If you fail to spell your name properly, someone will misspell it for you and then you have no one to blame but yourself

By

Mitiku Adisu

Introduction

One may ignore a posting in Ethiopian web site as inconsequential or �loud and vitriolic.�[i] The same posting in The New York Times or the BBC, however, will probably elicit the reader�s careful attention. What then distinguishes the two? A host of things, really, among which are the writer�s credibility, accuracy, clarity of mind, timing, honesty (as opposed to honest mistakes), civility, courage, humanity; the medium�s accessibility, order and beauty[ii] and, not least, relevance of the message itself.

I think we have dismally failed to �spell our name� properly or failed to notice when others misspell it or, worse, make no concerted effort to correct it. It is also that Ethiopian politics has turned into a stage show: the few play multiple roles of actor, director, audience, and gate-keeper. We have become an enigma unto ourselves and the world. We hear voices but see no faces. The same people are on both sides of the aisle. We are on edge until the curtain falls and the lights are turned on. We may have plenty of surprises in store for us.

One observes two types of reportages in Ethiopian web sites working against our collective interests. The first is the deliberate embellishment of facts by web managers to incite anger and/or enlist sympathy. Surely, there is a better way to build credibility and trust than that. Joined to this is lack of organization pertaining, chiefly, to editorial judgment or balance.

The second type is the work of inexperienced, condescending, and career-oriented foreign correspondents masquerading as experts.[iii] These manipulate data to make comparative or educated guesses which eventually get picked up and circulated as the authoritative word. Are we then hopelessly at the mercy of a harsh and overpowering environment? Not necessarily. To turn the tide in our favor, though, I suggest we take advantage of a short attention span plaguing donor societies, resist the urge to be �creative� in the way we dispense information, proactively publish and sustain more nuanced articles in respectable media,[iv] and draw in passive but incredibly capable Ethiopian professionals.

Michela Wrong (hereafter, Michela) encapsulates for us the power of a media that have cast a long shadow on our public image. The choice of her is coincidental and nothing more. A high-caliber journalist, Michela does not need anyone�s permission to do what she does best. Similarly, we reserve the right to question the validity of her writings as they pertain to our history. The objective here is four-fold: to question few of the author�s assumptions and the impression her book is bound to leave on the unsuspecting and ill-informed reader, to highlight the power of the media and the opportunities they present, to show some of the ways we shoot ourselves in the foot, and to point out the subtleties of policy-making from the seemingly mundane happenings.

Enter Michela

The ubiquitous voice over the airwaves[v] and in print media recently of Michela reinforces misleading sentiments in how others perceive us. Dagmawi,[vi] reviewing her book, not only brings to light the paucity of her thesis but also demands that �the BBC � issue an apology to the Ethiopian people and desist from employing obnoxious racists such as Michela Wrong.� Perhaps, the utility of her book is, first, in compelling us to focus on the big picture rather than waste our energies in petty bickering and, second, to bring home the truth that we should never expect of others what we refuse to do for ourselves.

In I Didn�t Do It For You: How the World Betrayed a Small African Nation (NY: HarperCollins, 2005) Michela returns to a theme that had won her the 2000 PEN prize for the non-fiction In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz.[vii] Only this time her journalistic interest is directed to Eritrea, not the earlier Mobutu�s Congo. Once again her new book is the subject of critical praise by respectable opinion leaders, to which we will return later. Sadly, opinion leaders are not always as well informed and unbiased as they appear.

Ambivalence, genocide

Reading Eritrean and Ethiopian web postings, one quickly realizes that Michela�s book was greeted with ambivalence or with a strong reaction to her lopsided and selective historiography.[viii] Either way is a reactive stance. The word is out, the damage is done.

Ethiopia, for instance, makes the ranks of colonial powers as �the most formidable occupier of them all� (p.xi). Eritrean �superiority�, we are told, is a legacy of (Italian) colonialism. Both assertions are simplistic and seem to do injustice to prevailing experiences. Is �superiority� a worthy group behavior? The last time the Germans and the Rwandese walked down that dark path the ensuing destruction was so enormous that the word �genocide� had to be applied.[ix] The world community simply stood by and watched, carnage in slow motion, and later regretted more could have been done to avert the tragedy.

