A University of Wisconsin sophomore recounts her experience being detained and deported from her host country of Ethiopia.
By Rory Linnane | The Daily Cardinal
MADISON, WISCONSIN — A strong hand planted stiffly on my shoulder and sent shivers through my body, freezing every muscle as I stood on my host family’s front lawn in Ethiopia. I slowly turned as my eyes traveled up a large arm and over to the other arm, which was grasping an AK-47. I looked up at his face as he glanced back at two other armed men and his lips parted into a grin.
At this point I was halfway through a two-month summer trip to teach English in Haramaya, Ethiopia, through Learning Enterprises, a nonprofit student-run organization. Fourteen volunteers and a student program coordinator were staying with host families in eastern Ethiopia.
Capture
I was on my way to school with two other volunteers July 9 when I was stopped by the three armed men on my lawn. We later learned they worked for the Ethiopian National Intelligence Agency.
“You need to come with me to the police station for questioning, all of you,” the man who stopped me said.
“Why?” I demanded.
No response. Oh, right, I thought, authorities in Ethiopia don’t respond to that question. I learned it was dangerous to question their government. Any time I tried to discuss politics in a public place I was quickly hushed. As an American citizen on Ethiopian soil, I had no more rights than the Ethiopian people. A couple minutes after my foolish “why” question, we were flailing and yelling for help while the men shoved us into the back of a car.
Not knowing who was taking me or where I was going, the tears came abruptly like a kid in a grocery store who suddenly looks up to find she has lost her mother. My remaining dignity left with the breath stuttering out through my quivering mouth. I cried tears heavy with the universal fear felt by humans deprived of basic human rights. At that moment I felt perhaps the greatest connection with the Ethiopian people as I was forced to face what they struggle against every day.
In the next town over, we pulled into the police station where more volunteers from our program were waiting. We sat in the police office where we were watched fidgeting for hours before they told us that we were missing “a document” required for teaching in Ethiopia—a document to be discussed with officials in the capital 10 hours west, Addis Ababa. Commanded to pack all of our things for the trip to Addis, we concluded we probably wouldn’t be coming back to the town we had grown to call home.
Back at my host family’s house, trying to keep my eyes dry enough to pack my bags, I avoided looking anyone in the eyes. My efforts became futile when I opened the front pocket of my pack and found all the gifts I had planned to give my host family.
“Why are you crying?” the men asked me, laughing from behind their AK-47s.
“This is my family,” I whispered. “You are taking me from my family.”
Giving words to my emotions solidified them into a burning anger that replaced my fear and sadness. I thought of my students who waited hours on end for the chance to get into 50 minutes of class, before going home to help their family scrape up a living. They were certainly waiting at school for us now. And here was their government, ignorant and self-important, carting away free teachers and guarding us with 10 armed men in case we tried anything.
Detention
We drove all day toward Addis Ababa. In the morning we began requests for lunch that went unsatisfied, and in the afternoon we tried for dinner. Finally they gave in and we pulled over to a roadside shop. An official went to the shop and came back with a small pack of crackers for us all to split.
We kept driving into the night until we stopped at a hotel, still hours out of Addis. We were in a malaria zone. We asked to get our bug nets but were denied access to our bags. You’re not supposed to take malaria medication on an empty stomach, but I was getting bitten. I took my pill and just minutes later was keeling over. I spent the night without sleep, weak and dehydrated in the sticky lowland heat, dry-heaving over a hole in the ground overflowing with sewage, guarded by armed men with unknown objectives. The next morning we made it to the capital.
In Addis they took us straight to immigration. Again we were kept hungry, though this time we were advised to enjoy the “mental food” offered by the view from our holding room. Despite our waning energy, we kept our spirits up with songs, games and stories. Immigration officials interviewed us each individually. The officials gave each of us a different reason about what we were doing wrong in the country. My favorite was that we were “overknowledging” our students by challenging them in the classroom.
