ByAvery L. Whitephotos byAvery L. White/Vice

Feb 11 2018, 9:00pm

In the 60s and 70s, Hailu Mergia was a famous musician in Africa. But famine in the 80s forced him to move to the US. Now he’s poised for a comeback.

As a young man living in Addis Ababa during the swinging 60s, Hailu Mergia was a superstar. The Ethiopian capital city was a bustling cosmopolis where art and culture flourished amid the country’s uneasy quest for independence.

His jazz and funk band, The Walias, performed for the domestic and international elite at the then-prestigious Hilton Hotel’s music club, which granted residencies to Ethiopia’s hottest bands. Crowds of dignitaries and foreign diplomats, Hollywood movie stars, famous musicians like Duke Ellington and Alice Coltrane, and important African figures like Manu Dibango would flock to the hotel to dance and jam until sunrise.

“When we played in the Hilton Hotel, the audience was full of people from around the world, so everybody had requests for different kinds of music. Sometimes we’d play Indian melodies, sometimes we’d play Arabic music. We’d pick up American soul, blues and jazz melodies and then improvise on them in our own music,” Mergia remembers.

Born in the Ethiopian countryside in 1946, Mergia spent much of his childhood working as a shepherd, but began learning to play music as a boy scout at age 14. When his band rose to prominence in the 60s and 70s, they weren’t just kings of Addis Ababa nightlife, they were a beacon to Ethiopia’s revolutionaries. Under the Derg regime, constant warfare, famine, and brutal political oppression plagued Ethiopia.

The Walias’s seminal album Tche Belew features the single “Musicawi Silt,” one of the most famous songs of all-time in Ethiopia. It conveys messages of heroism through well-known references to Ethiopian battle songs. “Ethiopian music is like most art: in every piece there’s a message. Everyone is trying to explain what they know through music. Tche Belew is a hero’s song. It means ‘go for it,’” says Mergia.

Left photo: First photo ever taken of The Walias band, Zoo Park in Addis Ababa, 1963. Center photo: Mergia and The Walias with Manu Dibango, The Hilton Hotel Ballroom, early 1960s.

The album’s call for bravery proved apt. During the “Red Terror” over a half million Ethiopians were killed and countless more displaced. The constant state of crisis led to the nation’s first major diaspora into the western world, with the United States experiencing a surge in refugees.

In 1981, as his country entered one of the worst famines it had ever endured, Mergia made the painful decision to leave Ethiopia, abandoning his fame to move to the United States. He eventually settled in Washington, DC, where he’s been driving a cab for the last 20 years. “To give up fame and music was hard, but I always had a feeling that one day I’d make my way back to it again,” Mergia says.

Though Mergia is far from his home country, he keeps music close to him as he navigates the streets of DC. “I have a keyboard in the trunk of my taxicab,” he says. In between fares, Mergia pulls it from his trunk to practice in the backseat. “My keyboard works with batteries, so I always have music.”

Mergia playing a battery-powered keyboard in the back of his taxicab.

In 2013, music scholar and archivist Brian Shimkovitz was in Ethiopia digging through cassettes in the back of a record shop when he found one of Mergia’s old tapes. “I was super excited about it and I listened to it over and over,” Shimkovitz says. “So I tracked [Mergia] down on the internet.”

Shimkovitz runs Awesome Tapes from Africa, a blog and record label he started in his Brooklyn apartment in 2006. “The label grew out of the blog’s attempt to show what African music really sounds like in various regions, not a packaged world music version of it,” Shimkovitz explains. “The label tries to put out music other labels wouldn’t release, while doing 50/50 deals and advocating for the artists. Sending them money and opportunities as much as possible is the central mission. [Our] fans are people all over the world who are adventurous or curious listeners or music collectors or African expats.”

Like many of his fans, Shimkovitz was surprised to hear that Mergia was driving a cab. “I used to live in DC, so I was aware of the large Ethiopian community and their role in making that city work. So I guess I was surprised that a famous musician was doing a day job. But I can’t say I was shocked, as the live music scene is difficult as hell for any musician in the US, especially someone playing instrumental music,” says Shimkovitz.

“I want people to know that I’m back after so many years. I’m in business again,” Mergia says.

Shortly after they met, Shimkovitz signed Mergia with Awesome Tapes’ label and began booking him shows around the world. “We never have any big disagreements and the work has been successful so I guess that helps make things really fun. He’s my dad’s age. Not the age of someone I typically hang with and get along with so effortlessly. We have had beautiful times just goofing around while driving through the desert in Texas, or hanging on a boat backstage at a show in Germany, or watching him play Radio City Music Hall opening for Beirut,” Shimkovitz says.

This February, Mergia will release his first album in more than 15 years. “Lala Belu has been a long time coming,” Shimkovitz notes.

“All of it feels like a big comeback,” says Mergia. “A different kind of audience, playing with a different kind of band and working with a different kind of record company. The album is very different from all the albums I did after I left Ethiopia.”

When asked why he decided to release a new album, Mergia replies, “Art is a lifetime commitment. The more you play the more you know.”

After so many years out of the spotlight, Mergia’s drive to keep playing music—even if it meant practicing in the backseat of his taxi—perhaps reminded him of the message he sang in 1977: that one must “go for it.”

Mergia in his home in Fort Washington, Maryland, standing beside a portrait of his wife of 17 years, Ayuberhan Abegaz.

Album promotion posters from the 1970s in Ethiopia. Bottom right: Photo of the Zula Band playing at an Ethiopian restaurant in Washington DC Center Right: Photo of Walias Band on the Hilton Hotel balcony in the early 1960s.

Portrait of Mergia in Greece, taken in the early 90s.

Among many instruments, Mergia plays the accordion, synthesizer, piano, organ, melodica and drum machine.

Mergia playing the melodica in his living room.

Mergia holding a photo of the Walias Band from the 1970s. “There was an American radio station we listened to everyday in Addis Ababa that played James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Tyrone Davis, Aretha Franklin, and many more. So we’d pick up American soul, blues, and jazz melodies and then improvise on them in our own music,” he remembers.

By Harun Maruf

WASHINGTON — The first round of three-day talks between Ethiopian officials and representatives from the Ethiopian rebel group of ethnic Somalis, Ogden National Liberation Front (ONLF), began Sunday at a secret location in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

Delegates from the two sides arrived Saturday for the talks that are being facilitated by Kenyan officials.

Abdulkadir Hassan Hirmoge, a spokesman for the ONLF, confirmed to VOA Somali that the talks have begun.

Hirmoge said each side has sent a delegation of four members. The ONLF delegation is led by Foreign Secretary Abdirahman Mahdi. It is unclear who is leading the Ethiopian delegation, but photos released by the Kenyan facilitators show the president of the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia, Abdi Mohamud Omar, sitting on the opposite side of the table, along with other officials.

A source close to the talks told VOA Somali that “Day One of the talks covered considerable ground and ended on a high note.”

Hirmoge cautioned that it was too soon to say how the talks might end because “there are big issues at stake.”

“We can’t talk prematurely, but these talks are about principles, on compensation, on self-determination, on freedom, referendum, on the economy and centuries-old aggression,” he said.

ONLF and the Ethiopian government fell out in 1994 after a dispute over self-determination. The dispute drove ONLF to war and turned the ethnic Somali state, rich with gas and oil, into a deadly battleground that claimed many lives.

In April 2007, ONLF rebels attacked an oil field in an Obolleh village near the regional capital of Jigjiga, killing 67 Ethiopian soldiers and nine Chinese oil workers. In response, Ethiopia heavily militarized the region and carried out a brutal operation, according to human rights organizations.

Previous failures

Talks were held in 2012 and 2013 in Kenya without concessions from either side.

Rashid Abdi, Horn of Africa project director for the International Crisis Group, said there were a number of issues that made the previous talks difficult.

“They (talks) have been characterized by a lot of mutual suspicion and a lack of confidence. But I think there was also the death of (former Ethiopian prime minister) Meles Zenawi, and the transition had an impact on how the talks should proceed,” he said.

“I think clearly all parties seemed to lack a bit of focus. On the part of the ONLF, I think they came to the table without having a clear vision on how they wanted to proceed, while the Ethiopians were basically seeking very minimal tactical advantages.”

Even with the talks having resumed, Abdi said it won’t be easy for the two sides to reach an agreement without significant compromises. The main sticking points are the Ethiopian constitution and referendum.

“Ethiopians want ONLF to concede on the issue of the constitution,” Abdi said. “ONLF previously said they were not going to recognize the federal constitution, and that was one of the sticking points. So, I suspect this issue will not be quickly resolved.

“Then there is the issue of what exactly ONLF wants? Does it want greater autonomy in the Somali region? Does it simply want power sharing, so that it can be part of the federal system? Does it want to monopolize power in the region? Does it want full independence? Those are the key issues.”