Do donor nations care if forty or a hundred civilians are gunned down in one day or forty days or 10,000 �hooligan� citizens are rounded up and deported to desolate camps? In fact, some international groups reckon measures taken by our government were necessary to maintain �law and order.� The same also rationalized that the situation could have gotten worse�that 100 deaths are better than 200 deaths; that the incumbents, though disavowed by the voting public, still present the best chance for the flourishing of democracy and free enterprise;[x] that this is the first �free and fair� democratic process in the nation�s 3000-year history and that �minor� incidents of this nature are bound to occur anyway (echo: they happen in established democracies too); that, despite a pattern of irregularities, the opposition should take their seats in Parliament; that there are no competent Ethiopians to takeover the leadership.[xi] Such platitudes are revealing and regrettable.

Irrespective of the source, statements that invoke superiority of a group are divisive, disrespectful, and uncouth. I don�t think Amharas, Eritreans, Oromos, Tigrayans or any of the remaining groups need to be superior to prove anything. It is enough that we are all human, struggling to make sense of our multitudinous encumbrances. Though we cannot gloss over mistakes of a centralizing state, Michela could have tempered her judgment by emphasizing that, unlike foreign intruders, the two peoples belonged together well before 1869[xii]and did not have to cross the seas. In other words, European awareness of the geography and attempt to demarcate borders should not be a marker for history of the inhabitants.

One more expert?

Michela, whose career began in West Africa, is a skillful journalist. She writes light and crisp. And considering all the odds, it�s no easy feat to transform oneself, in a little over a decade, from a novice to someone capable of identifying Eritrean national character to, get this, �an expert on the Horn of Africa region�[xiii] and the Lake Regions of Central Africa. Indeed, it is becoming easier to attain authority status on poor, ancient, warring nations than on clients of a corner convenience store in developed nations. In the former, you can make imprecise statements and walk away from the ramifications of those statements; in the latter, misstatements could incur financial, legal, and social costs. 

Michela understands the power of ideas presented in timely and digestible portions. She and her publishers also know that documenting a readable African story requires peppering the pages with raw physicality, enchanting tales of exotic cultures, and of violated innocence and human resiliency in the oft-repeated David v. Goliath tradition. Myth-making becomes as important, if not more important, as facts.

Her book seems to have something for everyone: suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst, for example, is a hot topic in Britain today[xiv] and her inclusion in the story helps deflect possible criticisms for the way Eritrean women are depicted; we are not sure if the �chapter of silliness�[xv] bodes well with Americans other than, let us say, give vent to the author�s anti-Americanism.

After canvassing her book, interviews, and the transcription of her talks one cannot help but notice the promotional quality, as opposed to hard-hitting reporting, of her work. Here is a somewhat sadistic sample: Eritrea is �a knobbly elongated triangle lying atop Ethiopia� (its) territory juts and bulges into northern Ethiopia� (p.2).[xvi] Her observations are one-sided and thrive on pitting one against the other where accord is the one missing ingredient to facilitate dialogue between pawned poor ordinary populations. Perhaps she is under great pressure to deliver a sequel worthy of a Pulitzer. What accountability structure should be established to evaluate opinions that often misrepresent the interests of target populations?

Deadlines, travel stress, and limited resources often forbid the journalist from extended exposure to subjects. To decipher cultural cues and fairly represent local perspective requires time and a minimal understanding of the language. This holds true also for Ethiopians of different nationalities. Where this understanding is lacking, the simplest of gestures could degenerate into stereotyping of whole communities. Leonid Brezhnev (d.1982) perhaps grinned with satisfaction upon hearing Mengistu�s, �Comrade Leonid, I am your son,� whereupon he may have given Mengistu one of his bear hugs even as he wondered why history chose him and not Comrade Stalin or Khrushchev to deliver to the Fatherland another Pushkin.[xvii]  We, his country folk, however, do notice what �Menge� was up to[xviii] wallowing in his adopted Papa�s bosom.[xix]

The fact that our region has been racked by insurgencies of all kinds for centuries could mean people may not be forthcoming in their responses, especially to foreigners. Secrecy is the quiver for survival strategies. This is the case whether one is hailing from Eritrea or Ethiopia. A reasonable grasp of events in the region have eluded many a writer as they tried to impose their preconceived ideas on an ancient, multiethnic, largely peasant society to the neglect of the influence of Ottoman Turks, Portuguese Jesuits, �Christian� Europe, geography, Judaism, Orthodoxy, Islam, Marxism, etc, and the proclivities of locals and mediators.

