Public relations, inter-marriages and tribalism

Sun, 05 Mar 2017 10:20:53 +0000

BY SYCORAX TIYESA NDHLOVU

From the time Zambia formulated a motto of ‘One Zambia; One Nation’ which encourages Zambians from all walks of life, regardless of their tribe, to love each other; and live, work or do business anywhere in this country, some Zambians have ended up marrying anyone who they fall in love with despite one’s tribe. Therefore, Zambians have had many inter-marriages for more than 50 years now. But why is it that, nowadays in Zambia, some tribes are preventing their tribe’s mates from marrying other tribes?

When God said: ‘Let’s create a human being in our own image, he didn’t specify which tribe that human being would be. This implies that all human beings belong to God’s tribe.

From such a background, one sees a Bemba marrying a Tonga; a Lozi having a couple from Eastern province; Luvale with a Lenje in marriage; and Lamba with a Kaonde spouse; and so on. Most Zambian couples comprise spouses from different ethnic backgrounds; among which some are Zambians of foreign origins. Mozambicans, Angolans, Malawians, South Africans, West Africans, the English, Chinese and others have Zambian spouses.

But some Zambian tribes are reportedly discouraging marrying from other tribes. What has not come out clearly, is how the same tribes treat their respective spouses from other regions who are already in inter-marriages. Hasn’t some fire gradually started somewhere, somehow?

And how can other tribes feel about such developments? If the English and other races can marry Africans; especially Zambians, why shouldn’t a Zambian, regardless of his or her tribe marry another tribe within Zambia? Why should we stop these inter-marriages today?

Has tribal politics negatively affected our rational thinking which promotes effective Public Relations (PR) with other tribes through, among other things, inter-marriages?

British Institute of Public Relations defines PR as a deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.

And Stephen P Robbins (1984:2), ‘Essential of organisational behaviour’ defines organisation as a formal structure of planned co-ordination; involving two or more people, in order to achieve a common goal.  To understand what the term ‘organisation’ also includes, D Pugh(eds)(1990), ‘Organisational Theory: Selected Readings’ states that organisations are systems of inter-dependent human beings.

To confirm this and that of a British Poet, John Donne’s saying that: ‘No man (woman inclusive) is an Island’, Philip J Kitchen (1997:67), ‘Public Relations: Principles and Practice’ states that PR publics are those individuals, groups, or institutions whose support or acquiescence an organisation requires in order to realise its corporate and business goals.

This proves that no organisation; tribe inclusive, can do without other groups of people or other organisations. From such understanding, other PR authors have defined PR publics as those groups of people who determine success or failure of an organisation.

This means each Zambian ethnic group is an organisation; and is dependent on others in many ways.  Consequently, despite PR always being associated with official organisations; families, tribes and regions are also organisations with PR publics. Therefore, even tribes should practice effective PR to achieve their goals. What is strange with maintenance of tribal attitude against other tribes is when one considers that, firstly, we were all created in God’s own image. And secondly, to support this, Zambia is a Christian nation coupled with a motto of ‘One Zambia; One Nation’.

If some tribes don’t appreciate that we were all created in God’s own image; and that therefore, we can marry each other regardless of tribe; especially that we are in a Christian nation, are such tribes part of  our Christian nation? Are such tribes promoting effective PR with other tribes?

Already, many young male and female Zambians from other tribes are in other regions; and some of such youths plan to marry in the same region where they live. Should such male and female youths go back to the provinces, districts or villages where they hail from to find a spouse just because their respective tribes don’t want inter-marriages?

Inter-marriages not only promote ‘One Zambia; One Nation’ but they also facilitate effective PR among more than 73 ethnic tribes of Zambia. Tribes restraining their tribe’s mate from getting spouses from other tribes are now actually worsening tribalism practices in our country.

While every tribe in Zambia is said to be practicing tribalism, what is threatening ‘one Zambia; One Nation’ in general; and therefore, effective PR among some Zambian tribes are levels of tribal interests, motives, attitudes and practices. Some tribal practices go too far to be ignored.

Why do some Zambian tribes always look at everything from tribal point of view? Such an attitude can create a wrong perception of what is actually happening around them.

Schiffman and Kanuk(2007:150), ‘Consumer Behaviour’ states that individuals act or react on the basis of their perceptions; and not objective reality. And perception is the process by which an individual selects, organises and interprets stimuli into meaningful and coherent picture of the world(ibid:152). And Schiffman and Kanuk go further to state that for each individual, reality is a totality personal phenomenon based on that person’s needs, wants, values and experience.

Similarly, Robbins(1984:18) states that personal characteristics affecting perception include attitude, personality, motives, interests, past experiences and expectations. He also argues that characteristics of a target that is being observed can affect what is perceived((ibid:18)). In this context, a target can be a spouse, subordinate, supervisor, an employer, ward councellor, member of parliament(MP) or a Head of State from a different tribe.

From such a background, one can see how tribal interests and motives affect perception of what others do; whether such are good or bad. This means that a region or tribe one comes from affects how some people perceive others and situations.

In some tribes, tribal motives, attitudes and practices are negatively affecting their perception of what development projects are happening in all parts of the country.

But Fortune Magazine described PR as good performance; publicly appreciated. However, due to high levels of tribal interests and motives, some people don’t appreciate what others do for them.

Consequently, no matter how well a spouse, a subordinate, supervisor, ward counselor, an MP or a republican president from another tribe performs, a person or a group of people with high tribal attitudes and motives won’t appreciate the good things such people are doing for them. Appreciating those who do good things to us is helpful.

Such high tribalism practices also mean that no matter how poor in performance or greedy their own tribe’s mate might be, they will still appreciate him or her; and support such a person in all his or her endeavours. This means that tribalism corrupts one’s minds. It’s a form of corruption.

Shading light on discouraging inter-marriages, promoting tribalism and not appreciating the good things others do, among other vices, Robbins (1984:2) and Buchanan and Huczynski (2004:2. ‘Organisational Behaviour: An Introductory Text’ state that organisational behaviour is a systematic study of actions and attitudes that people exhibit in an organisation. Therefore, many Zambians are studying how some tribes are behaving!

If allowed to continue, tribalism can not only seriously erode our love, unity and peace but can also breed insurmountable negative consequences for Mother Zambia in the near future. And many Zambians are keenly watching which tribes are fuelling the likelihood of catastrophe in our peaceful nation.

Remember that had it not been for high tribal voting patterns in some regions, some presidential candidates would have won the August 11, 2016 polls; or the one who won would have done so with a huge margin from the second best presidential candidate. Thus, tribalism is negatively affecting many huge opportunities both for some tribes and for Zambia.

Therefore, from heightened tribalism, it seems some tribes have not managed their images properly in the eyes of many other tribes. This implies that those tribes whose image management has been poor should hire image builders; and embark on serious image building strategies before it is too late for them to achieve their goals.

The author is a lecturer in Journalism and Mass Communication. He is also a trainer in Public Relations (PR) and in Local Governance.

For ideas, comments and details, contact: Cell: 0977/0967 450151

E-mail: sycoraxtndhlovu@yahoo.co.uk