It is the best of times in the Sudan. It is the worst of times in the Sudan. It is the happiest day in the Sudan. It is the saddest day in the Sudan. It is referendum for the Sudan. It is requiem for Africa.
South Sudan just finished voting in a referendum, part of a deal made in 2005 to end a civil war that dates back over one-half century. The Southern Sudan Referendum Commission (SSRC) says the final results will be announced on February 14; but no one really believes there will be one united Sudan by July 2011. By then, South Sudan will be Africa’s newest state.
In a recent speech at Khartoum University, Thabo Mbeki, former South African president and Chairperson of the African Union High-level Implementation Panel on Sudan, alluded to the causes of the current breakup of the Sudan: “As all of us know, a year ahead of your independence, in 1955, a rebellion broke out in Southern Sudan. The essential reason for the rebellion was that your compatriots in the South saw the impending independence as a threat to them, which they elected to oppose by resorting to the weapons of war.” There is a lot more to the South Sudanese “rebellion” than a delayed rendezvous with the legacy of British colonialism. In some ways it could be argued that the “imperfect” decolonization of the Sudan, which did not necessarily follow the boundaries of ethnic and linguistic group settlement, led to decades of conflict and civil wars and the current breakup.
Many of the problems leading to the referendum are also rooted in post-independence Sudanese history — irreconcilable religious differences, economic exploitation and discrimination. The central Sudanese government’s imposition of “Arabism” and “Islamism” (sharia law) on the South Sudanese and rampant discrimination against them are said to be a sustaining cause of the civil war. South Sudan is believed to hold much of the potential wealth of the Sudan including oil. Yet the majority of South Sudanese people languished in abject poverty for decades, while their northern compatriots benefitted disproportionately.
Whether the people of South Sudan will secede and form their own state is a question only they can decide. They certainly have the legal right under international law to self-determination, a principle enshrined in the U.N. Charter. Their vote will be the final word on the issue. The focus now is on what is likely to happen after South Sudan becomes independent. Those who seem to be in the know sound optimistic. Mbeki says, “Both the Government of Sudan and the SPLM have made the solemn and vitally important commitment that should the people of South Sudan vote for secession, they will work to ensure the emergence and peaceful coexistence of two viable states.” The tea leaves readers and pundits are predicting doom and gloom. They say the Sudan will be transformed into a hardline theocratic state ruled under sharia law. There will be renewed violence in Darfur, South Kurdofan and Eastern Sudan. There will be endless civil wars that will cause more deaths and destruction according to the modern day seers.
To some extent, the pessimism over Sudan’s future may have some merit. Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir’s told the New York Times recently about his post-secession plans: “We’ll change the Constitution. Shariah and Islam will be the main source for the Constitution, Islam the official religion and Arabic the official language.” Bashir’s plan goes beyond establishing a theocratic state. There will be no tolerance of diversity of any kind in Bashir’s “new Sudan”. He says, “If South Sudan secedes, we will change the Constitution, and at that time there will be no time to speak of diversity of culture and ethnicity.” Bashir’s warning is not only shocking but deeply troubling. The message undoubtedly will cause great alarm among secularists, Southern Sudanese living in the north who voted for unity and Sudanese of different faiths, viewpoints, beliefs and ideologies. In post-secession Sudan, diversity, tolerance, compromise and reconciliation will be crimes against the state. It is all eerily reminiscent of the ideas of another guy who 70 years ago talked about “organic unity” and the “common welfare of the Volk”. Sudanese opposition leaders are issuing their own ultimata. Sadiq al-Mahdi, leader of the Umma Party, issued a demand for a new constitution and elections; in the alternative, he promised to work for the overthrow of Bashir’s regime. Other opposition leaders seem to be following along the same line. There is a rocky road ahead for the Sudan, both south and north.
From Pan-Africanism to Afro-Fascism?
The outcome of the South Sudanese referendum is not in doubt, but where Africa is headed in the second decade of the 21st Century is very much in doubt. Last week, Tunisian dictator Ben Ali packed up and left after 23 years of corrupt dictatorial rule. President Obama “applauded the courage and dignity of the Tunisian people” in driving out the dictator. Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo is still holed up in Abidjan taunting U.N. peacekeepers and playing round-robin with various African leaders. Over in the Horn of Africa, Meles Zenawi is carting off businessmen and merchants to jail for allegedly price-gouging the public and economic sabotage. What in the world is happening to Africa?
When African countries cast off the yoke of colonialism, their future seemed bright and limitless. Independence leaders thought in terms of Pan-Africanism and the political and economic unification of native Africans and those of African heritage into a “global African community”. Pan-Africanism represented a return to African values and traditions in the struggle against neo-colonialism, imperialism, racism and the rest of it. Its core value was the unity of all African peoples.
The founding fathers of post-independence Africa all believed in the dream of African unity. Ethiopia’s H.I.M. Haile Selassie, Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta, Tanzania’s Julius Nyerere, Guinea’s Ahmed Sékou Touré, Zambia’s Kenneth Kaunda and Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser were all declared Pan-Africanists. On the occasion of the establishment of the permanent headquarters of the Organization for African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa on May 25, 1963, H.I.M. Haile Selassie made the most compelling case for African unity:
We look to the vision of an Africa not merely free but united. In facing this new challenge, we can take comfort and encouragement from the lessons of the past. We know that there are differences among us. Africans enjoy different cultures, distinctive values, special attributes. But we also know that unity can be and has been attained among men of the most disparate origins, that differences of race, of religion, of culture, of tradition, are no insuperable obstacle to the coming together of peoples. History teaches us that unity is strength, and cautions us to submerge and overcome our differences in the quest for common goals, to strive, with all our combined strength, for the path to true African brotherhood and unity…. Our efforts as free men must be to establish new relationships, devoid of any resentment and hostility, restored to our belief and faith in ourselves as individuals, dealing on a basis of equality with other equally free peoples.