Michela�s several short visits to Eritrea began after she met �a certain type of expat.�[xx]  Later she did a country survey for the Financial Times and led a group of reporters to cover an impending war.[xxi] To stock her knowledge of the region, it is apparent that she relied on readings that ranged from John Gunther to John Young, most of whom represent the outsider�s view. Gunther,[xxii] for example, considered Ethiopians

mostly savage people � as the Visigoths, the Angles, or the Franks.

Eritreans, on the other hand, are

milder people than Ethiopians, less interbred with Negroes, more advanced in some respects, and not so haughty. They are small-boned, with pointed features, and do not look Negroid at all.

Though Gunther feigns impartiality in the first of his quoted observations, yet it is not difficult to evaluate his entertaining description. It is well to remember that his comments were made in the mid-1950s (informed, possibly, by the current race relations in the U.S.) whereas those Germanic tribes lived nearly 1,500 years ago�lawless, not literate enough to record their own history, and without Christian morals.[xxiii] In regard to Eritreans, we are not told what he meant, for example, by �more advanced.� Italian colonialists could not have acceded to such a statement unless it facilitated their grand design of �divide and rule.�[xxiv] We can only surmise that, like Michela or even Conrad, Gunther advances the notion that European colonialism is inherently good and that contacts with it elevated one to a higher state of being. And yet other writers documented �superiority� of Amharas and Tigrayans,[xxv]and the Oromo and their democratic culture.[xxvi] Unfortunately, these and similar assertions fail to foster (inter-, intra-) community cohesion or comprehend the immediacy of poverty and illiteracy, and instead prolong our misery while elevating ethnic stereotyping into a sport.

An outsider�s view

An outsider�s view is, of course, not unimportant. Fairness of spirit and depth of knowledge by an author could introduce, challenge, and enrich prevailing sentiments. In fact, works of this nature serve a corrective purpose to forestall intellectual in-breeding. 

Michela approaches her subject determined to advocate �how the world betrayed a small African nation�; how that betrayal explains current maladies and, compared to decades-old post-colonial African nations, that those blunders are the result of inexperience in democratic governance and, therefore, should be overlooked. In other words, �colonial masters and superpowers made her so.� In her Congo book, ironically, the culprit turns out to be, not the colonial master, but Big-Man Mobutu and his henchmen.

What is wrong?

A lot is wrong. And the wrong tends to greatly multiply as it finds its way into the media stream. In the absence of a diligent and capable group to respond and expose such fallacious reportages, the cumulative effect is bound to leave a permanent psycho-social scar. Perhaps the reader remembers queries made to him or her relative to the 1984 Ethiopian famine made famous by Band-Aid.[xxvii] �Do they know it�s Christmas?� run the theme-song along with these striking lyrics watched and remembered by millions around the world

There are the clanging chimes of doom
Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you

                        ������������������

And there won't be snow in Africa
This Christmas time
The greatest gift they'll get this year is life
Where nothing ever grows
No rain nor rivers flow
Do they know it's Christmas time at all?

I know the organizers meant well for which we are forever grateful. However, whether it is Professor Henry Louis Gates[xxviii] or Bob Geldof,[xxix] good intentions can turn irreverent and counterproductive. Incidentally, Bob Geldof, one of the prime organizers of Band-Aid, went on to be knighted for this and many more advocacy efforts. But all the same, we would remind all who need reminding that the lines, �where nothing ever grows, no rain nor rivers flow� and �do they know it�s Christmas time at all?� were misleading in regard to current conditions of the nation as a whole. Not many know that it does not snow in Ethiopia or that Egypt�s very sustenance, the Blue Nile River, actually originates in highland Ethiopia or that bad government continues to be the enduring problem. Mussolini�s attempt in 1935 was, after all, to grab fertile Ethiopian farmland to resettle a million unemployed Italians.

