The demonstrators holding placards outside the Royal Court Theater in London on 16 March 1987 were made up of Ethiopians and Ras Tafarians (the sect originating in Jamaica that reveres Haile Sellasie I.) They were protesting the denigration of the deceased monarch of Ethiopia in the play, “The Emperor,” which was about to open in the 50- seat, Theater Upstairs. They warned theatergoers not to believe everything they heard in the play.
Putting historical figures and events on the stage or in film has been common since both art forms began. The question becomes “Is it good theater?” not “Is it true?” In this case it was very good theater, and played to sold-out houses.
As the historian C. Vann Woodward has said, “….Far surpassing works of history as measured by the size of their public and the influence they exert, are the novel, stage works, screen and television… From these sources millions derive…conceptions, interpretations, convictions… about the past.”
My aim here is to focus on dramatic efforts in the English-speaking and romance-language worlds whose content was inspired by Ethiopia. Ethiopian playwrights and filmmakers are not included and the ubiquitous “Queen of Sheba” genre will be slighted. Country of origin obviously colors the slant of the creative effort.
ITALY
The Italians peripherally involved in Ethiopia since the 15th century and deeply involved from 1885 onward account for many contributions. “La Figlia di Ras Alula” was presented in Milan in 1885. A romance between “Sheba” (not the name of any of Alula’s daughters) and an Italian explorer is the background against which Alula is the heartless villain and Debebe the admirable collaborator with Italy. It ends with the actual event of the ambush of 550 Italians by the forces of Ras Alula. The next year, a five-act play about a Catholic missionary in Ethiopia, “Il Seminarist in Africa” was performed and in 1890, Corazzini’s play “Pantera nera; scene Abissine.” Twenty years elapsed after the defeat of Italy at Adwa (1896) before another drama based on Ethiopia was created. It was the story of the Ethiopian converted to Catholicism, Gabra Mika’el.
After the conquest of Ethiopia in 1935-’36, Italian filmgoers saw “Il Grande Appello” which was shot entirely in Ethiopia and Djibuti. It was the story of a father, Bertani, an innkeeper and gunrunner in Djibuti, who had deserted the mother of his son, Enrico, years before. Enrico turns up as a radio operator with the Italian army in Addis Ababa. Obese, unkempt, disloyal father, Bertani, is contrasted with youthful patriot son who is wounded in an Ethiopian attack by weapons traced to Bertani’s arms sales.
“Scipione, l’Africano” won the Mussolini prize at the Italian film festival of 1937. This was an allegory comparing the Punic Wars to the war in Ethiopia, with the Carthaginians depicted as impotent aristocrats contrasted with the benevolent and dynamic Roman legions. Years later, in 1979, “Eboli,” adapted from Carlo Levi’s novel with an anti- fascist theme, showed a village lad going off to the Ethiopian war; he is singing the tune, “Facetta Nera” in which there is the verse, “I’m coming to love you, little Ethiopian girl.” Mussolini had banned this song because it implied miscegenation. A film about Father Gugliemo Massaia, important to Emperor Menilek, was made, but the print has been lost.
An Italian-French production called “Una Stagione all’Inferno” (Season in Hell) was filmed in 1970-’71, half of it in Ethiopia. It told the story of the French poet Artur Rimbaud, as an arms merchant dealing with Menilek II and Empress Taytu. Terence Stamp played Rimbaud. Mulu Mesfin played Empress Taytu, Debebe Eshetu acted Menilek, and Wogayehu Negatu was cast as Ras Mekonen – one of the rare times that Ethiopian actors were employed by foreign film makers. The film was a flop.
FRANCE
Two dramas about Emperor Tewodros were performed in France, one in 1868 and the other in 1869, both drawing on the British expedition to Magdala. Seventy years later, in December 1935, the word “Ethiopia” resounded on the French stage. At the “Festival Noir” Louis Aragon read “Ethiopia” by the American poet Langston Hughes.
GERMANY
With all the colorful German characters that have walked through Ethiopian history, it is disappointing that there is only one play on record, “Der Prinz von Abessinien,” performed in 1913.
GREAT BRITAIN
Only “The Emperor” mentioned earlier has appeared, although a million pounds was invested and lost in an effort to make a film about the 1868 Napier expedition.
UNITED STATES
In 1918 a feature film called “The Savage Woman” was made by silent film star Clara Kimball Young. A ludicrous plot unfolds involving Prince Menilek falling in love with an abandoned French girl whom he believes is “his” Queen of Sheba. He gives her up to the Frenchman who has also fallen in love with her.
The stage debut for Ethiopia opened in January 1936, “George White’s Scandals,” in its 12th year as a singing, dancing and comedic melange. The week it opened, Haile Sellasie was on the cover of Time magazine as “Man of the Year.” The hit of the show was a skit by “Sam, Ted and Ray.” “They are three Ethiopian hoofers,” Time wrote, “one of whom impersonates the emperor, singing “Boy, our country am menaced; what is we gwine do?” Negro dialect, as this was called, reflected the national perception that if Ethiopians were people of color, they talked like American “negroes.”At that time this cliche about the way American black performers talked was not recognized as offensive. A regular column in a black newspaper was written in this dialect, and one of them began, “Good mawning, Mistah Selassie.”