While we waited as a group during the interviews, we decided that no matter what happened, our primary goals were to stick together and to contact the U.S. embassy. We wrote the embassy’s number on skin covered by clothes and on small pieces of paper that we hoped we would be able to pass off to someone.
By the last few interviews, the officials became consistent in telling us that we had the wrong type of visa. Although airport staff told us to get tourist visas, these officials thought we needed business visas. That night they told us we had to leave the country the following day. If we had the cash on us to change our flights, we could do so; otherwise it was Ethiopian jail until our original flights left, which was a month later for me. We did not believe we had enough cash for all of us, but our goal to stick together remained intact.
Rescue
We spent that night under tight guard at a government hotel where we were still unable to contact the embassy, and the next day they drove us to the airport where we were held in a back room. After waiting all day, later that evening my blank stare at the wall was interrupted when a team of men entered the room and stated, “We are from the U.S. embassy. We are here to help you.” I bolted from my chair and smothered them in hugs and tears. The next hour was a flurry of phone calls home, information release forms and random expressions of glee.
A few hours later we were all on flights home, lessons learned. When traveling abroad it is important to be knowledgeable about the country and its government. While we were never given an official reason for our deportation, many of us believe it had to do with the ethnicity of the students we were teaching: Oromo.
Every Oromo person I talked to felt that the government actively oppresses the Oromo ethnic group as a means of maintaining power. The ruling party of Ethiopia, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front Tigrean People Liberation Front ({www:Woyanne}), has proven it will go to great lengths to protect its power. After the 2005 national elections threatened the party’s majority in parliament, Ethiopians accused the party of intimidation at the polls and forging ballots. Hundreds were injured, killed or arrested.
In a country with such a paranoid and forceful government, we could have foreseen some trouble with serving the Oromo people without any sort of clearance from higher up. We also should have gone to the U.S. embassy as a group for information about risks and instruction on safety.
When you go to another country, you don’t take your rights with you. As romantic and adventurous as it sounds to spontaneously pack up and travel the globe, when you don’t do your homework, reality can be harsh.
31 thoughts on “An American student’s nightmare in Ethiopia”
Please forward this story to Dr Eleni Gebre-Madhin.
It is clear what the Ethiopian Gov. is doing on its people. What they did on is expected. You have experianced the day to day life of the Ethiopian People. You learned the value of democracy and the difference between living in USA and Ethiopia. You can say WHY to law inforcement officials in USA but not in Ethiopia. Why by itself is unwritten crime in Ethiopia.
This is our life petted out as daily bread mainly in rural Oromo and Somali regions.
Please forward this to Obama too,
US would have made a lot of fuss under normal circumstances
Well, at least they did not water boarded you………though the regime is a paranoid ethnic groups, who want to maintain power in spite of the opposition of the population
wey zendro…!
Ms. Linnane:
As a fellow citizen of the world, I applaud your courage, decency, and most of all for witnessing the pain and misery to which non-Tigre Ethiopians are subjected to for the last niniteen years by Tigre thugs calling themselves government. The irony of which is that these minority ethnic group now in power were famine victims who were fed and clothed as well as organized by the United States of America that ultimately landed them on the fascistic throne. Sine coming to power they were supported and sponsored by the western aid enabling them to cause untold sufferings including genocide to their subjects – namely Oromos, Somalis, Agnuaks, Amharas among others. I hope you will help to stop the US government sponsoring the killings and tyranny of the Ethiopian people by a minority Tigre thugs led by the criminal Meles Zenawi. Tell the world that Meles Zenawi should face the international court in Hague just like his idol Charles Taylor of Liberia and the President Al Bashir of Sudan.
Bring TPLF to justice. I am glad Americans are finally able to see what ordinary Ethiopians have to go through day in day out.
…i’m sorry for what happened to u, @least they should have treated u better in preason just because ur American citizen ,as we Ethiopians r treated in ur embassy in Addis…PLS tell them that we r humans too for ur fellow Americans in ur Embassy to no matter what we want to do in ur country.