Consequent to Band-Aid presentation we were, as a people, pigeonholed into �famine and civil war specialists,� with the onerous burden of providing an explanation even as we trudged along city streets of the world. We stretch out one hand to receive food aid and wipe tears of anger and shame with the other. In the meantime, the present government, not unlike its predecessors, has perfected a national strategy out of food security, military security, Chinese presence, democracy, �bird flu�[xxx] and whatever is expedient at the time to entrench itself in power. Michela�s borrowed images are thus unhelpful and further complicate our lives.

Creating perception, reading intentions

Michela would like her readers to take note, for instance, that a 100,000 Ethiopians came up against 19,000 Italians and ascaris at the battle of Adwa armed with Italian muskets. We are not told the extent and quality of Italian war materiel or its capacity to strategize and execute wars? What does her statement say about the bravery of Ethiopians and the organizational skills of Emperor Menilik and his empress Taytu? Why are our successes often attributed to accidents of history, the rugged landscape or Italian muskets? Why are the world-class accomplishments of our athletes attributed to �genes�[xxxi] or �high altitude� or �a strong desire to escape servitude�[xxxii] and not to an �orthodox work ethic�?[xxxiii]

It could be that we are not Michela�s primary audience. Our stories are sold, just like our African ancestors, to bring fame and fortune to someone else. It could be that we are overhearing what the author is unable to say to us directly. I should add that she has beguilingly succeeded in her project. Joseph Conrad also wrote a classic based on his four-month long journey up the Congo River to meet a Mr. Kurtz in which Africa is depicted as a �Heart of Darkness.�[xxxiv] Despite his good storytelling and perhaps also good intentions he was himself in the dark about the continent and consequently soiled many hearts and minds.[xxxv]

Michela marshals witnesses to the brutality of callous and centralizing Ethiopian regimes only as it related to Eritrea. However, a cursory look would have revealed similar heavy-handedness hardly limited to one time period, region, religion or ethnic group: Tewodros II (d. 1868) against the clergy and the nobility; Yohannes IV (d. 1889) in northern Ethiopia; Menilik (II) (d.1913) in Wolayta and Jimma; Haileselassie (I) (d. 1975) in Tigray, Gojjam and Bale. The Derg is the most democratic of them all in meting out �proportionate revolutionary measures� which did not rule out cash payments for the bullet that just ended your brother�s life and a ban on the customary mourning period. The full extent of the toll on life and property since the TPLF takeover and the institution of �revolutionary democracy� must bide its time. In the end, the running theme is that they all betrayed public trust even as they bartered short-term gain for long-term pain.

Now that Michela has gained notoriety for reporting on war-torn regions, humility will come handy in order for her to humanize her subjects and also not to think of herself or her culture as the standard for efficiency and good behavior. A recent New Statesman article by a Michela Wrong [xxxvi]entitled, Michela Wrong is denied a visa, would illustrate this point. In the article the author makes some pretty bold generalization about the Congolese, Ethiopians, and Eritreans on account of being denied a visa (which by the way, happens everyday around the world)

It's the way an embassy turns down your visa request that tells you everything you need to know about the country in question �For a surreal country, a surreal visa application process�each application is processed on the quixotic premise that outside the door prowl tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Britons just itching for a chance to relocate to DRC.

I once liked to think you could tell everything about an African country from its airport. Then I wavered. Maybe �the fittings of the ministerial waiting room� (plastic roses or Chinese calendar? Jeune Afrique or Korean magazines? Air-conditioning or the aroma of onion soup?) was a better metaphor.

Then there is Ethiopia�Would it be yes, would it be no? Neither, as it happened�This, after all, is the ancient empire that coined the notion of �wax and gold�,[xxxvii] where the superficial meaning of a verse serves only to hide its real message. To just say �no� would be not only rude,[xxxviii] it would be to descend to the level of the crass �ferenji� (foreigner).

