It is true that the concept "tribe" is rarely used in European
context, at least nowadays. However, in current Finnish discussion we
use this word ("heimo") frequently: our nation consists of three
tribes and their mixtures. Yet this is only a cultural concept;
there are no ethnic differences between these tribes.
In African (and native American) context we are increasingly
preferring to speak about "peoples", for it sounds a little bit
funny to call an African people "a tribe" if their number exceeds
the population of our republic.
On the other hand, we have the colonial experience under the
Swedish rule.