Browse through any Ethiopian websites, and you will discover that almost every article or commentary says something about the Tigrean domination of the country. The cyber world is crammed with statistics, testimonies, conspiracy theories and condemnations. Some of the fervent cases brought forth include;
* How Tigray disproportionally benefits under this regime,
* How 95% of all important military and security posts have been occupied by ethnic Tigreans,
* Reports over the TPLF-owned giant conglomerate known by its acronym, EFFORT
* Accounts of how the Tigrean-only Agazi commando force has been used to commit heinous crimes,
* The meteoric rise of Tigrean elites into the club of world millionaires, and
* Denunciations of the unacceptable monopolization of the church and mosque leadership by rebels-turned-men-of-God.
Most of these allegations are true, while some are perhaps exaggerated. However, there is no doubt that they are indicative of the growing rift between Tigrean elites, who deny or defend their hegemonic and exclusive economic advantage, and their adversaries, who offer evidence after evidence to back up their complaints. I have been a keen observer of how the system actually functions under the shadow of the current regime. As I read arguments and analyses provided by different individuals and groups, I find a lack of revealing analysis of the true purpose behind the blatantly pro-Tigrean policies of the current regime. Therefore, in this article I will analyze the strategies, tactics and politics behind the transformation of the TPLF from a peasant revolutionary force into Africa’s richest oligarchy.
First encounter with a Tigrean Nationalist
My initial encounter with a Tigrean nationalist took place sometime in the mid-„90s, at a time when the fight between TPLF and Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) was at its peak. A discussion between an older neighbor and a TPLF soldier called Manjus caught my attention. Manjus was passionately talking about how he joined TPLF. His story begins about ten years earlier, when the young Tigrean and his sister were attending high school in a town far away from their village. One day, they returned home for a mid-semester vacation and found their village virtually burned to the ground. The two students came home to discover a completely demolished house, dead parents and whatever property the peasant family owned gone. In a tragic incident, the two siblings lost everything. They had no hope, no family or means of support that could help them go back to school. To make matters worse, they were told that the Derg cadres were hunting for them. As they tried to cope with the sudden shock, anger, and despair, they were met by TPLF recruiters who came with a promise of a means for revenge towards those who slaughtered their parents and also bring peace, justice and democracy to their oppressed Tigrean people. The helpless mourners and enraged youngsters could not resist the offer, so they joined the freedom fighters. A few years later, Manjus lost his sister to the war shortly before TPLF controlled Finfinne. Soon things turned upside down. When Meles replaced Mengistu, Manjus‟ turn came to chase another rebel group and burn down many other villages, including mine.
I was a young boy back then. But it still baffles me why someone who picked up arms against an oppressive regime because his village was burned would come to destroy mine or someone who joined freedom fighters to free his people would suppress my people. It remains a question for which I still seek an answer. During my high school years, I read the history of TPLF in newspapers and magazines, listened to the radio and watched television during the Yekatit 11th and Ginbot 20th celebrations, when TPLF leaders would talk for days about the cause for which they had waged a fierce struggle, the hardships they went through and the glory of defeating the “murderous” enemy. As a young Oromo nationalist with grievances against the dominant culture, I understood why they rebelled against oppressive system. But none of their explanations ever answered my question as to why those freedom fighters turned into ruthless oppressors within such a short period of time.
As I grew older, the list of my questions has also grown. The Tigrean people suffered economic alienation under Haile Selassie and were subjected to ruthless suppression and persecution under the Derg regime. It was their grievances that gave birth to TPLF, and Tigreans supported and sustained the front through years of bloody struggle for their freedom. Then, how could such freedom-loving people remain loyal to a party that oppresses, kills, loots and destroys the lives of other ethnic groups? There is no easy answer to this question but one might begin to understand it by assessing the historic and contemporary relationships between the people of Tigray and the TPLF. … Continue reading. Click here.
After 10 years of obscurity, the Ethiopian People’s Patriotic Front (EPPF) is now emerging as a leading political force to be reckoned with in Ethiopia. To find out how much impact EPPF is making, one needs only watch the Woyanne-controlled ETV. In October, ETV, Bereket Simone’s mouthpiece, declared that EPPF has been destroyed after a recent military operation named “yager chata.” It showed EPPF fighters surrendering en mass. Now, just two months after making such a declaration, ETV is reporting about EPPF military campaign to attack electrical power lines and assassinate regime officials.
It’s not only Woyanne that is currently targeting EPPF. There is a concerted effort by a number of groups with different motives to sabotage and keep the organization weak.
Despite all the obstacles thrown in front of it, EPPF will continue to march forward in all fronts — military, political, and diplomatic, in collaboration with other Ethiopian organizations that are fighting for change in Ethiopia. In the diplomatic field, EPPF is making an effort to establish good working relationships with other countries through its chapters around the world. EPPF-Washington DC is working to make the U.S. Government aware of the organization’s aims and objectives by establishing contacts with Obama Administration officials and members of the U.S. Congress.
While the gallant EPPF fighters are making Woyanne sleepless in the home front, there are two important upcoming EPPF events this month in the Diaspora:
The Washington DC meeting will be held on Saturday, January 30, 2010.
