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At a
session on African development a couple decades ago, I spoke
about the damage Ethiopia suffered from having imported a
Marxist-Leninist ideology. One colleague, a respected
Africanist anthropologist, objected: “We are not here to
engage in paradigm-bashing.”
Like so many American academics, my colleague simply had no
idea of the enormity of the bloodshed, political repression,
economic regression, and cultural derangement that that
misguided Western ideology brought to a country that had
been modernizing in ways congruent with its longstanding
national traditions.
The wholesale adoption of a Leninist creed by so many
progressive Ethiopians of the late 1960s continues to have
deleterious repercussions, much as the slaughter of a
generation of modern-educated Ethiopians by the Fascist
Italians had repercussions for the generation after
liberation. It meant that all militant progressive forces of
that generation took cover behind a worldview that
considered itself scientifically corroborated, thus
legitimating the forceful imposition of collectivist values
by an “enlightened” elite.
Besides the Derg, many have noted that most dissident
movements of the time subscribed to such a doctrine, the
difference being that they extended it to a derision of
Ethiopia’s national history on behalf of Eritrean, Tigrayan,
Oromo, Somali, and other irredentist claims.
The present regime in Ethiopia is the hapless heir of those
days. This means that however much they would like to
implement a liberal democratic regime - and I am convinced
that many EPRDF members want very much to do so - they are
stuck with certain policies and procedures that derive from
their Leninist origins. And to make matters worse, although
many who oppose them are now committed to a liberal
democratic ethos, the rhetoric and tactics used by a vocal
minority recall the arrogance, Manicheanism, and
ruthlessness of the Leninists who indoctrinated them years
ago.
Some of this is all too familiar to those of us who have
lived in the United States during the Bush Administration.
In place of Marxist-Leninist certainty, read right-wing
ideological certainty. In place of the messianic vision of a
classless society, read the messianic vision of a world made
safe for American-business-led democracy (if not the vision
of the grand Apocalypse of the Second Coming.) In place of
harassment of opposition parties, read what many regard as
the theft of the presidency in 2000. In place of the
imprisonment of journalists, read anxious self-censorship.
In place of the wanton assassination of innocents and brutal
tortures in out-of-the-way prisons, read the monstrosities
of Abu Ghraib and Guantanámo. In place of an invisible inner
politburo, read an invisible White House clique.
Yet it is easy to focus on miscarriage of liberal democracy
in the United States in order to deflect attention from
Ethiopia’s failure to move faster toward liberal democracy
and then, after a glorious springtime of freedom, to regress
in crucial respects afterward. Or else, to give up all hope.
When I spoke in Addis Abeba in January of this year, in a
talk entitled, “The Promise of Ethiopia: Public Action;
Civic Forgiveness; Creative Power,” a group of journalists I
met with asked, “Is there any promise for Ethiopia?”
Since then, leaders of parties who sincerely wanted to
conduct themselves as a loyal opposition felt constrained to
withdraw from local elections due to a parade of harassments
and worse affecting their followers. Meanwhile, the EPRDF
leaders, in some respects like the Bush regime, find
themselves embattled at home as well as mired in a war
against perceived terrorist enemies. In this worsening
political situation, can we find the Audacity to Hope?
Senator Barack Obama’s message has appealed awesomely to a
majority of Democrat and numerous Republican voters in the
U.S. and to citizens all over the world. Ethiopians in the
U.S. responded with enthusiasm to calls to action from the
likes of Mike Endale and Yohannes Assefa, Emebet Bekele and
Teddy Fikre.
Like other nationals, they resonate with Obama’s call to
stop endless rounds of animosities old and new, of blame and
counter-blame, and get on with solving the world’s
compelling problems: poverty; disease; famine;
overpopulation; environmental damage; gender violence; loss
of species; wars; terrorism.
Ethiopian culture includes many ways to move toward
inclusiveness, open communication, and consensual action.
Perhaps these ways can be invoked to consider items like the
following: Diaspora Ethiopian doctors, like the many
hundreds in Ingida Asfaw’s (MD) Ethiopian North American
Health Professionals Association, go regularly to Ethiopia
to offer medical services, provide advanced training, and
improve maternal and child healthcare.
Sisay Assefa (PhD) has initiated an organization of social
science professionals - from ye-bet agar, ye-wutch agar, and
ye-cyber agar - to develop and exchange critically tested
ideas regarding Ethiopia’s development potential. The
government has undertaken big initiatives on long-standing
issues like expanded schools, health clinics in each
village, vast road projects, expanded power generation, and
now, forced marriage of young girls.
Opposition political parties are taking a long view and
rebuilding their strength, while the quest for a free press
and fair elections has suffered severe setbacks but still
goes on.
After decades of abuse and decay, Addis Abeba University
(AAU) is striving to regain and surpass the high quality it
achieved as Haile Sellasie I University (HSIU). Under the
leadership of Abye Tasse (PhD) and Tsige Gebre-Mariam
(Prof.), AAU has just embarked on a multi-national
initiative, directed by Abye Tasse to provide highest-level
training for new cohorts of Ethiopian academics.
The millennium celebrations stimulated some serious
initiatives. In Addis, the InterAfrica Group organized two
symposia on ways to promote communication among Ethiopia’s
different constituencies. In Washington D.C., Abiyu Berlie
and Samson Teffera organized a video conference on
Information and Communication Technology for many kinds of
IT professionals in Ethiopia and the United States.
You
tell me more.
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