When I wrote this text three years ago, I didn't know about the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia and the famine of 2000. But the book was never about history, but the sources behind it. More than ever I believe that twenty five years since the death of Haile Sellassie I proved that Ethiopia lost it -- the directions, her self-identity and its future.
How could it be found and restored? Not until Haile Sellassie is restored to history of Ethiopia.
Ethiopia is not a family anymore, but the war of strangers...
There is another event I didn't know about, when I wrote 2000 Chapter; the end of my own family. Is there any connections between the two catastrophies?
"We destroy what we love." O. Wilde. And what we love destroys us. Yes, I knew it and I know it. So what? What can I do about it? I know it now as I knew it ten or twenty years ago. I am not sorry. I loved. I had it, even knowing that I won't have it forever. Don't I know that I am not forever? After Anton was born, I walked home thinking that he will die one day, but the day, the hour the minute, the moment I lived through is bigger than death and eternity. It doesn't matter that she doesn't love me anymore, nobody can take away the moment, the minute, the hour, the day, when I was in love and felt loved.
It's difficult to say "goodbye" to life, because I never had a chance to say "hello" -- everything what I was is this "hello"...
"Love" and "Life" are of the same origins. We live only while we are in love. This is why the angels are so sad on all paintings, they never happy. How would you feel being in love without any hope to be loved back?
The year 1977 saw the emergence of the most serious external challenge to the revolutionary regime that had yet materialized. The roots of the conflict lay with Somali irredentism and the desire of the Somali government of Mahammad Siad Barre to annex the Ogaden area of Ethiopia. Somalia's instrument in this process was the Western Somali Liberation Front (WSLF), a Somali guerrilla organization, which by February 1977 had begun to take advantage of the Derg's political problems as well as its troubles in Eritrea to attack government positions throughout the Ogaden. The Somali government provided supplies and logistics support to the WSLF. Through the first half of the year, the WSLF made steady gains, penetrating and capturing large parts of the Ogaden from the Dire Dawa area southward to the Kenya border.
The increasingly intense fighting culminated in a series of actions around Jijiga in September, at which time Ethiopia claimed that Somalia's regular troops, the Somali National Army (SNA), were supporting the WSLF. In response, the Somali government admitted giving "moral, material, and other support" to the WSLF. Following a mutiny of the Ethiopian garrison at Jijiga, the town fell to the WSLF. The Mengistu regime, desperate for help, turned to the Soviet Union, its ties to its former military supplier, the United States, having foundered in the spring over the Derg's poor human rights record. The Soviet Union had been supplying equipment and some advisers for months. When the Soviet Union continued to aid Ethiopia as a way of gaining influence in the country, Somalia, which until then had been a Soviet client, responded by abrogating its Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with Moscow and by expelling all Soviet advisers.
The Soviet turnaround immediately affected the course of the war. Starting in late November, massive Soviet military assistance began to pour into Ethiopia, with Cuban troops deploying from Angola to assist the Ethiopian units. By the end of the year, 17,000 Cubans had arrived and, with Ethiopian army units, halted the WSLF momentum. On February 13, 1978, Mogadishu dispatched the SNA to assist the WSLF, but the Somali forces were driven back toward the border. After the Ethiopian army recapture of Jijiga in early March, the Somali government decided to withdraw its forces from the Ogaden, leaving the Ethiopian army in control of the region. However, in the process of eliminating the WSLF threat, Addis Ababa had become a military client of Moscow and Havana, a situation that had significant international repercussions and that resulted in a major realignment of power in the Horn of Africa.
When Eritrea, formally a province of Ethiopia, gained its independence in 1993, after a long guerrilla war, parts of the border was never fixed with maps and surveying markers. It has always been in dispute, but a war broke out in May 1998 in a dispute about the exact location of their border. Ethiopia and Eritrea are fighting over an inconsequential piece of real estate. But it is highly charged with symbolism as the two nations sort out their relationship after a 20-year war that ended with Eritrea breaking off from the larger nation.
