For the next hour and half or so, we threw at each other all we got to say about the election, the result and the general situations before and during the entire process. And what lies ahead. Some points we agreed upon but reasoned in different ways, some points we disagreed upon…Finally, we agreed on two things. One, neither the governing party, the opposition nor the general citizenry are doing what is expected of them in creating a situation form which every one benefits. Two, not many seem to be interested in the process, rather, just in the outcome; and that, only as long as they are on the winning side.

So after meals, drinks, smoke and a heated debate on the agenda, some thoughts kept lingering in my mind on the journey back to my place. There we were three women living our own independent lives, though against the tides of the convictions of society, already taking on the world and all that it is throwing our way. And concerned. And involved, somehow, in the issues of these days. But Committed??? Naaa!

Our lives are much better than the last couple of generations – women and men alike. I became the person I am now mostly during the regime in power. It took over the nation when I was in elementary school. What I vividly remember form the time of the previous regime was what came through the television; soldiers marching, long speeches about rebels, women filmed while preparing food for the army….things like that. But what really stayed in my mind was fear. Of the future. Older female members of our extended family constantly talked about what their lives were like – out there, beyond the gate of our compound where we were just children, who pretended as if we were not listening. Streets full of gangs that terrorize every one, unsafe schools where girls were targets of violence and life beyond high school where every women of any social or economical status paid some kind of sacrifice. I dreaded that future.

From my own personal experience, that future that I feared did not materialize. And I do appreciate this situation and am grateful every day. But even on this day, the actors of what goes on are not we, the generation that I belong to. Those who are in power have been around too long and those who are not in power are driven by motives as old as they are. These people are colliding to settle scores, on issues of their own generation. Some are holding on to their ever elusive dreams of power that this generation has no place on their agenda. And where are we? What are we doing? Just making money, ordering at restaurants, and occasionally engaging in conversations on current affairs that are shaping the rest of our lives and the entire life of the next generation, and immersing ourselves into futile self invigoration?? I don’t like that about our lives. If we keep on like this, somehow, the future still remains dreadful!!

ETHNIC IDENTITY, NATIONAL IDENTITY, ETHNIC FEDERALISM, PRIDE…..



So this is about an article written by a friend of mine. And I was asked to share my opinion on it. It got me thinking about my own experiences. It is about ethnic identity and national identity. It is about ethnic federalism and understanding who we are. It is about circumstances that are sources of enormous pride and also humiliation. It is about what makes as who we are as people of the same nation. So here are my opinions and experiences.

The ethnic and national identity thing has also been an issue for me since I was a child. I was born in a Muslim Oromo dominated province. We had Muslim Oromo neighbors on all four directions. but I always sensed the underlying uneasy feeling my parents had about living in that province. My mother is Amhara through and through, my dad believes he is Oromo. I say that because he claims his ethnic background from an Oromo grandpa who adopted his Amhara father, his mum is Amhara through and through. So what does that make me? that was a question that always bugged me.

Things got real when official circumstances needed that data. when I went to get my ID from kebele, my mum asked me which ethnicity I want indicated there, then when the census people showed up at our house and asked for ethnic backgrounds, there I was contemplating the issue again. my dad’s slight disappointment that i identified myself as Amhara, didn’t help the situation. But I got to that conclusion using the same way that he chose. He chose to be Oromo, despite knowing that he has no Oromo blood. So, in this confused times, I just made a decision, I thought it is not where I was born that decided what ethnicity I have. So I chose to be Amhara. I could have also said my dad is Oromo, so I am Oromo. But the thing is, I don’t think he is, but he chose to be.

Here is where I come into agreement with ur assertion that there runs a risk of identity crisis in our situation of ‘ethnic federalism’. However, my dad’s declared Oromoness, so to speak, did not only teach me that I should say who I am, but also that people these days are taking pride in who they are because it is possible to do so now. Because, I do not remember the time when the ethnic identity of either my dad or any of my siblings becoming an issue before the fall of the Derg. At that time our issue was the safety and security of an Amhara family in an Ormo province.

However, I am glad that time has helped this issue to surface. Because I do believe ethnic identity should be as much a source of pride as is national identity, provided the individual or people of the same ethnic background manage to strike a balance between the two. And i agree that among the things that make our country colorful, attractive and unique, our diversity is one of them.

I could not agree more with ur conclusion because i absolutely could not have said it better than Cesar Chavez did as cited in your article, “once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. We have seen the future, and the future is ours.”