Place: Unification Church
Address: 1610 Columbia Road, Washington DC
Time: 3:00 PM
The EPPF Washington Metro Chapter will release more details about the January 30 meetings shortly.
“Oh! What a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive,” said Sir Walter Scott, the novelist and poet. Is there “famine” in Ethiopia, or not? Are large numbers of people “starving” there, or not? Is convulsive hunger a daily reality for the majority of Ethiopians, or not?
Ethiopian famine map
No one wants to use the “F” word to describe the millions of starving Ethiopians. In August 2008, the head of the dictatorship in Ethiopia flatly denied the existence of famine in a Time Magazine interview. Meles Zenawi explained, “Famine has wreaked havoc in Ethiopia for so long, it would be stupid not to be sensitive to the risk of such things occurring. But there has not been a famine on our watch – emergencies, but no famines.” Last week, the dictatorship’s “Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development”, Mitiku Kassa, reacting defensively to the latest Famine Early Warning System (FEWSNET) projections, was equally adamant: “In the Ethiopian context, there is no hunger, no famine… It is baseless [to claim famine], it is contrary to the situation on the ground. It is not evidence-based. The government is taking action to mitigate the problems.” This past October, Kassa claimed everything was under control because his government has launched a food security program to “enable chronic food insecure households attain sufficient assets and income level to get out of food insecurity and improve their resilience to shocks… and halve extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.”
But there is manifestly a “silent” famine and a “quiet” hunger haunting the land under Zenawi’s “watch.” In April, 2009, Zenawi gave an interview to David Frost of Al Jazeera in which he openly admitted that famine is rearing its ugly head once again in Ethiopia and other parts of Africa. Frost asked: “Is there any danger that as a result of this [current] crises there could be famine like there was famine in 1984?” Zenawi responded:
Well, the famine of 1984 was precipitated by drought in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa in general. The famine that could emerge as a result of this [current] crises is likely to be silent across the continent in terms of not swaths of territory that are drought affected but people suffering hunger quietly across the continent. That is the most likely scenario as I see it.
So, if the famine Horseman of the Apocalypse is haunting Ethiopia and the continent, “silently” and “quietly”, why are we not sounding the alarm, ringing the bells and hollering for bloody help? Why are we quiet about the “quiet” hunger and silent about the “silent” famine enveloping Ethiopia today? Why?
It is mind-boggling that no one is making a big deal about the fact that famine and hunger are back in the saddle once more in Ethiopia. Ethiopians need help, and they need a lot of it fast and now. Of course, nothing more depressing than the sight, smell and experience of famine and hunger. For the second part of the 20th Century, much of the world believed the words “Ethiopia” and “famine” were synonymous. But it is unconscionable and criminal for officials to avoid using the “F” word to describe the forebodingly bleak food situation in Ethiopia today because they are concerned it would cast a “negative image” on them. Even the international experts have joined the local officials in boycotting the use of the “F” word. Just last week, the U.S.-funded FEWSNET declared that the majority of Ethiopians will be facing “food insecurity” (not hunger, not starvation, not famine) in the next six months. According to FEWSNET, because of poor harvests from the summer rains in 2009
as well as poor water availability and pasture regeneration in northern pastoral zones” [and coupled]with two consecutive poor belg cropping seasons… high staple food prices, poor livestock production, and reduced agricultural wages, [there will be an] elevated food insecurity over the coming six months [particularly in the] eastern marginal cropping areas in Tigray, Amhara, and Oromia, pastoral areas of Afar and northern and southeastern Somali region, Gambella region, and most low-lying areas of southern and central SNNPR…. In most areas of the country, food insecurity during the first half of 2010 is projected to be significantly worse than during the same period in 2009… Food security in eastern marginal cropping areas will likely deteriorate even further between July and September 2010. Overall, humanitarian assistance needs are expected to be very high.
Is it not a low-down dirty shame for international organizations, political leaders, officials and bureaucrats to use euphemisms to hide the ugly truth about famines and mass-scale hunger? These heartless crooks have invented a lexicography, a complete dictionary of mumbo-jumbo words and phrases to conceal the public fact that large numbers of people in Ethiopia and other parts of Africa are dying simply because they have nothing or very little food to eat. They talk about “food insecurity ”, “food scarcity”, “food insufficiency”, “food deprivation”, “severe food shortages”, “chronic dietary deficiency”, “endemic malnutrition” and so on just to avoid using the “F” word. FEWSNET has invented a ridiculous system of neologism (new words) to describe hungry people. Accordingly, there are people who are generally food secure, moderately food insecure, highly food insecure, extremely food insecure and those facing famine (see map above). Translated into ordinary language, these nonsensical categories seem to equate those who eat once a day as generally food secure, followed by the moderately secure who eat one meal every other day, the highly insecure who eat once every three days, the extremely insecure who eat once a week, and those in famine who never eat and therefore die from lack of food.
For crying out loud, what is wrong with calling a spade a spade!? Why do officials and experts beat around the bush when it comes to talking about hunger as hunger, starvation as starvation and famine as famine? Do they think they can sugarcoat the piercing pangs of hunger, the relentless pain of starvation and the total devastation of famine with sweet bureaucratic words and phrases?
