Getachew Assefa[1], Ph.D.
As Dr. Berhanu Nega affectionately calls it, I have learned to love calling Ethiopia as ityoPyachin -“our Ethiopia”. This term embellishes Ethiopia as a country that embraces more than 72 million people speaking more than 80 languages. As an Ethiopian or a person of Ethiopian-origin, you might have come from the north or south, east or west, or central part of Ethiopia; you may identify yourself with the highlanders or lowlanders of Ethiopia. No matter what Ethiopia is your Ethiopia; it is my Ethiopia; it is simply Our Ethiopia. Our colourful diversity blossoms in terms of the languages we speak; the variety of cuisines and the eating culture we have; the costumes we wear; the religion we belong to; the way we beautify ourselves; the ceremonies we arrange for our weddings and funerals; the tune of music we dance to and the way we dance; among many other things.
You are observing an outgoing millennium leaving its place for a new millennium. You and I were not in a position to see this happening when the first millennium, which saw the flourishing of the Axumite civilization; the rise of Saint Yared and the hospitality of Christian Ethiopia to the first asylum seekers from the Arabian land; made its way into the annals of history. But thanks to God, you and me are, here and now, fortunate to testify a millennium shift as it occurs before our own eyes. This new millennium is your millennium and my millennium, for short it is Our Millennium. For that matter, it is even an African Millennium as implied by the declaration of the assembly of the African Union’s 8th Ordinary session held 29 – 30 January, 2007 in Addis Ababa (refer declaration number Assembly/AU/Decl.1 – 6 (VIII))
Our unique and long history of freedom and independence is no doubt something that we are and should be proud of. However, let’s face it our past has not been a mere bed of roses. A reflection on the last millennium would simply unveil an inevitable categorization of things into those that went wrong and those that would pass the test of success by any measure.
The overriding success of the past millennium, as it were during the millennia before it, is the safeguarding of our independence. We fought back a number of foreign invasions including the Dervish. We were decorated with a significant victory against Italian invaders followed by another victory within a period of forty years against the same invaders.
During the centuries, our Ethiopia has been a symbol of independence for many African countries that emulated Ethiopia by adopting flags that have Ethiopian flag colours as background. The founding of Ethiopian church in South Africa in 1882 has a lot to say in this regard. Many people elsewhere still consider Ethiopia as emblem of freedom.
Other shining additions to our history during the outgoing millennium include the stunning carving of the fine rock-hewn churches of Lalibela and the construction of the majestic castles of Gondar that featured a swimming pool with a supply from an underground water channel; and a bio-fuel fired sauna.
As recent as seven decades Ethiopia has spearheaded the establishment of the AU, at that time OAU; and founded the UN, at that time League of Nations together with other independent nations of that time.
Unfortunately, the outgoing millennium dawned with nothing but the so called the dark ages of the Ethiopian history that included the fierce destructive expansion of Yodit Gudit. Since then, the number of wrongs done during the years has tarnished the successes of the millennium.
Without indulging in the seemingly philosophical rhetoric of what is wrong and for whom, I would argue that past events and actions that left any number of fellow Ethiopians from any corner of Ethiopia at discomfort should be seen as nothing but wrong. This is so no matter what the motives were and no matter how the actions can positively be explained now in retrospect as long as there is no national consensus on such explanations and motives.
This millennium has witnessed a recurrence of a series of famine and hunger, the cause of which are more of man than God. These unfortunate famines and hunger did not only leave hundred thousands of fellow Ethiopians dead and affected, it also gave Oxford Dictionary a green light to use “Ethiopia” as an example for its definition of famine.
Civil wars and massacres were not insignificant part of this outgoing millennium. There is, thus, a need to harbour some level of courage to admit the wrongs that we did on one another under the banner of different motives and causes as we pay farewell to the old millennium.
Albert Einstein, one of the greatest physicists of all time, once said “The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.”
This is even truer when it comes to the status quo in our Ethiopia. We cannot make our future brighter with the same old mentality and thinking. There is a need for a revolution of thought. The new generation is no doubt equipped with such badly needed mentality. Given the chance, this new generation has the capacity to act wisely and for every body’s benefit. The old generation should handover the podium to the new actors, or should get a re-birth with a new thinking from the womb of the new era.
Amid ever-changing global socio-economic momentum and internal dynamics, the trick for success of the efforts of the new generation is to give priority to issues that result in grand national gains without leaving any fellow Ethiopian at disadvantage.
Even if there are a lot of things that our Ethiopia can and should thrive on, its image worldwide especially during the last four to five decades is dominated by what can be dubbed as a negative colour.
This reality assumes an even worse magnitude attributable to the low level of awareness people of the rest of the world have about Ethiopia. Particularly in western countries, there is an evident lack of awareness about Ethiopia in general. Even those very few who know about it, they recognize it for its history of famine, war and instability. On the other hand, those who had a chance to know the real objective history and culture of our Ethiopia, often find themselves immensely awed by the colourful features despite the negative layers that stain the image of today’s Ethiopia.