In rehearsal in New York at the same time was a production called “Ethiopia.” It embodied a new theatrical idea, the “Living Newspaper.” The exact words of Mussolini, Hoare, Eden, Laval and Litvinoff would be used and the play would end differently each night according to the news from the war front in Ethiopia. Suddenly, on 24 January 1936, the production was canceled. One performance was given for the press that day and at the final curtain, Elmer Rice, director of the Federal Theater Project announced his resignation in protest against censorship from Washington. He had requested a transcript of President Roosevelt’s “neutrality” address and was refused with the rebuke that the words of living heads of state could not be used on the stage. This was nonsense. The American president did not want to offend either the appeasers or the aggressors.
NBC radio presented a one-hour drama on 23 November 1938, based on the threat to the American legation in Addis Ababa in 1936. As Italian forces neared the capital, angry mobs threatened any white person who appeared on the streets. Unable to contact the nearby British legation, the Americans sent a message on short-wave radio which was picked up in the Philippines, relayed to Washington, thence to London, Cairo, and the British in Addis Ababa–within half an hour. Sikh soldiers were dispatched to the American legation. This radio play, “Messenger of Peace,” pointed out the obvious– communications are basic to the conduct of foreign affairs.
Fleeting references to Ethiopia appeared in the movie “Too Hot to Handle” when the character played by Clark Gable admits faking the burning of a hut for a newsreel of the Italian invasion; and in 1942, Humphrey Bogart in “Casablanca” is portrayed as having smuggled arms to Ethiopia. Two feature films with an Ethiopian angle have been “Shaft in Africa” (1973) and “Exorcist II: the Heretic” (1977). In “Shaft” the actor Richard Roundtree helps to stop slave traders and in “Exorcist” James Earl Jones plays an Ethiopian doctor. Simulated scenes resembling Debre Damo and Lalibella were used and Ethiopians living in Los Angeles played Amharic-speaking roles, with Fiseha Demetros receiving a credit as “young monk” and as “African technical consultant.”
The television series “St. Elsewhere,” throughout 1985-’86, had a doctor character who often referred to his voluntary relief duty in Ethiopia. In March 1987, ABC offered a two hour television about a relief worker in Ethiopia, “We Are the Children.” It was marred for those knowing Amharic by having “Ethiopians” speaking Swahili.
The Ethiopian immigrant experience may become a new category. Sean Harris and Joe Englert of Washington, DC have just made “Woobie’s Geography Lesson,” an 84-minute video chronicling the adventures of “Wube” (played by Wube Assefa) as he stumbles through a series of ill- fated encounters with women, bosses and loan sharks in the Adams- Morgan area of Washington.
If, as the historian asserts, people learn more history from movies and dramas, the public still has a lot to learn about Ethiopia. Will there be a film about 20,000 orphans in a children’s village told in the style of “Boys Town”? Will the hi-jacking of a relief convoy make an Ethiopian “western”? Will the trek of an Ethiopian dissident through the Sudan make a “Great Escape”? The creative writers of films and plays may yet be inspired despite the devastating realities of present-day Ethiopia.
This article is adapted from a paper the author gave at the International Conference of Ethiopian Studies in 1988 in Paris.
____________________ Chris Prouty is the author of Empress Taytu and Menilek II: Ethiopia, 1883-1990. (Red Sea Press). She is currently working on a catalogue of documentary films about Ethiopia.
As opposition forces ringed Addis Ababa, Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam boarded an Ethiopian Airlines plane on May 22 and fled Ethiopia for a ranch in Zimbabwe. State-run radio announced Mengistu’s unceremonious departure without comment. After 14 years of iron-fisted rule, Mengistu left behind a demoralized army, a shattered economy, and an ethnically fragmented society.
In his last days Mengistu desperately sought to shore up his regime. He offered to negotiate with opposition forces in peace talks spon sored by the U.S. He attempted cosmetic changes for his regime by reshuffling his cabinet.He even promised to stray away from his Marx ist policies by relaxing control over the economy and allow more personal freedoms.In the end, as one observer noted:”Mengistu left power as stealthily as he seized it.”
Mengistu remained messianically defiant to the end. He deluded him self into believing that he was the linchipin of Ethiopian unity. He refused to believe that he could be an obstacle to peace and national reconciliation. Recently, he responded to a proposal for his resignation by scornfully instructing the petitioning university professors that he could only be removed by the masses who elected him. He sought to rally public support by raising the specter of secession and national fragmentation. He blamed western powers, particularly the U.S., for plotting his overthrow and undermining his regime both at home and abroad.
Many Ethiopians had long been resigned to the fact that Mengistu will remain in power indefinitely through brutal repression. Few Ethiopians had expected Mengistu’s stealthy departure. Even fewer expected that he would escape for a luxurious lifestyle on a large colonial ranch in Zimbabwe. It is rumored that he bought a ranch previously owned by Ian smith, the former outlaw Rhodesian prime minister. Mengistu’s departure was received with muted jubilation. The imminent siege of the city dampened any large-scale public expression of merriment.
There is divergent speculation on the factors leading to Mengistu’s sudden departure. Some observers suggest that the U.S. helped to secretly facilitate Mengistu’s unobstructed departure in anticipation of a peaceful transfer of power. Others suggest that the inexorable military pressure by the opposition forces convinced Mengistu that there was no hope of saving his regime. Still others speculate that Mengistu realized that he could no longer command the forces or adequately resupply them to continue the fight. Commanding officers reportedly deserted their troops and joined opposition forces. Others demoralized over recent defeats simply did not have the will to fight. The decline of socialism globally and changes in the Soviet foreign policy are also said to be responsible for the overall decay and disintegration of Mengistu’s government.
