How much do we care to know the truth?
Shocked by witnessing the atrocities of the Haile Sellassie army agaist innocent civilian population in the lowlands of Bale, I
discontinued my education and went to Somalia in 1966 resolved to join the Oromo fighters under the leadership of Waqo. I was immensely disappointed seeing how the Somali governments of the time were bent on misusing the struggle of our people while refusing even to recognize Ormo national identity. With hindsight I never regret leaving Ethiopia no matter how great my frustrations. I do not see how else I would end up in Damascus attending later the faculty of literature for four years where I came to read among other things the three Greek tragedies: Antigone, Oedipus the King, Electra. Long before Judo-Christian-Islamic religions descended authoritatively from above on Earth, the great Greek writers, most especially Sophocles, had a clear insight from below into human nature and history where mostly Man’s own actions and his arrogant reliance on his own judgements and selfish motives recoil on him, leading to tyrannical and stupid behaviour ending in horrible crimes. In 1991 I rushed headlong into a complex situation beyond my understanding ending in supporting and working with the present regime till I was confronted with the bitter reality of a new form of Abyssinian hegemony, with Tigray supremacy displacing Amhara domination. I think I did it not merely out of good intention but also through an unfortunate oversight or, if you like, even certain personal weakness, I must admit
Our world is in trouble not because of human sufferings that are part of nature, but because of human behaviour based on myths, customs, beliefs and values that glorify power past and present, behind which naked greed and violence hide themselves, in a fruitless attempt to legitimize the status quo and block real changes. This is nowhere truer than in Ethiopia throughout its history, especially today.
Recently I read two “interesting” articles in the Ethiomedia.com, the main propaganda forum for the Abyssinian political elite in opposition. The first, dated August 13, 2011, starts thus: “Moses! Moses!” called God. And Moses said, “Here I am “. After this the writer continues, “The biblical Moses, the only human being to have seen portion of the back of God and the only person to have talked directly to God was married to an Ethiopian woman. The name Ethiopia and the Ethiopian state are as old as the earth itself. In fact the Ethiopian state is one of the most continuous states in history. We Ethiopians have our own alphabet and civilization that built the wonders of Axunm, Lallibala and Gonder. The name Ethiopia is mentioned in the Bible (New& Old Testament) before…” Well, I must stop quoting him to the end here really, not to bore you. This sort of presentation and ranting is not new and the writer is entitled to tell his story. What is interesting is the same writer makes in the same article a passionate call for democracy and equality admitting that Ethiopians have failed so far to build a nation state and that there are differences among the country’s constituent parts! Many uninformed foreign readers of this article may not realize ( Its author certainly does not want them to realize ) that the areas on which he projected his story and his myths are only a small part of today’s Ethiopia, properly speaking historical Abyssinia, Tigray and Amhara areas. He has lost no words on the stories and myths of the peoples incorporated by violence into the Ethiopian Empire and held down by force to this day! The second writer whose article also appeared in the same website is even more interesting. He makes mostly very objective socio-economic and political analysis of the present situation under TPLF rule drawing a bleak picture only to become suddenly optimistic towards the end of his article saying that Ethiopia will emerge victorious soon as if by miracle. He quotes Psalms from the Bible to prove the point.
Now I do not object to uninformed religious people making such statements. These writers are among educated Abyssinians. They could even be Amharized Oromos, by the way! Their aim seems to me to misuse Christianity and Judaism as their Emperors did by appealing especially to the Western powers and peoples to defend Abyssinian supremacy by all means. They want to say that Ethiopia is under threat from the enemies of the West. In this they are not different from the present Tigray regime. Indeed there are many grey areas where the Abyssinian opposition acting in the name of Ethiopia and the regime work together. The Nile dam project is actuated mainly by such a motive. Does such a motive help indefinitely in today’s world in the internet age where most of the hitherto concealed facts are becoming known with the speed of light?
All this reminds me of an old story from ancient China. Part of it goes like this: The Duke of Yeh told Confucius, “There are some righteous men in my land: if the father steals a sheep, the son will testify against him.” Confucius said: “The righteous men in my land are different: The father conceals the wrongs of his son, and the son conceals the wrongs of his father. This is righteousness”. I know Abyssinian intellectuals who enjoyed their times in the fascist Mengistu era, many of them the children of the military who went to the then east block countries on scholarship. Some of them do try to lecture us on democracy today.
I like Heidegger for saying that silence is not the opposite of language, but rather its primal mode. He said, “To say and speak are not identical. A man may speak, speak endlessly, and all the time saying nothing of substance. Another man may remain silent, not speak at all and yet without speaking, say a great deal.”
The belief that they can withstand the forces of change by tricking foreign powers into defending the decadent Empire is what leads most of the Abyssinian political class to commit follies after follies causing immense suffering also to their own people. There is no way we can force on them a change of mind by preaching rational thinking. They do mostly what they do intentionally and not out of ignorance.
For the oppressed nations and nationalities of Ethiopia, the first necessary revolution is not the one we carry out to change our external socio-economic political conditions, important as they are. It is first the revolution within each of us, to end our lukewarmness and resignation, something that no one can do for us if we really care about truth and reality. Otherwise we are our own worst enemies and must stop blaming others. Most of us, Oromos especially, need to overcome our petty selfishness which is destroying us from within. Since the disintegration of the Gada system most of us live as individuals in isolated small families, and have lost the big picture of our destiny, with the active communal spirit and sense of political obligation falling away. Our enemies count on this very much and work accordingly with great contempt for us. Real struggle is needed to challenge Abyssinian arrogance and intransigence to change the situation on the ground.The alternative is self-evident: not only more repressions with every passing day but also more of man-made famine perhaps to effect demographic changes.
All the so-called Ethiopian Abyssinian opposition forces systematically and jointly refuse to recognize the right of our people to self-determination while calling on us to join them. They have reached a consensus on this already. Many of their elements are even calling themselves Oromos publicly ( only a few decades ago they denied our existence as Oromos altogether! ) so that they can speak for our people fraudulently and shamelessly! Their politics of hate knows no limits. The ruling Tigray clique is learning what it can from dictators in Libya and Syria even though it counts mainly on Western backing. The news from Wikileaks that Meles Zenawi requested the USA nine times to remove the Sudanese dictator from power is highly interesting. Both bloody dictators acted in unison on many issues for long time. Meles Zenawi seems determined in these difficult times to be the Alleinherscher in the Horn of Africa. Finally let us not forget also these words which I remember reading somewhere: All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing. I want only to add that good people doing nothing are in most cases its victims.