doctor and writes from Lagos.
The opinion expressed in opinion pieces on Pride Magazine Nigeria online are those of the individual writers and not those of Pride Magazine Nigeria.