Eritrea, where my recent book on a nation few bother writing about has made me into a figure of controversy. A state run by former rebels who glory in the knowledge that they waged their 30-year independence struggle without superpower help � stubborn men and women who refuse on principle to use the forked tongue of diplomacy�I applied for my visa. �Sorry, no,� said the embassy secretary. Short, to the point. Very Eritrean. I could have kissed her.  

What�s new?

The author is not telling us anything new. Unfortunately, a large majority of Ethiopians and Eritreans are barred from accessing or verifying �privileged� information by the forces of illiteracy, poverty, constant displacement, the censor�s earplug, blindfold and gag[xxxix] and by a web of secret-ridden groupings concocting divisive and wretched interpretations. To her credit the author did challenge her government�s wisdom in supporting a brutal regime in Ethiopia[xl] and also raised issues we left smoldering or would not discuss with equanimity. The superficial construct of feudal Ethiopia on par with the European colonialist is a good example for the latter. In short, the parallelism may be politically expedient, dialectically sound but historically inadequate, socio-economically unsettled, and philosophically untenable.[xli]

The author seems to attach undue weight and meaning to what is common knowledge or tabloid in content. Prostitution is one such case. Youthful passion of American servicemen is another. In fact, a Mr. Zasadil,[xlii] who spent eighteen months in Eritrea in the mid-1960s as personnel of the Army Security Agency (ASA) at Kagnew Station and whose story is included in Chapter 10, recollects, contrary to Michela�s romanticization, shock at seeing the depth of poverty in Eritrea. The notion of a Shangri La is, of course, indeterminate and serves primarily to affirm the seeker�s need to overcome life�s persistent challenges and pat oneself on the back for treading where nobody thought was possible.[xliii] In addition, Mr. Zasadil states that Michela�s explanation of ASA activities is �conjectures based on US Government archived information and personal interviews with still cautious Kagnew Station Vets.�

The author, like many of us living in a society different from our own, is greatly limited when it comes to reading intentions or grasping her own limitations. Transiting at Cairo airport, for example, she strikes up a conversation with a Pakistani businessman to find out, to her great surprise, that he has never heard of Eritrea. No matter how hard she tried, he kept asking if she meant to say Nigeria, Algeria, or even worse, Al-Jazeera. (Please note that the three responses have Islamic point of reference�most probably revealing the businessman�s own cultural boundaries).[xliv] For all intents and purposes, the businessman may have been unaware of Lesotho or Sao Tome & Principe either. It did not seem to dawn on her that she may have mis-enunciated the word or that the businessman is hard of hearing or that the mention of Habesh or Ethiopia could have aided the individual�s memory. From a solitary incident, thereafter, the author takes the plunge determined to single-handedly put Eritrea back on the map.[xlv] Unlike many of us, however, she is doubly handicapped by lack of lived experience and the scarcity of organized and reliable data.

Circulate the news

The problem gets even bigger in that the media tend to downgrade the dignity of the subjects under study and the intelligence of the audience. It suffices here to make a partial listing of the major papers in which the author�s book was reviewed (see table below). These papers, it should be noted, are where policy wonks, strategists, investors, academicians, vocal artists, advocacy groups, and above all, the voting public receive a �balanced� view of the world. Hence, I would argue that sustaining well-written articles is worth more than several candle-light vigils. Vigils are good to create solidarity (which is no mean task) and drive-by blips but, on their own, rarely make it to boardrooms or to voters in general. In other words, the race is for the ears of the mighty. Getting there first (and hanging on) could mean the difference between life and death, summary jail and freedom, and the difference between exile in Starbucksland and sipping abol under one�s own coffee tree with a cheek full of ashooq.

