I Blame Communism
Banned
There's plenty of evidence.
First beeb result for tribes: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/8185971.stm
To avoid echoing Marius, I should point out that this isn't at all evidence that SS-Africa is uniquely tribal.
The point still stands.
The Volga Germans were quite unique.
Really? What about the Danube Swabians, Transylvanian Saxons, in the Dobruja and the Crimea? And that's just Germans (who admittedly got around a lot).
More apt is towards the Balkans where you have the Romanian Hungarians and the big mess around Serbia and all that.
I think you underestimate how much more of Europe was like that. The old Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the kingdom of Hungary were as confusing in both the incredible intermixedness of the nations and their national sentiment.
Your point on nationality being not more defined in Europe than Africa; aha. I still think 1800 is a bit late then but yes, at one point people tended to not look much beyond their villages for what 'their' people were.
But the point AHP originally made was that, contrary to what you were saying, many, quit possibly most AFricans looked beyond the village. They may have been lots more village-bound than 1885 Europeans, but not 1800 ones (ever read "Discovery of France"?).
Its not irrelevant. It is the topic. Its me trying to sum up my entire point to try and stop this 'lengthy and icnreasingly pointless debate'. I don't know where you're getting the idea of smoke screens from though, I'm being quite upfront about my point.
Ducking out of statements you made earlier like Africa being defined by tribalism.