As officials and bureaucrats quibble over which fancy words and phrases best describe the dismal food situation, hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians are dying from plain, old fashioned hunger, starvation and famine. The point is there is famine in Ethiopia. One could disagree whether there are pockets of famine or large swaths of famine-stricken areas. One could argue whether 4.9, 6, 16 or 26 million people are affected by it. But there is no argument that there is famine; and this is not a matter for speculation, conjecture or exaggeration. It can be verified instantly. Let the international press go freely into the “drought affected” and “food insecure” areas and report what they find. For at least the past two years, they have been banned from entering these areas. Is there any doubt that they would reveal irrefutable evidence of famine on the scale of 1984-85 if they were allowed free access to these areas?
Obviously, it is embarrassing for a regime wafting on the euphoria of an “11 percent economic growth over the past 6 years” to admit famine. It is bad publicity for those claiming runaway economic growth to admit millions of their citizens are in the iron grip of a runaway famine. If the “F” word is used, then the donors would start asking questions, relief agencies would be scurrying to set up feeding stations, the international press would be demanding accountability and all hell could break loose. That is why the dictatorship in Ethiopia reacts reflexively and defensively whenever the “F” word is mentioned. They froth at the mouth condemning the international press for making “baseless” claims of famine, and castigate them for perpetuating “negative images” of the country merely because the international press insists on finding out verifiable facts about the food situation in the country. The fact of the matter is that unless action is not taken soon to openly and fully admit that large swaths of the Ethiopian countryside are in a state of famine, we should soon expect to see splattered across the globe’s newspapers pictures of Ethiopian infants with distended bellies, the skeletal figures of their nursing mothers and the sun-baked remains of the aged and the feeble on the parched land.
Denial of famine by totalitarian and dictatorial regimes is nothing new. During 1959-61, nearly 30 million Chinese starved to death in Mao’s Great Leap Forward program which uprooted millions of Chinese from the countryside for industrial production. Mao never acknowledged the existence of famine, nor did he make a serious effort to secure foreign food aid. Ironically, the Chinese Revolution had promised the peasants an end to famine. The Soviet Famines of 1921 and 1932-3 are classic case studies in official failure to prevent famine.
Why is it so difficult for dictatorships and other non-democratic systems to admit famine, make it part of the public discussion and debate and unabashedly seek help? Part of it has to do with image maintenance. Official admission of famine is the ultimate proof of governmental ineptitude and depraved indifference to the suffering of the people. But there is a more compelling explanation for dictators not to admit famine conditions in their countries. It has to do with a fundamental disconnect between the dictators and their subjects. As Nobel laureate Amartya Sen argued,
The direct penalties of a famine are borne by one group of people and political decisions are taken by another. The rulers never starve. But when a government is accountable to the local populace it too has good reasons to do its best to eradicate famines. Democracy, via electoral politics, passes on the price of famines to the rulers as well.
An examination of the history of famine in Ethiopia lends support to Sen’s theory. Emperor Haile Selassie lost his crown and life over famine in the early 1970s. He said he was just not aware of it. The military junta’s (Derg) denied there was famine in 1984/85 while it waged war and experimented with the long-discredited practice of collectivized agriculture. That famine accelerated the downfall of the Derg. The current dictators have opted to remain willfully blind, deaf and mute to the “silent” famine and “quiet” hunger that are destroying the people.
The official response to famines in Ethiopia over the past four decades has followed a predictable pattern: Step 1: Never plan to prevent famine. Step 2: Deny there is famine when there is famine. Step 3: Condemn and vilify anyone who sounds the early alarm warning on famine. Step 4: Admit “severe food shortages” (not famine) and blame the weather, and God for not sending rain. Step 5: Make frantic international emergency calls and announce that hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians are dying from famine. Step 6: Guilt-trip Western donors into providing food aid. Step 7: Accuse and vilify Western donors for not providing sufficient food aid and blame them for a runaway famine. Step 8: Tell the world they knew nothing about a creeping famine until it suddenly hit them like a thunderbolt. Step 9: Put on an elaborate dog-and-pony show about their famine relief efforts. Step 10: Go back to step 1. This has been the recurrent pattern of famine response in Ethiopia: Always too little, too late.
The fact of the matter is that famines are entirely avoidable as Sen has argued with substantial empirical evidence.
Famines are easy to prevent if there is a serious effort to do so, and a democratic government, facing elections and criticisms from opposition parties and independent newspapers, cannot help but make such an effort. Not surprisingly, while India continued to have famines under British rule right up to independence … they disappeared suddenly with the establishment of a multiparty democracy and … a free press and an active political opposition constitute the best early-warning system a country threaten by famines can have.
There is another question that needs to be answered in connection with the “severe food shortages” in Ethiopia. Why are millions of fertile hectares of land under “lease” or sold outright to foreigners to feed millions continents away when millions of Ethiopians are starving? To paraphrase Sen, such a thing would be unthinkable in a functioning multiparty democracy!
With no pun intended, the “breadcrumbs” of famine (or as they euphemistically call it the “early warning signs”) are plain to see. There have been successive crop failures and poor rainfall; water availability is limited and staple food prices are soaring; livestock production is poor as is pasture regeneration. Deforestation, land degradation, overpopulation, pestilence and disease are widespread in the land. If it quacks like a duck, swims like a duck and walks like a duck, it is famine!