Mengistu’s Legacy
As the head of a semi-literate military governing structure, Mengistu ruled by Praetorian and military rhetoric. He believed that Ethiopia’s social and political problems could be solved by the forced application of Marxist policies. Both Mengistu and the Derg, the governing body, were often oblivious to the intricate and complex problems in the country’s economy and ethnic structure.
During Mengistu’s regime Ethiopia became synonymous with famine and a global symbol of poverty. Mengistu embraced socialism and experimented with voguish socialist policies nationalizing private property and collectivizing agriculture. He proclaimed a people’s republic and ordered the establishment of a working class party over which he reigned as chairman. He also established urban and peasant associations to maximize his political control at the local level.
Mengistu also left a bitter legacy of ethnic strife and political repression. He refused to negotiate meaningfully with opposition groups. He imposed military solutions to political problems. He ruthlessly eliminated political opposition and periodically purged the military and the derg. Occasionally he personally executed opponents. During the “Red Terror Campaign” in the late 1970,s, he ordered his loyalist cadres and militiamen to conduct political witch hunts resulting in thousands of deaths. In 1978 Amnesty International reported 8,000 political prisoners in Ethiopia.
Mengistu established the third largest military force in Africa with Soviet support. He spent over $10 billion to purchase arms. The military budget exceeded seventy percent of the country’s operating budget by the late 1980s.
Mengistu’s repression caused the largest exodus of Ethiopians in history resulting in the most acute refugee problem in Africa. International sources reported nearly a million Ethiopian refugees in the Sudan in 1985. Hundreds of thousands of other Ethiopians also fled the country to all parts of the world to escape Mengistu’s repression.
Mengistu will most likely be remembered for his depraved indifference to the millions of famine victims. According to Dawit Wolde Giorgis, formerly Mengistu’s commissioner for relief and rehabilitation, Mengistu and his Marxist coterie “either refused to believe (famine) existed, implying it was an insult to suggest such thing could happen in a Marxist-Leninist society, or they asserted if it did exist, it was best to let nature take its course.” Mengistu angered international donors by using food aid as weapon against opposition forces.
Current Situation
Mengistu appointed former defense minister General Tesfaye Gebre Kidan as acting head of state just before making his furtive exit. General Tesfaye had served as the military governor in Eritrea and reportedly opposed Mengistu’s decision to execute 12 generals two years ago. Mengistu later removed him from office.
Initially, there was some speculation that Tesfaye may be able to revitalize the army and successfully repel opposition forces. In a 15-minute televised speech shortly after Mengistu’s departure, Tesfaye expressed his desire to negotiate at an upcoming U.S.-sponsored peace talks.He pledged to carry on with the fight if political settlements could not be achieved.
Buoyed by recent military successes opposition forces seemed determined to vanquish the Derg. They quickly rejected Tesfaye’s interim appointment and declared that Mengistu’s departure in itself will not lead to national reconciliation or peace. They insist on the removal of all officials associated with Mengistu, and the establishment of a transitional government.
Tesfaye was unable to reverse the gains made by the opposition, and government forces lost ground. It had been expected that the elite forces deployed in the capital could indefinitely forestall capture of the capital. Within days the military situation for the government proved hopeless. Less than a week after Mengistu’s departure, the Eritrean People Liberation Front (EPLF) seized Asmara and the port city of Assab. Opposition forces had completely encircled the capital. The city’s defenders were in disarray leaving Addis Ababans wondering what might happen next. On the eve of the scheduled peace talks, the government did not appear to have much negotiating strength and was reluctantly willing to turn over power to the opposition forces. At the conclusion of the first day of talks, mediator and U.S. Assistant Secretary for African Affairs, Herman Cohen somberly announced: “After consulting with all parties, the U.S. government is recommending that the forces of the EPDRF enter the city as soon as possible to help stabilize the situation.” On May 28 EPDRF forces secured the capital after a brief battle. The government called on its soldiers to surrender. And thus ended a seventeen year nightmare.
Following the conclusion of the London peace talks, EPDRF Chairman Meles Zenawi responding to a reporter’s question on the organization’s presumed Stalinist tendencies stated:
“The EPDRF is for the formation of a broad based coalition government as soon as possible. After the formation of such a broad based government, there will be an internationally supervised elections in the country to form an elected government. If that is Stalinism, I am afraid that is what we are working for.”
Meles further indicated that the maintenance of law and order facilitation of the peace process will be high EPDRF priorities. Other EPDRF spokesmen have further indicated that elements of the Mengistu government will be “determined and tried as war criminals and international humanitarian organization will be able to visit them.”
Calm before the storm?
Addis Ababa remained outwardly calm in the week following Mengistu’s departure. There was not much joyous celebration either about Mengistu’s departure or the imminent takeover by the opposition forces. Remarkably schools and shops remained open although there was a 9 pm to 5 am curfew. Thousands gleefully witnessed the dismantling of Lenin’s statute two days after Mengistu left. Close associations of Mengistu and other party members were reportedly arrested or killed while attempting to escape. Most foreigners left the country; the U.S. and Israel coordinated the airlift of nearly 15 thousands Fallashas in 33 hours.
Addis Ababa was described to be in a state of nervous anticipation following Mengistu’s departure. While there was no perceptible panic among city residents, there was grave concern that anarchy could result when opposition forces began their advance on the city. It was also feared that Addis Ababans may turn against remnants of Mengistu’s regime to settle old scores. However, after the EPDRF moved into the city and suppressed pockets of resistance the city regained its calm. EPDRF elements appeared to be highly disciplined; and some were seen casually chatting with city residents on the streets.