The war between Ethiopia and Eritrea has echoes of World War One in its bloody stalemate and trench warfare. Tens of thousands of people have been killed. The fighting has been going on, with some interruptions, for the better part of two years, and involves relatively sophisticated weaponry. Each side has some jet fighters that have attacked the other, and US television regularly shows long-range artillery of the two armies pounding each other. The border war has claimed the lives of an estimated 40-thousand soldiers, and has dragged down the economies of both countries. More than 300-thousand troops remain dug-in and deadlocked along an 800-kilometer front. All civilians in the area have fled, leaving the armies to fight over empty villages. A peace plan brokered by the Organization of African Unity has failed to stop the conflict, which is affecting the entire Horn of Africa.
Eritrean separatism had its roots in World War II. In 1941, in the Battle of Keren, the Allies drove Italian forces out of Eritrea, which had been under Italy's rule since the end of the nineteenth century. Administration of the region was then entrusted to the British military until its fate could be determined by the Allies. Britain, however, sought to divide Eritrea along religious lines, giving the coast and highland areas to Ethiopia and the Muslim-inhabited northern and western lowlands to British-ruled Sudan. In 1952 the United Nations (UN) tried to satisfy the demand for self-determination by creating an EritreanEthiopian federation. In 1962, however, Haile Selassie unilaterally abolished the federation and imposed imperial rule throughout Eritrea. In January 1974, the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) handed Haile Selassie's forces a crushing defeat at Asmera, severely affecting the army's morale and exposing the crown's ever-weakening position.
On 29 May 1991, ISAIAS Afworki, secretary general of the People's Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ), which then served as the country's legislative body, announced the formation of the Provisional Government in Eritrea (PGE). Eritrea became an independent state on 24 May 1993, following an internationally monitored referendum in which citizens voted overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia. The Eritrean People's Liberation Front, which led the 30-year war for independence, has controlled the country since it defeated Ethiopian armed forces in 1991. With independence from Ethiopia on 24 May 1993, Eritrea faced the bitter economic problem of a small, desperately poor African country. The economy is largely based on subsistence agriculture, with over 70% of the population involved in farming and herding. The 30-year war for independence from Ethiopian rule left some 30 perccnt of all Eritrean households headed by women. Approximately 200 persons were injured or killed during 1998 in incidents involving unexploded ordinances including land mines. There are an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 land mines in the country, mostly laid by Ethiopia during the 1961-1991 war in which Eritrea fought for independence.
In May 1998 fighting broke out between Eritrean armed forces and Ethiopian militia along the border, in response to the movement of Eritrean forces into territory previously administered by Ethiopia. Eritrea responded to an escalating military conflict by calling up reserves and increasing its armed forces to approximately 100,000 to 120,000 soldiers. Eritrea and Ethiopia exchanged artillery fire and engaged in air attacks leading to numerous civilian casualties. In June 1998 Eritrean forces bombed the Ethiopian town of Mekele and killed 47 civilians, including children. In June 1998 and again in November 1998, Eritrean forces fired artillery shells at the Ethiopian town of Adrigat, killing six persons and wounding several others. By the end of 1998 approximately 250,000 Eritreans had been internally displaced as a result of the conflict with Ethiopia. At the outbreak of the war, Ethiopia detained and deported Eritreans and Ethiopian citizens of Eritrean origin. By the end of 1998, a total of 45,000 such persons of an estimated total population of up to 400,000 had left Ethiopia for Eritrea; the vast majority were deported. The nationality of Eritrean-origin Ethiopians had never been settled since the independence of Eritrea in 1993.
The heaviest fighting of 1999 came in February, when Ethiopia made a push to take the border town of Badame. Troops backed by jet fighters, tanks, and heavy artillery attacked Eritrean positions. Casualties were high, the dry, rocky terrain offering little cover, but Ethiopia did recapture the town. In March, there were more battles around the town of Zalambesa, but no clear winner.
Despite the massive weapons build-up, the fortified trenches, the harsh rhetoric, both countries insist they did not want this war, and each country blames the other for continuing it. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi says his country wants peace, but accuses Eritrea of acting irrationally. Eritrea's president, Isays Afeworki, says Ethiopia is continuing the war to humiliate the Eritreans.