If those whose duty is to sound the alarm and get help are not willing to do their part, it is the moral responsibility and duty of every Ethiopian and compassionate human being anywhere to create public awareness of Ethiopia’s creeping famine and call for HELP! HELP! HELP!
“There has never been a famine in a functioning multiparty democracy.” Amartya Sen
(Alemayehu G. Mariam, is a professor of political science at California State University, San Bernardino, and an attorney based in Los Angeles. He writes a regular blog on The Huffington Post, and his commentaries appear regularly on Pambazuka News and New American Media.)
As we celebrate this New Year and reflect back on 2009, it draws me to examine myself and my purposes for my life. I invite you, meaning all Ethiopians—including Woyane or EPRDF supporters to do the same.
For me, I live a simple life, without many of the “extras.” In fact, the truth is, even maintaining this has been quite a struggle. Recently, it has caused me to really question myself as to how long I can continue this way. The holiday season has a way of only increasing such introspection. As a result, I have found myself engulfed in an inner dialogue, a conflict of sorts, about my soul, my life and the purposes God has given me in this life. It is all inextricably interwoven with my motherland, Ethiopia, Africa and after six years of this work, what my response should be in 2010 to this continuing crisis.
In the midst of these heavy and confusing feelings, I became aware of powerful passages from the book of Lamentations in the Bible, written in 586 BC, that spoke of the pain, suffering and grief of the people following the destruction of Jerusalem. These laments profoundly spoke to my heart over two thousand years later as they seemed to so closely describe the destruction going on to our people all over Ethiopia, pointing to part of the cause being, the lack of justice and compassion towards others. Is this not true of us Ethiopians?
My Fellow Ethiopians;
Whether you are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Animist or a non-believer, I believe you may find that the images, emotion and pain expressed along with the lessons to be learned are greatly worthwhile to reflect upon as we enter this New Year; seeking new solutions to the deterioration of life in Ethiopia.
Let us first look at what is happening. It disturbs me greatly to see so many negative images and to hear so many tragic stories of suffering coming out from all over Ethiopia on a daily basis. These are some of the most recent stories:
In Gambella, the Indian company, Karuturi Global is said to now control 300,000 hectares in the Gambella region or about 741,000 acres, an area larger than Luxembourg. [2] This multi-national corporation, with shareholders in Maryland and Boston, says the best part of the deal is that the land is free for the first six years and then only $1.18 per hectare for eighty-four more years! Apparently, equivalent land in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia would cost about $350 per hectare.
The Anuak governor of the Gambella region who is making these deals for and with the ruling regime in Addis Ababa is the same alleged genocide perpetrator, Omot Obang Olom, who provided the list of names of Anuak to be killed in the genocide of 2003. In 2004 he was promoted to governor for his “good work.” This is an evil regime executing a new kind of genocide and modern slavery that can drive one to tears.
My Fellow Ethiopians;
Another lament—a mourning cry of great loss—from the Gambella regionis from the Mazengir, a tiny ethnic group whose people live in the forests and who sustain themselves as beekeepers and hunters. They total fewer than 2,500 people worldwide. They say, “Our forests are about to be destroyed by the billionaire, Al Amoudi. These forests are our life! Without these forests, we are finished! The forest is our shelter, our food, our clothing and the source of everything to us!”
A lament is being heard from Beninshangul-Gumuz as the government is making plans to give away 300,000 hectares of land, which will be cleared of its bamboo trees. They say, “To us, the bamboo tree, let alone the land, defines who we are. It is our food, the material through which we build our homes, make our musical instruments and our weapons. Without the bamboo tree, our survival is questionable, but add to that the loss of our land and it will be the end of us as a people!”
A lament is heard from Afar. They say, “The government has never cared about us, but now our fertile land is being given to Egypt. On top of that, there are multi-national corporations who are using our resources and poisoning the river from which we drink our water. These new environmental hazards are not only killing the people, but our camels. To us, the camel is who we are and is our livelihood!”
A lament is heard from Amhara who say, “Our land has been taken over and we have been displaced. One elderly man refused to leave his home. He was slapped, hit and beaten by Ethiopian defense forces until he was bleeding from the mouth. He was then taken away by security forces and has not been heard of since. He was 80 years old.”
A lament is coming from Oromiya. They said, “Our land is being given to the Indian companies and anyone who speaks out against it is labeled as an OLF terrorist who is not supposed to have any rights or question any actions by the government.”
Then, you hear the horror-stricken lament coming from the Ogaden. “Part of our land, with many of our people inside, has been blocked by the Meles government and we have no way of knowing what is going on inside. Everyone is excluded from entering. We are fearful that once the information comes out it will shock the people like what happened after people learned what was taking place in the concentration camps [during the Holocaust].”