Short-term Scenarios
Various scenarios appear to be possible in the short-term. The Derg and the political machinery established by Mengistu are certainly doomed. Tesfaye’s government neither had the opportunity to propose new initiative or the time to pursue negotiations to achieve a political settlement with opposition forces. In fact at the end of the first day of the peace talks Tesfaye had been served with the ultimatum: surrender immediately or face immediate attack. With the U.S. blessing EPDRF launched at attack on government position at dawn and quickly captured the city.
Many Ethiopian appear to be perplexed about the meaning of an out right victory by opposition forces. The Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPDRF) purports to be an umbrella organization with multiethnic and multiregional composition. It is believed that the core leadership of the EPDRF. But little is publicly known about the leaders or their political and economic programs. Often spokesmen are assigned the task of articulating the coalition’s military objectives. There is also little that is known about the internal structure of the EPDRF or the multi-ethnic coalition it purportedly represents. This has fueled considerable speculation. The leaders have also been described as “Albania-type communists,” “Maoists,” and “EPLF front.”
Recent statements by EPDRF spokesmen add to the mystery and uncertainty about the composition of the organization’s leadership or its political orientation. The EPDRF has not made clear its political objectives beyond general platitudes about multiparty elections and the establishment of a provisional government to replace the Derg. It appears impractical to believe that the mere promise of democracy could hold together a nation so deeply racked by ethnic division and longstanding political antagonisms. Observers suggest that the EPDRF by being reticent about its political programs may be missing a critical opportunity to establish itself as a viable alternative to the Derg. Some Ethiopians seem to be fatalistically resigned to the metaphor or the “old wine in a new bottle.”
It is likely that EPDRF will seize the moment and announce its short- and -long-term plans for the country and present its leaders to the public. U.S. officials at the peace talks have indicated that the EPDRF will form a transitional government for about 10 months until national elections could be held. If this coalition seeks legitimacy and credibility and ultimately succeed where Mengistu has failed, it must speak for itself and be prepared to discuss its political orientation, plans for the establishment of a democratically elected government and openly share its proposals for a provisional government.
Failure to do so is likely to foster distrust and fear and ultimately promote further ethnic strife.
There are late reports indicating that the smaller ethnic groups in the country feel left out of the negotiation process and fear that they will be left out of the political process altogether. Some observers suggest that unless the provisional government makes a determined effort to be inclusive and conciliatory, it will find peace to be elusive. There are late unconfirmed reports of clashes between EPDRF forces and local elements in Gojjam and Gondar, and an effort by forces still under Tesfaye Gebre Kidan and Tesfaye Dinka to regroup and retake Addis Ababa. Reportedly there are about 100,000 troops still under General Tesfaye Gebre Kidan in Harar, Sidamo, and other provinces that is not captured by the EPDRF.
The provisional government will be facing extraordinary problems. It must first seek to structure a genuinely representative government and quickly stabilize the anarchic conditions throughout the country. During the period of transition, a breakdown of law and order should be expected. Unless the provisional government quickly establishes order and moves on a political agenda that is sensitive to the multiethnic demands of the nation, it is likely to find bogged in the same abysmal morass that trapped Mengistu’s government.
The provisional government will have to quickly reactivate the civil service and the bureaucracy. It may find itself administrative paralyzed if it should attempt to remove existing civil servants and replace them with combat veterans. It must avoid intimidation of the bureaucracy and seek to overhaul it over a longer time period. It is instructive note that Mengistu succeeded in consolidating his power by reorienting the existing bureaucracy to his advantage. Of course, those guilty of crimes during Mengistu’s rule should be removed or disciplined
To allay public uncertainty the provisional government will have to make its political programs and orientation early on. The politics of silence and ambiguity will prove to be counterproductive. The new leaders must come out openly and share their vision of Ethiopia and concrete proposals for change. It indeed the new government is genuinely democratic, it should clearly spell out its proposals for a representative government and a timetable for multiparty elections. It should state unambiguously that it sees itself as a provisional and transitional government until elections are held. EPDRF’s current pattern of behavior is inauspiciously reminiscent of the early days of the Derg – anonymous leaders, platitudinous declarations about democracy, “provisional government,” inability to articulate a clear political direction, preoccupation with seizing power without contemplation of a vision to channel this power, messianic pretensions to save the country and so on. Ethiopians must not be quick to judge; and the provisional government must be given a chance to succeed.
The provisional government must make extraordinary efforts to limit political and vendetta killings. It should quickly establish investigative commissions to look into government misconduct and abuse during Mengistu’s regime. It should resist the impulse to execute or imprison suspects without the due process of law. Even those officials accused of the most heinous crimes should be given a fair trial before punishment is imposed. For in upholding the rule of law and resisting the temptation to act arbitrarily, the new government will have established its legitimacy not only in the of its own people but also before the court of world public opinion. If the rule of law is ignored, the provisional government will have begun its journey on the same irreversible course Mengistu followed to oblivion.
The provisional government should move quickly to demilitarize the capital and mop up pockets of resistance. It should reconstitute the existing military structure and integrate a segment of the large number of guerrilla fighters into a disciplined military organization. It may be impractical to maintain a large armed force given the apparent democratic orientation of the new government. It may be necessary to decommission a sizable part of the guerrilla army and plan for the return of these individuals to their homes and farms. The new government, unlike Mengistu’s, must be frugal in its allocation of scarce resources to maintain a large military establishment. The new military must be small, professional and multiethnic. It must have a clearly defined mission and should be depoliticized. The new government must strive to establish a tradition of civilian supremacy over the military. A large politically active military will pose a permanent threat to the growth of democratic institutions in Ethiopia.