Dear Rory,
I am an Oromo American who left Ethiopia 20 years ago. I was almost killed by the dictator. Please do not think that the Ethiopian people are the same us the ruling barbaric regime. The Ethiopians are civilized people and they love others.The dictator did not want you to educate the Ethiopians. Period. A day will come when you come to Ethiopia to teach.
Please read this:
http://www.ginbot7.org/ and
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/
Thank you for your bravery to go to Ethiopia.
I totally agree with what you described; it is very legit. I have no doubt that this thing happened to you. You should feel lucky because the government would have accused of terrorism or anything in between. But, this is a big but, when you ended your article and started to “ethnicize” what happened to you, you started to skid. The government is against the Ethiopian people, not particularly against the Oromo or Somali. By bringing the misdeeds and dictatorship of the regime you are doing mighty job. I thank you for that. However, by trying to conclude it as an ethnic business you just hark back and regurgitate the same story western writers have been producing for divide and conquer. The end product of ethnic thinking and paradigm has been and will always be endless conflicts among the subject people. No one is better off under the current regime except its cronies, even those living in Tigray region. Keep referring to the subject people as the Ethiopian people.
It is shame to hear that the TPLF/EPRDF people are mistreating the guests of the country, who volunteered to serve Ethiopian people. The sky is the limit to how many times the TPLF/EPRDF agents are trashing the name of Ethiopia.
The young Americans should know that Ethiopians are known in respecting our guests. We don’t mistreat our guests, rather we treat them with curtsy and respect. The TPLF/EPRDF government is anti-thesis to Ethiopian values and culture. They kill, imprison and torture Ethiopian citizens, for meager of reasons. As dictators, TPLF/EPRDF government agents do not even trust their own shadows. They are so unpopular that they think that everything that moves is their enemy and opposes them. The saddest part, the democratic USA government considers these hard-boiled TPLF/EPRDF dictators as some partners in the Horn region.
To the writer:
Please, publish this article on major public news papers so that the American people know how their hard-earned money has been used to finance criminal gangs in the other part of the world. The machine guns those gangs are using to torture and harass poor Ethiopians are either donated or lent from American and European superpowers who preferred to be indifferent to the daily sufferings and plight of the voiceless poor people.
I think it is a good experience to see the daily life of the rest of ethiopians. One thing that comes to my mind is that , how systematically the government humiliating and punishing other nationalities in terms of education.
It is very scary this government is using education as a means of penalizing the rest of ethiopians denied decent education. It should be reminded that even during the hailselasie era, ethiopians are educated in all fields regardless of their ethnicity many tigrians, oromos, southerns were given opportunity equally and achieve their goal, but today things are outsourced only to one region, see the fail of AAU and the raise of University of mekel and currently they are employing 123, expatriate professors this budget is coming from the federal government the most astonishing thing is that 90% of the existing staff are from tigrai ethnic group, and they were being sent in massive to europe and other countries for further education, this thing has never done in the past but the woyanes are smart they are telling us a different story the other nationalities are expolited by amharas, so they distract the focus from the real issues, the education system in Oromia also damaging the future of oromo, because most of them do not know amharic language , which is a minus to work, in the rest of ethiopia while the mekele university has department of Amharic, how do you think the afaris communicate in south, or the oromo in somalia if there is at least know how of the language, but the list is endless, i think people should work hard to account the type of facility in each university so that to compare the qulity of education offered to one region compared to other,
The only benfitor from this ethnic saga is the woayan which makes it easier to expoloit in the name of ethnic federalism, but most of us probably feeling the pain right now but the worst is going to come in the future so let us systematically disclose to senators, ambassodors, policy makers of europeans and others the apartheid going on. It is high time to let the world knows the true nature , let us put in a graph, the number of schools, univerities, their quality , industries, roads, and facilities built in region, the population and other stuff, so these people pay the price, we are not going to be fulled by Aboy sebhat telling us that they bring the money from abroad, this should not happened in 21st century let every body do his assignment.