Pan-Africanism is dead. A new ideology today is sweeping over Africa. Africa’s home grown dictators are furiously beating the drums of “tribal nationalism” all over the continent to cling to power. In many parts of Africa today ideologies of “ethnic identity”, “ethnic purity,” “ethnic homelands”, ethnic cleansing and tribal chauvinism have become fashionable. In Ivory Coast, an ideological war has been waged over ‘Ivoirité (‘Ivorian-ness’) since the 1990s. Proponents of this perverted ideology argue that the country’s problems are rooted in the contamination of genuine Ivorian identity by outsiders who have been allowed to freely immigrate into the country. Immigrants, even those who have been there for generations, and refugees from the neighboring countries including Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea and Liberia are singled out and blamed for the country’s problems and persecuted. Professor Gbagbo even tried to tar and feather the winner of the recent election Alassane Ouattara (whose father is allegedly Burkinabe) as a not having true Ivorian identity. Gbagbo has used religion to divide Ivorians regionally into north and south.
In Ethiopia, tribal politics has been repackaged in a fancy wrapper called “ethnic federalism.” Zenawi has segregated the Ethiopian people by ethno-tribal classification like cattle in grotesque regional political units called “kilils” (reservations) or glorified apartheid-style Bantustans or tribal homelands. This sinister perversion of the concept of federalism has enabled a few cunning dictators to oppress, divide and rule some 80 million people for nearly two decades.[1] South of the border in Kenya, in the aftermath of the 2007 elections, over 600 thousand Kenyans were displaced as a result of ethnic motivated hatred and violence. Over 1,500 were massacred. Kenya continues to arrest and detain untold numbers of Ethiopian refugees that have fled the dictatorship of Meles Zenawi. What more can be said about Rwanda that has not already been said.
It is not only the worst-governed African countries that are having problems with “Africanity”. South Africa has been skating on the slippery slope of xenophobia. Immigrants from Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia have been attacked by mobs. According to a study by the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP): “The ANC government – in its attempts to overcome the divides of the past and build new forms of social cohesion… embarked on an aggressive and inclusive nation-building project. One unanticipated by-product of this project has been a growth in intolerance towards outsiders… Violence against foreign citizens and African refugees has become increasingly common and communities are divided by hostility and suspicion.” Among the member countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), South Africans expressed the harshest and most punitive anti-foreigner sentiments in the study. How ironic for a country that was under apartheid less than two decades ago.
Whether it is the “kilil” ideology practiced in Ethiopia or the “Ivorite” of Ivory Coast, the central aim of these weird ideologies is to enable power hungry and bloodthirsty African dictators to cling to power by dividing Africans along ethnic, linguistic, tribal, racial and religious lines. Fellow Africans are foreigners to be arrested, jailed, displaced, deported and blamed for whatever goes wrong under the watch of the dictators. The old Pan-African ideas of common African history, suffering, struggle, heritage and legacy are gone. There is no unifying sense African brotherhood or sisterhood. Africa’s contemporary leaders, or more appropriately, hyenas in designer suits and uniforms, have made Africans strangers to each other and rendered Africa a “dog-eat-dog” continent.
In 2009, in Accra, Ghana, President Obama blasted identity politics as a canker in the African body politics:
We all have many identities – of tribe and ethnicity; of religion and nationality. But defining oneself in opposition to someone who belongs to a different tribe, or who worships a different prophet, has no place in the 21st century…. In my father’s life, it was partly tribalism and patronage in an independent Kenya that for a long stretch derailed his career, and we know that this kind of corruption is a daily fact of life for far too many.
For what little it is worth, for the last few years I have preached from my cyber soapbox against those in Africa who have used the politics of ethnicity to cling to power. I firmly believe that our humanity is more important than our ethnicity, nationality, sovereignty or even Africanity! As an unreformed Pan-Africanist, I also believe that Africans are not prisoners to be kept behind tribal walls, ethnic enclaves, Ivorite, kilils, Bantustans, apartheid or whatever divisive and repressive ideology is manufactured by dictators, but free men and women who are captains of their destines in one un-walled Africa that belongs to all equally. “Tear down the walls of tribalism and ethnicity in Africa,” I say.
It is necessary to come up with a counter-ideology to withstand the rising tide of Afro-Fascism. Perhaps we can learn from Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s ideas of “Ubuntu”, the essence of being human. Tutu explained: “A person with Ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good, for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.” I believe “Ubuntu” provides a sound philosophical basis for the development of a human rights culture for the African continent based on a common African belief of “belonging to a greater whole.” To this end, Tutu taught, “Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” More specifically, Africa.
“Afri-Cans” and “Afri-Cannots”
As for South Sudan, the future holds many dangers and opportunities. Africans have fought their way out of colonialism and become independent. Some have seceded from the post-independence states, but it is questionable if they have succeeded. How many African countries are better off today than they were prior to independence? Before secession? As the old saying goes: “Be careful what you wish for. You may receive it.” We wish the people of South and North Sudan a future of hope, peace, prosperity and reconciliation.