History of unrest

Ethiopia has seen political upheavals since 2016 following waves of protests in the Oromo region. There was also deadly ethnic violence in 2017 between Ethiopian Somalis in Oromo, which claimed dozens of lives and displaced tens of thousands of people.

ONLF’s Hirmoge said conditions on the ground in Ethiopia have something to do with the resumption of these talks.

“Now, we believe there have been big changes in Ethiopia. The conditions are changing. People cannot be silenced now. The talks coincide at a time when things are changing in Ethiopia on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. These have their own ripple effects,” Hirmoge says.

“I believe the conditions around the talks are better,” he added. “The prediction is different compared to previous ones (talks), but I don’t want to prejudge the result.” .

Abdi agrees that the timing of the talks is interesting and could work in favor of the stressed Ethiopian government.

“It comes at a time when Ethiopia feels under pressure from many multiple forms,” he said. “It has serious unrest, so they desperately need a good story. So, the resumption of the peace talks plays well internationally. Ethiopia can say ‘We are engaging the opposition.’ It’s good publicity, but one has to also consider whether there is really a strategic shift and interest to find a peaceful settlement, or are we simply back to the old games of simply playing tactical games?”

VOA Somali could not reach Ethiopian officials for comment.

ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) — A car accident in Ethiopia’s central Oromia regional state has killed four people, a regional official said on Sunday.

Aschalew Alemu, Public Relations Chief at East Shoa zone police department, Oromia, said the accident happened when a passenger minibus traveling on the road Saturday evening had its tires burst causing the vehicle to slam into an electric pole, reported state owned Ethiopian News Agency.

He added seven people who sustained light and heavy injuries have been taken to nearby health stations for treatment.

Alemu cautioned drivers to avoid speeding and follow traffic rules when their vehicles are on the road.

Despite having one of the lowest per capita car ownership in the world, deadly traffic accidents in Ethiopia are common with blames put on bad roads, flawed driving license issuance system and lax enforcement of road safety.

Traffic accidents during the Ethiopian Fiscal Year 2016/17 that ended on July 8 have led to the deaths of 4,500 people, according to Ethiopia Federal Transport Authority.

Liyat Fekade & Etenesh Abera
Addis Standard

Addis Abeba, February 12/2018 – At least four people, including one member of the Oromia police force, were killed and eleven others were injured on Sunday February 11 after federal security forces opened fire at a camp sheltering thousands of civilians in Hamaressa, a small town near the city of Harar in eastern Ethiopia, according to state broadcaster EBC. The camp is a sheltering thousands of Ethiopians who were internally displaced following the recent violence in Ethio-Somail border towns. One of the four is a woman.

The incident happened at the same time when the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) is preparing to celebrate the 6th  “Defense week” as of Wednesday this week.

According to a nurse in Jagol Hospital, in Harar, where some of the injured are being treated, the incident occurred when hundreds of the displaced began protesting against poor provisions of accommodations inside the camp and their delayed resettlement. Quoting a family member of one of the injured, the nurse who spoke to Addis Standard by phone and wanted to remain anonymous, said that the protests “began on Saturday afternoon,. But there was no problem until Sunday.”  He added that among the injured “some of them have been shot from a close range.” The nurse couldn’t confirm the exact number of causalities and Addis Standard’s attempts to reach out to authorities and the police in the city of Harar were to no avail as of now. Several graphic pictures taken from the scene were seen making rounds on Ethiopian social media spheres yesterday and today.

A relative calm has returned to the area today and federal security forces have been deployed in various posts near the city of Harar and its surroundings.

This is the second time that civilians were killed by federal security forces within the last three months only. In December 2017,  at least 15 civilians were civilians killed by members of the security forces in Chelenko town, Meta woreda in east Haraghe zone of the oromia regional state.  More than a dozen were also wounded, many of whom critically. So far, no one is held accountable.

Stay at home boycott

In another development, a three day stay at home market and business boycott called by online activities have started as of this morning. As the stay-at home boycotts gained momentum, the state broadcaster EBC confirmed transport and businesses were closed in Ambo, Jimma, Bale Robe cities as well as in Wolega.

Protest in Ambo, today.

According to a senior security and intelligence official in Shashemene city, 250 km south west of Addis Abeba, “business and civil service offices in most part of the city and its surroundings have been closed today.” Speaking to Addis Standard by phone, the official said there were no major security problems so far. Schools are also closing and are sending students home.” There was also a protest rally in the town which came to an end with no security incident, according to him. However, he said he was not sure if the boycotts would continue for three days. “The city police are on stand by to protect civilians in case of security problems,” he said.

Protests were also held in Ambo, 125 km west of Addis Abeba and Dire Dawa,  445 km in the eastern part of Ethiopia and not far from the city of Harar, as well as in Nekepte, Wolega in western Ethiopia among other cities.

The online organizers have said in various Facebook and Twitter posts that they were organizing the boycotts to demand the release of political prisoners including Bekele Gerba, first secretary general of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) and others jailed with him.

In an unexpected decision this morning, the attorney general’s office told state affiliated FanaBC  that it was discontinuing terrorism and criminal charges against seven individuals, including Bekele Gerba, Gurmessa Ayano, Addisu Bulala and Dejene Tafa, high profile opposition defendants from OFC. All the four were recently sentenced to 12 months in prison for contempt of court. The other three defendants are: 8th defendant Getu Girma Tolossa, 11th defendant, Beyene Ruda Jedu, & 12th defendant Tesfaye Liben Tolossa, all from the same file as Bekele Gerba. 

However, FanaBc said the decision by the attorney general was yet to be approved by the federal board of pardon & signed off by President Mulatu Teshome. It also mentioned that the contempt of court charges against the four defendants, an indication that the discontinuation of the charges may not include the 12 months sentence for contempt of court. AS

Regardless of whether we agree or disagree with the brutal and barbaric Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that does not even have an ounce of respect for the Ethiopian Orthodox church or for the Muslim religion or for the lives of children, harnessing the enormous potential of the Abbay River (Blue Nile) for the betterment of the Ethiopian people is a fundamental and non-negotiable national right. Sadly, this sovereign right that has been asserted by generations of Ethiopian leaders might be at risk because Ethiopia does not have a patriotic, representative and competent national defense or security force. Its internal ethnic and religious division favors its adversaries. Ethiopians must wake up before it is too late. They must bridge minor differences; unite and defend the country from internal and external adversaries.

While the TPLF led Agazi, federal police, defense, security and allied forces target Amhara, Oromo and other innocent Ethiopians, including children, Ethiopia’s traditional adversaries have encircled the country and threaten its very existence. In order to survive and thrive, Ethiopia needs a competent, patriotic and integrated and national defense and security force drawn from all segments of Ethiopian society. This generation of Ethiopians must determine and unite to save Ethiopia from Balkanization and its people from civil war and genocide. This is the most urgent task facing us today. The current defense and security establishment is an arm and a tool of the TPLF and therefore part of the problem.

In all countries but few, the sole responsibility and accountability of a defense and security establishment are to protect and defend the country and its people from foreign aggression. Until the TPLF took power 27 years ago and dismantled the country’s renowned national defense forces, Ethiopia had such an established tradition. This tradition must be restored for Ethiopia to defend its territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty. The current defense and security establishment is the exact opposite. It is totally dominated by Tigrean officers for the benefit of Tigrean elites. This skewed and ethno-nationalist reality alone makes Ethiopia vulnerable.

I should like to draw your attention to the notion that when a country is conflict ridden, ethnically polarized and corrupt its external adversaries are emboldened exponentially. This has occurred under the socialist military dictatorship that was brutal but not even corrupt financially. The TPLF has decimated the cultural, spiritual, moral, historical, economic and geopolitical bonds of the Ethiopian people that are critical in defending external threats. It does not do this alone. It has external allies and is willing to bargain and trade Ethiopia’s national interests for the sake of dominance. Remember, Ethiopia lost its access to the sea because of the TPLF.

The TPLF is so inimical to internal unity of national purpose and Ethiopia’s national security that it creates internal divisions and conflicts perpetually in order to prolong its harsh and brutal rule. This compound risks for the country.

What gals and angers me is not external threat for which Ethiopia is renowned; and for which its citizens together proved resilient and unconquerable. The Battle and Victory of Adwa should be our shining light.  Rather, what appalls me is the TPLF-led polarization and division of Ethiopian society. A regime that murders youth and other innocent citizens at a celebration of Epiphany has no soul and possesses no redeeming feature.

A regime that desecrates the Ethiopian Orthodox faith, a bedrock of our national culture, heritage and identity and spiritual and moral strength deserves outright condemnation and revulsion by all Ethiopians. For me, it is unthinkable to imagine Ethiopia without its major faiths, Christianity and Islam together; and without its splendid diversity.