The provisional government must act quickly to respond to the dire famine situation in the country. The harvest this year has been disappointing with shortfalls reported throughout the country. The current political situation is already having severe impact on famine relief efforts. The war has disrupted food deliveries and an estimated 7 million Ethiopians are facing the threat of starvation. Failure to quickly organize international famine relief efforts will almost certainly result in heavy loss of life.
The provisional government must learn from the basic mistakes of the Mengistu regime. It must unambiguously renounce socialism and declare its support for private entrepreneurship as strategy for economic revitalization. The record of socialism in Ethiopia is uncontroverted–apocalyptic famine, dismally inefficient state and collective farms, chronic shortages of basic staples, unemployment, inability to attract external investment, inflation, asphyxiation of natural human impulses and aspirations and so on. Ironically, even Mengistu made a deathbed conversion when he ordered the reinstitution of capitalist forms complete with private ownership of small plots of land, unrestricted capital investment and even closure of inefficient state farms.
Revitalization of private enterprise in agriculture should be a first priority for the new government. Policies and strategies that spur individual entrepreneurship in agriculture should be implemented in the short-term and extended to all sectors of the economy. All artificial controls on agricultural commodities should be removed. In the long-term the government must aid private producers in the form of agricultural subsidies, low interest loans, price support and other financial incentives to insure high productivity. It is instructive to note that the former proselytizers of socialism have a record written in blood. There is no need to repeat it.
The provisional government will face its first test when it unveils its policy on the question of Eritrean secession. It is widely believed that the EPDRF does not oppose Eritrean secession but does favor any formal separation to be preceded by a referendum. However, given the EPLF’s recent military successes the new government may be powerless to influence events it the EPLF oppose any such precondition.
The viability and survivability of the new government is likely to hang on its approach to the Eritrean secession question. For in shaping its policy towards Eritrea it must carefully weigh the ramifications for Ethiopian unity and possible dismemberment. The provisional government must deal withy the thorny nationality question and come up with a plan in which the country’s multifarious ethnic groups could freely unite or go their own way. It will be untenable for the provisional government to look approvingly on Eritrean secession yet deny the same consideration to the other nationalities should they seek it. This in turn will determine whether Ethiopia will continue as a geopolitical entity.
There have been recent reports of fighting in Gojjam between EPDRF forces and elements of the local population. Similar reports have also come from Gondar and Wellega. Such flareups may be portentous particularly if such incidents are ignored. The government must act decisively to peacefully resolve local level conflict. The provisional government must tread carefully and avoid provoking or arousing ethnic antagonisms. It must be measured in its use of force. It must be willing to negotiate with those who disagree with it. It must be prepared to give a large measure of local self-government.
Most importantly, the provisional government must instill a sense of confidence in the Ethiopian people based on a commitment to the rule of law, individual dignity and liberty, respect for ethnic and political differences and a solemn covenant that Ethiopians shall not draw the sword to settle their differences. It must now seize the moment and build a new Ethiopia on the ashes of socialism. Ethiopia must now look forward into the 1990s as it must shoulder this awesome responsibility.
The U.S. role in the negotiations has also become much clearer. Mediator Herman Cohen announced:
“The U.S. here is serving not only as the U.S. representative but as the conscience of the international community which is saying to them you must go democratic if your want the full cooperation to help Ethiopia realize its full potential. The EPDRF, ELF, and OLF will welcome the presence of the U.S. and other international observers.” Cohen, however, warned: “No democracy, no cooperation.”
A massive anti-American demonstration has been reported in Addis Ababa. Apparently, demonstrators were angered by the U.S.’s recommendation that the EPDRF forces enter Addis Ababa before some kind of peaceful transition of power is arranged. In the U.S. in Los Angeles, and Washington, DC, Ethiopians held demonstrations opposing the Eritrea’s separation from Ethiopia. Eight people have been reported killed.
Some frictions among the coalition has also already started when the EPLF declared its intentions to establish its own provisional government.
The expectation that peace may not have been achieved yet at the end of the London peace conference strengthen when General Tesfaye Gebre Kidan, and Tesfaye Dinka rejected the recommendation by the U.S. the the EPDRF forces enter Addis Ababa and maintain order. General Tesfaye declared himself a rebel and vowed to fight the EPDRF. Also the expectation that the EPDRF can maintain order in Addis Ababa did not materialize so far. People have been killed while domonstrating against the EPDRF and the U.S., and violence is erupting throughout Addis Ababa when the Tigreans play their traditional victory song and dance. Apparently the Oromo and Amara polulation in Addis Ababa is provked by such celebration in the street by the Tigreans in Addis Ababa. Ethiopian Democratic Union (EDU) and the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionalry Party (EPRF) began to fight in Gondar and Gojjam. These two organizations were shunned the EPDRF and their request to participate in the London peace conference is rejected by both the U.S. and the EPDRF.
Quo Vadis Ethiopia?
Mengistu’s legacy will have incalculable impact on generations to come. But where is Ethiopia going? It has been said that those who do not learn form the past are doomed to repeat it.
