Imperial/colonialist arrogance and ignorance

Fekade Shewakena recently wrote an article entitled Cooking the Bombs and the Terrorists TPLF Style. Despite the article’s hyperbolic insinuation, its fundamental attack line is full of bad taste and indecency. Alem Mekuria's's observations of the author’s intentions are not only inspiring and intellectual, but have also set a standard tone for others to follow. I do not know Mulugeta Aserate Kassa’s political views or him personally, but I find his rebuttal reasonable and admiring as well.

I do, however, think the editorial board of the website entity, which claimed to be a champion of democracy, to be culpable for this uncalled-for indecency. The website claims to ‘aspire to unite people’ (see the mission of the website entity). Does it really “aspire to unite people” when it perpetuates Ethiopia’s past imperial/colonial arrogance and ignorance as demonstrated by its recent willingness to spew into a public forum an article that drags an imagined political opponent’s parents in the mud? Or, does it really understand that the majority of Ethiopians do not care about someone’s private life?

When Haile Selassie claimed that he is a god-sent representative for the Ethiopian people and inscribed this self-importance on the halls of state infrastructure, Somalis, the first to challenge this imperial order, saw the writing on the wall and took arms against the then one-ethnic-controlled state. Ethiopia’s other nations and nationalities followed suit. Ultimately, the TPLF led others in the process of dismantling entrenched ‘specimen of [coloniality]’. So, if the website, and its cheerleading PM contenders, wants to be taken seriously, it must first aspire to disambiguate its mind of the association with hard-core psychotics dreaming of the return of imperial arrogance, people who at any rate contribute nothing to the promotion of democratic governance and the process of exposing misdeeds. How could the likes of Fekade Shewakena expose misdeeds?

The two twin evil traits of arrogance and ignorance displayed by Fekade Shewakena in his writing may be overcome only through collective and persistent education and rehabilitation of the affected. Ethiopia is not owned by a single ethnic group as a majority of CUDists erroneously believe. Neither are there subaltern individuals or ethnic groups in Ethiopia, in the real sense of the term. To believe the existence of an inherent inequality among the society is a cancerous social psychology among certain Ethiopian people. But it has been of late been treated with right doses. The expectation is that the Ethiopian multi-ethnic society would not be inhibited or intimidated by the intermittent re-appearance of this disease.

Guhaad Simane
March 09, 2006