By Hillal,
THE Ethiopian propaganda machine did a good job in selling the fanciful claims suggesting that Ethiopia has a 3000 years of history and it’s a the only Christian nation in an ocean of Islam. It was a good propaganda ploy. The historical and demographical hard facts tell us a different story.
Ethiopia is a creation of the colonial powers and as an entity came into existence following Eritrea a little more than a century ago. It was the “Scramble of Africa” – the time when there was a mad rush to colonize Africa and draw its boundaries depending of the colonial powers’ national interests.
Like Eritrea, Ethiopia has a significant percentage of Muslim population. There isn’t much of a difference between the indignity and humiliation of being colonized and of being just a servant and a slave of the colonial masters. The claim of not being colonized didn’t help free Ethiopians of their colonized mindsets.
The Ethiopian “empire” became a darling of the colonial powers. The “empire” was always ready and willing to serve the colonizers’ interests with no ifs and buts and no questions asked. The feudal leaders of Ethiopia armed with their medieval politics of expansion, occupation and domination unleashed wars of aggression, destruction, annihilation and mayhem to force all the nationalities into subjugation and made them subjects of the “empire”.
Ethiopia became an “imperial” power though it doesn’t meet the requirements of the classic definition of an empire. It became a beneficiary of the colonial arrangements. Eritrea and the Ogaden were its trophies. In reality, Ethiopia became a colonial post serving its colonial masters in their African adventure of enslavement, exploitation, domination and genocide.
Who could forget the role Ethiopia played during the Cold War. It has the dubious distinction of serving both the Western and Eastern Blocks. This is a clear indication that all the successive regimes in Ethiopia depend on the goodwill of their patrons for their political, economic and security survival and wellbeing and not on their people’s support and blessings.
This culture of dependency isn’t limited to the Ethiopian ruling classes only but to all the elites and the entire Ethiopian population as well. The Ethiopian colonized mindset is programed to think that the panacea to all Ethiopia’s problems are in the hands of foreigners. Sadly, it won’t be an exaggeration, if we conclude that, in the Ethiopian colonized mindset, the white man’s words are accepted as divine and words of God.
When 85% of the national budget is foreign subsidized, a quarter of the population is on food aid, the nation is an NGO capital of the world, the US ambassador is a de facto viceroy in the country, its war efforts are foreign backed, financed and led, the interests of Ethiopia and its people are secondary to that of the powers that be, women, children and land are sold to the lowest bidder, bible trotting western evangelists are making a mockery of the nation’s respected religions, the capital is converted into a giant brothel…etc …etc the above mentioned assertion has more credence.
There can’t be a more reliable propagandists of the so called US democracy, democratic governance and social justice than the Ethiopian elites. They portray it, in their nauseating and repetitive essays, as a paradise on Earth. Their pens are sharper when criticizing Africa and its people, but lack the courage to criticize the erroneous, unjust, immoral and militaristic US policies that are turning the Horn of Africa region into the Killing Fields.
It’s also doubly troubling to see the so called opposition forces asking the same US government to punish and restrain the same US trusted puppets, stooges and lapdogs at the helm of power in Ethiopia – a brutal Junta accused of war crimes and genocide. The US is the puppet master playing both sides of the Ethiopian political divide. This could go on for a long time as long as the US national interests are safe and secured.
The Ethiopians should muster the courage to study the Eritrean history. It’s the history of the ability of the human spirit to move mountains. A history of a people marching to the same national tune, with a can do spirit and the desire to be masters of their own destiny. Safeguarding and protecting the interests and well-being of Eritrea and its people are the main preoccupation of Eritrea, its people and government- the only and only interest group in Eritrea that have a stake in the Eritrean dream. The Ethiopians could learn a thing or two from the Eritrean experience about the nuts and bolts of a peoples struggle and the making of a nation.
Ethiopian problems can be solved by the Ethiopians and Ethiopians only. Ethiopians should get rid and clean their colonized mindset and free themselves from its debilitating and crippling contagious disease of dependency. Looking solutions for Ethiopian problem in other places is a symptom of a colonized mindset.
The powers that considers their errand boys as democrats, reformers and Renaissance men and the African patriots and nationalists as dictators and isolationists are always suspect and not to be trusted. Lest we forget, these same powers are the ones that claim to be the champions of liberty, freedom, democracy, justice, rule of law and human dignity. This is pure lie. They are after their own national interests and not of Ethiopia and Ethiopians.
Last week, Africans had to endure the shameful spectacle of the Obama Africa Summit or rather “The Ebola Summit“. The wise, experienced and farsighted Eritrean leadership spared us from this humiliation exhibited on a world stage. The sub-human cadres of the brutal Tribal Junta were ecstatic that the Lion of Nacfa was not part of this drama of shame, indignity and humiliation. Than again, we are talking about a genocidal and murderous regime’s robots and mules with no mind of their own and the virtues of honor, dignity, humanity and respect have no meaning.
Eritrea is the only nation in Africa that is saying enough is enough. She is advocating for the revival of the African pride, honor and dignity. Africans has to demand to be treated as equals. A shared partnership, mutual benefit and shared responsibility should be the way of the future. Economic cooperation not aid and handouts should be the winning formulas for success. The slave master arrangement of the past should be discarded. Africans should support the Eritrean clarion call for action. These could -come true only and only if Africans have the ability and courage to free themselves from their intoxicated colonized mindset.