A lament is heard from the Southern Nations as the people report, “Our children and our elders have such serious malnutrition that they are dying daily from lack of food, but the government refuses to acknowledge it.” Yet, Ethiopian Disaster Prevention Minister Mikitu Kassa recently admitted to the BBC that 5.7 million Ethiopians were currently getting food aid; but that “in the Ethiopian context, [whatever that means] there is no hunger, no famine…” and reports to the contrary were “not evidence-based.” [3]
In another part of the Southern Nations, in the lower Omo Valley, a place where nearly a million pastoralists, namely the Dasanech, Nyangatom, Mursi, Hamer, Bodi, Muguji and Karo live, the Gibe III Dam is being constructed without the consultation or consideration of the indigenous people. Once this dam is in operation, they tell us that it will mean the extinction of their people because they will lose their livelihood, as the dam blocks their sources of water needed for their survival, the growing of crops, fishing and daily water for them and their livestock. These people are among the most marginalized and discriminated against people in Ethiopia by this and previous governments. They are only exploited by people for tourism due to the plates they wear in their mouths. How many Ethiopians in the Diaspora care about these people? My Fellow Ethiopians;
These are only a few examples I heard from the ground and I am sure, there are many more heartbreaking ones of how our Ethiopian brothers and sisters are being pushed off their land by their own government, which is then giving their indigenous land to foreign investors. As they are displaced, they are unable to farm or sustain themselves as they have always done. As they lose this source of livelihood, they are ending up as slave laborers, working for a pittance for these same wealthy investors, foreign multi-national corporations and countries who will be mostly exporting the food back to their own countries despite the fact that a representative from the World Food Program recently stated that over 16 million Ethiopians require foreign food aid from western donors just to survive!
Who are some of these investors, capitalizing on these deals? They include former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo [4] who will get 2,000 square meters in Oromiya, President Ismael Omar Gulleh of Djibouti (1300 hectares—some in Oromia) and his first lady, Khadra Mohamed (20 hectares for a flower farm southeast of Addis) and the National Bank of Egypt (20,000 hectares). [5] Mohammed Ali Al Amoudi and his company, Saudi Star Agricultural Development, has been given 10,000 hectares in Gambella and has long term plans of acquiring 500,000 ht total, some coming from Benishangul-Gumuz and the Agew Awi Zone of Amhara Regional State. [6]
My Fellow Ethiopians;
This is just a beginning. In an August article on the government’s website, Walta, it was reported that a delegation from Saudi Arabia has been told about “lots of unused land in the lowlands where lots can be grown” and how eager the Meles government was/is to provide 100’s of thousands of hectares. In 2009, reportedly, 90 owners, leaders and representatives of nine giant Egyptian companies, along with 26 representatives of other Egyptian agricultural companies met to inspect land in Ethiopia. [7] Even the African Union has expressed concern about the land being given away to foreigners so quickly without regard to the people.
When I traveled back to Gambella in 2001 after not being back for a number of years, the inspiration of the land lifted by soul and gave me deep joy. Now, it is being given away for nothing to foreign countries and other investors, making us slaves in our ancestor’s land.
My Fellow Ethiopians; Ethiopia has become like a dying carcass surrounded by hungry vultures eyeing great opportunity. Many of these opportunists want Africa to remain exactly the way it is so the resources can be easily taken—with no strong institutions interfering, working only through greedy dictators anxious to “make good deals.”
The sordid truth is that as long as the people do not know their rights, as long as they must put all their energy into daily survival or as long as Ethiopians in the Diaspora are each fighting for their own power or becoming opportunistic by overlooking all of this so they can gain financially by exploiting rather than helping their own people in Ethiopia, any kind of opportunist, foreign or otherwise, can have a “heyday,” making lucrative deals with a greedy dictator who could care less about the people and their rights.
Why is this not outraging others to rise up? Am I, or only a minority of us, all alone? If this does not cause us to put our differences aside, how bad do things have to get? What has become of us and our moral conscience? Ethiopia is being turned into a slave state by the illegitimate government who is running the country! This is unacceptable! We don’t even have to love one another in Ethiopia to share in our efforts to stop this.
In response, I have this inner turmoil of why this continues to happen; leading me to wonder, do other Ethiopians feel the same as I do and if they do, especially those in the Diaspora, why are we not better at collaborating to find a tangible solution to this? As I hear these stories from people on the ground in Ethiopia of the pain affecting them and others, I wonder, are others also disturbed by this? If so, why are we not doing more? Why is so much time and energy spent on complaining, blaming, accusing or coming up with excuses for not being involved?
My Fellow Ethiopians; All of us can see the destruction among us, but why are we not speaking out with one voice, especially in the Diaspora where we have the privilege of free speech. Yet, when there is a concert for fun and entertainment, thousands of Ethiopians spend money to attend, but when it is about the future of the country, literally no one comes. What is going on? Am I alone in feeling this way?
Look at the crowds of thousands of Ethiopians that show up every year during the Ethiopian Soccer Tournament! The organizers do not even want Ethiopians to talk about human rights abuses and the lack of freedom and justice in the country. This event could provide a platform for telling the children of the country what is going on; but instead, those in charge pretend as if things are good in Ethiopia, ignoring the subject of the thousands of political prisoners or the system of ethnic apartheid that will completely destroy the country. What is going on? As my mind is preoccupied with such reflections, I wonder if others are also weighed down with such thoughts.