I think of and am elated by the Annual celebrations of Timket in Gondar and the Oromo Irreecha festival that draws thousands of Ethiopians of all faiths and ethnic groups that the TPLF does not honor or respect. Each of these events distinguish us from other societies; and they must be cherished and respected by any Ethiopian regime.

Sadly, recurrent practices show that any form of peaceful expression of dissent against the TPLF is met with extrajudicial measures even at Holy events. I ask myself why the TPLF, including its generals and its supporters desecrate faiths and their symbols; and why they devalue human life; and instead worship material possession. It is therefore reasonable to conclude from these episodes that a regime that does not value Ethiopian human life cannot be a guardian of Ethiopian national interests and sovereignty.

For the TPLF citizens and faiths must submit to its ideology of ethnocracy and plutocracy. Despite this, I am convinced that Ethiopia will surmount these difficulties and outlive the TPLF.

Fortunately for Ethiopia and the Ethiopian people, the young generation of Amhara and Oromo youth in particular, has shown fierce and patriotic determination to fight for justice, democracy, shared prosperity, national unity and Ethiopia’s sovereignty. Millions now appreciate the fundamental premise that our ancestors sacrificed their lives and their livelihoods to preserve Ethiopia’s independence and the unity of its diverse population. Ethiopia is central for their existence.  It is this social force emanating from its youth that will change Ethiopia and preserve and defend Ethiopia’s national interests, including the Abbay River.

The rest of us have a moral obligation to rise-up beyond parochialism and side with those who are sacrificing their lives for a better tomorrow. It is these social forces that are spearheading fundamental change. Young and promising leaders are emerging.

The reason for this commentary is once again to defend Ethiopia’s sovereign right to harness the Abbay River through the construction of electric and irrigation dams. At last, Egyptians must be persuaded; and if not, pressured to recognize the principle that their “right” to use the River Nile is indefensible without, at the same time, showing a modicum of recognition of Ethiopia’s right to harness its rivers for the betterment of Ethiopians.

One-way negotiation by Egypt pressuring and threatening Ethiopia to surrender its rights is a losing proposition that the current or future generations of Ethiopians won’t accept regardless of military threat.

In this connection, I should like to draw the attention of the reader to a previous commentary “Why Egypt is threatening Ethiopia now?” The commentary also suggests that the only way to avert Egyptian threat is for the Ethiopian people to unite against and remove their internal cancerous and brutal tormentors with a view of defending Ethiopia’s long-term interests. Democracy is unthinkable unless Ethiopia exists.

On February 2, 2018, Al-Jazeera offered a video showing massive movement of Sudanese troops towards the Eritrean border. This ominous sign of military preparedness on the part of the Sudan is not to invade Eritrea or Ethiopia. The Sudanese have two fundamental reasons why they are preparing their country against Egyptian aggression and expansion.

First is a contested area, Hala’ib Triangle that was once occupied by the Ottoman Empire that both Egypt and the Sudan claim.

Second, is the notion that, behind this is the undeclared war of nerves between the Sudan and Ethiopia on one side and Egypt on the other. This is driven by the contentious issue of the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) for which Ethiopia has spent billions and plans to complete. The Sudan and Ethiopia have reached the conclusion that the mutual benefits from the dam outweigh the costs.

Therefore, the second reason for troop movements might plausibly be Sudanese and Ethiopian tacit agreement to prepare and guard against Egyptian aggression against the Sudan and Ethiopia over the GERD. Sudan has a national interest in the GERD. The dam would offer the Sudan cheap electricity and increased volumes of water for irrigation.

The video suggests that the tripartite agreement (Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan) recently is a smoke screen. The Egyptian President’s assertion that Ethiopia’s or Sudan’s interests are identical to that of Egypt and vice versa is a routinized Egyptian rhetoric.

Equitable use for Egypt is not to lose “even one drop of Nile waters” from its traditional share. There is no way imaginable that building one of the largest dams in the world won’t affect the flow of water at least temporarily. It is unfeasible for any regime in Addis Ababa to guarantee Egypt such a deal of “not a drop of water loss” without betraying Ethiopia’s national interest.

The Al-Jazeera news and video clips of “A geopolitical crisis is building over who controls the River Nile” show that the tripartite meeting of the Presidents of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia in Addis Ababa “to resolve a dispute over building a dam on the river in Ethiopia” has very little chance of success unless Egypt drops its arrogant and unreasonable position concerning Ethiopia’s rightful and legal position to harness the Abbay River for its modernization and the welfare of its 105 million people.

As the news report noted, the façade of unity among the leaders of the three countries has been “contradicted as pictures emerge of Sudanese troops near Kassala, near the border with Eritrea.” The regime in Addis Ababa continues to fail in informing the Ethiopian public why “massive” military movements are taking place along its borders with the Sudan and Eritrea.

The regime in Addis Ababa FAILED miserably to recognize the strategic importance of rapprochement with the regime in Eritrea. Strategic thinking suggests that the Eritrean and Ethiopian people have much more in common than either regime appreciates.  The destinies of the two peoples are intertwined and a way out of the current morass must be explored. Neither “country” should allow its territory to be used against the other.

Ethiopia’s loss must not be Egypt’s gain. The people of Ethiopia and Eritrea deserve amity and not animosity. Peace, harmony and some for of unity between Ethiopia and Eritrea will pay enormous dividends for both peoples. People to people relations must therefore be cultivated and promoted.

Objective assessment suggests that Eritrean and Egyptian friendships and strategic relationships could have been averted if the regime in Addis Ababa dominated by the TPLF had made Ethiopia’s national interests, security and sovereignty the sole criteria in determining relations between the Ethiopian and Eritrean people. A nationalist government would have tended to opt for this alternative.

The above medium and long-term option and missed opportunity aside, I conclude that Ethiopia’s right to harness its rivers for the betterment of its people is non-negotiable.

2/12/2018

Poetry and Art Kebedech Tekleab – Pt 1 SBS Amharic

By Mikael Arage
11/2/2018
London, UK

“A united Amhara is in the best interest of every Ethiopian”

The pressure for establishing one Amhara Political party, one Amhara research council, and one Amhara media should there need be has never been stronger. As a result, over the past couple of months, Amhara Network took the initiative to reach out to different political parties and civic organizations aspiring to put themselves in the service of the oppressed and exploited people of Amhara.

The good news, according to our profound and independent assessment of the situation , is that there are a lot more capable Amharas than we ever imagined. That there are a number of people doing really great things. That the new Amhara generation, though distributed, is organized enough to continue doing so many great things. However, talents and resources diverged out in five organizations must, by all means necessary, be converged for the strategic, effective and efficacious service of the people of Amhara. We—as servants of the exploited, oppressed, hostaged and endangered people of Amhara—have more imperative issues and values we share than what’s dividing us. Fear not to make that move which will bring the pieces together for the better. 

May God Bless , and give you the grace for co-creation!

(By Hassan Cher)

“We will also declare our independence if the Tigray region took the first step,” said Abdi Mahamoud Omar, President of the Region Somalia to Ethiopia, during a conciliation meeting between officers of the national army Ethiopian and Somali clans of Ethiopia held in Jigjiga the last week of January 2017.

The president of the Somali regional state of Ethiopia, expressed his wish for independence in the presence of Major General Abraham Woldemariam, head of the Ethiopian army stationed in Harar, General Mehari Zewdu and Major General Ibrahim Jalil who Is a member of the Ethiopian Ministry of Defense. “We do not want to stay with the Amharas if the Tigers leave the Ethiopian federation and our land rich in natural resources will not be a wealth for the Amhara region and source of poverty for the Somalis of Ethiopia” added Abdi Mahamoud said Abdi Iley, President of the region Somalia .

In this consultation meeting on the independence and wish the Somali region of Ethiopia tabby, almost all the wise men of Somali clans of Ethiopia were present and were able to witness the progress of the draft declaration Independence of the Tigray region. The president of the region Somali of Ethiopia that rolls under the orders of Mekele was also mentioned in his speech that he had the military strength to defend against the Oromo region and prefers independence from the return of power to Addis Ababa in the hands of an elite of the Amhara region.

Relatives of Somali state leadership in Ethiopia have repeatedly, in anonymity, informed the Somali media about an independence project in the Tigray region. These Jigjiga officials had added that the Tigre elites were pushing Abdi Iley, president of the Somali region, to follow them in their project of independence because with such a strong ally, the Tigre region has the chance to see his project And will not have to suffer too much pressure.

