Last time I went to Frankfurt I met in the central train station by chance three persons, two men I knew long ago from Cologne and a young woman I did not know before. The two men were old faces, former EPRP members. One of the men introduced me to the lady as publisher of bariisa.com. Her immediate reaction was a resonant “Aree”. They politely asked me if I had time and invited me to coffee just in the corner. As we sat sipping coffee the lady took out her small laptop and started browsing in bariisa.com. She had a number of very interesting questions for me. The first one was why I do not use pictures in bariisa.com, and if that had anything to do with religious consideration. I admitted that her question was relevant but could not explain myself satisfactorily. However I said that it had nothing to do with religious influence, adding that I am just a beginner in the cyber world and that at the right time also pictures will appear abundantly in bariisa.com, God willing. “What is the right time?” she wanted to know. Since I did not exactly know the right time, I answered a bit playfully, ” the right time is the right time.” That made all giggle.
One of the men started carefully by saying that he regularly read my articles in bariisa.com, and that, as far as he could see, I was advancing now the same political agenda as that of the OLF. It did not seem to me proper to denounce here OLF as I usually do in bariisa.com but I started instead explaining that the Oromo question is a colonial question. The men interrupted me repeatedly and tried to heat the discussion by introducing seemingly Marxist historical arguments as to what colonialism is or is not…. This made me feel promptly a bit cynical, even a little angry, because I know in the meantime that these men do not even support now the right of nations and nationalities to self-determination any more, which they used to do in the hey days of the EPRP. When I touched on this point the discussion came instantly to a sudden standstill and confusion. Tension started building up. I tried unsuccessfully to relax the atmosphere for some time by saying that we can agree to disagree on certain issues and continue dialogue in the future if they are interested. Finally I offered to pay for the coffee but they said no. At this point the lady who was on the brink of losing her composure as the discussion turned sour said to me that she had never any problem with the question of ethnicity and that she interacted with all no matter what their political orientations might be. I accepted this nodding to her silently. I was tired somehow and wanted to go
As we exchanged telephone numbers the lady came close and asked me in a very friendly tone: “ Do you know, by the way, that people whom you call Abyssinian intellectuals read your articles more than others for whom you write?” The candid tone in which she framed her question was disarming. I said to the men: “our sister is probably right”. As we all shook hands before we parted I looked into her eyes for a moment and kissed her, without thinking, on the forehead. I think she simply told the truth.
I have no doubt that in general Abyssinian intellectuals on the average are more motivated politically than say, for example, most Oromo intellectuals and their love for Ethiopia, no matter what I think of its misuse by their Chauvinist ruling classes, is often more intense and even, in a real sense, more genuine, more immediate, more practical, more committed than the love of most Oromo intellectuals for Oromia, or most Somali intellectuals for Somalia. To try to explain why this is so rationally is not going to be easy, but it is not impossible either. These days by galvanising the Abyssinian emotions around the Nile dam the TPLF tries perhaps to draw from this real reservoir of energy as much as it can to invigorate Tigray militarism and supremacy in the Horn of Africa.