Willful Ignorance or Legitimate Grievance?

Samuel Estefanous November 13, 2018

Lately some Tigrean intellectuals are acting like a cat on hot tin roof-anxious, confused and worried, that is. For good reason, indeed. Who would blame them seeing that the presumably impregnable solid ‘mesmer’ they have been glorifying invariably is crumbling like a house of cards from within while the apparently ‘indefensible’ counter ‘mesmer’ is holding premium currency. I will only pick two articles featured here to make my point- Tecola’s and that of Le’uel.

But before all that, here is my version of ‘In Retrospect…’ as a catalyst.

In the electrifying days preceding the May 2005 election, we were able to see the uncomfortably eerie face of the patriotism of our fellow Ethiopians across the width and breadth of the country. As you all remember the days were crowned by the phenomenal unprecedented mass rally staged in support of the CUD. I chose not to attend and my friends were furious. One of them half joked that had he known I’d stayed behind he would have beaten me unconscious and carried my dead body to Masqal Square. But our friendship endured. See? Most Ethiopians are capable of accommodating the other idea if it is indeed a genuine alternative and not a deliberate instrument of subjugation in the service of some dark sinister ulterior motive. What is more they even joke about it in a very good natured fashion.

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The reason I stayed behind? I had reason to believe that the epic rally was as much fueled by hatred and muted rage as it was championing the noble causes of the then CUD. God knows I had never witnessed such level of adulation and blind trust in a political group as the kind Addis folks exhibited in those days. Unfortunately I was missed out. I have always been the prisoner of my own conviction and I had to stay behind .My principle is-however much I sympathize with the cause; I will never celebrate hatred and rage.

Question is whence did that rage and hatred come from? Like I said I will never celebrate hatred but I will never cease to endeavor to understand the unvarnished true causes that lie at the bottom. As the years rolled past, I was able to take stock of the cancerous agent eating away at the principal tendons that hold the Ethiopian polity together.

Tecola seems bent on picking on the Premier as a juvenile bully on account of the former’s wardrobe ‘faux pas’. If wearing the Sidama traditional colour is indeed a ridiculous outfit to sneer at, Tecola didn’t want to miss the opportunity to chide the Premier for his ill-advised choice as unfitting to the honour of the House of People’s Representatives. In his learned opinion only the ‘Shema’ matches the dignity of the august body.

To welcome the leaders of the State of Eritrea and Somalia at Gondar, the Premier opted for the ‘Shema’ and Tecola was quick to take issue with his premium choice of National dress. In this case he was downright abusive and found it fit to call the Premier of the FDRE cheap names like-agafari. In his opinion for some reason Dr.Abiy doesn’t know how to wear the Shema…Lord have mercy on us! Poor Dr.Abiy, he was uncharacteristically damned for wearing the Shema and equally damned for not wearing it-by no less person than an otherwise erudite veteran scholar whom millions look up to.

It always makes me uncomfortable every time a couple of Tigrean scholars begin any given discourse relative to Eritrea by dwelling on the ‘particular kinship’ between the people of Eritrea and Tigray. It seems to elude them that Eritrea is a Nation of nine Nationalities who equally boast of a singular Eritrean identity.

I mean for obvious reasons Eritreans have a unique kinship with Ethiopian people as a whole. Why do educated folks try to emphasis on a segment of the society as having ‘better and more’ kinship than the rest of us? It is truly demeaning. Looks like to me Eritreans hardly discriminate among us, why should we?

I have always assumed that any foreign dignitary who visits Gondar, Hawasa, Mekelle or Djimma is visiting Ethiopia and not a section of it. To my knowledge Mekelle had hosted Al Bashir as Bahdar did scores of African leaders. Why do these scholars try to study the ‘Significance and Implications of Afeworki’s visit to Amhara Region’?

Almost all diaspora is radicalized, I know, but some diaspora Tigreans always find fault with a society of Ethiopians bonded on ethnic lines. Not that I approve of it but looks like to me these radicalized diaspora had learnt the “trade” from the master Mason. Why blame them? I hate to say this but a few diaspora Tegaru seem to feel unreasonably insulated and isolated unlike the homebound natives.

I might have been dead wrong and I pray to be proven wrong. Let us talk about it in a light hearted good natured manner without this or that ‘group bashing’…