Articles 39 (3), 42 and 47 of the 1994 Ethiopian Constitution clearly stipulate that the right to secession is part of the right to self-determination of nations irrespective of their number, political or historical status. The only limitation of this right is that all regional or local bodies must fulfill their functions and exercise their rights within the framework of democratic principles, the rule of law and in conformity with the mandatory rules and spirit of The Ethiopian Constitution.

*****
Voice of America, VOA Report

ኦብነግና “የኢትዮጵያ” መንግሥት እየተደራደሩ ናቸው

Abdi Latif Dahir

Quartz  Reporter

When Ethiopia announced last month that it would release political prisoners and close a controversial detention facility, many viewed it as a promising sign that the Horn of Africa nation was shifting toward real democracy.

Since then, nearly 6,000 political prisoners and journalists have been released, according to Reuters. These included Merera Gudina, chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Congress and journalists Darsema Sori and Khalid Mohammed, who were both held on anti-state charges. The attorney general’s office said it would pardon 746 others, including the prominent journalist Eskinder Nega and opposition politician Andualem Arage.

Yet disturbing details continue to emerge over the conditions under which some of those jailed are being released. On Friday (Feb. 9), the Committee to Protect Journalists said Nega was asked to sign a “false confession” stating that he was a member of Ginbot 7, an organization the government deems a terrorist group. After he refused, he was returned to his cell. CPJ also told Quartz that Nega was asked to sign the form a second time during the weekend.

Arage and opposition leader Abebe Kesto were also asked to sign—both refused to endorse the allegations against them, according to family members.

 “The government believes that signing a document saying he was a member will exculpate its behavior in jailing an innocent man.” 

The directive to sign pardon letters jeopardizes the steps taken to calm lingering tensions, observers say. Ethiopia has struggled for the last two years with ongoing protests by the country’s two largest communities, the Oromo and Amhara, which are calling for an end to decades of systemic exclusion. The government reacted to those protests with force, drawing criticism from both the United Nations and its allies in the West. Facing mounting unrest, the government announced it would drop the cases against some of those arrested and on trial in a bid to foster reconciliation.

Angela Quintal, the Africa program director for CPJ, said the government looks like it’s still “trying to justify” Eskinder’s unlawful detention and prosecution. “It’s as though the government believes that signing a document saying he was a member will exculpate its behavior in jailing an innocent man.”

For those who have been pardoned, officials have also said they will be freed only after undergoing “rehabilitation training.” That program has been under fire in the past, with the camps holding the accused described as having conditions akin to those of the Roots, the American saga about slavery.

Befeqadu Hailu, a member of the Zone 9 blogging collective, went through the program for 33 days before he was released in late 2016. Many detainees, he said, lacked shoes, lived in squalid conditions, and suffered physical torture during interrogation. Inmates sat through indoctrination sessions where they were lectured on development, federalism, “Ethiopian Renaissance,” the importance of economic growth, and the failed attempts by “Western” agents to destabilize the country through protests.

The sessions, he said, were conducted by representatives including police officers, army commanders, and government officials. But whenever he and others tried to challenge some of the teachings, he added, “they were rough and there was aggression.”

Jeffrey Smith, the executive director of advocacy nonprofit Vanguard Africa, says that undertaking these actions against prisoners “will only exacerbate the social and political fissures that are increasingly evident in the country.”

By Kate Bennett, CNN

Barack Obama’s portrait

“How about that? That’s pretty sharp,” the 44th president said as he took the podium. The portrait depicts him sitting against a backdrop of green foliage. Obama said he tried to negotiate with Wiley about his look for the painting.

“I tried to negotiate less gray hair, and Kehinde’s artistic integrity would not allow him to do what I asked. I tried to negotiate smaller ears, struck out on that as well,” joked Obama from the podium during his remarks.

Obama also asked Wiley, who often depicts his subjects as regal and god-like, if the could ease up on those flourishes.

“I had to explain that I’ve got enough political problems without you making me look like Napoleon. We’ve got to bring it down just a touch. And that’s what he did,” the former president said.

Barack Obama’s choice of Wiley makes him the first African-American artist to execute an official presidential portrait for the National Portrait Gallery.

“What I was always struck by when I saw his portraits was the degree to which they challenged our ideas of power and privilege,” Obama said.

The juxtaposition of contemporary urban culture with centuries-old postures and wallpaper-like backgrounds make for bold paintings, of which Obama’s is Wiley’s most famous to date.

Wiley apparently took thousands of photographs of Obama in order to create the portrait, a process different than the typical “sittings” required for most portraits.

Wiley’s background choice was also indicative of Obama’s background. Wiley said he was “charting his path on Earth.”

The different flowers woven into the greenery include the chyrsanthemum, the official flower of Chicago, and jasmine for Hawaii, there’s even some African blue lilies, symbolic of Obama’s heritage.

Obama also pointed out his personal connection to Wiley — both men shared similar familial experiences that shaped their futures.

“What we did find was that we had certain things in common. Both of us had American mothers who raised us with extraordinary love and support. Both of us had African fathers who had been absent from our lives, and in some ways our journeys involved searching for them, and what that meant. I ended up writing about that journey and channeling it into the work that I did because I cannot paint,” he said.

Michelle Obama’s portrait

Michelle Obama said she “was a little overwhelmed, to say the least,” after her portrait was unveiled. “Let’s just start by saying, ‘Wow,’ again,” she said. Pointing to her mother, seated in the audience, she added: “Hi Mom. Whatcha’ think? Pretty nice, isn’t it?”

For her portrait, Michelle Obama chose Baltimore-based artist Amy Sherald. Sherald is another African-American artist known for her unique style, and her portraits also tend to underscore themes of social justice. She often paints black skin tones in gray as a way to take away the assigned “color” of her subjects. Sherald’s work is less about realism in composition and more about shape and color; like Wiley, the choice of Sherald ushers in a new era of presidential portrait.

“Amy, I want to thank you for so spectacularly capturing the grace and beauty and intelligence and charm and hotness of the woman I love,” the former President said of his wife.

Sherald’s painting of Michelle Obama shows her in a flowing, patterned dress with a halter neckline; her expression is thoughtful, her chin resting on her hand.

The former first lady said she was thinking about the impact Sherald’s work will have on “girls and girls of color.”

“They will see an image of someone who looks like them hanging on the walls of this great American institution … And I know the kind of impact that will have on their lives because I was one of those girls,” she said.

The Obamas looked at the portfolios of more than two dozen artists before deciding on Wiley and Sherald. Obama’s portrait will hang in the hall of presidents and the former first lady’s will be placed in another gallery. Both will be open to public viewing on Tuesday.

CNN’s Andrew Dunn contributed to this report.

ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) — The Ethiopia Federal Attorney General announced on Monday it has dropped charges against prominent Oromo opposition figure Bekele Gerba who is in prison on terrorism charges, reported state affiliated media outlet Radio Fana.

Six other suspects had also their terrorism charges dropped, it reported.

Gerba, deputy head of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), has been in jail for more than two years over terrorism charges relating to allegations of instigating unrest in Ethiopia’s largest regional state Oromia.

OFC is the main opposition party to the ruling coalition Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in the restive central Oromia regional state.

It isn’t clear whether the discontinuation of charges would lead to the immediate release of Gerba, as he has recently been sentenced to one-year imprisonment for contempt of court by the Ethiopian Federal High Court.

As the Attorney General does not have the authority to free Gerba from his sentence for contempt of court, it is expected his case will be referred to the Office of the Ethiopia President Mulatu Teshome for pardon.

The release of prominent opposition figures was part of slogans protesters used to demand political and economic change in Ethiopia.

The unrest in 2016 led to the deaths of hundreds and was dubbed by analysts as the gravest challenge the ruling coalition Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front faced in 25 years.

The unrest involving parts of the three most populous regions Amhara, Oromia and Southern regional states led to an imposition of martial law in October 2016 which was only lifted in August 2017.

by Engidu Woldie
ESAT News (February 13, 2018)

A prominent journalist and an opposition leader will walk free on Wednesday as pressure mounts against a regime that holds thousands of dissidents in its notorious jails.

Eskinder Nega, Andualem Arage and 746 political prisoners are to be released tomorrow, according to a regime controlled news agency in Addis Ababa.

The duo were among the over 700 other prisoners of conscience who were “pardoned” last week and were expected to walk free. Nega and Arage have reportedly refused to sign forced confessions last week in return for their freedom. Hence, many in the Ethiopian community say they would believe the news when they actually see the two on the other side of the bar.

The news came on the day Bekele Gerba and six others leading members of the Oromo Federalist Congress were released.

Eskinder Nega, an award winning journalist and Andualem Arage, a leading member of the now defunct opposition party, Andenet have been jailed for over six years accused of being members of an opposition group outlawed by the dictatorship and of “terrorism”.

