Debunking the Illusions and Confusions of Narrow Ethiopianism

Barii Ayano | September 8, 2013

1. 1.     Introduction

The current onslaught of the so-called “Ethiopianist” camps on Oromo political activists and Oromos’ national cause has created an opportunity that we must not forgo. Professor Hamdesa Tuso’s article titled “The Demise of the Mythical Ethiopia”, which was published in 1991, was a groundbreaking article that shaped many Oromos’ political perspective about Ethiopia both its real and mythical nature. (See the link below http://www.hamdesatuso.com/Myths-Ethio.pdf)

The current situation, “I am Oromo First” movement, has given us an opportunity to explain the real nature of the so-called Ethiopianist parties to the Oromo and other oppressed people’s youth. The ongoing overt and covert discussions about the issue are debunking the illusions and confusions embodied in narrow Ethiopianism.  I will raise some of the points of ongoing discussions in three-part series.

1. 2.     Narrow Ethiopianism is Not Multinationalism

Although there are few exceptions in the so-called Ethiopianist circles, the overwhelming majority of Ethiopianists are proponents of narrow Ethiopianism. Their Ethiopianism is narrow in a sense that it does not accommodate the interests as well as the diversity of nations and nationalities living in the Ethiopian Empire. Actually, whether narrow Ethiopianists talk about unity, democracy, history, politics, culture, language, etc., their inherent goal is crystal clear. It is a theme to deny the very existence of the causes of nations and nationalities in the Ethiopian Empire.

However, one of the confusions the so-called narrow Ethiopianist sustained for years is acting as if they were multinational parties. The closer look at them clearly shows that they’re anti-thesis to multinationalism. In fact, narrow Ethiopianism is waging sustained political, cultural, linguistic, etc. wars on multinational and diverse nature of the Ethiopian Empire. It is a perpetual war against diverse interest groups that make up the Ethiopian Empire. Simply put, narrow Ethiopianism is a multifaceted war on multinationalism and multiculturalism in the Ethiopian Empire. It’s antithesis to reconciliation and peaceful coexistence of diversities that make up Ethiopia.

Thus it’s crystal clear that the so-called “Ethiopianist” parties are not multinationals, except for their names, as if they were representing the interests of all groups. They neither represent nor defend multinationalism or multiculturalism in the Ethiopian Empire. Narrow Ethiopianists create illusions of multinational parties while in fact they work tirelessly to destroy the very diversity of Ethiopia in all ways they can. Thus it is not only misnomer but also absurd to classify narrow Ethiopianism as multinationalism. Everything narrow Ethiopianists do is against multinationalism.

The “Ethiopian” pride they preach also does not include a pride about multinational Ethiopia. For instance, the oppressed people’s cultures, languages, and the democratic Gadaa system are not accounted as part of the Ethiopian pride that need promoting or saving. There is no Ethiopianist party that even promotes multiculturalism.

1. 3.     Denies the Very Existence of Nations and Nationalities in Ethiopia

Narrow Ethiopianism is a distortion that reduces nations and nationalities in Ethiopia into mere tribes. Denial of the existence of the causes of nations and nationalities drive their political programs and agendas for the future. They reject the natural rights for self-determination since they pretend that they are the only ones who decide the fate of all people in the Ethiopian Empire. Even their democratic rhetoric does not depend on the democratic motto of “live and let live”, which fosters healthy political competitions on the basis of public will and choice. They don’t even want to let individuals establish any organization that bears the name of a nation or a nationality. They want to criminalize and destroy all political parties and other organizations that claim to represent the interests of nations and nationalities.  And yet, they claim that they are multinational parties that stand for the interests of all people in the Ethiopian Empire.

Thus narrow Ethiopianists are not searching for the middle ground that builds reconciliation and peaceful coexistence in Ethiopia or the region. They still operate with the conquering feudal warlords’ mentality, and hence they don’t believe other nations and nationalities’ cultures and languages are worth saving or are part of the so-called Ethiopian pride. Rather, they want to get rid of them to “build” Ethiopia.

Narrow Ethiopianists don’t feel the historical and ongoing pains and tribulations of the oppressed people either. It’s an extremist camp that defends domination and control of the oppressed people. Narrow Ethiopianists deny the past and ongoing political, cultural, economic, etc. misdeeds against conquered nations and nationalities. Rather, they celebrate those who perpetuated multitudes of crimes and human rights abuses against nations and nationalities as their heroes and heroines.  It’s a political drama hiding under the name Ethiopia to pursue the failed political goal of assimilating all nations and nationalities in the Ethiopian Empire into the urbanized (garrison town) Amhara culture and language. It’s not rooted in rural Amhara regions either.

It’s wrong to describe them, based on their false claims, that narrow Ethiopianist political entities are “hibre beher” (multinational).  Whenever they talk about Ethiopia, including in terms of unity and democracy, they don’t think in terms of equality of the diverse nations and nationalities in the Ethiopian Empire. They have the mindset of conquerors (colonizers) who impose their own culture and language at the expense of those of the conquered nations and nationalities.

Once an individual from oppressed nations and nationalities clearly sees the illusions and confusions embodied in narrow Ethiopianism, her/his perspectives about the so-called Ethiopianist parties won’t be the same; it is a revelation. It becomes a fundamental political awakening about the Ethiopian Empire and its core problems. There is no mystery that narrow Ethiopianism hides under the name of Ethiopia, unity or democracy. Narrow Ethiopianism is merely promoting urbanized Amhara culture and Amharic at the expense of other cultures and languages in the Ethiopian Empire. It is the extension of Imperial regimes’ plan of controlling and exploiting Ethiopia by the process of assimilating nations and nationalities in Ethiopia under one culture and one language dogma. In other words, it’s a continuation of the old Imperial Systems policy that was tried and failed the Ethiopian Empire. Actually, it’s the foundation of the political, economic, cultural, etc. problems that ravaged Ethiopia for over hundred years. To put it in simple terms, the root problem cannot be a solution. And it does not matter whether it’s honey-coated and polished. Many can see through it. If honesty prevails and truth dictates the course, narrow Ethiopianism merely makes Ethiopianist politics less attractive to the youth that hails from the oppressed nations and nationalities. The evidences are already in. Of course, it asks courage to face the truth. Narrow Ethiopianists have none of it. They live in their heads more than the reality on the ground in the real Ethiopia-the very essence of narrow Ethiopianism.

Moreover, narrow Ethiopianism is the most stagnant and arrogant political ideology of conquering/colonizing and dominating others. They covertly support TPLF/EPRDF regime’s attack on nations and nationalities while overtly opposing the very existence of what they call ethnic federalism. Crimes TPLF gangsters commit on oppressed nations and nationalities don’t get any attention from the narrow Ethiopianists.

Narrow Ethiopianism is rooted in the feudal warlord politics of conquerors (colonizers). Its foundation is politics of garrison towns established in conquered areas of the Ethiopian Empire. (This will be elaborated in the second part of the discussion points)

Note:

Hemdesa Tuso, The Demise of the Mythical Ethiopia, The Oromo Commentary, 1991, Nos. 2 and 3.

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