I am no longer sure if Afri-Cans are able to “unite for the benefit of their people”, as Bob Marley pleaded. But I am sure that Afri-Cannot continue to have tribal wars, ethnic domination, corruption, inflation and repression as Fela Kuti warned, and expect to be viable in the second decade of the Twenty-First Century. In 1963, H.I.M. Haile Selassie reminded his colleagues:
Today, Africa has emerged from this dark passage [of colonialism]. Our Armageddon is past. Africa has been reborn as a free continent and Africans have been reborn as free men…. Those men who refused to accept the judgment passed upon them by the colonisers, who held unswervingly through the darkest hours to a vision of an Africa emancipated from political, economic, and spiritual domination, will be remembered and revered wherever Africans meet…. Their deeds are written in history.
It is said that those who do not remember history are doomed to repeat it. I am afraid Africa’s Armageddon is yet to come. Africa has been re-enslaved by home grown dictators, and Africans have become prisoners of thugs, criminals, gangsters, fugitives and outlaws who have seized and cling to power like parasitic ticks on a milk cow. Cry for the beloved continent!
The ongoing unrest and regime change in Tunisia, which is now named Jasmine Revolution because it is the national flower, has occurred as a result of conditions that are similar to current realities in Ethiopia. Two decades of misrule by the ruling parties of Ethiopia and Tunisia is the primary cause of the terrible economic and political conditions that exist in both countries.
The following are top 10 similarities between the leaders of Tunisia’s ruling party, RCD, and Ethiopia’s ruling party, TPLF:
1. The president, Zin el-Abidine Ben Ali, had been in power for 23 years. Meles has been in power for 20 years.
2. Like Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, Ben Ali was known to conduct fake elections. In a recent poll, he won by 83 percent. Meles won by 96 percent.
3. Ben Ali arrested opposition politicians, and attacked opposition parties, denying them space in the country’s politics. Meles is doing the same thing in a larger scale.
4. Ben Ali’s party, RCD, was involved in nepotism and massive corruption, like Meles Zenawi’s TPLF.
5. Tunisia’s ruling RCD favors one ethnic group, the Trabelsi clan, over other Tunisian clans. TPLF favors the Tigray region over other regions of Ethiopia.
6. Ben Ali had curtailed freedom of speech and press. Similarly in Ethiopia, opposition media, including web sites, are banned. “Although officially denying any intention to meddle with the Internet, the government exercises censorship in practice. The OpenNet Initiative, a collaboration between several universities, found that 10 percent of the 2,000 Web sites it tested in the country were blocked.” – CPJ
7. Like Meles, Ben Ali has forced many of his opponents out of the country.
8. RCD bosses have amassed enormous personal wealth while the country remained poor. TPLF bosses, including the wife of the prime minister, have become among the richest people in Africa over the past 20 years.
9. Like Meles Zenawi’s wife Azeb Mesfin, the wife of Ben Ali, Laila, diverted tens of millions of dollars to the couple’s bank accounts in Western countries. The hijacking of Tunisian state funds by Laila and Ben Ali led to inflation, and a constant rise in the price of basic necessities, followed by an increase in unemployment. “People are now convinced that the [Tunisia] First Family is an insatiable economic animal bent on gratuitous enrichment and unchecked influence-wielding.” – a U.S. diplomatic cable recently posted on Wilileaks.org
10. Ben Ali used to be a “dependable” an ally of the U.S. and Western government. “Not many people in the West noticed that it was only a very small minority that enjoyed the benefits of the economic reforms and revenues brought in by tourists. Corruption was rampant and the Ben Ali family, and that of his second wife Laila, were the principal beneficiaries.” – Jerusalem Post
The following is an analysis by Deutsche Presse-Agentur’s Clare Byrne
Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution: a work in progress
By Clare Byrne
Paris (dpa) – Tunisia’s ‘Jasmine Revolution’ achieved what many thought unthinkable in the Arab world: an autocratic leader, backed by the world’s major powers, shown the door by his country’s youth, without them firing a shot.
Tunisians themselves seemed taken aback at how quickly things unravelled in the end as Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, president of 23 years, crumpled in the face of demands by protestors countrywide for him to ‘degage’ (meaning ‘get lost’ in French) and scurried off to Saudi Arabia.
‘A revolution! We didn’t believe it could happen,’ Samir Khiari, a Tunisian political scientist, who celebrated the news at a rally in Paris Saturday, told France’s Mediapart news site in tears.
‘We are the first Arab people to stage a revolution and topple a dictator,’ a demonstrator in Tunis told Mediapart news site proudly.
‘We will long remember the images of the Tunisian people seeking to make their voices heard,’ US President Barack Obama praised, saluting the courage of tens of thousands of protestors who continued to stare down the regime, even after dozens were shot dead by police.
And yet in Tunisia itself, there were no scenes of wild rejoicing, as army tanks rumbled through the streets to contain an orgy of looting and a game of musical chairs played out at the top.
From elation, the mood quickly turned to consternation as the reins of power passed from the prime minister, Mohamed Ghannouchi, to the speaker of parliament, Foued Mebazaa, within 24 hours.
Ghannouchi had initially declared he would take over after Ben Ali fled – in violation of the constitution, which states the speaker of parliament takes over if the presidency is vacated.
By Saturday, the constitutional council had weighed in and Mebazaa was instated as the rightful interim president, promising to create a inclusive government embracing all Tunisians ‘without exception.’