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Kassahun Debalke Gebremariam*

(Part I )

This article tries to give an overview of some of the myths fabricated by Tigrean fascism to justify its hatred towards the Amhara people and the various forms of evil it is perpetrating on the Amhara. It is the first among a series of articles that will expound the different aspects of the Tigrean fascist ideology that is creating havoc on the Amhara People. In this series we will try to analyze the origins, development and impacts of this Satanic ideology. The historical relationship between the Amhara and the Tigreans within the parameters of the Historic Ethiopian state, as well as the implications of this relationship on the evolution of a uniquely Tigrean fascist ideology aimed at exterminating the Amhara, will be examined at some depth. However, the present article aims at providing a cursory description of three outstanding myths that give a general introduction to the Tigrean mindset.

Tigrean fascism, which is a unique form of African-born fascist ideology, blends some elements of perfunctory “Stalinism” with unadulterated naked fascist perversions bordering on Nazism. In its truest form, as is being exercised by the Tigrean Peoples’ Liberation Front, it aims at the complete extermination of the Amhara people and the subjugation of the other peoples of Ethiopia under Tigrean hegemony. From its inception in the arid wilderness known as Tigray, it had vowed to destroy the Amhara, dismantle Ethiopia and build the uncontested hegemony of “Greater Tigray” on the ashes of the Ethiopian state. This mission of Tigrean fascism has been consistently implemented by the TPLF for well over a quarter century. The Tigrean fascists have waged a campaign of genocide, economic oppression and other forms of inhuman maltreatment on the Amhara people. Tigrean fascism is the Nazism of the 21st century being implemented by the Tigreans on the Amhara.

Tigrean fascism has all the elements exhibited by the fascist systems that created havoc anywhere else in the world. One of these features of Tigrean fascism is fabricating myths and distorting history. As we learn from the theories of Antonio Gramsci and Hannah Arendt, the creation of myths and unfounded fabrications and non-histories is the outstanding feature of hegemonic systems. The Tigrean fascists are no exception in this regard. In their bid to impose their ill-conceived version of the hegemony of the “Nation” of Tigray on Ethiopians, Tigrean fascists resorted to a deliberate distortion of the historical reality of the Ethiopian state, both in the near and distant past. There has been a myriad of falsehoods that have been disseminated by the Tigrean fascists in this regard. The following major fabrications tell the story of Tigrean’s obsession with historical distortion.

Prominent among these falsehoods is the myth of a one-hundred years old history of the Ethiopian State which gave rise to an enormous cycle of multiple lies, denials and creation of non-existent, phantasmagoria of “states” and identities (including the myth of a pre-colonial Eritrean statehood). This Tigrean myth tries to give the impression that Ethiopia as a state was created by Emperor Menelik II at the end of the 19th century. In this regard, Tigrean fascists claim that all the constituent peoples of Ethiopia had a separate existence before their incorporation to the Ethiopian Empire by the Amhara rulers roughly a hundred years ago. This falsehood is a clear indication of the perversion that pervades Tigrean fascism. They deny the history of independent Ethiopian statehood that spanned Millennia. In their urge to advance their own agenda of dismembering the Historical Ethiopian State that stands out as the beacon of freedom for the Black race, the Tigreans fabricated this myth to accuse the Amhara people of subjugating the non-Amhara peoples by incorporating them into the “alien” Empire. Given the magnitude of its impact on our current situation, this distortion merits its own separate analysis and treatment in a separate article. For my present purposes, I just want to mention that the above distortion played well into the hands of racist western scholarship that always antagonized the Amhara as a fiercely independent unbreakable people and desired the destruction of the defiant black nation that humiliated European colonialism.

The other fabrication pertains to the “inspiration” that preceded, and led to, the formation of the Tigrean Peoples’ Liberation Front or “Weyane” as it is commonly called. February being the month in which the TPLF was purportedly founded, it is timely to raise this issue. The distortion relates to a narrower scoped, but equally disruptive, characterization of the so-called Qedamay Weyane as the pseudo-historical foundation for the “Weyane Tigray” or the Tigrean Revolution. It appears to me that a number of Amhara intellectuals are victims of this distortion, as are many an enlightened scholar in Ethiopia today (including such willfully blinded western scholars such as John Young). Tigrean fascists created this myth to justify their version of ethnic liberation as a longstanding quest of the people of Tigray. They tried to give the impression that separatist ideology, or at least the tendency to dominate other Ethiopians, had been a persistent aspiration emblazoned on the historical psyche of the Tigray people. In so doing TPLF succeeded cultivating fascism in the people of Tigray by instilling in them a false consciousness of “valorous freedom lovingness”, and the idea of “Abay Tigray” or “Greater Tigray” as a people destined to exterminate their foe, the Amhara, and impose their hegemony on the other peoples of Ethiopia. TPLF has immensely succeeded in this regard. The totality of the Tigrean people have become loyal and ardent adherents, implementers of, and advocates for, Tigrean fascism. As things now stand, TPLF and the People of Tigray are synonymous. Therefore, the terms TPLF, Tigrean fascism and Tigreans are used interchangeably in this article.

Second, this myth of Qedamay Weyane served to justify Tigrean’s role as the “vanguards” and apostles of the overly orchestrated anti-Ethiopian separatism and “liberation struggle” fabricated by the elites of the non-Amhara peoples of Ethiopia. Coming from a people historically integral with the “Abyssinian Empire” as some daydreamers call Ethiopia, TPLF had to justify itself as the leader of the anti-Ethiopian group by fabricating an alien identity and history for its own people. The third and more malignant intended outcome of the Qedamay Weyane myth was the ex post facto redefinition of the state-formation process of historic Ethiopia as an imposition of a “politicized ethnic identity” by the mythical ruling group known as “Amhara”. This gives the false impression that even such a fundamental constituent element of historic Ethiopia as Tigray has been incorporated into the Empire in the same way as the later incorporated “nations, nationalities and peoples”. Only that Tigray preceded the latter oppressed nations by some centuries or “millennia” in being forced to join the union. This widespread distortion supports the unfounded belief that Ethiopian Emperors imposed Amhara hegemony over other peoples, including, and even more ruefully so, on Tigray. It is true that Amhara emperors created, united and ruled Ethiopia from the very beginning of her history as a state. But in doing so they respected the diversity of her peoples and the uniqueness of her component units. The Amhara emperors and rulers of Ethiopia were renowned for their tolerance and inclusiveness as attested by the Prophet Mohammed’s act of sending their followers to Ethiopia for asylum during their persecution in Arabia.

But what was Qedamay Weyane? It was a mere regional feudal uprising having nothing to do with the national identity or self-determination of the people of Tigray. The causes of the rebellion, the structure and process of the uprising were in no way different from the feudal wars of preceding decades. Of course, it is true that Tigray has for long been a hotbed of betrayal and pro-colonial sentiments. As early as the 16th century, Bahr Negash Yeshaq, who was appointed by the Emperor of Ethiopia as the ruler of present-day Tigray and Eritrea, betrayed the then Emperor Zedingil and sided with Turkish invaders on the Red Sea Cost. Such acts of subterfuge and betrayal have been the unique characteristic of the people and officials of Tigray for a long time. This fact was even more accentuated during the Italian invasions during the end of the 19th century that led to the Battle of Adwa. In 1896. The traitors from Tigray were captured by the Great Emperor Menelik and duly punished. During the second Italian invasion in 1935, Tigreans, as is their character and custom, betrayed their Country, Emperor and Flag and sided with the Italians. They assisted the invaders in all possible ways. Prominent among the traitors was Dejazmach Hailesellassie Gugsa who was married to a daughter of the Emperor.

The Emperor who made a valiant last-ditch attempt to curb the invasion was significantly overwhelmed by the immensely superior fire power and fighting jets of the Italians. Despite His heroic move to thwart the Italian march at the Battle of Maichew in Tigray, he was forced to retreat. However, the most important cause for His defeat was not the staggering fire power of the Italians. The main reason was the betrayal by the Tigreans. The Tigreans betrayed their Emperor and attacked His soldiers who were already weakened by Italian bombing. The Tigreans especially attacked the Army of the Minister of War, Ras Mulugeta, whose fighting capability was immensely crippled by the attack from “his own” Tigreans. This betrayal assumed huge proportions in parts of Southern Tigray at which Tigreans even poisoned water wells which were used by the Ethiopian Army.