Regional groups have tried to mediate an end to the conflict. The Organization of African Unity spent months drawing up a peace plan, and negotiators shuttled between Addis Ababa and Asmara trying to persuade the two governments to agree to its terms. The OAU plan calls for both sides to pull back their troops, with international monitors controlling the disputed areas while a border commission draws up a new map.
At first it was Eritrea which rejected the accord, saying it did not want to withdraw from any territory. But shortly after the fighting at Badame, Eritrea said it would accept the OAU plan, and negotiators turned their attention to getting both countries to agree to a cease-fire. That ceasefire never happened. Minor skirmishes continue on the border, and each country accuses the other of using foreign mercenaries and mistreating refugees.
In September 1999, Ethiopia withdrew its support for the OAU plan. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said there could be no agreement unless land administered by Ethiopia before the outbreak of the war was returned to its control.
With the OAU plan on hold, and Ethiopian and Eritrean forces stalemated on the front, the conflict has spread into neighboring countries. Fighters from the Ethiopian rebel group, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), based themselves in parts of Somalia controlled by faction leader Hussein Aideed. Eritrea helped supply Mr. Aideed's fighters with weapons and training, and the OLF made raids on Ethiopia from their Somali bases. In retaliation, Ethiopia earlier this year sent some of its forces into southern Somalia to support groups hostile to Mr. Aideed.
In November 1999, the Ethiopian government and Mr. Aideed made a deal. He agreed to force the OLF out of Somalia, and Ethiopia agreed to withdraw its troops. The OLF has shut its office in Mogadishu, but there is some question as to whether it has actually disbanded and left Somalia.
The Eritrean Islamic Salvation (EIS), a small Sudan-based insurgent group, has mounted terrorist attacks in north and west Eritrea since 1993. Both Eritrea and Ethiopia have been critical of Islamic groups from Sudan, but the war with Eritrea has prompted Ethiopia to mend its relations with the government in Khartoum. Eritrea has condemned the new alliance, saying Ethiopia is encouraging opponents to the current Asmara government who operate out of Sudan.
Experts say perhaps the most damaging aspect of the war is the devastation it is causing to the economies of the two countries. As of early 1998 some 67 percent of Eritrea's external trade was with Ethiopia. The end of the use of the Ethiopian Birr note and the introduction of the new Eritrean currency "Nakfa" at the end of 1997r was a deliberate decision by the Eritrean leadership to take charge of their own monetary policy. Food purchases are a serious drain on Eritrea's limited foreign exchange reserves. Eritrea requires 600,000 to one million metric tons of cereal grains annually. In a good year, Eritrea is able to meet nearly one fourth of its food needs; imports from Ethiopia fill much of the rest of the shortfall.
Refugees from both countries are flooding into cities, trade is down, and military expenditures are up. But for now it appears both countries are determined to continue the war despite the costs.
The most recent fighting resumed on 11 May 2000 when the Ethiopian forces made a major advance and captured a key border town inside what was considered to be Eritrean territory.
In May 2000 Washington suggested a full arms embargo on the two countries, in the hope of starving their arsenals. Russia and China are skeptical of sanctions. Russia has urged continued diplomacy, which hasn't worked. Because Ethiopia rejected a UN deadline to resume peace talks, the United States would, as part of the sanctions, ban Ethiopian government officials from traveling outside their country. Eritrea accepted the UN offer, but whether that was out of a genuine desire to end the fighting or the need to buy time after recent setbacks is hard to say. A peace agreement was signed on December 12, 2000 between Ethiopia and Eritrea putting an end to their two-year border war.
This is the chapter, which doesn't let me finish the book, the first chapter. I tried all possible tricks, beside the numerous rewrites; I broke it in two parts and even took it out of the manuscript all together -- nothing has worked. But I can't start the story without the end of it and to write about the end of family is painful. It is my family I have to write about. The book itself was a part of this process of realization... or the book and the web were results? I have no answers. I don't know...
I didn't have what I was looking for my, my entire life I was searching... My death took place in 1995 and dead man knows no family. But this is a subject of another book. There was something outside of me, something I saw as a real secret of the Haile Sellassie's fate: the verdict on blood. The rest -- history, country, home -- to follow.... what is the death of blood? No, children, not in heaven, the law of blood is dismissed here. That is what he lost. The blood became silent. Alone, alone.