When some Ethiopians want some extra luxury, they find the money for it, but when asked to help the country, people bring out excuses for not being active or contributing. Is it greed, selfishness and/or a materialist worldview that makes us care so little for the lives of others when it is within our power to help? Why is it so many seem to be blinded to the need or if they see it, are so quick to overlook it as if it did not exist?
“We have suffered terror and pitfalls, ruin and destruction. Streams of tears flow from my eyes because my people are destroyed. My eyes will flow unceasingly, without relief, until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees. What I see brings grief to my soul because of all the women of my city.” (Lamentations 3:47-51)
My Fellow Ethiopians;
Those suffering the most are the vulnerable, the women, the elders and especially the children. For me, my childhood in Gambella was the best part of my life. I was free, happy and carefree; but today, the majority of Ethiopian children have been robbed of this. Do we care about these little ones? It is time to re-discover the God-created humanity in yourself that appreciates the humanity of another. That knowledge will give you a renewed sense of responsibility towards others. Missing this will leave us disconnected and empty even while our neediness drives us to seek fulfillment through meaningless and unsatisfying things and pursuits.
I ask, how long will this pain continue and how can it be eased? It cannot be eased by one person, one ethnic group, one religious group, one political party or any one group by itself; but instead, we need many Ethiopians who see another’s pain as one’s own; knowing that the pain and suffering in one group is no different than the pain and suffering of your own. The call to action is to any Ethiopian born in this land, regardless of your ethnicity, religion, gender, educational status or age. Please understand that a failure to take such action, often based on a disturbing lack of compassion towards others, is the reason for the continuing suffering of our people.
“Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but my people have become heartless like ostriches in the desert. Because of thirst the infant’s tongue sticks to the roof of its mouth; the children beg for bread, but no one gives it to them ….their skin has shriveled on their bones; it has become as dry as a stick. Those killed by the sword are better off than those who die of famine; racked with hunger, they waste away for lack of food from the field.” (Lamentations 4:3-4, 8b-9)
My Fellow Ethiopians;
Can anyone deny that this is Ethiopia? Does it remind you of Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan or Africa? As we begin 2010, ask yourself, what would make this year different from last year or any number of years before that? When will we see the demarcation between the Ethiopia of pain and suffering and a new, reconciled and transformed Ethiopia where “humanity comes before ethnicity” or where morality, truth, justice, freedom, equality and the respect for the dignity of others are freed from the dungeons of our past?
Just look at this next passage very carefully. What was described then is what we have now.
“Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us; look, and see our disgrace. Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens, our homes to foreigners. We have become orphans and fatherless, our mothers like widows. We must buy the water we drink; our wood can be had only at a price. Those who pursue us are at our heels; we are weary and find no rest. We submitted to Egypt and Assyria to get enough bread. Our fathers sinned and are no more and we bear their punishment. Slaves rule over us and there is none to free us from their hands. We get our bread at the risk of our lives because of the sword in the desert. Our skin is hot as an oven, feverish from hunger. Women have been ravished in Zion, and virgins in the town of Judah. Princes have been hung up by their hands; elders are shown no respect. Young men toil at the millstones; boys stagger under loads of wood. The elders are gone from the city gate; the young men have stopped their music. Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning. The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned! Because of this our hearts are faint, because of these things our eyes grow dim for Mount Zion, [God’s presence] which lies desolate [as God is abandoned by us, the people] with jackals [opportunists] prowling over it.” (Lamentations 5:1-18)
Ethiopians or Africans who are out of touch with their souls may not accept this description as being true today, but otherwise, most will see the similarities between this description of an ancient country and our own 21st century Ethiopia and African continent. If it leads you to ask the question, who will change this, another passage will shed some light on who will not do it.
“Moreover, our eyes failed, looking in vain for help; from our towers we watched for a nation that could not save us. Men stalked us at every step, so we could not walk in our streets. Our end was near, our days were numbered for our end had come. Our pursuers were swifter than eagles in the sky; they chased us over the mountains and lay in wait for us in the desert.” (Lamentations 4: 17-19)
These people waited for an outsider—another nation—that could not do it. The truth of the material world is that people and countries put their own interests first. Washington DC, London, Berlin, Paris or other wealthy and powerful countries will not change Ethiopia. If they would or could, they would have done it a long time ago.
My Fellow Ethiopians;
We should not forget that slavery and such aggressions took place in Africa in the past, not only because of outsiders coming in, but because of those Africans who capitalized on the “opportunity” to either sell their brothers and sisters like cattle or to not defend them because the victims were not part of their own tribe. Those who are willing to compromise moral principles continue to flourish under the absence of law in Ethiopia today; pursuing the material and in doing so, betraying their fellow Ethiopians and advancing simply a different variation of the slavery. You can name them—“it” could be named “Meles,” a multi-national corporation, a foreign country or a wealthy billionaire who hosts extravaganza events like soccer tournaments while exploiting land and economic goldmines all over the country. It also could be “us” for doing nothing. Why are our leaders, particularly our Ethiopian religious leaders, not speaking out and taking a moral stand against evil; sometimes even promoting the ethnic apartheid system based on hate and division rather than on love and reconciliation.
