Tribe is a dirty word nowadays. Not to me of course, but particularly, as you know, to a great many African intellectuals and politicians. No wonder they don't like it when one thinks of the terrifying things that have happened in Kenya and the Congo, with elections in Nigeria going along tribal lines, and in the Republic the Bantustans encouraging the worst kinds of tribalism. There is a positive and a negative kind of tribalism, as Tom Mboya very sensibly says in his book Freedom and After; however, most people concentrate on the negative side. But you and I together might have a look at this word-this concept-and see whether there may not be another and better future for it. You know quite well that part of my feeling about our own tribe comes from my being partly Highland and knowing in myself the warm feeling that we in the Highland area have towards our own and our related clans, however much we may laugh at it and pretend it is all part of a bad past. This warm feeling clears the first hurdle towards mutual understanding, perception, and some kind of loyalty-basic human needs.