How to write about it -- diaries? Just testimonials. The records. Oh, the temptations of the web! It would be nice to make the book in traditions of old manuscripts, before they met the printing press. With drawings, fancy lettering, something of a scrap book, yes, but I won't dare, I will continue to pretend to be a legitimate writer. For my comments on myself and my writing I have another place, another website...
The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth abideth for ever.
The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after.
I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.
I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
[ Ecclesiastes 1 ]
The Family exhausted itself. For millenniums this institution ran history; the state and nation were its latest offsprings. It was the last Family could give out. The 3000 years of journey through time ended right here for me to see it. My wife, my children are not mine. The blood lost its powers, they belong to the world, whatever name you may choose to use -- human race, village, society. If the patriarch himself couldn't hold it together with all the kinetic energy of the past, how can I even hope? No, the family story ended, I have to agree with the Marxists. Is there a possibility of restoration? The possibility that the generations from Solomon and Sheba will rise and call my children.... I don't see it. Maybe like with H.S. this line shouldn't be exclusive anymore and belong to all? Alexander the Great isn't a Greek hero and Shakespeare is not an English writer. How to understand this globalization of everything, this expropriation of the most private, the last personal property? Maybe I don't know how to read history and Ethiopian omission of H.S. from its history is necessary for the world to make it into a property of all. Jesus never came back to Jews and the blood's submission to spirit was proved by the history. Joseph and Mary never became Christians.
Anatoly, child is no more a property of a clan, isn't it great? How can you, who did it to your own blood, reject this victory of the spirit? Yes, I asked for it. Family isn't a foundation anymore, there is no firmament, not grounds, no earth to stand on.
I don't know how to write about it and you will see my panic
in the following disjointed thoughts about ethnicity and blood; I am not ready for this book and this revelation. Not even to be a Christian. It's too much to ask from a living man and I don't even dare to think how a woman could be a Christian soul. I don't know them who go with the family to the church to hear that they do not
belong to each other. I don't understand the cries about family
which come through MASS media. The very idea of God ends the
intimacy with another, don't you remember the story of the
original fall? But when this message is transmitted through high
technology and public space and time, I know what message is
about. Death to Family! The more they mention it, the less chance
it has.
Oh, man, get going! We know the end of the story, tell us the rest.
2000: AFTER THE FUTURE
[ image ]
Tomorrow's Views
Is your tomorrow friendly? Or the sweet morrow is full of fears of the day after? It's all about the survival. The events should take care of themselves while they last. That's why they are so hungry for attention, tomorrow everything will be forgotten.
Future has no memory, it's a natural enemy of the present.
It kills it. Not to remember is to move on, to ignore, to step
on. You, the worshipers of tomorrow, this dragon knows no past,
your present is his past.
That's why we like immediate future, not too far away, the
one we are in. Don't travel far, child, you can find the future
without you, the time when you are dead and forgotten. Oh, yes,
there's a death ahead, your death. We don't want to know. It's
not fun anymore.
Not long ago, in the glorious times of modernity, we desired
the future. Now I am concerned about the past. From the moment I
remember myself I was to lose time, I treasure the future. I
lived the future, I lived the time after the future, and at the
end of the future I am afraid to lose the past.
Why? What is it good for?
Why in the past, before us, they did value Past?
What are my parents, delivery service? Gone. Them, their parents, and so on. Out of site, out. Our neglect of the past returned back as a rejection of the future. We lost it all, yes, time, space, reality, life...
[ image ]
I. RESURRECTION OF THE DIED
"And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof." (R 5)
He is forgotten by his country. There are no streets in his name. There were too many before. The airport or the University -- his name was removed after the revolution of 1974 and never restored. Haile Sellassie the First, the last emperor of Ethiopia, has no grave. The old monk guards the casket with the bones dugout of a sewage. Nobody knows the last days the old man. Was he suffocated by the "marxist" ruler Mengistu, as rumors insist? After six years the trail of the leaders of revolutionary Ethiopia still is pending. The Lion Judah's face could be seen only at the vendors little shops on Markato -- for the tourists? (Hello? Not many of them around). What was his sin, what did this man do so bad to the country which he ruled through the half of the century?