It was hardly an auspicious start to the new dawn hoped for by ‘Ben Ali generation’ of educated young Tunisians, who grew up chafing under his censorship and a lack of opportunities for those who weren’t politically connected.
As negotiations between the ruling RCD and the opposition on the make-up of a unity government got underway, the list of reforms required for an truly democratic, pluralistic Tunisia ran long.
General amnesty for political prisoners, the dismantling of laws curtailing freedom, the organization of free elections are among just some of the opposition’s demands.
‘We want to see the whole Ben Ali system called into question,’ Samir Khiari insisted.
The opposition itself also needs time to regroup, after years of harassment under Ben Ali, during which several key figures fled into exile.
Even if the country’s electoral laws are changed, the opposition faces an uphill battle against decades of RCD nepotism and patronage.
Most of country’s resources are in the hands of RCD faithful – particularly the Trabelsi clan of ex-president Ben Ali’s wife, Leila.
As Tunisia takes it first wobbly steps to democracy, the international community is also keeping a close watch for attempts by Islamic extremists to try fill the power vacuum.
For years the country of 10 million has been seen as a bulwark of stability and secularism in a region – North Africa and the Middle East – where autocratic governments have driven people into the arms of Islamists.
The Tunisian revolt was devoid of any Islamist symbols but Western governments fear that a prolonged period of uncertainty could play into the hands of extremists.
The following is a rather elaborate response to the objection raised by the good Sadiq Abdulrahman regarding my views about a future federation of Ethiopia with both South Sudan and self proclaimed independent Republic of Somaliland (formerly British Somaliland). Sadiq and I have more in common than he realizes. We both have the courage of our convictions and invoke our names to speak truth to power.
The Treaty of Westphalia of 1648 defined the principles of sovereignty and equality of nations and this became the blueprint for the formation of nation states of what is normally referred as ‘modern times” i.e. the period after the Treaty. The great nation builders of Europe, Ethiopia and Latin America were contemporaries – Bismarck of Germany (1844-1913); Garibaldi of Italy (1807-1882); Emperor Menelik of Ethiopia (1844-1913). Simon Bolivar of Latin America (1783-1830) could also be included in that category. Even the famous British Imperialist of the “Cape to Cairo” fame, Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902), is in the same category, although on the other side. His plan was to expand the British Empire believing that the Anglo-Saxon race was destined to greatness. He also believed that Britain, US and Germany would dominate the world of the future.
But all nation builders did not ethnically belong to the country they built but were nonetheless dedicated to their “adopted” nation. Alexander the Great was a Macedonian(there is currently a dispute between Macedonia and Greece largely about his legacy); Catherine the Great of Russia was a German; Emperor Napoleon of France was an Italian; Hitler was an Austrian; Mahatma Gandhi was a South African; Kamuzu Banda of Malawi was an American; Isayiyas Afewerki (and Welde ab Wolde Mariam) were Ethiopians. It is hard to place the half-Eritrean Meles because he is perennially subservient to Isayiyas and also a narrow Tigrean tribalist.
Bismarck said that nations are formed by “blood and iron” when he brought together the various principalities of Germany and formed the German Nation. Menelik said that he would not be “an indifferent spectator” when nations come from faraway places and encroach his land. What makes him a great statesman besides being a military genius was his ability to have preserved what he can do and cannot do when far more powerful European powers were snatching his land. However, he has to make a last stand to defend the survival of his country and win decisively. Menelik is considered the greatest African general since Hannibal, who had vanquished the Romans, the ancestors of the Italians whom Menelik has conquered. That happened, two thousand years earlier!
We may recall that Menelik was the only modern Ethiopian leader who has vanquished a foreign enemy. Yohannes was defeated by Sudan and was beheaded; Theodros was defeated by the British and killed himself; Haile Selassie was defeated by the Italians and went into exile in Britain and to Geneva to appeal to the League of Nations. Menelik with his multi ethnic army shot like an arrow from the middle of his Empire and confronted the Italians at Adwa. He was riding segar beklo, fast paced mules 30 of whom were saddled and ready by his side and him transferring from one tired mule to another without breaking a stride. His military genius is recounted by George Berkeley : The Campaign of Adwa and the Rise of Menilik. The British deservedly called him Menelik the Great for several years afterwards, but the title was discontinued after repeated and fervent appeals by the humiliated Italians.
It was Menelik that put Adwa on the map. Nobody would have ever remembered that tiny dusty village of Adwa, in Tigray, if it were not for him. Austerlitz and Waterloo represent the rise and fall of Napoleon and are always associated with his name, Likewise, the glory of Adwa is associated with Menelik and is the legacy of the Ethiopian people and even beyond that the legacy of the subjugated people of the Third World. No one could snatch Adwa away from him and from the Ethiopian people and from the people of the Third World. Adwa will forever be associated with Menilik till Kingdom Come. And the Ethiopian people will continue to be proud of Adwa no matter what. This is a historical fact.