Now every thing is a war field to make your point, let the world not be fulled by few roads, and buildings built in the cities and by fake economical indexes, it is up to us to let the world see the true nature of TPLF- YOU DO NOT NEED TO SACRIFY A LIFE A COORDINATED effort.
Dear Rory,
Thank you for your courageous job !!
This is a reality that the Oromo people has faced for the last decades as you have witness the situation in Alemya( E.Hararge). Oromo and other non Tigrean peoplesby now are living in a huge terror created by the so called government( woyanne). Thank you once again for witness.
Folks, all you have to read is that the US embassy people helped these poor uniformed voluteers get back home. The US state department didn’t say a word about the abuse of its citzens in the hand of its puppet regime’s thugs.
This is a good example to the Ethiopian people that the US doesn’t care about human rights, rule of law or due course as long as the regime that is trampling on human rights of its citizens is an obidient puppet.
And where were the so called free US media on this issue, not a peep from them or the propaganda arm of the US government the VOA. Not everything is like what it seems, these so called free media outlets are anything but free, they are propaganda tools for the ruling elite of the west. Let this incident be a lesson to every Ethiopian. No westerner will free you from Woyanne, only the people of Ethiopia have to do it for themeselves through their sweat and blood.
Seeing is believing…
I can not wait or sleep rest untill this sadist gang will die..
what a story people? First and for most, I want to appreciate Rony because of two points.She happened to be a hero individual to go that far and helping people that she doesn’t know.She also told to the world how our government mistreats those who are not on his favor or those who may think out of the box. Thank you Rony and we love you and your friends for your volunteer even though our government mistreat you!!!!
Let say that we all are agree that Ethiopia has no govt or has very bad so called govt. However, Ethiopia is a sovereignty nation with 80 million people. She is not just the way BBC(a racist media) is portraying her for 25 years with lies, fabrications and blackmailing style intentionally to damage her image knowing she is the symbol of Africa with her long, rich and fact history. Ethiopia has her way dealing internally as well as internationally the same way all nations do for themselves.
Her beloved citizens including this blog are doing their best all the time at every level for her sake. So, you cannot get/do anything you want in a beloved nation which is Ethiopia that is representing the oldest as well as the first (new)modern nation in Africa. Modern Ethiopia is created since 1850+. During this time there was no a single nation in Africa as well as in the middle east and beyond in other part of Asia, too. Africa get it’s second nation in 1922(Egypt) and third Ghana(1957?)
So, you have to respect the nation law. You cannot behave in Ethiopia the way you do in USA. However some ignorant western think they can behave as kings and queens in Africa as their forefather have done.
Ethiopians are not getting visa for work or Truism in USA, Western Europe, Canada, Australia and other so called western nations. But you do in Ethiopia as you want. Why things are working this way? Don’t use your tourism visa for business you only know that is for your benefit at the cost of may be Ethiopia. Africa was colonized by those saying religion people and are the children of God to spread in Africa. They gave them bible to look at while the land including they were standing was taken away including their humanity and it took hundreds years to get back and the legacy is continuing affecting blacks all over in many ways.
So, if you don’t keep the nations law, then don’t go there. Why are you so worry teaching English(a language beyond Africa and no black person can say as his/her) in Ethiopia (Africa)?
Something similar happened to me years back. I traveled to Ethiopia for the first time when Derg fell and when Ethiopian-Americans like me were feeling safer to visit Ethipia. I requested vacation from work and started touring Addis Ababa with a camera in my hand. Next thing I know I was in jail for a week. The only charge was I looked like a spy. I went through harsh interogations and threats during that week. It took a good week before Embassy officials rescued me and I have not went back since.
Chane and the likes,
What do you want to say here?