He was loved by the world when he was in power. He had it all. He had too much. As much as one mortal could possible get in his life. His end and memory of him in Ethiopia are the exceptions to his lucky life. Tafari was a great success story -- why shouldn't he get what we all are getting? The misery.
Justice! Alright. What did they get in return? Now we know.
In the last days of his imprisonment, he, who was announced vegetarian, asked for raw meat. The old man cut the meat in four small pieces and threw it into the four corners of his cell. And cursed his country. That's the story of the monk who spent last
days with the Emperor. We heard it on our visit to Ba'yeta, the
church, where the emperor's bones placed in a wooden casket became a tourist attraction... You can see it for 5 birrs, if you an Ethiopian, foreigners are asked for US 5 dollars.
He was a proud man.
A man concerned with his dignity he couldn't arrange his first death and funeral. After two decades of violent history without him, the country still didn't bury Tafari. He died. As a private man, father, emperor, and now the only question remains -- will he die a second time, when the memory of him will be no more? Why is history so harsh on HIM?
Is it possible -- the apocalypse without the resurrection?
Paradise of modernity without the Judgement Day? Do the dead ask
for justice?
"Weep not..."
1. PERSONAL AND OTHER SENSITIVE MATTERS
The book is (dis)organized in reversed chronology, I'm an archeologist who went back in time, from BP ("Before Present"; new politically correct idiotic chronology) to the distant past. Why not to write "straight" biography from Haile Sellassie's childhood to his death and legacy? His life is a perfect subject for such a book, the rise and fall of a ruler, king and man. That would be another book about Haile Sellassie; his life is a journey from the pre-modern into post-modern world. What a distance we cover in one century!
I never had any intentions to write a scholarly book. I have no ambitions of a historian. The book is a result of living in the shadow or the light of Haile Sellassie's legacy. I tried to understand the man in order to understand the history. To understand the past which was present in my wife's thoughts and is part of our children's future. Since she was rescued along with her five siblings at the peak of the Red Terror, Esther went through a rejection of the country which caused her mother's death in prison. It was a denial with the ten year long history when in 1985 she was fundraising in New York for the famine victims in Ethiopia. It took another ten years to re-visit Addis Ababa -- and recognize once again that the country was as far from her as ever.
The trip was a disaster.
In the Fall of 1995 we ran from Ethiopia after our son suffered from meningitis. My plans for a sabbatical at the Addis Ababa University Theatre department collapsed. Everything was wasted. money, time and hope. Computer, printer, copy-machine, camera. If not customs, then something else. Everything was for nothing. We have no future plans to go back. She relived the experience of non-belonging again. And again. Just before we went to Africa, we spent two years in Russia with the similar output. I knew that the final accident -- this week of hospitalization of our son -- was only a sign. I knew that nothing would come out of my arrangements with the National Theatre on production of Sheba and Solomon story. The idea of producing the play based on the life of Ras Tafari was "too hot" for the theatre. Haile Sellassie is still persona non grata in his own country. We left Ethiopia with a sense that very little of Ethiopia she knew and I imagined was alive in reality. I didn't find Russia in Russia also.
No, I have to go back. I have to start it again. Sorry, but I have to interrupt the story, I am not done with my introductions! I have to explain myself....
This book is born out of my notes, dairies, reading and thinking about the H.S. My difficulties come from the defining the "subject" -- since I had no interest in writing the biography of Haile Sellassie, my task was to discover the invisible within the known. (Although, I think that a good traditional biography is needed to understand the input of his life in the twentieth century history. It could give us some insights about not African history but OUR history.) I was keeping researching something which has no professional interest to me. The catastrophe of Russia was too close to home; to this day, after sixteen years in America, I have hard a time separating myself from the past. The similarities of Ethiopian history were striking, and its calamities took place within the time of my own generation. It was our nightly news.
What is this (definite) message the century tried to communicate? I wanted to cover what wasn't said about the country and the man because there are too many non-correct subjects to talk about. Too many myths and legends in Ethiopian history which compete with facts. Our perception of history is an integral part of history.