What I would like to point out to Sadiq Abdurahman is that no nation in history was formed by a single ethnic group. The nearest that came to this was Somalia. But even that was a fiction. Somalia did not include the almost one million Somali Bantu or Gosha living along the banks of Juba and Shebelle rivers. I have seen some of them when I visited Afgoi near Mogadishu. The other fiction of the now defunct Somalia was that it pretended that in due course, the new Somalia will achieve an ingathering of the Somali people scattered in neighboring countries. It was a pipe dream. The population of Djibouti is equally divided between Afars and Issas and in fact that was its official name before independence. Ogaden in Ethiopia has been settled also by many ethnic groups from all over Ethiopia for hundreds of years. So his objection is a non squinter. British Somaliland was an independent state and agreed to unite with Italian Somaliland five days later when the latter gained its independence from Italy. It was largely the work of the Somali Youth League which was active in the anti-colonial struggle. If one goes to the Somali Paltalk rooms we find almost a hundred of them every day, each promoting its specific clan. One is reminded of the old Somali saying “my nation against the world; my clan against my nation; my family against my clan; and me against my family” Unfortunately; It seems that the Somali has been broken to pieces like shattered glass. It would be wise and prudent to look for alternatives.
Another people who wanted to forge a country from one ethnic people are the Kurds. As time passes this is becoming increasingly impossible since the Kurds have a stake in whatever country they belong in and are turning their back to such esoteric dreams. Nations are continuously forming and breaking apart like Somalia. No other country was as visible as Yugoslavia after the Second World War, especially among the countries of the Third World. It was brought together by the powerful personality of the anti-Fascist patriot Marshall Broz Tito(a close friend of Emperor Haile Selassie.) However, after his death Yugoslavia is no more, it has been broken into seven separate states and the break up is continuing. The same happened to Czarist Russian Empire which was inherited by the Soviet Union. When it collapsed, 17 new states were created and more might be created. Belgium which has committed unspeakable crime against its colony of Belgian Congo is held by the skin of a teeth and is about to break up along linguistic lines any day now. Wherever we look it is the will of the people to live together that is the hallmark of a viable nation.
If Meles has his way Ethiopia would have broken up into six or seven countries. It did not happen because they are artificial and arbitrary entities. Take the case of Oromia. The people of Oromia have migrated north in the 17th Century occupying the place of the former inhabitants vanquished by Ahmed Gragn and his Turkish supported army. In the aftermath, the country had been weakened and made vulnerable to the aggressive conquest of the Oromo. What they could not destroy they absorbed in the age old tradition of the MOGASSA. An eye witness account of this very period was written by Aleka Bahri (who was from Gamu and not an Amhara as others allege) in his book Zenahu ze Galla (History of the Gallas.) Ato Yilma Deressa, a ”Galla” from Wellega, and the most prominent Minister in the Haile Selassie Government has also written a book about this 17th Century called The South to North migration of the Galla. He emphatically declares that he is proud to be called a Galla.
The humongous area designated as Oromia by the Weyane is a total fiction as half of the inhabitants of the area are multi ethnic. It is as ridiculous as calling Addis Ababa “Finfine” since Finfine (or Filwoha) occupies only about five percent of Addis Ababa. The same is true about trying to give Harar to the Adere who number a few thousand and their greater number lives in Addis Ababa and thus outside Harar. What is the opinion of Sadiq about the ¾ of a million Somalis living in Addis Ababa. They are not going anywhere soon. They are part of the city fabric.
The greatness of Ethiopia is that it has existed as an entity for thousands of years and has perfected the craft of living in peace and harmony. Even the two great religions Christians and Moslems have lived together in peace for over a thousand years which no other nation on earth could match. This harmony has been created not by governments but by people. Wise leaders like Emperor Haile Selassie have said that “a country is shared by all; but religion is an individual affair” promoting unity in diversity. The 15 years study conducted by the Derg about the “history of the peoples of Ethiopia” produced in several volumes confirmed just that. Since it did not serve the agenda of the Derg it was shelved. The Weyane would never allow the study to see the light of day. I hope those who participated in the study would muster courage and publish their findings.
Meles Zenawi in one of his frequent moments of monumental stupidity (which his Tigrean admirers regard as wisdom), had asked rhetorically “what is Axum for the Welayita or Lalibela for the Oromo.” It is a historical fact that the Agazi, the predecessors of the Tigre, were nowhere there when the Axum obelisks were erected. In fact the Welayita may have more to do with Axum than the Tigre. It is similar to the Arab claims to the Pyramids. They only came there in the 7th Century. The Fedayeen; the Nubians the Ethiopians, the Punt have more claim to the Pyramids than the Arabs. There is even a story circulating by non-Adwa Tigreans about their fellow ethnic Adwans. They say that the Adwans became the most evil among the Tigreans because they are a product of bastardization. When Menelik’s army came to Adwa these multi ethnic soldiers slept with thousands of Adwa women and these are the products of the union – half Tigre and half every other ethnic group! That is a way of absolving themselves and showing their particular hatred to other Ethiopians. There is even a treacherous curve along the road from Addis Ababa to Asmara, passing through Adwa that is popularly known as libe Adwa (the heart of Adwa) Those who say this must also be aware that there is another curve nearby along the same road which is called libe Tigrai (the heart of Tigrai). These are local folklores of no historical significance, but show the psychological makeup of the people in the area.
Here we might cast our attention in the direction of Eritrea. The perennial boss of Meles, Isayias Afewerki is the father of Eritrean nationalism. Unlike his vassal Meles he wants Eritrea to be a multi ethnic Nation. During the long drown out war Isayiyas encouraged Eritrean women to “sleep with the enemy”,-the Ethiopian army – as a sort of low-cost, low- maintenance espionage spread (no pun intended). The result was what Isayiyas has not anticipated but should have. Many unions resulted in love and marriage, but hundreds of thousands of these unions caused hundreds of thousands of children to be born. These children were half-Eritrean and half-every other ethnic group of Ethiopia. Such was the result of 30 years of union. However much Isayias tries to deny their existence, the future of Eritrea is more theirs than his. They are the ones who would shape the future of Eritrea.
