80. On the Tribulations of Tribalism.

Dearest Beloved

In a recent D.B. letter,  Reverend Robert set out, how, through marriage laws, the Church had effectively abolished tribalism in Great Britain and Europe, by encouraging people to marry a partner from a different area and social background.

Tribal societies suffer, amongst other things, from the tribes becoming jealous of one another and it can be a problem which even affects wildlife conservation. In Oman there was a wonderful project to re-introduce the Arabian Oryx (Oryx leucoryx) to the Jiddat al Harasis, a region of central Oman, a flat plain on which grass and ephemeral plants grew following the pattern of rain from thunder showers. The Oryx, an elegant, pale antelope with long straight horns, had been extinct in the wild for a number of years as a result of hunting from vehicles. The project started well, a dozen Oryx were flown in from Santiago Zoo and they bred easily and the group was soon liberated to find food as they tracked the scent of grass growing many miles away after sporadic and widely distributed showers of rain – as they would have done before their extinction. Wildlife scientists plotted their progress. UNESCO approved the Jiddat as a World Heritage Site where the Oryx were guarded by the Harasis who were a tribe that did not speak Arabic but a language similar to that which would have been spoken by the Queen of Sheba. Everything went well for over twenty years and then it was noticed that Oryx had appeared for sale in markets over the border in the UAE. This woke everyone up to the fact that there were poachers and unfortunately it was discovered that these poachers came from the neighbouring, Arabic speaking tribe, the Janabah. The Janabah had grown jealous that they did not have a government sponsored project of their own, and had taken to stealing the animals and selling them in the UAE. Things were made worse by oil exploration which built roads which allowed easier infiltration of poachers and it became difficult to distinguish between legitimate oil engineers and hunters and poachers.

The central problem then became that the Harasusi guards would not confront the Janabah thieves because they feared killing one and initiating a tribal vendetta which might have no end and result in endless, if sporadic, bloodshed. They would become enemies, and the definition of an enemy in Arabia was someone that you killed on sight. Subsequently the much reduced number of Oryx were then herded back into a small central area where they could be safely guarded. The aspiration of having free living Oryx living like the wild animals of the past, was dashed. UNESCO for the first time in its history, withdrew the World Heritage status of the Jiddat.

The episode also demonstrated how difficult it is to re-introduce animals which have become extinct in the wild. If it is to be successful such projects need to ensure that the cause of the original extinction have been removed beforehand.

We had a similar problem in the Tahr Reserve where I worked. After completing my survey and recommendations in 1978 I returned in 1983 to find many more tahr (a rare goat antelope Arabitragus jayakari) which was reassuring. However as I was on my way down the mountain with the tahr guards (Mushrafyn) after a five day stay, there was a tremendous crash as someone fired what was probably a Martini Henry 46 rifle some thousands of meters above us. I reported this to my boss in Muscat. There was a tribe who were very remote from other contact who lived on the plateau top between 1,800 to 2000m altitude – the Nuair. They were very poor indeed having no gardens on the mountains and just relied upon their goats. They spoke Arabic as if with a peculiar Birmingham accent. After my report the Mushrafyn admitted that they had suspected the Nuair had started shooting tahr. My presence and my report allowed them to admit that difficult fact, and after my boss had given them all a dressing down with that very traditional Arab trope “you have blackened my face”, a solution was soon found. Two of the Nuair were recruited into the tahr guards, the tahr guards acquired two very fit and mountain savvy young men, the Nuair were a little better off financially and the shooting stopped,.

It is no wonder that possibly the most unedifying episode in the entire Old Testament concerns tribal conflict – see Judges 19 and 20. The Church did a good job all those hundreds of years ago when it eliminated tribalism from our societies.

Peace,

Paul.

Photo: Paul Munton

Back's Gate to Trinity College and King's College Chapel beyond in Springtime.






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