_____________________________________________________________

Circulation                              Daily                                       Sunday

________________________________________________________

New York Times                         1,136, 433                              1,680,582

LA Times                                    907,997                                   1,253,849

The Daily Telegraph                        903,405

The Wall Street Journal &�            2,000,000

Washington Post                            751,871                                   1,000,565

Houston Chronicle                         545,727                                      738,456

The Economist (Weekly)                                  >1 million

________________________________________________________

Reviewers and the reviewed

The roster of reviewers as well as their comments is also instructive.[xlvi] John le Carre, for example, calls it �contemporary history on the grand scale�; The Nation contends �this is probably the best book that could be written about Eritrea�; Anthony Sampson, on his part, suggests that the book �should become the standard work on the region.� William Grimes, in the New York Times, ricochets off Michela�s discovery of Eritrean national character as �diffident, self-reliant and resolute, with a premium on self-control�. Humor �is not part of the Eritrean character. Dour intensity is more the style.�

Two reviewers, the Honorable Claire Short[xlvii] and Dr. Susan Rice,[xlviii] however, need a separate treatment. Both held political office that had international dimensions to it; both remain engaged in policy circles. Ms. Short, as some recall, was the British Secretary of State for International Development in Mr. Blair�s government until she resigned in 2003 over the Iraq war. She still serves as a Labor MP. Like the other reviewers, the Honorable Lady commends Michela on her engaging style, though she does not fail to correct her that local actors are also party to the enduring governance problem. On the other hand, she honors President Isaias Afewerki as �a brave and non-corrupt� leader. With that comment she segues into the policy arena with the spirit of Michela on her mind

As the UK takes up the chairmanship of the G8 and the Commission for Africa offers renewed hope, this touching and compelling book explains how we got to where we are. It helps us to understand �

Thus, we witness how one journalist�s hasty explanation to a complex issue ends in the halls of power to the detriment of a silenced and silent majority. We are once again reminded of the role of the calculating individual to promote a certain line of thought. In short, one need not be a member of a political action group to effect changes in perception and policy. In fact, two or three trained individuals could join heads to publish short essays (free of stodgy academic jargons) in major dailies or weeklies, for example, on the World Bank/IMF and their role in our nation�s affairs, i.e., the timing of aid money or debt cancellation in relation to the split within the TPLF ranks, privatization policy and corruption, the border issue and development funding, etc. Another two or three could focus on legal issues; yet a team of two or three on other items, ad infinitum.

Our articulate prime minister, interestingly, is Mr. Blair�s choice for our nation and Africa.[xlix] Did the fact that PM Meles was educated at the General Wingate High School (and recently, the Open University) contribute to this choice? Is the choice Exhibit A of the beneficence of British policy in Ethiopia?  What is the role of individuals on both sides of the Ethio-Eritrean issue?[l] Paul Henze�s comments in support of the present regime or to oust Comrade Mengistu from power in the past serve as a classic example.[li] Mr. Henze is at least consistent in not favoring a patriotic Ethiopian leadership. How do personal feuds and friendships play out in the course of events that have far-reaching ramifications? Did Professors Stiglitz[lii] and Sachs� endorsement[liii] facilitate continued World Bank support and the recent IMF debt cancellation[liv] even though human rights abuses and corruption are rife?

Dr. Susan Rice, who served as the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (1997-2001), was perhaps the one person best suited to assess the veracity of the 1998-2000 war between Eritrea and Ethiopia and also Michela�s book. Here is what Dr. Rice had to say:

National identity is always woven out of many different strands: ethnicity, language, religion, geography, culture and history. An outsider struggling to convey the essence of another nation�s character may be tempted to simplify�a temptation to which the British journalist Michela Wrong succumbs in her new book.[lv]

Playing with fire

The print media, on their part, have added color to the story. For example, the figure for the 1998-2000 war dead is passed on as 19,000 for the Eritrean side (Houston Chronicle) and no mention of the Ethiopian side; as 90,000 (the BBC), 70,000 (The Economist), 80,000 (Michela). These are estimates, obviously. Compare this to the meticulous reports on American and European war casualties.

Our governments, on the other hand, have not been under any obligation to disclose the death of Citizen E because he was drafted (rather, rounded up at crack of dawn) of city streets and rural farms. Citizen E never had a proper birth certificate, useful contacts, employment record or the hope ever of employment. His lot in the end was an unmarked grave, if he was lucky, or that of carrion, if not. What would be a fitting epitaph?