Another historical fact is that about a third of the Hamassen of Eritrea have Gojame grandparents. The reason is this. Gojames are the traditional merchant class of Ethiopia (the Gurage are very recent arrivals in the field). For centuries they have been travelling beyond Ethiopia. Even Addis Ababa has Gojam Berenda since its infancy and no Gurage berenda (there is a Gojam Berenda in Khartoum as well). The merchants of Gojam are known as sirara Negade, with their long caravan of huge and sturdy mules who travel up to North Africa as far as Tripoli, Libya. One of their stops is Geza Aba Shawel of Asmara. Aba Shawel is the name of a prominent Gojame merchant. This place was where the caravan of the famed Gojame, Aba Shawel, stayed for R&R and the place was named after him. As is well known, no Eritrean was allowed to spend a night in Asmara during Italian colonialism. They were permitted to do their domestic work in Asmara during the day but have to go out of town at dusk. They stayed at Geza Aba Shawel, the other side of Asmara. – a practice the Fascists never dared to impose during their short occupation of Ethiopia. There is also folklore of another Gojame in Eritrea. He was called Aboy Mengesha. He occupies a similar reverence in Eritrea like the famous folkloric wisdom attributed to Aleka Gebre Hana of Menelik’s time in Ethiopia. Mengesha’s witticism is still told and retold to this day especially among the old folk. An old Eritrean gentleman who was my cellmate at Makelawi prison used to delight us by telling Aboy Mengesha’s witticisms.
Something is quite different to the Weyanes which is not exhibited in any other ethnic group – not to that extent. Maybe the Tigreans are the most parochial and xenophobic tribe in Ethiopia. They seem to find refuge in their ethnicity, similar to those ethnic entrepreneurs who promote the idea of OLF. However, those who propagate for OLF are a miniscule minority blinded by hatred and fired with ambition to rough-ride their ethnic unit. Fortunately they are constantly confronted and rejected by the masses of Ethiopian Oromos who are infinitely wiser. Twenty years have shown us that the Weyane are only interested in theft and pillage for the benefit of themselves and their ethic group. The entire Tigrean elite fully backs the Weyane pillage, to their etrnal shame. Their former Prime Minister, the Amhara-hating Tamrat Layne, stole millions in short order and deposited it in Swiss Banks. Only the powerful Alamudin was able to recover his loss. The rest was given to Tamrat by his fellow gang of thieves as a parting gift. It did not matter because the money is not theirs but the property of the Ethiopian people. Conveniently, Tamrat, the smart-alec thief, now says that he received a revelation when God talked to him in prison. He become a Pentecostal convert and he is now living in the US, endlessly recounting at church sermons his daily conversations with God and the gullible stand up and applaud. No mention about his loot or his crimes.
All told the crimes of the Weyane could not amount to ¼ of the crimes committed by the heinous Derg. The Khamer Rouge of Kampuchea and the Derg were the two most brutal murderers of the last quarter of the 20th Century. Pol Pot of Cambodia escaped justice by dying. Mengistu is thumbing his nose at the world from his comfortable exile in Zimbabwe He needs to face the International Court of Justice at the Hague. His associates who have committed genocide and crimes against humanity should be given the death sentence and hanged if justice was to prevail.
The recent development in Tunesia should serve as a warning shot for the Weyane. 20 years of dictatorship is more than enough.
The Kenya-based Nation Media Group (NMG) has released its first annual African Presidents Index. The index has ranked Ethiopia’s genocidal tyrant Meles Zenawi as one of the top fifteen failed political leaders in Africa. NMG could not even give Meles an F grade, and instead give him an ICU (Intensive Care Unit). (Click here for details)
1 Sir Anerood Jugnauth, Mauritus 83.54 A+
2 Pedro Pires, Cape Verde 78.91 A
3 Ian Khama, Botswana 78.7 A
4 John Atta Mills, Ghana 72.56 A
5 Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba, Namibia 71.07 A-
6 Jacob Zuma, South Africa 69.93 B+
7 James Michel, Seychelles 66.4 B
8 Amadou Toumani Touré, Mali 64.4 B
9 Ernest Bai Koroma, Sierra Leone 61.89 B
10 Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete, Tanzania 60.39 B-
11 Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberia 60.32 B-
12 Rupiah Banda, Zambia 59.59 C+
13 King Mohammed VI, Morocco 54.84 C
14 Bethuel Pakalitha Mosisili, Lesotho 54.5 C
15 Thomas Yayi Boni, Benin 53.91 C
16 Mwai Kibaki, Kenya 53.43 C
17 Bingu wa Mutharika, Malawi 53.04 C
18 Abdoulaye Wade, Senegal 51.68 C-
19 Paul Kagame, Rwanda 51.31 C-
20 Yoweri Museveni, Uganda 49.91 D+
21 Alassane Ouattara, Cote D’ivoire 49.69 D+
22 Armando Guebuza, Mozambique 49.35 D+
23 Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia 49.01 D
24 Salou Djibo, Niger 48.55 D
25 Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria 46.06 D-
26 Pierre Nkurunziza, Burundi 45.2 D-
27 Omar Ghaddafi, Libya 44.64 F+
28 Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algeria 43.42 F
29 Alpha Conde, Guinea 41.94 F
30 Mohamed Hosni, Mubarak Egypt 40.74 F-
31 King Mswati III, Swaziland 40.05 F-
32 Ahmed Abdallah Sambi, Comoros 36.97 ICU
33 Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz, Mauritania 36.29 ICU
34 Blaise Compaore, Burkina Faso 35.7 ICU
35 Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba, Gabon 34.28 ICU
36 Denis Sassou Nguesso, Congo 33.43 ICU
37 Faure Gnassingbe, Togo 33.38 ICU
38 Malam Bacai Sanha, Guinea Bissau 32.84 ICU
39 Meles Zenawi Asres, Ethiopia 32.68 ICU
40 Yahya Jammeh, Gambia 32.48 ICU
41 Ismail Omar Guelleh, Djibouti 31.53 ICU
42 Joseph Kabila Kabange, Drc 30.18 ICU
43 José Eduardo dos Santos, Angola 30.17 ICU
