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Dear editors,
I read your article “Coming to Ethiopia Blindly”
(Volume 8, Number 396, December 2, 2007). I concur
with you that any visitor should be equipped with as
much information as possible before visiting a
country but disagree with your portrayal of
Ethiopia’s uniqueness on the continent.
I have serious reservations, at least about the
tone, if not the letter, of your column, which
claims, that Ethiopia is not part of the “negro
experience”. If the term is meant to mean the
experience of black people through the ages and
around the globe, and I believe it should, then we
Ethiopians are definitely part of it.
How could we not be?
Take for example the statement: “But I was shocked
that he would not listen when it was being explained
to him time and time again that there was nothing of
the black experience to be found here, he could not
fathom that there existed a nation that had a
history unique and excluded from the rest of the
world.” This implies the ‘black experience’ is to be
shunned and Ethiopia is not part of it while our
history is one small part of it.
As an Ethiopian, am I supposed to feel great just
because I or my ancestors did not go through that
alleged ‘black experience’ that other Africans went
through? The implication here is very degrading for
other Africans that they have failed where
Ethiopians had succeeded.
Have we Ethiopians achieved something that other
blacks did not?
You seem accept and cherish the visitor’s misguided
information about Ethiopia’s culture and its
relations or lack thereof to the rest of Africa.
While you put influence on the difference of
Ethiopian culture from the rest of black Africa and
display the same level of ignorance as the visitor
about other Africans, you should have disregarded
the visitor’s monolithic version of black Africa
rather than accept it as fact.
I am an Ethiopian who got the privilege of
travelling in many parts of Africa. Wherever there
is a sizable Ethiopian community in Africa, the
perception of the locals is that we are arrogant and
unwilling to associate and integrate with other
fellow Africans.
Your article, wittingly or unwittingly, reinforces
this perception. It is true that our culture and
history is unique, but so is every other culture. At
this moment of our history, we are at the bottom of
many development indexes; even by African standards.
It will help us to show a lot of humility, which I
think your article is greatly lacking, especially in
regards to the old history and culture of the rest
of Africa. You are hyping Ethiopia’s uniqueness and
diminishing the uniqueness of other Africans.
Rather than arrogantly demanding that visitors
should know about our past, we should simply do our
best to let them know. It is time for us to talk
less about our past and more about our future.
Bediro bere yarese yelem.
Moreover, the warning the visitor received about
local foods and beggars is at least in part
justified judging from the sanitation standards of
many restaurants that prepare local food and beggars
everywhere in the in the city.
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