A friend of mine commented to me and said that corruption and Tribalism were the biggest curses in Nagaland today. Everybody talks about tribalism and yet we feel helpless about it. Nagaland is full of tribal fights and it just takes a small spark to ignite the fire into huge proportions. The firefighting exercise is done by experts and well meaning peacemakers. Usually it always settles down since we all know that everybody stands to lose in an intertribal fight. In my short life, I have seen almost all the Naga tribes involved in some conflict or the other. Even in the absence of outright conflict there is an uneasy calm waiting for another spark to ignite some simmering longstanding hurt. There is actually no real peace. It is just the absence of war. We are suspicious of each other and would like to fortify our own position till the next outbreak.
We are a small group of people in a tiny piece of land and really cannot afford to continue to fight if we are to progress. The time for confidence building measures is now when there is not a major conflict taking place. Wait for too long and we will again have to resort to firefighting negotiations.
We can continue to lament tribalism in the state till the cows come home but if we do not do something positive, it will remain the divisive force that it is in the following generations to come.
I would like to make some suggestions which I feel might help. You may discard some of them if you feel it is too frivolous. If you have better ideas, please bring them onboard.
1. Have intertribal meetings – When a Sumi Hoho/ Church organization has a general body meeting, invite other tribes like Angamis, Aos, Rengmas etc to attend this meeting. Likewise, the Angami Public organization/ABCC can invite Lothas, Aos and Sumis to sit in their combined sessions. This way you will be very careful how you talk in your meeting. You will also be careful not to utter words of self interest or denigrate another tribe. You need courage, self denial and integrity of spirit to do this. If the topic is of general well being, it does not need to be hidden from others.
2. Start projects together – Can Sumis and Angamis have a joint project like making a road, taking up cleanliness projects like sanitation and drains, toilets etc, mixed choirs, business project like a friendship market where both Sumis and Angamis share the market place and interact with each other every day. You will need to plan together and spend a lot of time carrying out that project which will help to improve understanding and friendship. Can we complement instead of compete?
3. Combined missions projects – Can the Sumis and Aos have a joint mission station where they jointly fund or send a missionary to a particular needy place. They will need to travel together to visit the place and the missionary off and on. They will need to plan together and share resources for this.
4. Scholarships for needy students. Can the better developed district tribes develop a scholarship fund contributed from various churches in order to fund the education of at least 100 lesser developed districts children from poor homes in some good schools in Kohima, Mokokchung or Dimapur. It does not take too much to fund children’s education if we can collect small amounts from a large number of people. If you contribute Rs5000 per month from 50 well off churches in Kohima and Dimapur, we can easily fund the education of 100 needy children by linking with well meaning schools who are willing to give some concession for these children. They will then be our ambassadors for future networking initiatives.
5. Can the well off people from the Konyak community develop a scholarship fund for the Chang tribe children? Can Aos do it for the Sumis? Can Angamis do it for the Sangtams? Can Yimchunger do it for the Tikhirs? Can Southern Angamis do it for the Maos? Can Nagas do it for the Kukis? Can Sumis do it for the Tangkhuls?
6. A few years back the Angami doctors travelled to all the Angami villages and Noklak where they conducted medical camps. Can they do the same to 5 Sumi villages and 5 Lotha villages? Can Sumi or Ao doctors do the same to other tribe villages?
7. Start more intertribal English speaking churches. If not possible at least start more intertribal English speaking services in the evenings in the premises of the tribal church. Can the tribes which have beautiful churches and infrastructure regularly and proactively invite other tribes to use their facilities to conduct some meetings? Can DABA / Town Baptist Church/ Sumi/ Rengma Baptist church invite the Phom/ Konyak / Khiamungan/ Chakhesang church people to conduct some meeting in their church?
8. Share more resources. The resources in the Christian world and churches in Nagaland are fantastic. It is selfish of us to have so much resource and not share it with others. Resources come in the form of information, programmes, finances, people, connections, linkages, infrastructure etc. If you can give your resources to other tribes, you will have less fear from them.
9. Refuse to create more tribal unions, especially in schools and colleges. If you have a tribal union function, invite a speaker from another tribe which you are not comfortable with to come and address your meeting. There must be a deliberate and proactive programme to destroy this curse of tribalism which entangles us. We need to be Christians first and express Christian love in tangible and practical terms. May God help and deliver us from Tribalism.
Sedevi Angami, Dimapur.