The book I wrote for myself and maybe for my family, the children. At some point in the future my questions will be theirs. Their answers will be different but I want them to have this Ethiopian agenda.
Perhaps, I always was an old man. I use a reversed count of
my age -- how many years are left. I wrote the book because of
necessity and I hope that it could help me to finish my "Russian"
and "American" books. They are other levels of my personal
archeology....
A non-systematic style of the book reflects my fear to misread my own motives.... One of them is to sort out the heritage of my children. In a few years they will enter the adult world with all the requests for social self-identification. No matter how much we try to install in them that individuality is a basis for identity, they will face the black-and-white issue. Regardless internationalization of our life, the race conflict is not about to disappear. In class societies of the past the stratification was more focused on personal qualities. The mass culture had to bring some dimensions into its flat structure. The race idea was discovered. History of antiquity and even medieval literature do not speak much about races. Racial differentiations are not only product of modernity, but the curse of the future.
Often I think about the possibility of being born in America
of the fifties, in the South -- in a segregated society. There is
a sense of relief that I missed those times, but it comes with
the realization that racism lost its visible, most obvious forms
-- and in some ways became deeper. Did we discover the
differences or did we institute them? Instead of ignoring
cultural presence of blacks we established various African
American programs -- trying to remedy we bring more divisions.
Being myself on the borders of culture I am, never-the-less,
conscious of multi-culturalism. The cultures compete no less than
people an in global environment the fittest will survive. The one
which could offer more to all. That's the reason why (American)
pop-culture is so successful in conquering the world.
The past, even with its powerful treasury, has to find its
way into the future. The selection and forgetting has its natural
cleaning function. Since my teen years I am a subscriber to
Spengler's theory of mortality of cultures. With desperation I
watch the disappearance of Russian or Ethiopian civilizations. My
writing is an attempt to fight this process. Without transforming
the social uniqueness into aesthetic forms, the cultural is
doomed to die. The preservation leads to museumization, but is
there a way to keep them as living cultures?
I have no hope that my children will be fluent in Russian or
Amharic to work with the languages as natives. After years of
struggle I understand that this is not necessarily their or the
parents fault. What need would they have for Russian or Amharic?
Our life leave very little for extras, and unless Russia or
Ethiopia would re-emerge as cultural giants, where would be their
cultural gravity? Thus, the vicious circle the cultures do find
themselves in -- they can't flourish without the best minds and
the best moves to the places where they can flourish. The west.
Before my visit to Ethiopia I had hopes that a civilization
which managed to survive through many centuries must have a power
to make it into the future. Now I think that the isolation was
the last hope of the ancient culture to stay alive. The
nationalism of Bosnia or Rwanda is the agony of the national. The
conflict between Muslims and Serbs has more serious grounds than
inter-ethnic cleanses. They all fight for preservation of
traditional identity because all traditional culture under the
pressure of one world culture. They get at each other because
they are neighbors and do not know how to fight the time. The
same paradox with anti-American mood around the world; America is
the source and representative of this one world culture system.
The superiority of the new is overwhelming.
And scary.
Have you ever heard of triage? Well, the triage concept was big in the seventies, because during World War I there were not many doctors in the battlefield. To compensate, they would divide the wounded into three parts---the walking wounded, the wounded that were probably going to die no matter what you did, and the group in the middle-if you gave them some help they might live. My feeling is that Africa is being triaged and it's being put in the third group. It this attitude like, "We have put in billions of dollars and it's going nowhere. Eastern Europe is now there for
business. The Soviet Union is breaking apart. Environmental problems are bad everywhere. There are new problems and interests to worry about." So, there are a lot of factors floating up, and I think Africa is floating back to the bottom. My fear is that we are
triaging Africa. We are saying, "We've tried, let's put our resources into places that are having success. I think Africa will go through a period of neglect -- they'll get some money, some help, like they've done in the past, they may even start to really democratize -- then you would think we would really help. However, the U.S. really isn't even doing that much for Eastern Europe. It's like, "Well what can we get out of them?" My feeling is that we don't think we can get anything out of Africa any more. The cold war is over, strategically it is no longer important. I think that
is the dilemma Africa will face in the future. Maybe, during that period, they will have to come to terms with their own problems. Hopefully, they will start to get themselves organized. In the meantime, their environment is going downhill, droughts have plagued
these countries since most of them have gained their independence. It would have been difficult even for a colonial power to maintain those countries. So getting independence and just learning how to run countries, in addition to dealing with the environment is
bewildering. So, I'm not very optimistic for Africa's future.[1]
The Soviet Union fell apart without wars and revolutions, but years after the end of Marxism Ethiopia saw no rebirth. Was it the Emperor's curse that he had spell over the country? What did you do all those years, Ethiopia? Why can't you enter the modern age? Or did she?