Obviously, in today’s world, what matters, among other things, is image. And images are, more often than not, created by the information generated by the media to which the average citizen has, consciously or unconsciously, subscribed.
The dawning of the next millennium should be seen as an opportunity for reflecting back on our past history as we simultaneously utilize it as a harbinger of building a positive image.
The melody of this new era should be celebration of the rich beauty of our cultural, linguistic and traditional diversity that is represented among Ethiopians in Diaspora. It is high time to appreciate political differences as part of this healthy diversity. For all Ethiopians, be it at home or in the Diaspora, the country and the millennium are two of the many things that should unite us and make us one. Our diversity renders both the millennium and our beloved Ethiopia, a vibrant trait.
Ethiopians in Diaspora recognizing our colourful diversity on one hand, and our unity on the other, should take this opportunity to contribute to the improvement of Ethiopia’s image among all people in our respective second home countries; among media personalities; and among policy makers who control the power corridors that stretch from Tokyo to Washington DC, and from Sydney to Stockholm.
Our mutual goal should be witnessing the emergence of a positive image of Ethiopia wherever we are.
We can do this through:
With a goal of creating a wave of awareness raising efforts, this writer calls up on all Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia from all over the world to do their level best to campaign for Ethiopia’s positive future by organising or participating in a Millennium Campaign.
The Millennium Campaign is a 23 days awareness raising campaign that will involve all Ethiopians in Diaspora and friends of Ethiopia. It aims at reaching out to as many people as possible with concise information regarding our Ethiopia.
During the campaign days, all Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia will wear Ethiopian flag (e.g. in the form of arm band, scarf, or hat) or carry a paper flag. If possible, campaigners should wear one of the many Ethiopian traditional dresses during campaign days. It is important the format of the campaign creates a recognizable trend among local onlookers. Each campaigner should carry with him/her some copies of a small pamphlet containing facts and figures on Ethiopia to give it out to interested people whom campaigners meet at public transports, at work places, in schools or at any place. The content of the pamphlet should include highlighted facts about figures such as land of Lucy; origin of coffee; land of awesome diversity; source of the Blue Nile that contributes 85% of water to the Nile river; a country cherishing own calendar and alphabet; independent old civilization; oldest Christianity; a land of peaceful of co-existence of Christianity and Islam; number of sites registered as world heritages by UNESCO and the like; a land of social therapy, etc.
The campaign will be held from Thursday, September 6, 2007 to Wednesday September 10, 2008 (see Table 1 below). The 23 campaign days include:
v The last 6 days of the outgoing millennium or year - 6 days
v Each first day of the first 12 Ethiopian months of the new millennium - 12 days
v All five days of the 13th Ethiopian month - 5 days
Table 1. Campaign Days
|
Campaign Day |
Ethiopian Day |
Corresponding Gregorian Date |
|
1 |
Pagumie 1, 1999 |
Thursday, September 6, 2007 |
|
2 |
Pagumie 2, 1999 |
Friday, September 7, 2007 |
|
3 |
Pagumie 3, 1999 |
Saturday, September 8, 2007 |
|
4 |
Pagumie 4, 1999 |
Sunday, September 9, 2007 |
|
5 |
Pagumie 5, 1999 |
Monday, September 10, 2007 |
|
6 |
Pagumie 6, 1999 |
Wednesday, September 11, 2007 |
|
7 |
Meskerem 1, 2000 |
Wednesday, September 12, 2007 |
|
8 |
Tiqimit 1, 2000 |
Friday, October 12, 2007 |
|
9 |
Hidar 1, 2000 |
Sunday, November 11, 2007 |
|
10 |
Tahisas 1, 2000 |
Tuesday, December 11, 2007 |
|
11 |
Tir 1, 2000 |
Thursday, January 10, 2008 |
|
12 |
Yekatit 1, 2000 |
Saturday, February 9, 2008 |
|
13 |
Megabit 1, 2000 |
Monday, March 10, 2008 |
|
14 |
Miyaziya 1, 2000 |
Wednesday, April 9, 2008 |
|
15 |
Ginbot 1, 2000 |
Friday, May 9, 2008 |
|
16 |
Sene 1, 2000 |
Sunday, June 8, 2008 |
|
17 |
Hamle 1, 2000 |
Tuesday, July 8, 2008 |
|
18 |
Nehasie 1, 2000 |
Thursday, August 7, 2008 |
|
19 |
Pagumie 1, 2000 |
Saturday, September 6, 2008 |
|
20 |
Pagumie 2, 2000 |
Sunday, September 7, 2008 |
|
21 |
Pagumie 3, 2000 |
Monday, September 8, 2008 |
|
22 |
Pagumie 4, 2000 |
Tuseday, September 9, 2008 |
|
23 |
Pagumie 5, 2000 |
Wednesday September 10, 2008 |
If you have ideas on organizing this campaign in your locality, you are welcome to contact the writer at getachew@geocities.com
[1] Dr. Getachew Assefa is working as a Senior Researcher at the Royal Institute of Technology KTH (http://www.ima.kth.se/eng/index.htm) in Stockholm and has a private consultant firm (http://www.sustainable-africa.org/)