He lived and died a non-entity

In the defense of insanity?

Add to this sorry event a culture that readily accommodates war and its aftermath as a very present and inevitable reality; in fact, unavoidable and manly![lvi] In other words, if the death total is off by a mere 10,000 or 20,000 it is still bearable to our leaders and not a thing to lose sleep over. [Neither is the exodus of thousands of young women to servitude in the Middle East.]

What do such discrepancies say about our record keeping, public accountability, independent press, the value we attach to human rights and the sanctity of life? In Ethiopia, as in other developing countries, some groups have always been unaccounted for, whereas some are counted in more than once. Census data for the 1950s, for example, shows that there were 12 millions of us (that is, not bothering to include the pagan, the pastoralist, and the peasant). The Derg is perhaps the only government so far with a legitimate interest in keeping an accurate census data. That is not to say its motives were not untainted by alien ideology and militarism. For the Derg, unaccounted for persons were, theoretically, potential reactionaries or allies of enemies of the revolution with the intent to reversing the course of history; a sizable population also provided a bottomless pool of conscripts for the war industry and rationed labor force. Census was indeed a method of control and power acquisition.

If you misspell

Deliberate manipulation of public information is criminal and dangerous. The fall of the governments of Emperor Haileselassie and Mengistu can be explained in part by an insatiable appetite for lies and a refusal to face the truth. The Emperor was not informed about the gravity and extent of the 1972/73 hunger in Wollo and Tigray regions by his self-serving aides until it was too late (or may be he was informed but was busy traveling abroad or worse, was not too fond of the regions). One fine morning, sadly, it was found out that at least 200,000 of his subjects have perished rather than embarrass his kingdom. Pride cost him the throne and his life and left a blemish on our otherwise enchanting, hidden and pristine culture. Refusal to heed warning signs will continue to wreak havoc on the quality of our �enigmatic present� and our future.

Comrade Mengistu�s men kept feeding him lies to the effect that he commanded the largest standing army in Africa, that according to the current statistics, production grew by leaps and bounds, that compared to Emperor Haileselassie�s government his cadres have managed to subdue Nature itself, that the masses were eager and ready to accept losses for the gains of the revolution and that any time soon he will make a quartet out of the Marx-Lenin-Engels trio. The hushed fact was that over 500,000 people perished in the 1984/85 famine rather than admit the borrowed system was broke. At the critical moment, however, Comrade Mengistu had nowhere or no one to turn to and was whisked away to distant Zim by the same imperialist governments he once taunted and vowed to vanquish. How severely merciful can history get!

Ethnicity is now the preferred national pastime, as were Derg-era Marxist-Leninist study circles. Some nationalities have low population size but wield more power than others. There is a leadership crisis compounded by ethnic politics, by a type of scorched earth tactic (like the Derg), and incompetence. Democracy is become an exercise in a pre-determined outcome; surprise and consternation follows in the event that incumbents do not win. That seems to be the new face of democracy�a democracy that is too �illiberal� to satisfy even a minority. Shall we now order a cloned supra-ethnic leader-deliverer from a Scottish or Korean cloning labs? Or perhaps waste another generation experimenting with a hydra-headed ethnic leadership? If all else fails, may we handover the running of the Ship-of-State to the World Bank/IMF under the trusteeship of select donor nations?[lvii]

Indeed, each group against the rest is a minority. Censuses and statistics are ethnicized and regionalized and have become state secret and the weapon of choice for power-sharing. In the absence of a consensus among Ethiopian intellectuals one is forced to hang around one�s neck �a bag of statistical tricks� or utilize figures compiled by paid weekend experts�whichever comes handy. Paradoxically, the one positive thing going for Ethiopia in curbing ethnic hysteria is the depth of illiteracy, poverty, pandemic, exile, pan-ethnic religious affiliations and a nascent market economy.

