Ethiopian Version

By Ketsela

“Our problems cannot be solved with the same consciousness that created them”.

Albert Einstein

I always wonder if this word implies traumatic experience only. I certainly understand its illegality and the subsequent consequences. Yet, I also keep thinking aren’t we all, in some degree or the other, sexist, racist, homophobic, and fully exercised it in our life. I always remember my Child Psychology professor who said soon after the child was born “Until this time all were equal in the mother’s womb but from this day on their differences will keep stretching far away from one another”. This was true then and this is true now. Many times we Ethiopians have the tendency to stick our heads in the sand when race, nationality and color become an issue in our conversation. We always sweep our dirt under the couch. But lo and behold! If there is a rating for the most racist people in the world, we will be number one in all facets. We like to speak evil of others; we have a tendency to identify ourselves, as “Is he/she an Ethiopian or African”. These and others are purely the product of ignorance by all means. I hope readers will understand the issue is not solely identified to non-educated Ethiopians but the highly educated too. I will never ever blame the non-educated Ethiopians for being racist. That is all they knew and that for them seemed to be god given right to them. I would like to present this subject from personal experiences, and from the little I know in politics and history.

I looked in everything we do and act; then I came with many questions and some are to do with love, hate and apathy. Why should one marry this not that? Why must one become a Muslim and not a Christian? Why must we find one to be ugly or beautiful? Why on earth do we care more or less to other human beings? Why then one born short and the other tall, handicapped, black or white, rich or poor…. Aren’t all these considered to be discriminatory from one to the other? Yes, indeed! Let me quote from Webster’s Dictionary the meaning of discrimination:

To mark or perceive the distinguishing or peculiar features of.

That does not really sound as bad as I thought. The way that sounds is that it is you, them, and me. Aren’t we? But if we start looking from the higher ground, the psychological, historical and personal trauma it had inflicted, be it in Ethiopia or America, it is the same. I like to concentrate within these two countries of which I had quite a lot of experiences. If at all these offend you, my sincere apology to all.

Let me take you all to Ethiopia on 747 Ethiopian air Lines and let me even be generous and make it first class. This is the country I love and mine. As they say in the hood “You can take the man from the Ghetto but you cannot take the Ghetto out of the man”. The Ethiopia I know was only exposed to me after I left the country in 1970. Growing up in the most educated area of the country of which such organization as the birth place of the first elementary and high school, Menelik II, the first modern University, the Parliament, the YMCA, and of course the first Dodge car that oozed through during the Menelik era. Excuse me if this was not your expectation of Arat Kilo, but it is the truth. It is the Ethiopia I knew and grew up and somewhat naïve. I was a very proud young man, named Ketsela. Proud Ethiopian, named Ketsela, proud Oromia, Named Ketsela. I have been there and done that without any remorse and always considered to be no better or worse than any kid of my age. Yes! I used to admire our heroes, the King, uniformed men, but had always set myself to be one of them..ONE DAY. Readers it is not yet too late. I have not lost hope at all.

It’s like “Hey ever heard of little things added up to make or break the identity of self and maladaptive fantasy-life manifesting itself through inappropriately weak personal boundaries’?” Hello? What does an ethnic group got to do to come to terms with other groups of the same nationality. The dynamics of changes in the world be it science, technology, culture and/or legal rights remain stagnant in Ethiopia. We are racist by all definitions, prejudice by any standard…color, race, physical stature, language, place of birth, family tree.

Let me just go through some of our problem of which we refuse to admit. Jokes! Of all the many of the nationalities the most joked about are the Garages and the Oromo’s. Money and business to the Gurages; foolishness and stupidity to the Oromos. Go ahead and raise your voice! It has been the truth until very recently and it is now being e-mailed and discussed in small groups. Sometimes I look at my passport issued in 1970 with ethnicity marked as Galla. Then I remember occasions that I always remember the ignorance and the racist means of expressions. I remember in tenth grade a friend of mine took me to his house and introduced me to his mother, “Mom, this is Ketsela Feyssa my friend”. She turned to her son and raised her voice and said “You fool don’t call this nice young man Feyssa, there are better names than that”. Hello? It is a noble name had she found out what the meaning of it was. No, please I am not holding any ill-feeling at all towards this nice mother. Then I remember here in Minnesota mentioning to a well-church-educated from Gonadar who when I jokingly asked him to name his future son Feyssa. Oh! He raised his hands up on the air as if begging to the God to save him from such an unwanted name in his family. Certainly I do not hold this against him. He or the mother of my friend means no harm to me. I learn my lesson from observation, reading and most of all from the exposure I got working with Ethiopians and Eritreans.

In the long-run the victims of such differences are the Amharas. The feudal era which still could be observed and portrayed by many Amhara nationalists have left quite a big scar in the minds of the southern most of Ethiopia. In as far as I am concerned the guilty party in this wave of discrimination is the degreed Ethiopian particularly the PhD. I believe they all hold a utilitarian view about themselves and other Ethiopians. Once they obtained their degree they made no effort to improve themselves and pioneer goodwill and unity among the people of Ethiopia. There is a need to write history of the many nationalities of Ethiopia. The bottle is half empty if only the Amhara-Tigray history is taught in the Ethiopian school system. The truth is I always consider these individuals as watermelon-headed with an IQ equal or less to their own age. Pardon me!, if I amassed the good, the bad and the ugly but that is how I see them all.

Excuse me if I opened the wound but what I see is what I get. I can’t be proud of the flag when there is ill-will amongst us. But I certainly assure you, I feel good when it is raised on the world forum for the deeds of our heroes. Finally I would like to clear the air to the readers that I am what I am but the rise of any group to slice the country only bring pain and injury to all. We need to look into how we can make it together without any malice.