Ancient Tribal System Could Launch Afghanistan on the Road to Recovery

It’s ages old and out of sync with most concepts of modernity, but those shaping Afghanistan’s future are betting heavily that the country’s ancient tribal system can be the midwife for a new beginning.

The bet turns on a simple question: Do the tribal elders still wield enough of their traditional authority to help rebuild the nation in the 21st century, or have these links been irreparably weakened by political purges, war and the passage of time?

Many believe that Afghanistan’s chance for a peaceful future hangs on the answer. Opinions differ sharply, with some specialists expressing great pessimism.

“It’s a different society today,” said Abdul Sattar, an expert on his country’s social history and director of a private group that removes land mines. “If you transfer power to tribal elders, it won’t work. Their moral authority is much weaker than before.”

But sitting cross-legged on the reception room floor of his home here in central Quetta, Pakistani Pushtun tribal chieftain Ghulam Sarwar Piralizai begs to differ.

“This system is 2,000 years old, and it won’t die,” he said. “It’s about discussion and inclusiveness, not about resolving problems by force, and that is what Afghanistan needs.”

Amid these differences, there is agreement on one issue: The stakes are extremely high.

The selection last week of Hamid Karzai, a 43-year-old anti-Taliban commander and ethnic Pushtun, to lead the country’s interim government is seen here as an important step toward restoration of tribal order.

Although well educated and worldly, Karzai derives his power from his position as chief of the Popolzai clan, whose half a million members trace their lineage directly to the Durrani tribe of the nation’s exiled monarch, Mohammad Zaher Shah.

Leaders Seen as Bridge Between Past, Future

The military campaign Karzai led against the Taliban’s last major stronghold, Kandahar, was launched from his tribal base in rural Oruzgan province and is directed at a city where the Popolzai clan was once a political force.

Many see Karzai as part of the small group of relatively young Afghan tribal leaders who can bridge the past and future, leveraging the power of their blood ties to coax Afghanistan into the modern age.

Forced with their families into exile during the country’s long period of turmoil because their power was viewed as a threat, these men received good educations and a level of exposure to the West unknown to earlier generations of tribal leaders. Now they are back.

“Look at Karzai, people support him because his family has been providing tribal chiefs for centuries,” noted Darwesh Durrani, a professor of English language and literature at the Government Science College in Quetta. “We don’t want such connections to remain important for too long because it’s anti-modern, but at this point we need it.”

Abdul Khaliq, the 43-year-old chief of the Noorzai clan, which is also part of the Durrani tribe, is widely seen as another leader whose vision extends beyond the tribal roots that give him authority inside the country. Those ties have made him a power in the southwestern provinces of Farah and Nimruz since last month’s massive retreat by Taliban forces.

He also played an important role in overcoming intertribal rivalries and rescuing negotiations that led to the fall Friday of the important southern border town of Spin Buldak.

But years in exile--his family still lives in the San Diego area--have broadened his vision. Those around Khaliq consistently stress that his interests extend beyond his Noorzai power base to a broader commitment to a democratic Afghanistan with at least a token role for Zaher Shah.

“For him, the issue is Afghanistan, not just the Noorzai,” summed up Khaliq’s nephew, Zulmai Afzal. “He wants to help rebuild the country.”

What remains unclear is how far members of large tribes are willing to go to set aside age-old prejudices and to follow a vision sketched by leaders who have spent much of their lives outside Afghanistan.

There is little doubt that most Afghans are fed up with the alternatives to tribal rule they have seen.

More than two decades of social chaos have included bouts of Marxism, Soviet occupation, rule by religious-based parties, the anarchy of warlords and the Taliban’s ruthless Islamic fundamentalism. They have left the country in ruins and its people exhausted, disillusioned and desperate for stability.

The only way to go forward, a growing number of Afghans is now convinced, is to go back: to their former king, to the tribal hierarchy he represents and, they hope, to the time of peace and prosperity many Afghans associate with the monarch’s 40-year rule.

This nostalgia is seen as a major asset likely to give tribal leaders such as Karzai and Khaliq a honeymoon period to consolidate authority and set out agendas. These leaders have another advantage: With a local power base, they can present themselves as unfettered from foreign influence.

What remains unclear, however, is how seriously tribal authority has been damaged by decades of persecution, suppression and exile.

Attacks on these leaders began in the 1970s during the rule of Mohammed Daoud, who saw them as feudal tyrants opposed to his modernization efforts. Persecution turned to killings after a 1978 coup brought to power Marxists who tried to crush all other centers of power.

What Followed Was a Reign of Terror

Several members of Khaliq’s family were slain before he escaped to Pakistan. Relatives of other tribal leaders were arrested and thrown into Kabul’s Pul-i-Charki prison. Many were released after Soviet occupation began in 1979, and they quickly escaped through the mountains to Pakistan and beyond.

Pakistan-based Afghan moujahedeen groups formed with the help of Pakistani intelligence were built mainly around ambitious men like anti-Taliban guerrilla leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who had no real power base inside Afghanistan and were therefore easier to control. The Taliban too had little interest in promoting tribal loyalties.

“The past three decades have one common theme: the destruction of the tribal structure,” said Izzatullah Wasifi, whose 77-year-old father, Azizullah, is chief of the Alkozai tribe and an advisor to the deposed king.

Over the years, members of leading tribal families drifted to Western Europe and the U.S., where they took up new lives. Wasifi, for example, returned to Pakistan only last month after nearly two decades in the United States.

Others stayed involved for a while but then left the region. Khaliq served briefly in the post-Soviet government as consul general in Quetta, then remained engaged in what was called “the Rome process”--the restoration of popular rule under the auspices of Zaher Shah.

A few never left the region, working for change in Afghanistan from the Pakistani border areas. Karzai was among them, and Afghans say his stature is greater for it.

“He kept close contact [with his tribe], so his power will be greater than Khaliq and others,” said Sattar, the expert on social history.

At one time, the power of an Afghan tribal chief was virtually absolute. He settled land and water disputes and decided who went to serve in the national army and who stayed home. The chief could mobilize his people to fight or set an easier tone for his people’s relations with the world around them.

But time--and the events of recent history--has eroded that power.

“People still recognize him and acknowledge his position because of his name and family, but it’s not with the same intensity as they did his father,” Sattar said of Khaliq. “The authority has weakened.”

Petty disputes among tribal leaders as they flex their muscles after the Taliban’s collapse also have raised questions about their ability to work together toward peace.

Still, those among the new, more outward-looking generation of tribal leaders are confident that they can use their stature to help build a more stable nation.

“The tribal system will survive, but it will be different,” said Ahmed Karzai, the chief’s brother. “The leaders will use their position to run for senator or take up other important offices. They can be a very positive role in bringing Afghanistan forward.”

Added Durrani, the academic: “The tribal leaders, the young ones, are highly educated. They don’t want to keep the tribal system; they want to change the country.”