Of late, I keep coming across statistics that routinely assign 10 percent of the total Ethiopian population (72 million, 2004 Census or 74.2 million, 2005 UN Census) to our Tigrayan brothers and sisters�nearly doubling the size of a voting block.[lviii] The Ethiopian Parliament web site reports 3.1 million for the same population; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 3.9 million; Embassies abroad present yet another figure: Canada (3.49 million) and China (3.59). It could be due to the year the censuses were taken, in which case, it should have been noted as such. Similar discrepancies abound for other groups as well. There is a restless jostling for a prime spot at the table of demography. Where are the few upright and capable demographers when we need them the most? Do these figures have any significance at all?

In a democratic state they certainly do. How we manage public information will either generate resentment or show how fairly citizens are treated, especially where and when votes count. On the other hand, it creates unrealizable hope and false expectations in regard to the invincibility and superiority of any ruling minority group. Such posturing is not going to help matters. In other words, no group will choose an inferior status for itself and yet fail to throw ethnic epithets at others for good measure; this is natural and the order of things everywhere. Conversely, we observe that party leaders suffer from some sort of an �extinction syndrome.� Tigrayans shout interhamwe (for local consumption) and derg to excite the Donor Group. Amharas initially organized All-Amhara People�s Organization (AAPO)[lix] for self-defense and the defense of an Ethiopian identity. Oromos opted for Oromia as a means to self-recognition, cultural renaissance[lx] and possible separation.[lxi] The reality is that none are on the verge of annihilation. Moreover, the universality of such a cacophony is everything but unique and, in the end, short-sighted and meaningless. In other words, where everyone is unique and superior, the terms �superior� and �unique� lose their import.

�Extinction syndrome� also manifests itself in one-sided pronouncements. A group would vow, for example, to send Tigrayans packing to their kilil[lxii] and in the same breath pontificate on the ills of kilils! Those who play down the reality of ethnicity are often the same trigger-happy lot who point out a person�s ethnic background�which is always below average�just in case that person needs a side treatment for some �misstatement� at some future date.

�Misspellings� come back to haunt the authors and the rest of us. The shocking results of the May 2005 elections were due mainly to underestimating the organizational capabilities of the opposition; failure to gauge the depth of simmering discontent among the populace; failure to take into account the experience of the populace in Derg-era mass organization exercises; the unchecked and self-preserving role of NGOs and powerful individuals; and finally, blunders of a self-indulgent, externally propped up and self-satiated leadership. Once the outcome of the elections became evident, however, the game turned into a brazen name-calling (Dergists, Amharas, etc). What these exercises tell us is that there is always a risk involved in holding democratic elections, that ceding local control to non-local forces and tampering with voter rights could amount to misspelling one�s own name. 

Conclusion

In one sense, the present crisis can be traced back to the historiographical adventures in Ethiopia of �Christian� Europe.[lxiii] Europe�s search for its distant �brethren� surrounded by a �sea of Islam� was premised on the strategy of creating a bridgehead against rival regional expansionists and expecting (rather, implicitly requiring) local compliance to such a strategy. Tewodros�s defiance was, therefore, not simply unacceptable but could have set a bad precedence for far-flung dependencies; it had to be quashed quickly and severely. In post-Tewodros Ethiopia, compliance to foreign interests remained the means to gaining legitimacy as much as it has become the source of instability. In the end, European obsession with Semitic highland culture misrecognized southern Ethiopian peoples and served to create a cultural divide and a mindset that erroneously prided itself on superiority of the written over oral history. There is a direct link between such triumphalism and the preference with some for Latin over Sabean script.[lxiv] Let us not forget that the great majority of Ethiopians with scripted culture have always been illiterate and, by virtue of this, oral. Remarks that the stelae are of higher civilizational order than Gamo wood carvings or Bertha pottery are simply uninformed and irresponsible.[lxv]

In failing to spell out our intentions, therefore, fellow Ethiopians have been as sluggish as Michela is wrongheaded. Is it true that Ethiopians can�t make up their mind about issuing visas? Are mistakes of the Ethiopian leadership a beginner�s faltering akin to their comrades to the north, or is it the result of Cold War politics? Perhaps Ethiopians should stop waiting and whining for someone to do it for us and join forces to publicize how the world betrayed a poor democratizing African nation living on the brink of disaster.

�Copyright, January 2006 by Mitiku Adisu

Endnote