Word: tribalized
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...onetime policeman who seized power in a military coup in 1969, sealed his own fate by depending more and more on his kinsmen and overreacting to any challenge to his autocratic rule. Former U.S. diplomat Chester Crocker, a professor at Georgetown University, calls Siad Barre an "old-style, feudal, tribal chieftain." The country is ethnically homogeneous -- 98.8% are Somalis -- so there are no significant tribal hatreds. But its 8 million people are split into rival clans that have been battling one another for centuries...
...vehicle, and the obstacle, to Indian autonomy is the immense, inert Bureau of Indian Affairs. The 167-year-old agency, which is in charge of everything from tribal courts and schools to social services and law enforcement on the reservations, has a sorry record of waste, corruption and choking red tape. A recent survey of government executives ranked it the least respected of 90 federal agencies, with the Indian Health Service close behind. An effort to restructure the bureau was halted by Congress until a task force of Native Americans could be assembled for consultation. But hope for progress runs...
...leading cause of death is alcoholism, and Indians have the lowest per capita income of any ethnic group in the U.S. A weak school system has made it nearly impossible for Native Americans to succeed in competitive jobs off the reservations. Without the resources to address these problems, tribal leaders fear that poverty and aimlessness will destroy whatever remains of traditional Indian culture...
Back around the turn of the century, the Federal Government's "progressive" policy toward Native Americans amounted to forced assimilation. The BIA shipped Indian children off to boarding schools, gave them Anglo names and banned their Native tongues and religious rituals. Each generation moved further from tribal tradition, to the point where languages, which were entirely oral, and skills, such as basketmaking, were in danger of disappearing. After decades of drift, tribes that have begun to focus on preserving their heritage for the next generation have also reduced their rates of teen suicide, illiteracy, addiction and despair...
BRENDA FASSIE: BRENDA FASSIE (SBK). An American debut album with heavy credentials, having more to do with politics than music. Fassie and Nelson Mandela claim tribal kinship, but the first fleet sounds of the African- inflected, dance-floor-destined opening cut blow away any notions of obligation to genealogy, or to conscience. All on her own, Fassie's just fine...