Despite all these betrayals and shortcomings, the Emperor HIM Hailesellassie I and His loyal Amhara patriots, defeated the Italians after five years of fierce struggle. Upon His return to Ethiopia as the Victorious Emperor He meted out just and proper punishment on the people of Southern Tigray for their collaboration with the Italian fascist invaders. Even the term “Weyane” was never used by Blatta Hailemariam Redda or his fellow rebels during the time of the rebellion. It was fabricated by Tigrean fascists and ex post ante rechristened as Qedamay Weyane. This is a typical fabrication of gigantic proportion to which a whole generation of feudal malcontents from Tigray were erroneously characterized as vanguards of a national liberation movement. We can see the damning effect of this falsification even in enlightened discursive analysis by some Ethiopian scholars. Many of them cite Qedamay Weyane as evidence of the longstanding ethnicized politics of the Ethiopian state. TPLF exploited this vulnerability of the intelligentsia to buy any fabricated argument it advances as long as it is couched in flowery distortions about rights of the “oppressed nations and nationalities”. The so-called “oppressed nations and nationalities” are themselves artificial creations of the Tigrean fascists who appointed themselves as the gun-toting liberators of the non-Amhara peoples of Ethiopia. Qedamay Weyane was portrayed as a component of the “eternal” struggle between Tigray and Amhara. This perversion is unfounded in facts of Ethiopian and Amhara history. Qedamay Weyane was another act of bigoted Tigrean insurrection by a ragtag of aspiring feudals and discontented parvenus frustrated by the liberation of Ethiopia from Italian invasion. The Tigreans wanted to use the opportunity created by the weak capacity of the Emperor who just returned from His exile to promote their sinister agenda of disrupting His efforts to rebuild the country out of the ashes of fascist destruction.

The other myth of a more recent phenomenon is related to the creation of an apocalyptic scenario just preceding the installation of ethnic federalism in Ethiopia. This pertains to the flawed characterization of the situation of Ethiopia at the time TPLF came to power. Tigrean fascists created those scenarios, tries to force us to believe that it didn’t create them and arrived on the scene after the situation had already worsened. TPLF says Ethiopia was at the brink of being torn apart. But there is no historical truth in this; and the truth is the threat itself was created by TPLF. It is true that there was a vacuum when the Derg fell. But it is also true that the future of the country was open to be shaped by the ideology of whoever came to fill that vacuum. If TPLF opted to fill that void by deciding to further strengthen the solidification of the Ethiopian state, it would have an even more great prospect of realizing that ideal. Instead TPLF opted to create a non-existent problem of national oppression. Some people tend to assert that the proliferation of ethnic based organizations forced the TPLF to make this issue its priority.

This tends to forget the fact that all of the ethnic based organizations in Ethiopia with the exception of OLF, Sidama Liberation Movement and a couple of Afar fronts, were created by the TPLF. All of them were created by TPLF on the wake of the fall of Derg; and they were given separatist agendas by TPLF. It suffices to note that despite TPLF’s professed championing of ethnic rights, its sole partner for a long time with which it created the EPRDF, was the multi-ethnic EPDM. This shows even EPRDF was unable to articulate any legitimate ethnic agenda of liberation within itself. But, once it assumed state power, TPLF used its privileged position to tirelessly work for the proliferation of myriads of ethnic based political organization. For the uninformed observer this may appear as if it were there before TPLF created it. But the truth is otherwise, TPLF deliberately and consciously chose the road of ethnic fragmentation as a policy of dismantling the fabric of Historic Ethiopia, and imposing Tigrean hegemony over ethnically fractured Ethiopia composed of putatively sovereign groups scattered over the landscape where a Nation was being born out of their medley.

The other myth fabricated by the fascist TPLF to justify its assertion of Amhara hegemony is related to discriminatory language policy. They claim that Amharic was imposed upon the “nations, nationalities and peoples” of Ethiopia with the intention of destroying the cultures and identities of other nationalities. Based on a naïve conception of national identity as a linguistic identity, Tigrean’s argument in this regard falsifies the process of state-formation in Ethiopia and the role of language in this regard. It is true that Amharic as a language belongs to the Amhara Nation. It is an indissoluble part and parcel of the Ancient literary and cultural civilization of the Khamite Amhara Civilization. Geez and Amharic are the twin Crowns of the greatness of Amhara civilization. The Geez/Amharic civilization of the Amhara people forms the bedrock of the spiritual and material achievements of the Amhara as the founders and developers of the Ethiopian state. These facts are undeniable.

It is also true that, especially after the restoration of the Solomonic dynasty by Emperor Yekuno-Amlak in the 13th Century, Amharic served as the main unifying instrument of the Ethiopian state. The Amhara people were generous enough to share their advanced and well-structured language, Amharic and the literary heritage it begat with the other peoples of Ethiopia. This became even more true during the resolidification of the empire in the late 19th century and the 20th century. It served as the official language of the empire. The language has its own script and well-developed grammar. This made Ethiopia as the only state in Africa with its own indigenous, purely African language and script. But Amharic was imposed not as the language of the Amhara, but as the unifying language of all Ethiopians. There may be abuses and scales of perversion by particular interest groups, but a close study of the dynamic of Amharic’s growth as an Ethiopian language shows that the Emperors never attempted to use it as means of imposing one ethnic group on the other. It was used as a common language of all Ethiopians. Language unification is one indispensable aspect of state formation. The case of Amharic is no different.

The above points were not raised for the sake of providing a full-fledged description of Tigrean fascism. Rather my intention is to point out some apparently minor points that would seriously affect the integrity of any quest to understand the nature of Tigrean fascism and find rational answers to our fundamental problems. I just tried to give a caricature of the falsehoods that are not seriously scrutinized by Amhara intellectuals who take some of these falsehoods for granted. Such points which are usually taken for granted without much inquiry, end up upsetting the whole edifice of arguments built on their implicit foundation. This was a major hurdle of the ill-conceived Ethiopian Students’ Movement that sired all these destabilizing ideologies of our times. This piece is not intended as embodying a complete thesis on its own. It was just an attempt at introducing some basic features of Tigrean fascism. It is part of an ongoing effort to create a theoretical framework to understand and conceptualize Tigrean fascism as a structural and ideological system of oppression that is designed to exterminate the Amhara people and dismantle, for good, the Historical Ethiopian State whose destiny is closely tied to the destiny of the Amhara people. Amhara intellectuals are required to come up with a fully functional ideological framework that explains the true features and manifestations of Tigrean fascism and its impact on the existence of the Amhara people and the Ethiopian State. The distortions and the lies created and used by Tigreans to break the spirit of the Amhara people and ensure our destruction should be properly understood, exposed and tackled. The struggle of the Amhara for liberation from Tigrean fascism should be based on a sound theoretical understanding and framework. The author welcomes any comments or criticisms on the issues raised in this article.

*Kassahun Debalke Gebremariam LLM, JD Candidate, Martin Luther King Jr. School of Law, University of California Davis. Please send your comments or suggestions at the following email: kdebalke@gmail.com

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I often do not like to talk about myself here on social media. But lately, some friends are asking questions about my political stance, especially since I begin to sympathize with what I like to call Amhara’s long-term interest. I therefore find it necessary to write this brief note about my true political stance, without any pretensions, so that people have a clear view of where I stand in Ethiopia’s quickly shifting political landscape.

I have long believed in the need for the Amhara people to organize themselves politically. This, I trust, provides options for the Amhara to more assertively project their political interests on the Ethiopian political landscape. Needless to say, the country has been deeply divided along ethnic lines for decades now. The idea of “ethnic identity” has entered people’s head, and, to a significant degree, it has begun to animate the way they read, interpret and act up on political events. Although many might be adamant to accept this fact, “ethnic identity” has become the principal framework shaping people’s political thoughts, attitudes and actions.

This seemingly inexorable, almost irreversible, ethnic awakeness means that the task of building a genuine national solidarity that transcends existing ethnic divisions and fault-lines has become increasingly elusive. In particular, the old fashion way of doing politics, in which one typically begins by envisioning an ‘ideal Ethiopia’ and pushing that vision down the throat of other groups, does not seem to work any longer. That has been tried for years now, and the result has been failure after failure.

Any delusion of forcing an ‘ideal Ethiopia’ into others must be stopped, and the sooner this delusion is stopped the better for all of us. Other ethnic groups should not be patronized as passive receivers of an ‘ideal Ethiopia’ authored by a certain supra-ethnic collective. Instead, all ethnic groups must be viewed as active partners who have equal stake in shaping the future of Ethiopia. If we accept this simple fact, then there is no reason not to accept the fact that the Amhara need to organize themselves politically, similar to the Oromo and the Tigreans, for instance, with no strings attached.

For that to happen, the Amhara must first come together, deliberate on their long-term national interests, and convert those interests into solid political visions and programs. Once that is in place, they can negotiate/cooperate with others, with Amhara’s, and hopefully also Ethiopia’s, long-term interest in mind.

