The Tribe Trap and the Muzzle of the Native

Résumé

We argue that 'tribe' is not a neutral translation of African social units but a muzzle: a technology of epistemic containment that reclassifies sovereign polities as biological specimens. It collapses layered governance (lineage, city-state, alliance, federation) into biology, erases indigenous concepts of state and contract, and triggers In-Group Psychopathy through pseudospeciation.