It is folly to believe that force of arms alone can bring about a permanent and durable solutions to Ethiopia’s multifaceted problems. Neither the present nor any future government could expect to use violence as means of governing this multiethnic, multilingual society. Leaders on all sides must share a common desire for peace based on genuine compromise and accommodations. They must also show a genuine commitment to the rule of law and respect for the individual’s freedom and dignity. Ethiopia’s leaders must strive to promote ethnic diversity and cast away outdated notions that one or another ethnic group is entitled to rule.
Ethiopia is poised in the twilight of a new era. Whether she will begin a new era of reconciliation and reconstruction or open another dark chapter is in the hands of its leaders and people. Wrong choices and miscalculations by its leaders can yet plunge this desperate nation into irretrievable misery. The leadership on all sides should not miss the opportunity to open a new chapter of peace and prosperity.
Ethiopians have many problems when they arrive in the U.S. Usually their expectations are shattered by the realities of life in the U.S. Ethiopians coming to America face the same problems that African Americans do. Wouldn’t it be nice if Ethiopians first coming to the U.S. were welcomed, helped to get adjusted, and immediately employed by African Americans? Wouldn’t it be great if Ethiopians and African Americans jointly started profitable businesses? And wouldn’t it be nice if we could all sit down and drink coffee and talk together? Why doesn’t this happen?
The reason it doesn’t happen is that African Americans think that Ethiopians and all other Africans don’t want anything to do with them. They think Ethiopians hate and feel superior to them. African Americans believe that they are not considered to be Africans by Ethiopians and other Africans but rather as some good-for-nothing, mixed-down, lazy, poor American bums. Thinking these things causes African Americans to disassociate themselves from, and even dislike Ethiopians and other Africans. Being an African American myself, I remember believing these things.
African Americans are constantly subjected to movies, television programs and TV commercials depicting Africa as the so-called “Dark Continent”. African Americans see TV programs like “Feed the Children” which gives the impression that all of Ethiopia and the rest of Africa is starving and doesn’t have food. The information from magazines like National Geographic seem to imply that Ethiopia is a starving desert and Africa is one big jungle. Movies such as Tarzan have led African Americans to believe that whites are the “Kings of the Jungle” and that everything in Ethiopia and elsewhere i Africa is controlled by non-Africans.
There is no representation of cities or industry. Traditional doctors and natural medicine is said to be witch doctors and voodoo medicine. Languages are presented as the chatter of wild savages with the intelligence of baboons. Nothing is said about the fact that there is regular furniture in the huts of the villages. There are even people said to be “authorities in the field” who will say Ethiopians are not Africans! And the innocent cartoons get the children while they are young. Cartoons that African Americans have grown up with such as Popeye, Yogi Bear, Bugs Bunny, and others, at one time or another have depicted Africa as the untamed jungle. So from birth to death, African Americans learn to accept these false ideas as fact and are not quite able to escape them. I am sure that Ethiopians and other Africans are tired of being seen as poor, backwards, and uneducated by African Americans.
But Ethiopians, like all other continental Africans, too, receive and often believe misleading information about African Americans. They are subjected to the Western mass media both in Africa and here in the U.S. I have talked to Ethiopians and other Africans that did not even know African Americans existed before they came here. Some Africans believe the myths that African Americans are “lazy bums.” Ethiopians and other Africans see the news, TV shows, and movies which seem to portray African Americans as the country’s thieves, drug users, drug dealers and irresponsible drunken bums. There is no representation of African American as politicians, businessmen and women, engineers and designers, caring parents, happy children, concerned citizens, or even passionate lovers.
The result of believing untrue things about each other is that when we see each other we say and think bad things about each other. Because of this we decide not to acknowledge each other. We fail to talk to each other and miss out on the to find out who the other really is. We help the untrue information to live on, only to be believed just as easily by the next.
In order to solve the problems we have, we must begin to talk to one another to personally find out who the other really is. We have to visit places where the other goes such as clubs, restaurants, and churches and talk. We must visit each other at our homes. Ethiopians can show African Americans photographs from photo albums, and video tapes taken in the cosmopolitan cities, important towns, and of the beautiful countryside in Ethiopia.
A single picture placed in your wallet or purse can destroy all myths and misconceptions that African Americans have of Ethiopians. And I know this works because I keep a picture of an African country’s city in my wallet at all times. Realize that nobody else is trying to educate African Americans about Africa. African Americans need your help. Neither the library nor the schools offer the type of information that Ethiopians can give their country and continent. Once Ethiopians, other Africans, and African Americans begin helping each other understand who they are, we all can then live in co-operation and harmony together.
Mr. Jegede Legesse Allyn is an African American and founder of United African International, a newly national organization to teach African Americans about the culture from the cities of African countries.
I was banished from home and went from fairy-tale fortune to bare and continual poverty. I had spent a decade in Germany before I came to US; and now I am earning my daily bread in pettiness. To be frank, I am working any job to get nowhere. Why?
How long have I been here?… emh… a good while, a year and half. It is not big deal. What is the difference between yesterday and today? Ugly enough, time is recorded on my face, in my muscles; I see its shadow moving across my childhood friends. I suspect there would be many areas in which I wouldn’t grow; my spirits remain childlike.
Not long ago, I traveled to Washington D.C by Greyhound bus. We were driving on a free way. Life would be interesting if there were such kind of free way for each of us.
My mind is always filled with different questions that need to be answered. I like simple questions, though. Do I like it here? How can I tell myself how I should like it? The passenger who was sitting beside me on this bus stared me up and down.
Pretty soon, he turned his face away as if he thought I didn’t realize he was staring. The fact of the matter is he saw my cloth. I never wore fancy clothes because I am not a person who wants to conceal his true self. Why do you judge a people by their clothes?