At this point, I can sense many asking, “but who prevented the Amhara from organizing?” Well, let alone organizing along, for many Amharas, simply claiming their ethnic identity is still considered a taboo. And this is largely due to the ugly campaign of intimidation, name calling and ostracization that they face when they claim their ethnic identity. They are automatically labeled as “woyane”, “zeregna”, “tribalist”, and so on. As a consequence, the majority of educated, experienced and financially capable Amharas (in the Diaspora) are either forced into silence or pressured to identify with futile, old-fashioned unionist political parties.

Young Amhara students under under Tigrean Apartheid system

This state of affair, as many have painfully discovered in recent months, has left the Amhara less prepared, with far less political options in their hands. The incessant campaign of attacking, labeling and intimidating is partly to blame for the poor state of organization and readiness that we witness today among the Amhara, especially in the Diaspora. Although certainly not the only reason, the intimidation campaign, in my view, is also a major factor in the failure of Amhara-based political organizations to recruit resourceful individuals.

So does that mean that I don’t care about Ethiopia any longer? No, not at all! Far from it. I still have high hope for a peaceful, prosperous, and democratic ONE Ethiopia. I just think that the path to reach that goal has dramatically shifted in recent years. At the very least, therefore, Amharas must not be labeled and scared off from organizing. Because that would only deny them a sit at the table that will shape the future of Ethiopia for decades to come. A disorganized Amhara would be forced, once again, to accept a political reality shaped by others. Yesterday, it was ethnic federalism, and the way things are developing at present, we cannot even be certain what will come next.

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 IN RESPONSE TO THE RECENT STATEMENT BY THE OPDO:

IS THERE AN OPEN DOOR FOR TPLF/EPRDF TO RECONCILE WITH THE PEOPLE OF ETHIOPIA?

DEFINITELY: IT’S NOT TOO LATE!

Dear OPDO Central Committee and people of Ethiopia:

I am writing this letter to you on behalf of the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE), a non-violent, non-political, grassroots social justice movement of diverse Ethiopians, formed in 2008 to advance truth, justice, freedom, equality, reconciliation, accountability and respect for the human rights of all Ethiopians; motivated by the truth: “no one will be free until all are free.” We have been working to mobilize Ethiopians in the Diaspora and within Ethiopia to unite in a coalition across ethnic, regional, political, cultural, gender and religious lines to build a society where “humanity comes before ethnicity” or any other differences.

Our work has included international human rights advocacy, raising awareness, refugee advocacy, investigation and analysis, reconciliation work, networking and coalition building. Our goal is to be a catalyst in bringing about a “New Ethiopia” where robust freedoms, the rule of law, transparency, respect for human rights, equal opportunity and good governance are grounded on the God-given dignity and worth of every human being.

Because we love Ethiopia and care deeply about the security and well being of all of its people, as well as in maintaining its national integrity at this dangerous time in its history, we want to affirm the positive direction laid out in the recent OPDO statement and to encourage those involved, as well as others, to continue this noble work towards a better, more inclusive, more democratic, more just and more peaceful home for all the people of Ethiopia— including the TPLF/EPRDF.

OPDO’S STATEMENT TO OROMIA, ALL ETHIOPIANS AND THE DIASPORA, CALLING US TO ALL WORK TOGETHER, HAS SHAKEN THE TPLF

This past week, the leadership of the OPDO, headed up by Lemma Mergesa, issued a written statement addressed not only to the people of Oromia, the region the OPDO represents; but it also included a call to all the people of Ethiopia, inviting them to work together in a people-to-people process to find a way to solve the current daunting crisis. The statement followed an eight-day meeting of the OPDO that focused on the deepening resistance of the Oromo and others to the TPLF-dominated ruling regime, as well as on the schism within the EPRDF itself. The statement was extraordinary and has already begun to shake up the ethnic-based foundation of the TPLF. Keep in mind, the TPLF, and its profoundly broken system, is different from the people of Tigray, who are also included in this call to join together.

We Ethiopians should be aware of repeated attempts by the TPLF to incite division as a means to destroy efforts to form a common, principle-based vision, for the good of all Ethiopians. Will the TPLF attempt to divide Oromo from within and Oromo from others? Definitely! Will the same tactic be used among other groups? Definitely! The lifeline of this ethnic minority, crony-based party, which has dominated Ethiopia for 27 years, has depended on the vulnerability of Ethiopians to willingly divide among themselves, especially along ethnic lines. As more Ethiopians gain understanding of how easily we may have been manipulated in the past; let us refuse to fall into this trap once again. We can love our own families, communities and ethnicities while still caring about others. This is our challenge today!

THE TPLF/EPRDF HAS NEVER DIRECTLY COMMUNICATED LIKE THIS WITH THE PEOPLE OF ETHIOPIA

The statement made by the OPDO was the first such communication from any branch of the TPLF/EPRDF government body to be addressed directly to all of the people of Ethiopia.

Can anyone recall former Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, the TPLF or the EPRDF ever initiating such communication? Did they ever seek to engage the people in finding solutions to problems? Instead, the people of Ethiopia were only acknowledged as collective ethnic groups, usually led by TPLF surrogates as reporters and representatives. Based on the needs of the TPLF, these non-TPLF groups would be valued or devalued, heard or ignored, and promoted or eliminated based on such factors as ethnicity, party membership or some other sign of either allegiance or opposition to the TPLF/EPRDF.

Because the focus was only on groups, they could be collectively pitted against each other as a means to more effectively disempower them, while helping to sustain the TPLF. The topic of peoples’ rights as citizens of the country was actively avoided. Individuals were only useful if they were leaders of competing groups, or even of the same group, who could knowingly or unknowingly, divert the focus from a broader struggle based on a common, principle-based vision to something smaller and weaker; and in doing so, represent the interests of the TPLF/EPRDF in disempowering any resistance.

AN INCLUSIVE CALL TO ALL, INCLUDING OPPOSITION MEMBERS AND THE   DIASPORA

The second point of great encouragement in the statement was the inclusive call by the OPDO leadership to others outside of their immediate jurisdiction to work together. This is unprecedented. The statement not only addressed people within the Oromia region; it went beyond to call all Ethiopians to work together to find a solution to our present crisis. When in the past has the government ever issued such a call?

Members of opposition parties and Ethiopians in the Diaspora were specifically included in this call; which is another huge difference from the past actions of the TPLF/EPRDF where opposition members were never acknowledged except when accused of being anti-government, anti-development, or as terrorists. These are key points in the OPDO approach that indicate a deeper understanding of the importance of reaching out to others, including those outside our own groups, so as to achieve a bigger, more sustainable change.

Now, we should be vigilant and “start watching” for TPLF efforts to create division around this point, but it no longer may be so easy for the TPLF to divide us. The OPDO and other like-minded people and groups have become “the grownups in the room of the TPLF/EPRDF” who can see through TPLF manipulations to separate the Oromo from others; and if that does not work, to create division among the Oromos on this point. It may be too late for these old TPLF tricks to succeed. Keep watching because the TPLF just may not get what they want.

INVITATION TO ENGAGE TOGETHER IN PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE DIALOGUE(S)

A third point in this statement to highlight is the call for something quite threatening to the TPLF/EPRDF — a people-to-people dialogue. Such a dialogue could enable people to meet to speak, to listen and to work together on a relational level to find solutions to the conflicts and problems before us. The OPDO has given an open invitation to all Ethiopian people to engage in a people-to-people dialogue that can lead to strengthening shared values and developing a common vision. When have the people in the past ever even been consulted based on being citizens of the same country?

For the TPLF/EPRDF, shared values and a common vision would mean the possibility of cohesion and cooperation that might undermine the TPLF/EPRDF hold on power— the opposite approach being preferred— to divide and conquer. Actually, such a coalition could be the best outcome for the TPLF as it could help avert a violent crisis and aide the development of a principle-based foundation for change in Ethiopia that would also include them. Until more recently, the current TPLF/EPRDF organizational model of “nations and nationalities” has been fundamental to their sustainability. For example, naming the regions by ethnicity has had many negative side effects, including the marginalization and silencing of most ethnicities, except for the four ethnic-based groups that make up the EPRDF.

Similarly, even the Ethiopian Constitution breaks Ethiopians up into many subgroups. Instead of “we the people” like in the American Constitution and many other countries, inferring a country where people share a common vision, the Ethiopian Constitution refers to “nations and nationalities,” with differing national interests— sometimes even secession. By default, this sets up a system that does not work for any of the disempowered “nations” when one or a few control all the rest. It gives reason for the chaos we are facing today.

Getachew Reda, the former spokesperson for the government, made an obvious attempt to hijack the improving cooperation between the Amhara and Oromo in 2016 when some Amhara and Oromo claimed they were one people and said that each had the others’ blood running through their veins. Ato Getachew’s response on public TV was a fear-based attempt to incite division once again. He said that mixing Oromo and Amhara together was like a flame of fire in hay that would ignite. He obviously knew that such cooperation and connectedness was the greatest threat to sustaining TPLF power. Sadly, the “lifeblood” of their whole system is to separate the people instead of building a democracy based on shared values and holding to a common, inclusive vision. No wonder everyone is supposed to have an ID with his or her ethnicity on it.