44 Paul Biya, Cameroon 29.52 Morgue
45 Andry Rajoelina, Madagascar 29.31 Morgue
46 François Bozizé Yangouvonda, CAR 28.22 Morgue
47 Robert Gabriel Mugabe, Zimbabwe 22.62 Morgue
48 Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, Somalia 22.41 Morgue
49 Idriss Déby Itno, Chad 20.81 Morgue
50 Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Equitorial Guinea, 20.72, Morgue
51 Omar al-Bashir, Sudan 15.67 Morgue
52 Isaias Afwerki, Eritrea 12.14 Morgue
As may be recalled, the issue of the Ethiopian Diaspora, its origin, and more particularly its potential role in and contribution to the process of political stabilization and democratization in Ethiopia, has been discussed relatively widely, if not as deeply as the community’s role and the extent of its involvement deserves. Some of my compatriots and others interested and involved in the subject matter have written and published their views related to the issues in question, and I personally have published a good number of articles, both prior to and in the aftermath of the 2005 Ethiopian parliamentary election. My most recent articles are cases in point: “Revisiting the Events, Sights and Sounds of the Aftermath of the 2005 Ethiopian Election,” which was widely published on the 4th of December 2010 and subsequent days, and “Reviewing the Damaging Effects of Ethiopian Diaspora Politics on the Wider Community and its Future Initiatives: The Search for Alternative Mechanisms,” published in February–May 2009 (also in four parts). In addition, I understand that a degree of interest in the subject matter has been planted in a few college and university circles, including international NGOs and even Ministries for Development Cooperation. Also financial resources continue to be allocated for study and research on the topic, especially in socio-economic and health-related fields. Further, given the widespread diversity of readers’ views in areas of political associations and ideology, it is somehow difficult to determine the genuineness of their opinions and judgments based just on brief and unelaborated responses and comments to published articles. It is nevertheless good and even a cause for rejoicing to observe that some of our articles are being incorporated in and used as discussion topics, teaching and research materials by some institutions and universities, which can also be seen as a direct contribution to students, teaching communities and societies in general.
Coming back to the main topic of this rather short paper, let me briefly reiterate the potential role and contributions of Ethiopian Diaspora politics to the process of democratization, and more particularly, to freeing Ethiopia and its people from the yokes and chains of the autocratic and divisive regime of Meles Zenawi. As stated repeatedly, loudly and unambiguously in my previously published articles, there were and still are multiple opportunities and choices that could allow Ethiopian Diaspora political activists to have an influence that is substantial and commanding, and therefore meaningful; and to be actors and factors in shaping both the politics and the future face of Ethiopia. To make this possible, political activists and their supporters must be willing to redirect their current disoriented convictions and approaches, such as “who is not with us is our enemy” and “go it alone,” which are unproductive. It is necessary to be prepared to speak with one firm voice. Even more essentially, we must all be able and willing to cultivate and spread a sense of confidence in each other, along with a collective courage to establish institutions that operate professionally and within legal frameworks, remaining neutral with respect to associations or affiliations with political groupings and political parties. My stance is even that those establishing and working in such institutions, in whatever positions, should be barred from any form of association with or membership in political parties, and in the event of regime change in our homeland should abstain from political ambition. Within maturely structured and established institutions of this sort, Ethiopian professionals trained in law and diplomacy can work together, design policies conducive to reviving and/or restoring the diminished morale and confidence of fellow Ethiopians, and engage tirelessly and responsibly in political and peace-oriented activities and peace building, including planting the seeds of credibility and integrity – not just in the land of Ethiopia and in our Diaspora community, but more fundamentally, within the global community, and its political and diplomatic circles in particular.
Institutions of the sort described will provide tools and opportunities that well trained, professional Ethiopians can seize to craft peace-oriented strategies that are careful and wise, and which will help to move towards engagement in various educational fields, to wage political and diplomatic wars directed at conflict resolution, and to work against our common enemies of family or group orientation and regionalism that have plagued us in relation to Ethiopian politics. Thus this institution can provide the most appropriate place for us to seriously engage in heartfelt reconciliation processes, bringing together Ethiopian political activists and working to resolve both long smoldering historical animosities and newly conceived resentments among various cultural, social and political groups.
Since the complex events of Ethiopia’s historical and recent past, including its multifaceted cultural heritage, remain unknown and unrecorded – not just for the international community at large, but also for Ethiopians – the institution to be established should also enable Ethiopians and others who work there to actively engage in this most fascinating research and data collection, chronicling and analyzing forgotten aspects of Ethiopia’s history and culture.