Do you have time to think about your life? Who said ‘life is too short’? I have plenty of time to contemplate my life.
I am like a boat which starts sailing without an engine or boat-hook. Even now I don’t know who placed me in the middle of this big ocean, nor who put my head into the lion’s mouth.
Can you imagine a person who doesn’t have the slightest idea where he is heading? After all, nobody knows where he is going or whether the worth of his actions are worthwhile. Why?
What have I gotten from life? I couldn’t say I have gotten money, house or authority. My conscience needs something totally different. Of course, until the age of 26 I didn’t know specifically what I really wanted. I was too ambitious to pursue a profession.
Once in a blue moon, my voice burst with joy, then life and death mingled together; that is why I love life.
I always listen my inner voice as if someone is there. I have been told that there is a drop of hope that keeps our lives going. Only God knows how long we should hope.
To be honest, this idea was shaped for me as result of a conversation that I had long ago with an old woman in church. She was 90 years old, but looked young, energetic and healthy. I believe that something other than medicine has enabled her to live such a long life. If I were her, I would be bored. You know? I went to church to prepare myself for life after death. She was praying aloud, and her loud prayers attracted my attention. She was praising and thanking God; I couldn’t see what this woman could possibly have to be thankful for. I wondered whether she had been promised a place in heaven. I had asked myself – did she get promise to have a place in heaven?
“Why do you thank God?” I asked her. Interestingly enough, she smiled at me.
“Because he has given me what I wanted!” she responded.
“Did you get money, a house, what?” I asked.
“I don’t have all those things, but my son, I am a happy woman!” she said.
Why?”
“My son” she said, “don’t equate my happiness with material possessions. I have never asked God to give me money!”
“So what did you ask?”
“I asked for pure conscience!”
Her words convinced me, and have been instilled in me ever since.
The bus stopped somewhere for an hour layover, and I was brought back to the present. As did many of the other passengers, I went to the bar and ordered a beer.
Why do I drink beer?
I wanted to get drunk, not to forget, but to tell the truth if there is such a thing. I sometimes deliberately try to create misleading impression of myself; because I want to rise above depressing, wretched facts of life.
Do I sound pessimistic? I am and proud of it. If anyone examined life realistically he would say the futures will be darker and worse than today. You know what makes some of my friends blind to the reality? Hypocrisy! They see themselves the end of the downward progression. These hypocritical delusions can be perilous.
After my second beer, I ordered some food. Hey! … why do you eat alone!? Because I was born alone! Of course, if I had true love for any one, I wouldn’t have eaten alone. I have both material and spiritual poverty. The most disgusting thing in this unjust and unfair would is that there are families who have no food as well as those who have food no community. Both cause me great pain. One is the copy, the other is the original. How could the family eat together if secret police knock at one’s door and taken away one’s daughter or son to God-knows-where. In my lifetime, I have seen both dying mother giving her last bits of food to her children and desperately poor parents selling their daughter into prostitution. Both are a daily reality.
Are your bored?… me? Yes! I am sorry… mankind is bored! Perhaps this is the principal cause of all our problems. We no longer know what to do with ourselves.
Am I really a man? I am like the character Ivan in The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoveskey who wanted not a million dollars but an answer to his question.
I would be better off to turn a deaf ear to any question.
_____________________
Written in Ohio, June 1991
Most people buying a home, no matter how many times they may done it, find the process of applying for a mortgage mystifying and even intimidating. Considering that most folks don’t do it that often, this is understandable. After all, the lender does have the power of the pen to either grant or deny the loan with one fell stroke, and since “time is of the essence” in most real estate deals, borrowers must make every effort to get it right on the first application. But getting a home loan need not be a fearful leap into the unknown. The principles behind real estate finance are basically simple and straightforward.
The procedures for financing real estate can be broken down into just a few steps: 1) finding a lender, 2) filling out the application, 3) processing the application, 4) the underwriter’s analysis of the loan package, 5) the loan committee, 6) funding and closing in escrow.
Finding a lender
The first step and probably the most important in obtaining a mortgage is, of course, finding the right lender. The buyer or the real estate agent, acting on the buyer’s behalf, will arrange an appointment with a loan officer. Most real estate agents will have established business relationships with one or more loan officers who they have come to know as competent and trustworthy. If no realtor is involved, or the realtor can’t refer the buyer to a lender, the search is on.
For many of us, when we think “mortgage” the next words that come to mind are “bank” or “saving and loan.” This isn’t bad, but limiting your search to just these institutions narrows the choice of loan programs considerably. Most banks and S&L’s have only a few loan programs to offer and often they will try to fit a borrower into one of these. This is fine if the borrower’s qualifications really do fit the bank or S&L’s loan underwriting requirements. But in most cases, borrowers don’t come that neatly packaged.
This is why a mortgage broker or banker fits the bill most of the time. These lenders will represent a variety of investors offering many loan programs, one of which is bound to be just right for any legitimate borrower.
The Application Interview
Once the lender has been selected, an appointment will be set up and the borrower will be expected to have on hand personal and financial documents. Being prepared for this can save time and may avoid a string of “conditions” that will need to be met before the loan can be funded. Many of these conditions are requests for more documentation.
If the borrower will search out and supply these items at the outset, a mad scramble near the close of escrow can be avoided. The loan officer will supply a list of the items that need to be on hand.