I know this dust, the smell of it. I recognized it at the moment we stepped out of the plane. Unwashed floor of the airport, people drifting around -- are they working here? -- looking at you with eyes
covered with the dust of dead time. You can see how the time of
human life is going up in smoke -- and the ashes of the time are
everywhere. Yes, you can smell it, the dead life. Wasted, dead souls...
Come on! In my heart I knew from that first minute -- I won't be able to work here. I remembered Russia which we left just a year ago.
If not for the gangsters who run the country, Russia would be
like this -- sleepwalking society of lost souls. They have noting
to rush for, no tomorrow born today -- it will be the same
forever. You feel as you die yourself. You know that no matter
how much you will run, you never will leave the same spot.
Everything you do -- will fall apart before you can finish it.
The people, they own the space, and therefore -- the time. It's
their property and nothing you can do about it.
In those twenty years Korea became a "little tiger of Asia." The economies of Brazil, Mexico, Peru lifted their nations from the pit of poverty. In twenty years even the former trouble giants -- India and China -- developed their enormous markets. What about you, Africa?
Not the world forgot about you, Africa was consumed with social creativity -- fighting itself, trying to define where one nation starts and another begins. African politics were at the expense of the economy. From the "awakening continent" a quarter century ago Africa became the biggest lost chance of the history. Look at their policies -- the climate for foreign investment, taxation, developing the work force -- what a disaster! "Ethiopia above all"? Above Ethiopians! What did they gain in their national pride?
The past, the present... Wait, it's just a part of the story. The future is not less interesting than the past. I know -- nothing I lived through in my adult life was in my plans or visions. Who said that the future evolves out of the past? Not in Resurrection Times. In postmodernity the present is a shadow of the future.
"Jah" -- that made my interest focused. Rastafarian belief
that resurrection already took place was a life long feeling.
Perhaps, I came to this revelation out of my Soviet experience
(of the postmodern) and the Orthodox roots which were hidden from
myself. As in their case it was more of emotional realization
than intellectual understanding. Nothing in my experience
indicated that I do live, it was that well research "existence"
-- I was there, present, and I watch my own life. I and the rest
of my generation were removed by the Iron Curtain from the
Euro-marxists and post-modernists. My discovery of the New French
was a confirmation that my perception of the world wasn't a
desperation of an aged boy in Moscow. If Esther's great grand
father was an emperor, mine was a slave. More important, I was a
slave. More of a slave than my ancestors. I was a property of the
state, not of a single master or even a society. No, sir, I never saw the "progress" as a process of liberation but -- the deepening of the serfdom. Foucault studied the nature of power-to-come with the
same conclusion -- "progress" is the name of further imprisonment. My escape from the Soviet Union didn't change the overall situation; from the Hell of Paradise I arrived to the Paradise of Hell. It took a few years to realize that America which for the land of the vulgar for generation of Russian intellectuals is the producer of the evil. Rasta call it "Babylon."
Babylon is a lovely and very noisy place.
In conclusion (there is no conclusions, trust me), I have to give some reflection of some existing literature on the matter. There are many books recycling the same historical data, there will be many more. And there is, of course, the opposite. I was a journalist in my youth, I know the killer instinct -- go get it, make them read it! There are some thoughts (not a review) of one book "Emperor."[2] It's a POV: "Kapuscinski's Records of History."
History still knows no methods of Cultural Anthropology.
