Fikre Tolossa
Ethiopian Review, January 1992
The question of self-identity is significant in this age of ethnic consciousness and revolt. Today Ethiopia is in the throes of ethnic rivalry. Both self-identity and national identity have become troublesome questions in the Ethiopian context. Unfortunately, Ethiopian intellectuals have paid little attention to these issues.
Let me make a provocative assertion. I argue that you and I are not ‘real’ Ethiopians. In my opinion, a `real’ Ethiopian is one who was born in Ethiopia, and raised on Ethiopian culture. The `real’ Ethiopian is unexposed to Western culture and civilization.
If you have attended English, German, French, or any school in Ethiopia based on the Western model of education, then you are a `hybrid’ of Western culture and mentality with elements of “Ethiopianism” in you. If you lived or attended school outside Ethiopia, you are more Westernized than those who have attended schools in Ethiopia.
Of course, you can argue that there is no such thing as pure Ethiopian culture and ideology. True. Throughout her history Ethiopia has had cultural intercourse and ethnic affinity with neighboring African, Arabian and Minor-Asian peoples. I am addressing this issue in relative terms.
When you entered the first grade in the Western model of education you started being alienated from the languages, cultures, values, customs and mentality of the Ethiopian people. When you moved to grade two, you moved away two steps from the world outlook and tradition shared by most Ethiopians. When you completed grade twelve, there is a gulf of twelve years between you and them, thus making you and them strangers to each other. The higher our achievement in the system of Western education, the greater our detachment from the masses of
the Ethiopian people.
Did Western education alienate us from our roots? In many ways. I think it made us look down upon our culture and worship Western science and technology. Hollywood movies made us the mental slaves of the `American way of life.’ In our teens we all wished to go to the “wonderful” America and “enjoy” life. We aspired to be Western men, generally ignorant and contemptuous of our roots.
You and I perhaps born in Ethiopia are able to speak a bit of one or two Ethiopian languages. Our facial mask is black (if you admit that you are black). These factors alone do not qualify us to be natural or real Ethiopians since it is neither color nor language alone which determine one’s nationality. A black man raised on French culture could some times be more French than the uncultured white Frenchman. A white man raised by and on Ethiopian culture, shaped by traditional Ethiopian
thoughts, manners, customs, and speaking one or more Ethiopian languages could be more Ethiopian than you and me. A case in point is Tegist, Derartu, Lensi, and Kelbecha Gadissa. These sisters and brothers are white. They say that they were abandoned in a Shoa village by their white parents, probably American Peace Corps volunteers, when they were kids. They were raised by Ethiopian peasants. They speak only the Oromo language. Confined to rural Ethiopia all their lives, they were not exposed to Western education or civilization. Apart from the color of their skin, they are the same in everyway with the other Ethiopian peasants of the Oromo nationality. I dare say they are more natural or real Ethiopians than you and me. I wouldn’t be surprised if they prove to be more natural or real Oromo than an Oromo intellectual who has been trained in the West.
What are some of the features of the ‘hybrid-Ethiopian?’ In extreme cases, the ‘hybrid-Ethiopian’ tends to be ignorant of Ethiopian history and civilization.
He or she negates and disdains Ethiopian culture as backward. By Ethiopian civilization I mean the civilization of all the peoples of Ethiopia, including the Oromos, the Amharas, the Tigreans, the Afars and all the rest. For the ‘hybrid’ Ethiopian culture is feudal and primitive. The only thing which he or she perhaps likes and admires is the food. If he or she ever misses Ethiopia, it is probably because of those delicious dishes.
There are plenty of everyday facts which distinguish the `hybrid.’ He or she appreciates the guitar more than the kirar and the violin more than the masinko. He or she prefers Bach’s compositions to St. Yared’s hymns. He or she will talk to his or her children in English, French or German than in his or her native tongue. Instead of visiting the Obelisks of Axum, which Europeans and Americans ironically value highly, the `hybrid’ would rather fly to Paris and New York to watch the Eiffel
Tower and the Empire State building. He or she would visit the Vatican than the wonderful monoliths of Lalibela. He or she would rather marvel at the Niagara Falls than the Blue Nile Falls (tis essat). Of course not all `hybrid-Ethiopians’ manifest these extremes.
Am I saying Western education is evil? Not so. What I am saying is that we are brainwashed to adore and worship everything Western and look down upon everything that is ours. I am saying that we have been misguided in our education which put little emphasis on knowledge about our own culture, history, religion, music, medicine, art and literature. Certainly if these subjects were offered at schools from the Ethiopian perspective along with Western education, Ethiopian intellectuals would not have been ignorant or alienated from their roots.
Whether you and I think that we belong to the Amhara, Oromo, Tigre, Eritrean,
Gurage, Afar or Somali nationality, we don’t have lots of things in common with the `real’ members of these nationalities. Even our language is mixed with foreign phrases. How many of us can speak an Ethiopian sentence without borrowing from English, French, German or Italian? How much of the cultural values of the different Ethiopian nationalities do we know with any depth? How much of our tradition do we practice? How much of the psychology and history of our people do we know? Look at the way we dress and live. How many of our countrymen in Ethiopia strut in a Pierre Cardin or Armani suit or dress?
No matter how conscious we are now becoming about our roots and ethnicity, we have been uprooted from them over all those years of schooling and living abroad. For these reasons, I cannot claim to be a `real’ Ethiopian. I might say I am a proud Ethiopian to an American or European. Whether I admit in this case the truth about my nationality or not, I am not a `real’ Ethiopian. I am hybrid-Ethiopian. If you can read these passages, so are you… Believe it or not!
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Dr. Fikre Tolossa is Assistant Dean of Faculty at Columbia Pacific University, and Producer of Ethiopian TV based in San Francisco. He is also adjunct professor of film and ethnic studies at Sonoma State University in Cotati, California.