The paragraphs below, quoted from one of my previously published articles about two tragic events that have hardly been documented – the resignation of Prime Minster Aklilu Habte-Wold’s cabinet and the sudden murder of 60 civil and army officials by the brutal Dergue regime – are illustrations that make evident the extent to which we Ethiopians don’t mind, don’t seem to care, if we live in complete darkness about the actions and measures undertaken by our own ancestors, parents and even ourselves. These quotations clearly point up the urgent need to establish the repeatedly suggested institution, which I have referred to as the Ethiopian Diaspora House.
Even worse and more painful, in addition to these unhealed wounds and unforgettable scars in our recent history, we also know so little about the sources and causes that contributed to the abrupt resignation of Prime Minster Aklilu Habte-Wold’s entire cabinet on the 26 or 27 (embarrassingly, no exact date of resignation is to be found anywhere) of February 1974. Although this became a fertile ground for the emergence of the people’s enemy, the Dergue, and the subsequent structural crisis within Ethiopian society, this has not been explored and written up. Except through verbal stories and jokes told in family get-togethers and around coffee tables, most, if not all, Ethiopians have had no factual account – for example, based on meeting reports or recorded videos showing when, at which date and time, or indeed the exact reasons that led to the resignation of the late Prime Minister Aklilu Habte-Wold’s cabinet. And who was or were precisely responsible for this resignation of then Prime Minister Aklilu Habte-Wold and his ministers? Many Ethiopians say it was the Dergue that forced the entire cabinet to resign. But surely there was no Dergue or military committee at that time of their resignation? There was not someone in Addis Ababa at that time by the name of Mengistu Hailemariam.”
The second quotation states that:
The story surrounding the tragic, untimely and sudden murder of ministers, together with their compatriot army generals and civil servants, by the power hungry and power intoxicated Dergue members under the leadership of the most inhumane, cruel, anti-social animal called Mengistu Hailemariam, has remained buried, in exactly the same way as the story of the resignation of Aklilu Habte-Wold’s cabinet. No books, no films or video recordings based on facts seem to have been produced. It is probably due to our resulting ignorance that most Ethiopians of my generation often feel uncomfortable, even embarrassed, to talk or engage in debates involving these two tragic events. Yes, since there are no written meeting reports or video records that might indicate why and how the members of the Dergue reached their extremely cruel conclusions and decided to murder their own compatriots, most of us know little or nothing about the precise facts behind the killing of those 60 Ethiopian citizens in just a few minutes on the 23rd of November 1974 – we only know that they never faced due process in a court of law for the crimes of which they were accused.”
As time passes, later generations, including that of my daughter, will know even less. What is most remarkable of all is the lack of concern and the disinterest of Ethiopians in boldly confronting, exploring and writing about these painful events, the history of our own crises, which are also our own creations. Isn’t it tragic, even shameful, to realize that we Ethiopians still live without books, professionally produced films or video records of such important, fascinating but painful historical events?” — Maru Gubena in “Looking at Forgotten Recent Events and Future Strategies Conducive to a Mature Political Culture for Ethiopia: Putting the Cart Before the Horse?” published July 2006.
In conclusion, I will boldly and unambiguously assert that an Ethiopian Diaspora House, if it were to be established and take root, would unquestionably be not just a place that would begin to revive our dysfunctional social relations, networks and diminishing confidence and trust in each other; would help us to educate ourselves; would be a place of diplomacy and reconciliation; but also would serve as a source of pride in ourselves, pride in being Ethiopians – indeed an undisputed source of strength and new unity.
(Readers who wish to contact the author can reach me at [email protected])
A desperate attempt is currently going on to cover up the crimes that have been committed against Ethiopian patriots in Eritrea in the hands of Col. Fitsum and his Ethiopian collaborators in the Diaspora. One of the colonel’s collaborators is an Internet discussion forum in Patalk.com called ECADF.
When reports about the disappearance of Col. Tadesse Muluneh and several other former and current members of the Ethiopian People’s Patriotic Front (EPPF) have surfaced recently, ECADF has taken a lead role in trying to cover up the crime by trying to impugn Ethiopian Review’s credibility and trash-talking its editor.
Last night, confronted with some angry Ethiopians, the head of the ECADF admin had a meltdown. Trembling and resorting to vulgarity and ethnic slur, he tried to explain what happened to the 17 fighters who have reportedly been executed following EPPF’s general assembly in February 2010.
In his bizarre cover up attempt, the ECADF head admin has admitted that Col. Fitsum has been accepting bribes from Ethiopians in Diaspora. He said that when a person named Selamhunu was sent to EPPF to deliver money collected from the Diaspora, he gave it to the Eritrean colonel instead. Listen below [forward to 07:45]
The ECADF head admin has also said that according to his investigation, the 17 EPPF fighters who have reportedly been executed by Col. Fitsum, are alive and that they might have went to Sudan or some unknown place. The ECADF admin, who claims to have close contacts with the EPPF leadership, is contradicting EPPF’s own statement that was sent to the media yesterday and posted on ECADF’s own web site, which says that the organization doesn’t know the fighters. [forward to 11:03]
None of the ECADF admins has visited EPPF. In fact, most of the ECADF admins claim to be active members of another political party. So why are they desperately trying to cover up Col. Fitsum’s crimes against Ethiopian patriots?