The loan officer will have to ask a lot of personal and financial questions that may seem an infringement of privacy. Lending personnel are obligated to keep your confidence and only those persons who must be privy to this information will see it. Don’t be intimidated and do know that loan officers are looking for ways to grant the loan, not refuse it. They are your advocates, not your adversaries. Loan officers usually do not get paid if the loan doesn’t get approved and funded.
Processing the Application
After the loan officer submits the loan package to his processor, the processor will send out requests for more documentation, such as verification of employment, verifications of bank accounts, as well as current mortgage ratings, property appraisal, preliminary title report, credit report and a myriad of other stuff. This is the step that requires the most patience because it takes time to gather this documentation from the sources. Sometimes the processor will be unable to get all the documentation needed and it is not unusual for borrowers to get a phone call or a letter from the processor during this stage, asking for more documents or additional information. Borrowers should not be alarmed at receiving more requests for additional information; this is not a sign that the loan package is going sideways. Processors are simply trying to satisfy the requirements that predetermined underwriting guidelines have imposed on the particular loan program
being considered.
Underwriting
After the application and all required documentation and reports have been received and packaged by the processor, the loan package is sent to the underwriter. The underwriter studies the entire loan package. He or she will calculate the borrower’s debt-to-income ratios, analyze the appraisal to determine that the value of the collateral (i.e. the property) is there, study the title report to make sure that the house is free and clear of liens and generally “put the package together” for the loan committee with a cover letter outlining the strong points. Underwriters like to point out that underwriting is subjective and not a science and that, just as no two like snowflakes are alike, neither are loan packages. Therefore, as the theory goes, a borrower’s loan package should not be accepted or rejected without considering the weight and balances of all aspects of the loan package together.
Threading your way through the lending maze can be difficult even if you’re done your homework. This is why reliance upon the skill and experience of a savvy loan officer can effect an expedient transaction that will make everyone happy. I would be pleased to answer any questions about real estate loans.
On the next issue I will finish this subject about the Loan Process and continue writing about the Underwriter, the Loan Committee, the Funding and Escrow.
____________________
Woldu Yoseph is a regional loan manager with IBF Mortgage Capital. Los Angeles. For more information on subjects in this article contact Ato Woldu Yoseph at (213) 680-9601
It is important for Ethiopians to be informed about the current crises in Ethiopia. Unfortunately, the international press addresses most any bush war in the boondocks of the world, but rarely finds time to address the war in Ethiopia, now some three decades at work.
It is also interesting that people who have continuously financed the insurrectionist rebel factions from Arab lands desire the Ethiopian Coastline, Massawa, Assab and whatever they can grab to totally isolate Ethiopia and hold them captive without access to the Sea, with ultimate absorption and conversion of the Christian Ethiopians to Islam “by force.”
While it is true that in Ethiopia itself there is little derision between the Christian and the followers of Mohammed, however, the folks across the pond and on their East and North have continuously acted to cause derision between the faiths and to use military force to overthrow and takeover the Ethiopian Government, by force. The support of the rebels by Iraq and by Libya, including Libyan forces operation with the rebels, is evidence in fact of the conspiracy by the Arab governments to destroy Ethiopia.
Make no mistake, President Mengistu Hailemariam is no “Prince of Peace.” He is in fact a dictator who offers the nation total destruction following his lead.
Moreover, Mengistu’s methodology for problem solving, i.e., firing squad methodologies inevitably produce the same results wherever they are used. e.g. in France during the French revolution and ever other country in the world where the folks with guns come to power, they always kill off all of the intelligencia or exile them and try to “wish skyscrapers, bridges, ships, aircraft and technology into existence.” What they gain is another dark age where the poor that survive are further impoverished and destroyed.
The question many Ethiopian ask, “What is the policy of the opposition?” is most appropriate at this juncture. Armed thugs replacing Armed Thugs never solves problems but further exacerbates them. The replacement thugs only kill off the remaining thinkers and replace them with a different group who still steal under the color of law.
I would urge that those who plan to replace the present power with another think carefully on what they replace them with. i.e., if to carry on the same politics of self destruction, nothing is gained by
the change in the long run.
If indeed, those contemplating a new government stop to gather those from abroad who have the professional technical ability to think and evolve plans, programs and rational budgets, and produce and introduce a Constitution with a Bill of Rights protective of the Right to Life, Right to lawfully acquired property, and the right to self-defense against criminal aggression, then it is possible for a Government of the People to exist and prosper.
There is more to the development of a rational system of government of the people, by the people and for the people — than expounding of all laws, rules and regulations which impact the marketplace such that a Free Market Economic System can have the opportunity to evolve creating the opportunity to excel and create such that those risk takers may do so without any greater penalty than the loss of their investment capital. Without such opportunity there never has been and can never be progress in any nation on earth toward greater individual liberty and greater economic prosperity.
It is important to know the platforms and principles of the opposition and the Philosophical underpinnings of those who propose to “offer better government”. i.e., “better than what” and “at whose expense.” The incentive to excel and create exists only when individuals have the opportunity to advance their position in life and make more money. Take away that incentive and people don’t.
I believe the U.S. should have at the very least provided technical assistance and such support as may be essential to bringing the criminally acting separatists under objective control, which along with technical and life support aid such as food, clothing, etc. would help bring a cease fire and an opportunity to negotiate differences.
I urge the Ethiopian Review and other Ethiopian publications to ferret out the facts concerning “who the opposition folks are” such that readers may determine their competence and credibility to run the government in trust for the people of Ethiopia, with a constitution protective of their inalienable right to life and its only meaningful corollary, the right to own property and right to self defense.
