FROM the AMERICAN PEOPLE Tribalism, Governance and Development Workshop Papers DRAFT

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FROM the AMERICAN PEOPLE Tribalism, Governance and Development Workshop Papers DRAFT USAID FROM THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Tribalism, Governance and Development Workshop Papers DRAFT Management Systems coffey·) International international A Subsidiary of Coffey International. Ltd. development Management Systems International Corporate Offices 600 Water Street, SW Washington, DC 20024 Contracted under DFD-l-OO-04-00228-00, TO 20 AME DG Peace & Security TO DISCLAIMER The authors' views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government. Tribalism, Governance and Development I. Role of Tribes in Governance at Four levels--Rural, Urban, Regional, and National A. Afghanistan ................................................................................................................................ 4 i. Country Matrix ii. Rural and urban (Mason) iii. Regional and national (Murtazashvili) B. Somalia ..................................................................................................................................... 37 i. Country Matrix ii. Rural (Schwoebel) iii. Urban, Regional, and National (Menkhaus) C. Yemen ...................................................................................................................................... 48 i. Country Matrix ii. Rural and Urban (Gray) ii. Regional and National (Manea) II. Conceptual Papers: Are Tribes a Problem, an Opportunity, or Irrelevant for Addressing Conflict, Terrorism, and Failed States? ........................................................ 79 A. Afghanistan - Mason B. Afghanistan - Murtazashvili C. Somalia - Menkhaus D. Somalia - Schwoebel E. Yemen - Gray F. Yemen - Manea Tribalism, Governance and Development 3 Workshop Papers DRAFT The Role of Tribes in Governance in Afghanistan Spheres of Governance Rural Urban Regional National Defense and foreign affairs STIFR STCFR STIF SFR Security TIF STCF SIF SIF Law and order/ STCRNI SCF STCRIF SIF conflict resolution ~ Property and contract rights STRI SBC -- -- u c::: Promoting and regulating BTRI SBC SBIF SFI E" private activity ~ ~ Managing environmental T STC SNF SBNF Q ~ resources .... Q Education STRNIF SBRNF SNF SNF l!l Health SNF SBNF SNF SNF .S! ....u Roads SNBF SNBF SNBF SNF c::: Water and sanitation TNF SCNF -- -- ~= Social safety net TRNI TRNF S S B Revenue generation -- BC SB Asset redistribution TRI C -- S Money supply, interest rates. -- SB SB S exchange rates Key: S=State T=Tribe B=Businesses C=Citizens' groups R=Religious groups/leaders N=NGOs 1=lnsurgents F=Foreign actors (military/donors) Bold font indicates actors that are most prominent. Notes: In most instances, NGO activity (N) is almost synonymous with that of a foreign actor (F) Tribalism, Governance and Development 4 Workshop Papers DRAFT Afghanista n - t he Rural Level M . Chris Maso n Introduction Afghanistan cannot be essentialized to a bilateral ethnic divide of Pashtuns and Tajiks,l or a trilateral mix of Pashtuns, Tajiks and Hazaras. There are at least thirty important ethnic groups in Afghanistan, if we arbitrarily define that descriptor as "community and kinship-based groups of over 10,000 persons sharing common and demonstrably different customs, language and beliefs." There are over 100 languages spoken in Afghanistan, and the notions of two Iinguas franca or a bilingual society are a western fantasy. No such things exist. No linguistic surveys have been done that the author is aware of, but it would not be unreasonable to estimate that at least seventy percent of the population cannot communicate directly with anyone of different ethnolinguistic origin. The infamous maps of Afghanistan showing the country neatly divided into large, different-colored ethnic groups have been hugely unhelpful in perpetuating these myths. Maps of this type have been extraordinarily unhelpful in comprehending the complex reality of Afghan communities. Some communities are indeed extraordinarily isolated, such as the small, distinct tribal groups deep in the mountains of Nuristan province, many of whom have not seen a person from beyond their own valley in a decade or more. Others are remarkably diverse in ethnographic origin, with a homogeneity that confounds Western notions of ethnically segregated societies. The villages in north-western Afghanistan in Herat province which Nancy Tapper studied, for example, demonstrated a broad variety of peoples with different ethnic origins living in integrated communities where ethnically-based identities have largely ceased to be relevant. I The ethnographic descriptor "Tajik" as used in Afghanistan is an excellent example of a wholly we, tern­ constructed ethnic identity taking root in the dense web of western mythology and