Our history under the TPLF/EPRDF has been one-sided, top-down, self-centered decision-making, with little consideration, understanding or accountability to others, an especially destructive and undemocratic process.

CALLING AUTHORITARIAN RULE, “BABY STEPS TO DEMOCRACY,” IS REALLY DEMOCRACY DENIED INSTEAD OF PRIORITIZED

The fourth notable point in the recent statement is the importance placed on establishing a democratic foundation in Ethiopia as a core priority. For years, the TPLF/EPRDF justified its increasingly authoritarian rule as necessary for a “people not ready for democracy,” meaning Ethiopians. Instead, they prioritized a form of economic development that nearly exclusively favored themselves, their cronies, and some in their ethnic group and left all others out.

Worse yet, were the harsh practices utilized to make it work for a few at a high cost to others. This meant: human rights abuses, repression of basic civil rights, the imprisonment of tens of thousands of political prisoners, widespread injustices, control of information and the media, land grabs, resource exploitation, corrupt practices, money laundering and the suppression of civil society. If anyone objected to the shortcomings to the vast numbers of Ethiopians who were left out of this model of development, they were considered anti-government, anti-development, anti-peace, anti-stability and an enemy of the state, sometimes leading to imprisonment. In the statement by the OPDO, democratic practice and integration into the social, cultural and economic fabric of the country has been made a priority. 

The irony is that economic development can be stronger, more sustainable and more inclusive in countries where robust freedoms are strong and inclusive. When people are not free, it is much easier to exploit the resources of the country, creating wealth mainly for power holders and their cronies while the people are left out, making it less stable and less sustainable like is the case now in Ethiopia. There are other examples that have not ended well, like Libya and Iraq; as well as many ongoing examples, like the Congo, Yemen, Somalia and South Sudan. 

OBSERVATIONS:

All these points in this statement are long overdue. This is what is expected from real leaders and institutions when the goals are based on shared values and inclusiveness. Now it is important to implement it in the right way; however, it will not be easy under the current conditions. 

For starters, the Charities and Societies Proclamation law (CSO) undermines and obstructs these goals from being achieved. Therefore, it is essential that it be rescinded along with others, like the Anti-Terrorism law that has been used to falsely charge and silence democratic voices. Laws restricting the media and the free flow of information must also struck down. How can work be accomplished while these laws and restrictions stand?

Secondly, political prisoners, opposition party leaders, religious leaders and others being unjustly held, must be released in every region of the country. The unexpected released of seven high profile opposition party leaders namely Bekele Gerba, Gurmesa Ayano, Addisu Bulala and Dejene Tafa and other members from the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) is great steps. We would not be surprised if he, Merera Gudina and others now joined together to call for the release of all other political prisoners, like Eskinder Nega, Andualem Arage, Abebe Kesto and so many more —without conditions.

This would lay the groundwork for the next steps, which include the development of a cooperative and strategic plan that lays the foundation for bringing people together for dialogue, reconciliation and the integration of democratic principles within all sectors of society. Such plans should have local, regional, federal, and international levels (Diaspora) of participation and implementation.

Lastly, a huge remaining issue in the OPDO’s statement is the wrongful use of violence by security forces. In the last few years, thousands of people have been killed, many more injured and tens of thousands put in jails and detention centers. The statement did not mention this, but we expect it will be addressed, particularly in light of the ongoing violence and killing of more Ethiopians as recently as this past week. Those killed had been displaced by violence in the southern Oromia region. It is believed the perpetrators were TPLF Agazi security forces. We condemn the use of violence and these killings. Our deepest sympathy goes out to the families who lost their loved ones.

The core responsibility of any government is the security and wellbeing of all their citizens; yet, it is TPLF forces doing the killing of unarmed civilians in desperate circumstances. Those doing the killing should be held accountable. The safety, security and peace among the people is a paramount issue that should be immediately addressed in every region. 

SUMMARY:

These are only a few of the things, among many others, we affirm in this statement and we greatly appreciate the leaders of the OPDO and especially Obo Lemma Megerssa, Dr. Abiy Ahmed and the OPDO Central Committee for its content, tone and inclusive call. What you have done shows the kind of leadership we need for a better future. We affirm other leaders, including those recently released from prisons and those still being held, as well as others still to emerge, who can help lead all the people of Ethiopia to a better shared future.

It is very encouraging, and if continued and supported, it may open a window of opportunity for change and an open door to the TPLF/EPRDF to come to the table. We hope it will lead to real results, such as the release of all the remaining political prisoners throughout every region of the country.

We also hope it will lead to local, regional and national dialogue(s) that will pave the way to meaningful reforms, correction of rampant injustices, the democratization of our government, the strengthening of non-government institutions, the resolution of conflicts and grievances, and to healing, reconciliation and peace among our people.  

SMNE CORE VALUES AND PRINCIPLES FOR AN INCLUSIVE DEMOCRACY

The reason we are saying this is because it reflects our core values that led us to enlarge our vision from the ethnic-based model of the Anuak Justice Council (AJC) to the inclusive model of the Solidarity Movement of a New Ethiopia (SMNE) after realizing that as part of a larger nation where injustice was systemic, justice would not come to one group until it came to all— no one is free until all are free. This is practical, but God also calls us to care about our neighbors. 

We also learned that the challenge in Ethiopia was not simply changing the regime, but transforming the flawed system— and the ideology that supported it— that threatened to continuously recycle the same problems, only with different leadership. This led us to think the problem we faced was the failure to value the humanity of others outside our own groups— to put humanity before ethnicity or any other identify factors. Why? The reason is basic, because human rights are for human beings, all of whom were all created equal. It is God who gives each and every one of us value and dignity.

These principles led us to establish the SMNE nearly ten years ago. From then until today, we have been promoting these principles and reaching out to all Ethiopians, every one of which is a stakeholder. This includes members of the TPLF/EPRDF. The goal is to bring justice and freedom to all citizens through an agreed-upon process, which will not trigger violence, killing and destruction. The statements made by the OPDO and actions taken thus far give us a promising example of what we believe will bring a win-win resolution and lasting change.

We do not have assurance that the TPLF/EPRDF will come forward. Although the current crisis has deepened to a low unseen in the past; yet, some may refuse to come to the table. In the past, offers have gone without response. We in the SMNE have called out to various TPLF/EPRDF government officials, political groups and sectors within Ethiopia for change, often in response to human rights violations and other injustices, but also because of the inevitability of the crisis of today, which has been building for years.   

Here are some examples:

In the last ten years, we have reached out to former PM Meles Zenawi; not once, but twice, with no response. We wrote a public letter to current Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, calling on him to make changes following the death of Meles, with no response. We have reached out to the TPLF Central Committee with the same result. We reach out again today and hope they will finally listen. We want them to be part of this country in the future, especially the Tigrayans they claim to represent. We are brothers and sisters; and together, with God’s help, we can find a better way out of this crisis.

We affirm our support of this OPDO statement and of what the OPDO is doing. It is the reason we are sending this letter. The problem of Ethiopia can only be solved by Ethiopians, themselves, by talking to each other rather than about each other and by acknowledging we share a common vision. We do not only share land; we share blood and have more in common than not.

The building blocks of the New Ethiopia, which the OPDO also acknowledge, are based on shared values. The dialogue has to start about these shared values so that once people start talking to each other, trust will be built and once there is trust, people can start working together to build a better Ethiopia, not only for one ethnic group or a few elite, but for everyone. 

May God help us!

In hope and trust,

Your brother,

Obang Metho,

Executive Director of the SMNE

910- 17th St. NW, Suite 419

Washington, DC 20006

Email:Obang@solidaritymovement.org

Website:www.solidaritymovement.org

The post A LETTER FROM MR. OBANG METHO TO THE OPDO AND TO THE PEOPLE OF ETHIOPIA appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

BY ALEMAYEHU MARIAM, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 02/13/18 

In the lore of the Wild West, cowboys would have quick-draw duels at noon when the sun is high in the sky. It is a do-or-die moment.

The post Washington puts Ethiopia’s human rights abusers on notice appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

Huge, peaceful demonstration is happening in Mojo town. I have ever seen such kind of anti-government demonstration before in the town. The crowd shouting “ Woyane leba!” “chaw chaw Weyane!” and anti-government Oromifa slogan and songs.-  Azmari Minale

The post Huge, peaceful demonstration is happening in Mojo town. appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.

The post Ethiopian journalists Eskinder Nega and Woubshet Taye released from prison appeared first on Satenaw: Ethiopian News|Breaking News: Your right to know!.