Selective
Amnesia & The German Radio Amharic Broadcast
June
8, 2007
IDEA
Editorial
On
June 7, 2007 the German Radio Amharic broadcast
aired a very interesting piece on Emperor Tewodros.
By and large, the presentation was objective and
balanced. I personally have liked the
presentation, because some historians and
scholars, who vented, for the most part, the
weaknesses of the emperor, without considering his
strengths as well, unfairly characterized Tewodros.
To my great gratification, the German Radio
Amharic program rendered the human and positive
characteristics of Emperor Tewodros. I personally
have written an article entitled The Great
Unifier: Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia and the
feedback I got was that the article was fair and
balanced. In the same vein and spirit, I have also
written about Emperors Yohannes and Menelik.
As
far as I am concerned, the above-mentioned
Emperors, irrespective of their ethnic origin, are
great Ethiopians who were integrationists. And
most importantly, we cannot imagine modern
Ethiopia without these Emperors even if we have
reservation on some of their policies. But to my
chagrin and disappointment, throughout the
presentation the German Radio Amharic program
mentioned Yohannes only once: a passing remark in
the context of the continuation of Ethiopian unity
after Tewodros. The presentation was supplemented
by interviews of Professors Sven Rubenson and
Mammo Muchie and I could say they were, for the
most part, educational. However, when the
interviewer asked Mammo Muchie ‘what he thinks
if Emperor Tewodros now comes back to life and
witness the current situation in Ethiopia,’ the
interviewee responded by drawing parallel between
Bismark and Tewodros and insinuated that the
former would be delighted at German unification
and the latter would be disappointed at [Ethiopian
disunity]’. He further substantiated his
rationale by saying that ‘Emperor Menelik once
said that the peoples from the Red Sea to the
Indian Ocean [are essentially] the same’ and
this idea was also entertained by ‘Lij Eyasu’.
Throughout, no mention is made of Ras Alula and
Emperor Yohannes, who indefatigably defended
Ethiopian independence and unity. Ras Alula
actually defeated the Italians two times at Saiti
and Dogalai in 1885 and 1887 respectively, and
reassured Ethiopians that the northeastern
frontier of Ethiopia was the Red Sea. Menelik was
a great emperor in many ways, but he lost the
frontier that was jealously guarded by Emperor
Yohannes and Ras Alula to the Italians. We must
document history as is and we can’t fashion our
own ‘official history’ that is designed to
massage our ego. Apparently, the history of
Ethiopia is the collective and cumulative
experience of the Ethiopian people, and not of one
ethnic group or of one ruling dynasty of the
remote past. We cannot afford to dismiss the role
played by one group and glorify the input of
another group that we favor. If we pursue this
diminished and dwarfed psychological makeup, not
only do we suffer ignominiously but we also damage
Ethiopian unity irreparably.
I
want to remind the interviewer and interviewee
that Ethiopian unity cannot be accomplished and/or
preserved by deliberately omitting an essential
ingredient of Ethiopian history, in this case the
role played by Alula and Yohannes. Most
importantly, history cannot be written by people
who harbor phobia to some ethnic group within
Ethiopia and by people who suffer selective
amnesia. The latter is a debilitating disease that
creates discord among people who, in one form or
another, pursue a relatively harmonious
relationship. The guarantee for Ethiopian unity
is, first and foremost respect of the various
cultures and linguistic groups that make up
Ethiopia. Just advocating Ethiopian unity without
due recognition of Ethiopian nationalities
(another version of selective amnesia) is empty
rhetoric and jingoistic. If indeed we love
Ethiopia and the Ethiopian people, we must
intentionally fight the twin enemies of Ethiopia:
chauvinism and narrow nationalism.
On
behalf of IDEA, Inc.
Ghelawdewos
Araia
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