“The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The oracles they gave you were false and misleading…….But it happened because of the sins of her prophets [leaders] and the iniquities of her priests, who shed within her the blood of the righteous. Now they grope through the streets like men who are blind. They are so defiled with blood that no one dares to touch their garments. “Go away!You are unclean!” men cry to them. “Away! Away! Don’t touch us!” When they flee and wander about, people among the nations say, “They can stay here no longer.” (Lamentations 2: 14, 4:13-15)
This latter reference could also apply to today’s African genocide perpetrators like Meles, al-Bashir and many others. In response, we have to come out from our comfortable lives. We do not have to wait for someone else. Some have to sacrifice for freedom and must invest in the future. It must be done by Ethiopians willing to step forward with action that upholds higher principles. You cannot sit waiting for someone else to do it for our people are in dire jeopardy.
My Fellow Ethiopians;
If each of us does nothing, the international image of Ethiopia as being synonymous with our suffering people—perhaps the worst in all of Africa—will remain. Our victory over the Italian invaders is long forgotten, being replaced with evidence of the destruction we have brought upon ourselves through our choices of leaders, through our own selfish and opportunistic alignment with the powerful, through the forsaking of God-given morality and because of our apathy over the suffering of the vulnerable human beings around us. What I am saying is that we Ethiopians have to rise up and change as people. We are guilty of the sin of not caring for each other, so how can we expect an Ethiopia that does not reflect the consequences of our sinful choices?
Look at the description of those who were being held accountable two thousand years ago that caused God to remove his blessings and bring corrective grief; the gold in the next passage, referring to the previously faithful chosen people. Think of how Meles calls himself as part of the “golden people of Tigray!” I am sure the majority of Tigrayans will not want to be included with Meles in calling themselves “golden” because they see all humankind as being equal and recognize the evil being perpetrated in their name.
“How the gold has lost its luster, the fine gold become dull! The sacred gems are scattered at the head of every street. How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in gold, are now considered as pots of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!….Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets. Those nurtured in purple [royal colors] now lie on ash heaps. The punishment of my people is greater than that of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment without a hand turned to help her.” (Lamentations 4: 1-2, 5-6)
Of what were these people guilty? “To crush underfoot all prisoners in the land, to deny a man his rights before the Most High, to deprive a man of justice—would not the LORD see such things?” (Lamentations 3:34-36)
My Fellow Ethiopians;
God shows he cares about the poor, the vulnerable and the weak. The guilty were the powerful who believed in their own entitlement over others; ignoring and exploiting others simply because of self-interest and belief that they could get away with it. God said no to them and brought about their downfall and refinement through the invasion of the Babylonians. God’s judgment was meant for their redemption—as a means to lead to self examination, conviction of one’s wrongdoing, repentance, change and restoration of God’s blessings; therefore, that no one should complain.
“For he [God] does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men. Who can speak and have it happen if the LORD has not decreed it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?” Why should any living man complain when punished for his sins? Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the LORD. Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say: “We have sinned and rebelled…”
My Fellow Ethiopians;
What can we Ethiopians do?
If there is something to look forward to in 2010; for me, it is to stop complaining and to see more people come out, one at a time, to demonstrate genuine care for the people, not just pretence in order to advance one’s own power or interests. An old Ethiopian song during the war with Italy went like this: Hagere Ethiopia Mogn Ness Telala Yemotelisss kerto Yegedelesh Bela
ሐገሬ ኢትዮጵያ ሞኝ ነሽ ተላላ፣ የሞተልሽ ቀርቶ የገደለሽ በላ::
Translation in English: “My country, Ethiopia, you are foolish and naive! The ones who helped kill or destroy you got everything instead of the ones who died for you!” My Fellow Ethiopians;
Does this remind you of today’s Ethiopia where many Ethiopians are siding with the EPRDF for their own self-interests; even leasing land and making business deals with them? These are the ones who are helping to kill Ethiopia and to prolong our struggle; yet, they will be the first ones later to come forward to benefit from the sacrifices of others.
We, in the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia, are working as best we can to make a change. We are a grassroots social justice whose mission is to mobilize Ethiopians in the Diaspora and within Ethiopia to unite in a coalition across ethnic, regional, political, cultural, and religious lines around principles of truth, justice, freedom, the protection of human rights, equality and civility in order to bring about a more open, free and reconciled society in Ethiopia where humanity comes before ethnicity and where the same rights, opportunities and privileges are available to all because no one will be free until all are free.
We have four areas of important concentration, chosen due to the urgency and risk to the people. They are: 1) safety and rule of law, [stopping ethnic violence and promoting reconciliation and accountability], 2) promoting the respect of all human rights, 3) promoting a sustainable and healthy economy, [with laws to protect exploitation and enhance equal opportunity] and 4) advancing human development to deal with hunger, health, education and well being. Each of these issues are already in the formation stages of development into working groups. Anyone with expertise in these areas, are welcome to join with others to address these issues.
My Fellow Ethiopians; If you are an Ethiopia who really cares and want a change, step out. If you are someone who believes in the principles of the Solidarity Movement or some other organization who is working for the betterment of Ethiopia, support them financially, even contributing monthly because without financial support it will not happen. Lack of funding is a major obstacle to moving forward. If you are an Ethiopian with expert skills in some particular area, even if not mentioned above, step forward with your skills. For instance, In Ethiopia, there is no way to communicate. If you truly care, let us create a national radio station by helping to fund it, organize it or run it.