Everyday,I get the feeling that we have made a u-turn somewhere and who ever wants to go back on the previous lane, is gonna face a major opposition now. Because, now, people know. they know they can proudly say who they are and no one can tell them someone else is better than them based on their ethnic identity. we are all parts that make up the whole. I just wish we had the same vision for this ‘whole’ that contains us all and also makes up the major part of who we are.

I think if you share this thoughts, it would provoke more discussion on the matter, and that will feed into that extensive discourse your friend was talking about. Unless we learn to face the issues that are going to make us or break us and learn to discuss them in a respectable way with a common goal of coming up with a conclusion on which if not all, at least most of us agree that change and a better future that we all seek, is not going to take place.

I am not even going to raise the question as to why all those who allegedely knew about this, like the CIA shut their mouths then. I am also not going to inquier  as to whether the aid agencies who worked in Ethiopia at that time might have not done a thorough inquiery as to how each peny is spent. There were a lot factors in play at the time and answering these questions can be another piece all by itself.

But, exactly why does the BBC make this report public when Ellections are only two months away in Ethiopia and even more amaizing, reports this including the testimonies of individuals who had a fallout with the current regime? Exactly who is it this report is expected to benefite and not?

The party in power has been there for the last two decades. It has its own deplorable characters and deeds, but it also has accomplishments. I am not a memeber of any of the parties in this country, but i have an oppinion,  both constructive and not on some of them. For me, one of the accomplishments of this party is the relative peace and stability it has brought about. It is almost a certain fact that if this party was not in power, chaos will ensue. And now we are on the way of paracticing democracy. It has been a rather slow process, sometimes costing us lives,but we are making progress.

The last ellection is not remembered with easy feelings among Ethiopians. The ellevated spirits of  thousands of citizens around the coalition of the opposition and the lose of lives and property and trust as a result of riots that followed the election results are what comes to mind.

This year’s ellection is gaining momuntum but it lacks the over heated vibe of the last one. Parties on the governing and opposition coalitions have come up with a code of conduct and for now it seems every one wants to do things with out the shading of blood. And citizens are seeing some hope that maybe this time things will be done half properlly.

Except, foreign media and individuals with grudges everywhere are coming up with stories that are only going to result into confusion, distrust and hatered. I know that they are going to try and justify this with the plight of the western tax payers, issues like accountability to donors and to the beneficiaries of aid and the like. Yet, once again they clearly show that the innocent citizens are not their main concern, citizens who are trying to get a genuine shot at democracy. I just wish that opponents of government would learn how to tell the people what good things they wanna do for them, not what bad things government has been doing to them, because that, the people already know.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8535189.stm

The Treaty of Wuchale between Italy  and Ethiopia ended up resulting into dispute as a result of an article that made the Ethiopian Empire an Italian protectorate. March 1, 1896 the Ethiopian army led by Emperor Menelik II defeated the Italian army. That has made Ethiopia one of the two countries to have never been colonized along with the Republic of Liberia. And the victory of Adwa has been renowned as the victory of Africa.

More than a century of celebrating this victory, but am definitely not the only one asking the question as to what the victory of Adwa means for this generation. Our fore fathers had fought a furious battle to save the sovereignty of the nation. As a result we have been given a chance to live in a free land and develop it. Except it can not be said we have done that properly. Some times i even wonder if this generation has a common vision for this country at all.

Colonization is not yet history. It is still going on in a different way. And as if someone else is going to come for this country, today’s children of Ethiopia only want to abandon it. Every year upon celebrating Adwa, both the government officials and the Ancient Ethiopian Patriots remind this generation that our battle is against poverty. That is true, poverty is the greatest enemy we are up against right now.

But how do we fight poverty when we have such a fleeting sense of nationalism. How do we drag this nation out of poverty when all that we want to do is leave it, when a success of a family is measured by how many children have won the Diversity Visa to the US? How do we instill the vision of a better greater Ethiopia in the minds of Ethiopians now so we can swarm at our common enemy? Answering that question properly is the first battle we have to win.

What i like about hiking other than the great compony of some of the most hilarious people i know, is that i get a glimps of the bigger picture. I feel alive, feel a sense of connection with nature in the most profound way. I feel like i am a part of something much greater.

I have been on the top of two of two of the four mountains surrounding Addis. Two more to go. we will try to hike on one f the two remaining very soon before the “small rains” season starts. can’t wait!