misinformation about the country and its people. Few, if any Afghans, identify themselves as such, and the term is best defined as the agglomeration of all Dari-speaking peoples of Afghanistan not of Mongol descent. As this category has no ethnic or political identity as such, it is a meaningless term. Tribalism, Governance and Development 5 Workshop Papers DRAFT As a general rule in cultural anthropology, of course, the more mountainous a region, the more isolated and thus genetically discreet its populations tend to be. This is as true of the Basque region of Spain or the Appalachian regions of America as it is of Nuristan. This is not to suggest that ethnography does not playa role in human settlement in Afghanistan, which would be absurd. It does suggest, however, that "one size does not fit all," and that communities need to be examined individually to begin to understand their political economies. The expression "all politics is local" is nowhere more true than in Afghanistan, and the argument made in the conceptual paper that Afghanistan is not one country but a loose collection of 60,000 villages is the key to opening the door to comprehension. Generalizing and essentializing at levels of identity greater than those which exist on the ground are seldom helpful. It would not be entirely unreasonable to assert that for Afghanistan we would need not one "local-level" matrix but 60,000 matrices, one for each village. Apart from a tiny minority of educated urban elites, most of whom are former expatriates and many of whom speak English, there is no sense of nationalism in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, these are the only Afghans with whom virtually all senior Americans communicate almost exclusively and in general they viscerally repudiate the importance of kinship groups or "tribes." This has logically but tragically led to a wholesale misunderstanding of identity politics at the national level in Afghanistan. In combination with the oversimplification and exaggeration of ethnically-constructed identities ("Tajik," "Uzbek" etc), this in turn has resulted in an oversimplification of community and identity throughout northern Afghanistan in particular. Northwestern Afghanistan, formerly Khorasan, is the most peaceful, prosperous and ethnically integrated region of the country. Here, in general, "tribal" identity is muted and inextricably intertwined with other sources of identity. In and around Herat and Ghor provinces live the Chahar Aimak (literally "four tribes") a Farsi-speaking people (often wrongly considered as "Tajiks") whose numbers are often predominant. Heratis, a Oari-speaking people of Persian origin are present throughout the region and tend to predominate in civil and administrative positions. There are also significant numbers of Turkic-speaking Uzbek and Turkmen families, sometimes concentrated in relatively homogenous villages, sometimes scattered amongst Oari­ and Farsi- speaking hamlets. (Tapper) Smaller pockets of "detribalized" Pashtuns (descendants of families forcibly relocated from the south by Abdur Rehman at the close of the 19th century), Qizilbash,2 and Arabs (descendants of a 14th century wave of invaders from the Middle East 3 who are no longer Arabic speakers ) also dot the rural landscapes . This region has benefited 2 Twelver Shi'a of Persian descent. 1 The search for apocryphal communities of Afghan-Arabs in the area of Balkh who still speak a 14th century dialect of Arabic has been cultural anthropology's version of the quest for the Holy Grail for several decades. but none has ever been found. Tribalism, Governance and Development 6 Workshop Papers DRAFT extensively from Iranian engagement and will soon be connected to the Iranian railroad network via a spur line being built by the Iranian government to Herat. Ismael Khan remains powerful in the region, the area is de facto semi-autonomous, and is the best administered area of Afghanistan. IITribesll as such playa distinctly limited role at any level of governance, and the local-levelllspheres of governancell matrix does not apply here (see Appendix). The central region of Afghanistan is known as the Hazarajat, or IIregion of the Hazara people. II The Hazaras are predominantly Shi'a and are primarily of Mongol descent.4 They have been the victims of discrimination for centuries and occupy the lowest rung on the economic ladder in Afghanistan. Even in areas such as the Hazarajat, however, where the ethnic composition of communities is almost exclusively Hazara, identity is usually all-too-quickly ascribed to IItribalism.1I In fact, communal identity is often far more complicated. In the case of the Hazaras, for example, religious difference,s economic discrimination and significantly different cultural values (gender polities are markedly less unfavorable to women within
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