Everyone has to contribute. If we do not, Ethiopia will be the same next year and maybe even 30 years from now, if it exists at all. We are where we are today because the leaders and the people who came before us have failed in the primary task of any well-functioning society—to value each other. We can become another failing generation; or instead, a generation that builds a better, more humane and honest future.
Within every region of Ethiopia, if we listen, we will be able to hear stories of the pain, misery and suffering of our Ethiopian brothers and sisters. We are what has been described here in Lamentations by people feeling forgotten and forsaken; people seeking to be restored to God so they can return to him, “unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.” (Lamentations 5:20-22)
My Fellow Ethiopians;
For those of you who believe in God, reconciliation with God comes first, but to all of us, believers and non-believers alike, making a grassroots environment of people-to-people reconciliation in Ethiopia, where there is mutual respect for the humanity of each other, is foundational to the establishment of a “New Ethiopia.”
One of the reasons the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia was created was to take action, not just talk. Its success depends on others doing the same. This is not about politics, but about becoming different people. Some will see it as a threat and put up obstacles, repress the information or start duplicate organizations that will act to sabotage a greater, more united effort. Some may feel entitled to dominate over others, but such efforts will become empty structures clothed in attractive rhetoric, like the League of Nations that tolerated Italy’s 1935 aggression towards Ethiopia—an organization formed based on winning ideals that could not withstand real life conflicts of self-interest on the part of its strongest members.
My Fellow Ethiopians;
Where is our morality today in Ethiopia? Moral behavior towards others is not the possession of one group of people and not of another, but crosses all distinctions; as does the tendency to pursue self-interest above morality. Self-interest, this darkest of motivations, is seen in Lamentations to only lead to destruction; it is the antagonist to the goodness, justice and the morality to which God calls us that leads to peace with others.
Why is it we discard the long-term rewards of doing what is right for the short-term rewards of immediate gratification when history tells us it will lead us into trouble. Someone has said, “When we fail to learn the lessons of history, we are certain to repeat them.” Is this not what is going on in Ethiopia today? Can we learn from the lamentations of others two thousand years ago, or during Haile Selassie, Mengistu or over the last 19 years of the TPLF? Do we want this for tomorrow?
In Ethiopia and in the Ethiopian Diaspora, we call on people from every ethnicity, region, political view, age, religion, gender and background to enter a moral fight for right. How will we know when we are on the right track?
The answer can be seen by re-utilizing the same passage from Lamentations 3:34-36 previously quoted describing God’s anger towards oppression and injustice, but with some correcting revisions; it will be when we: “give freedom to, rather than crush underfoot, all prisoners in the land, when we give a man his rights, instead of denying a man those rights before the Most High, when we ensure a man justice, rather than to deprive a man of justice—would not the LORD see such things?
Even though there is guilt among all of us, there is good in every one of these ethnic groups. I am a witness to this as I have been among the people of the nine regions of Ethiopia—from the Ogaden, from the Oromiya, from the Southern Nations, from Benishangul-Gumuz, from Afar, from Tigray, from Harare, from Amhara and from Gambella; all encompassing rich varieties of people and cultures from over eighty different individual ethnicities. This is why I usually call us “the beautiful garden of Ethiopia.”
What is missing is the embracing of others. Politicians and the elite have failed to lead this embrace so we the people must begin by doing three things: 1) understanding each other, 2) reconciling and 3) reconstruction of our society.
In doing this, we must not avoid talking about our grievances because we must speak the truth about what has happened to us in order to find freedom from the chains of the past.
Avoiding speaking about this and not honestly confronting past wrongs will not get us anywhere. We have to speak the truth, acknowledge what was done wrong, listen to the pain of others, forgive, reconcile, embrace and sustain it all through moral accountability to God and social and legal accountability upheld by fair, impartial and effective systems of justice and strong and healthy institutions. If we the people of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa do not deal with this now, our slavery will worsen and so will the conflict as we ignore the God-given humanity of others.
My Fellow Ethiopians;
The laments of these people found in writings two thousand years old are descriptions of modern day Ethiopia. To end this, we must change. Come out and do your part by joining the lament or cry for mother-Ethiopia as Teddy Afro has already cried out in his song, Yasteseryal, Mama Ethiopia: Mama Ya, Mama Ya, Mama Ya! His song was a modern day lament for our country. Are you, the reader, listening?
“…my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD… Let him sit alone in silence, for the LORD has laid it on him. Let him bury his face in the dust—there may yet be hope. Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him, and let him be filled with disgrace. For men are not cast off by the LORD forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.” (Lamentations 3: 20b-32)
In pain, grief, tears and reflection; but in hope,
Your brother,
Obang Metho
Executive Director,
Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE)
PO Box 50561
Arlington, VA 22205
Email: [email protected] www.solidaritymovement.org
[1] The Book of Lamentations, NIV Bible, Preface notes: “It describes an eyewitness account of the horrors and overwhelming sense of loss, a lament, which accompanied the destruction of the city of Jerusalem in 586 BC, offering some profound lessons to be learned from it.”
