My friend Jim spent a few years on the Island of Contro Lesautres, which is just off the coast of Francophone West Africa. On this Island lived two tribes who were in continual conflict with each other. The Askaz lived in the hill country to the north whilst the Gettas lived to the south of the central swamps. For, quite possibly, millennia these two tribes had been separated by the geography of the island and had developed quite differently. Only the advent of modern transport systems had brought them into contact in a way that had led to the current conflict. Jim, an anthropologist, went there on a research project.
The Askash culture was formal and ceremonial; relationships were governed by polite requests. Jim had had to learn the strict Askash social etiquette of Request in order to be able to understand and be understood. The Gettas, on the other hand, were more straight forward. There was no hiding of feelings or intent behind formality or apparent civility. They just took what they could, it was accepted that those who were weaker had less and a lower place in the pecking order. Mitigating this 'law of the Jungle', Jim told me, were unwritten responsibilities of the strong to provide for the weak. This did not mean any form of equality but families were very strong and looked after each other; gangs were bound by strict, perhaps frightening, codes of sharing.
The problems arose from the two tribes' total incomprehension of the other's way of life. To the Gettas, Askash ways were elitist and arrogant. "They look down on us" said one Getta gang-boss to Jim and the Askaz were appalled by the aggressive, almost perpetually angry ways of the Getta gangs. Jim, perhaps because he was English, tended to find the Askaz easier to work with. He told me that there had been times when he was scared and intimidated by in-your-face ways of the Gettas. There was not subtlety to the Gettas, they just demanded or took. There were no explanations, no reasons given, no attempt at persuasion. If they didn't get what they wanted first time, they would just push and push until they got their way or sensed that they had lost. There was no compromise with Gettas and, especially when gangs were involved, a conflict could escalate quickly as other gang members crowded around. Talk was not so much about meaning as about volume and intensity. On more than one occasion, Jim told of fearful screaming riots over quite trivial issues. If you stood your ground and refused to give in, then you had to be prepared to fight, but if you held your ground and your 'opponent' gave in first then you had won.
Much of the conflict between the two tribes centred over the one thing they had in common; the pursuit of control. For both tribes, to be able to control others was what counted as leadership. The Askaz achieved control by persuasion and intrigue; the Gettas by assertion and aggression. Jim found this shared pursuit of control thoroughly unattractive in both tribes. Following the end of colonial rule, the two tribes (of about equal size) had struggled for control of the unified island nation. It was not a pretty or safe place to live, Jim told me. Control switched between the two tribes, perhaps the Askaz (with better connections to the wealth of the ex colonial power) had longer on top but this made the struggle all the more bitter. The two tribes could find no way of connecting with each other, they could find no way of understanding each other and gradually the mutual contempt, hatred and fear increased.
Strangely, as an aside, both tribes spoke in awe of a semi-mythical race that had once lived in the central lowlands and who had managed to live at peace with both tribes. These people were called the Gheevas. They had died out, nobody knew exactly when or how. Both the Askaz and the Gettas told stories of Gheevan grace and generosity and claimed to be the inheritors of the Gheevas' beauty and majesty. The Askaz talked about how they were peaceful and made no forceful demands upon others whilst the Gettas pointed to their sharing, close community and open honesty.
Jim used to captivate me with stories of these three tribes. The myths of the Gheevas, in particular, intrigued me. "How?" I asked. Jim just shrugged his shoulders. "Do you think that the Askaz and the Gettas will ever be able to heal their differences?" I would ask. Jim always shook his head sadly, "No, I don't think so."
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