In western nations the CCTV is recording you at least 300 times a day without knowing it is happening to you. For Instance in London, one CCTV camera is for 250 people and there you have more than 6 million people.
But in Ethiopia you don’t have that. The only thing the nation buildings, institutions and anything important the country has, its safety kept only with direct human contact/observation.
Are you saying that Ethiopians have to let any one in and do what ever he/she is wishing during the time terrorism is in its highest point?
In this caser, the problem is not the govt but you and your look likes. Even I give credit them for that. And I wish them to be good for Ethiopia including with policy that will be good for all Ethiopians. We are the one making between us peace, unity and harmony for common goal in our country.
Your level of thinking to see the different between Ethiopia and USA is very limited when you think you can behave in Ethiopia the same way you do in Ethiopia. It is a very different world. I’m not thinking here about economic development but the people thinking and way of life.
Really tired of all you diaspora ” opposition” people. You left the country to have a better life. Yet most of you live of driving taxi or cleaning toilets or worse tax payer money… Btw most of you lied to get there in the first place. Because you want to stay there, you sustain the lies by denigrating your country at any given occasion.
I wrote a comment on this site about four days ago and after that I keep checking other comments like mine .Finally, I decided to comment again. I believe articles like this and comments on it are opinions and some times personal experiences. So, there is a tendency of being totally wrongness or slightly true and/or one way the other. My point is let us stop to be judgmental. In other words , let us read and listen up to the end and then let us give some time and then judge.In addition to that let us make sure to paraphrase it as it is our opinion.At this point, we can express our opinions but all our opinions are not correct or wrong.Some times it is and some times it is not, but is is still our opinion.I also believe, when we lay out our opinion, we can join others who have similar opinion and then we will be able to strengthen it.let us change our way of expressing ideas and supports or oppositions. I have seen a lot of sisters and brother who rush for judgment before they see or read something.I think this is totally wrong.
Ormo is not the only tribe that is oppressed by Meles and his gangs. This is the daily life of all all Ethiopians.
You were teaching the wrong people the wrong language; you should have taught them the Amharic language, the right language, in stead of English, and you should have taught the Amhara people the Oromo language instead of English. You were a wrong person for the wrong people and for the wrong assignment. I am glad you were deported as soon as the government found out that you were the wrong person at the wrong time and at the wrong place with a wrong assignment.
Dear Elias Kifle, Chief Editor,
You wrote: “To write your comment in Amharic or download Amharic fonts click here.” In stead of continuing writing the Amharic words in the second person, you wrote them in the third person, plural words. Why is it?
Elias Kifle replies:
September 3rd, 2009 at 12:58 PM
What do you mean? It is all in the second person.
Dear Elias Kifle, Chief Editor,
The second person, plural, in Amharic, should be: “thifachu kecheresachu behuala…, instead of “thifew kecheresu behuala” unless you are expressing reverence for the person you are talking to such as “esow, kiburneto….”
Elias Kifle replies:
September 3rd, 2009 at 6:04 PM
It is like saying “erswo”. As you pointed it out, it is an expression of reverence.
Wake up people,
Isn’t it odd that a white American is going to such place as the Oromo region to teach when there are vast populations of Ethiopians in just US alone? We constantly look for aid, but seldom think how we can contribute or give back. Let’s not forget our history, our roots. The only enemy Ethiopia has is ignorance. It is every Ethiopian, Ethiopian-American responsibility to contribute to the well being of our people. Yes, the US embassy came and saved Rory, but what have they done to the people oppressed? And yet, we fail to see that, and instead internalize what the western writers wish us to portray of our own people: identify with our ethnic rather as Ethiopians – a method of divide and conquer.
It’s time to realize and accept that it is the job of every one of us to help our own people. It’s our responsibility and not others. Praising the Americans for their deeds while the Ethiopian is waiting for foreigner to fulfill humane duty is not just shameful, but isn’t going to help our people one bit.