The Wild Claims of the Amhara

Kalayu Abrha 01-05-21

There is a joke told by Deki Adwa, which goes like this: "ሶሎዳያስያ ገዓት ተትኸውን፣ ኣብታ ርእሲኣ ብግሬደር ኣግፍሕ ኣቢልካ ጉድጓድ ትኹዕት፣ ካብኡ ብሄሊኮፕተር ጌርካ ነታ ዓባይ ጉድጓድ ብጠስሚ ቅፅፅ ኣቢልካ ትመልኣ፣ ካብኡ ንደሓርማ እንታይ አሎ ብኤክስካቫተር እናጎሓፍካ ምኹላስ።" The translation can be like this: "If Mount Soloda were porridge I would use a doozer to dig a huge depression at the top, pour butter from a helicopter into the depression and eat it with excavator as a spoon". Wishes are pleasant, dreams are elating; but could damage the mind and send the one who takes comfort in them crazy. That is what is happening to the Amhara illiterates and scholars alike. They are drugged into hallucination by their own fabrications of a glorious history which did not exist in the real world of Ethiopia. What really existed was six centuries of internecine wars, invasion and incorporation of formerly independent nations and nationalities involving brutalities and forced assimilation.

The Amhara elites are very busy claiming anything that is best in Ethiopia as their own. They are writing multitudes of books; holding countless conferences;  engaged in endless interviews in the hundreds of the same-feather media they have created; and posting in tens of thousands on the social media suffocating viewers, listeners and readers with identical messages about their being: "more Ethiopian than other Ethiopians; more orthodox Christian than even the originals; aborigines of Ethiopia who settled in the key places of Ethiopia before other Ethiopians, whom they consider as late comers; paid more sacrifice for the defense of Ethiopia than the rest of Ethiopians; and many many more". All the claim of superiority, with immodest and sickeningly poetic words of praise, is accompanied by showers of insults and degrading words forcing one to ask: "Is Amharic a language of insult?".

It is only in the Amhara "ድግምት/dgemt" that words turn into a material form. Simply because the Amhara said they created Axum and Tigrayans were "daily labourers who came from Yemen to slave for the Amhara in Axum" does not give them the possession of Axum. This was the typical Amhara daydream that was posted by Fano Amara Washington DC last year. By the way, USA is too kind to host such good for nothings in the midst of honest, bright and hardworking Americans. The desperate search, by the megalomaniac Amhara elite for a "proof" of their phantom superiority, has got them into a territory which the world knows, but they don't. The whole world knows to who Axum belongs. Tigray is not going to hire an attorney to go to court with distorted mentalities. The claim of Raya, Wolkait, Metekel, Selale, etc as Amhara is also another expression of Amhara's inflated self-image. Remember! Amhara as a state is the child of the Constitution. Like a devilish child it wants to kill its parent. This is where the mental illness is diagnosed. They are so possessed by their own demons of superiority and intoxicated by the claim of land not their own they are dying like flies in Tigray, Metekel and Al Fashqa.

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The most glaring of the Amhara claim of possession is the Finfine vs Berara contention with the Oromos. It seems that Amhara history has its deep regrets. It should have named the Capital as "Berara", in 1890s, instead of "Addis Ababa"! Am I joking? Yes, I am! No one knew that "Berera" existed as an Amhara settlement prior to the year Empress Taitu enjoyed the hot spring in Finfine and named the place as "Addis Ababa". Probably, she avoided the original name (Finfine) of the place the Capital was founded because it was an Afaan Oromoo name she could not correctly pronounce or hated to use it as a name of the Capital of the Amhara Empire. The hint that "Berara" was located in the present Eka Sub City is a ruin of a small building. No one of the claimants have told us that the "Berera ruins spoke Amharic". The Oromos were egalitarian societies and did not build palaces for their chiefs; but the Oromiffa place names all over are unmistakable. It is unusual for all place names that existed originally (Amharic place names if there were) to be eliminated without trace after the Oromos settled on them.  In Tigray, settlement by Tigrigna speakers for thousand years did not change some of the non-Tigrigna (Geez or Agew) place names. During the great Oromo migration most of areas settled by the Oromos were vacant plain lands that were earlier avoided by the Amhara for safety and health reasons. The Amhara normally preferred to be perched in the mountain tops, which then were safer, healthier, and more fertile. Typical in this respect is the juxta positioning of Mountain Amhara and Lowland Plain Oromos in the Kemise area.

We had all agreed with the name "Addis Ababa", as the home of all Ethiopians, and used it for over a century. It never occurred to us that this name was not casual but loaded with an underlying political message. This underlying political message, i.e., the Amhara claim of possession of the City, started to expose itself in recent years. When on the eve of the 2005 election Amhara affiliated parties chanted "Tigrayans go home", it was a rude awakening about whose City Addis Ababa is claimed to be. How was it possible fellow Amhara residents of the Ethiopian Capital City dare to chant "go home to Mekelle and your property confiscated by the Kebelle"? If all the non-Amhara in the Capital are living with the kind permission of the Amhara residents, then it would feel like living in Bahir Dar! When the questions get tougher and fiercer the Amhara claim of possession of the Capital is camouflaged in the "possession by all Ethiopians". The largest outcrop that exposes the Amhara claim over the Capital is the movement that surprisingly turned into political party: "Balderas". This party, led by Eskendir Nega, is not inclusive. It is dominated by Amhara proponents of the claim of possession of the Capital.

If any nation or nationality is to be allowed to claim possession of the City, it cannot be the Amhara. In principle and in convention the Capital belongs to all residents on equal basis, but if any of them are to be awarded the possession it can only the Oromos who have close to a legitimate claim. However, many Oromos live in Bahir Dar the City cannot belong to the Oromos. The same thing would be true for Hawassa; and Mekelle. Addis Ababa is an urban settlement, similar to Adama, Assela, and Gore, which was the outcome of the Abyssinian expansion in the last Century. Nazreth was changed to Adama and Asebe Teferi to Chiro and Debrezeit to Bishoftu. Addis Ababa was not officially changed to Finfine but the Oromos call it by that name. They have every right to do so!

The Amhara claim of possession has gone to the extent of opposing demographic changes in favour of Oromos in Addis Ababa. This is a wild expression of the Amhara claim. The Amhara are not the Arbiters in the City. As much as every Amhara, Tigrawai, and Sidaama has the right to live in Addis Ababa, every Oromo from any part of Oromia has the right to be permanent resident in the Capital. Some Amhara are critical of the several Oromo public buildings planned to be built in Addis Ababa. Urbanization does not work that way but if justice is to be done 40% of Addis Ababa must be Oromos. The fact that they form the entire hinterland of Finfine they deserve even more. Of course, it is unacceptable for the Oromos as it is for the Amhara to marginalize the rest of the nations and nationalities living in the City. This is a question of justice, not a choice of masters. The false sense of victory of the Amhara over Tigrayans is letting loose Amhara rudeness over Tigrayans in the Capital. They are counting the high-rise buildings belonging to Tigrayans. If the Amhara, who are expected to behave properly, like any one of the migrants to the City, try to be more Addis Ababans than the Tigrayans and try to harm them the Oromos have the historical obligation to protect Tigrayans in Addis Ababa. Tigrayans are living in Finfine not in Addis Ababa.