What is first -- Facts or Interpretations under the name of
facts? What are facts? Reference cycles run on interpretations.
"Noisy Connections" -- what could we know about what we don't
know? Only what somebody tell us.
II. THE NEAR PRESENT
Emperor? Something from fairy tales? History books?
What empire? After the Romans, Alexander the Great, Mongol
and Turks, China and Japan, Spain and Arabs, Habsburgs,
British... the list is too long. It was just a word "empire" --
next to what? Get real! What influence did Ethiopians have on the
world? The imperial elite guards had no boots marching to fight
Mussolini.
As far as the life of humanity was concerned Ethiopians
vanished in antiquity. What should we know about them? What for?
What possibly can we learn from people who couldn't even learn
from their own past? The burden for the rest of the humanity,
nothing more. Leave it to ten specialists and a couple guys in
the State Department.
Listen, the sooner they would forget about being Ethiopians
and start thinking business, the better for them. Wake up,
brother!
1. THE SHADOWS OF THE LAST EMPEROR
Legends were making up the core of Ethiopian history for too
long. In the past, myths were the material and method of thinking
about the past. Scientific modernity insisted on facts,
postmodern got wiser. There are facts and interpretations, and we
can't get to the facts without interpretations. Very often there
are no facts left, because what we think about history more
important than the facts. The fiction take the place of the real
to help us get through the present. What is this past good for if
not to help me with the future?! Postmodern thought discovered
this undying ability of history to fantasize about itself. We
know that we produce fiction every time we think of history. The
last century is no exception. Forget the historical Jesus, Haile
Sellassie died only a generation ago, living in times of heavily
recorded history -- look what a myth we managed to get out of the
historical data!
The problem is not WHAT do we know, we know a lot; the old problem is that the knowing is the forgetting. Please, please, not another book on the subject; the reading list is very long. Forget the data, so you can see the
story. The walls of knowledge will never let me know
the truth about life of Haile Sellassie. And what is
that, the truth? It's not that we don't know the
history, we don't understand it. Oh, it's very possible
to know and not to understand. The mystery is the
motivations of history and our knowledge about it,
which is another story and our history. We have to
examine the source, the intention, the instinct of what
now is known as historicity. (From my Ethiopian
diaries).
Maybe history is too (much) connected with reality. This
phenomena of the Present (who said that history is about the
past?) causes a lot of trouble for the future. My intentions were
not of a historical but of an ontological nature. More on the
side of understanding than knowing. What subject? Not the life of
Haile Sellassie but the secrets of our time. An attempt to
discover the meaning of the changes we live through. To get
beyond a social or political understanding. What is a theological
view of imperial power and how can it help me to understand the
end of empires at the age of imperialism. Why the power has to be
taken away from the one for the benefit of many? Why is the
ancient model not beneficial for us anymore?
Questioning is always done out of personal reasons. I had
mine. Ethiopian past became a part of my present (my wife) and my
future (children). If I didn't have enough questions about my
Soviet and Russian past? This African intervention in my identity
coincided with another invasion -- my American present, which by
now has its own past.
2. SELF AND CONCEPT OF MONARCHY
Monarchy was a model of governing for centuries preceding
modernity. Ethiopia happened to be one of the last to arrive
modernity. The transition from that model to democracy
historically comes after the stage of "imperialism." Capitalism
reached the stage of imperialism when the leading powers
developed their colonial ambitions. According to Marxist
analysis, there were two other featured -- concentration of
capital and the wars for reshaping the borders. Interesting
enough Ethiopia joined the world as an empire during the Menelik
time without going through any capitalist formations In Ethiopian
history the final formation of the empire took place in the
nineteenth century. At this time the power structure was
consistent with the three major elements of "imperialism": the
traditional aristocracy, the Orthodox Church, and the monarchy.
This focus on Ethiopian monarchy model from an anthropological
point of view is the subject. There are no new documents in this
book, but an attempt to "read" the life of Haile Sellassie.
Oh, yes, he, the source of all evils, did it all. He wrote a
book. The autobiography of a king? Written while he was in power,
what it could tell us about him? It was for public consumption,
for the History and public relations. Nothing personal. A
historian might find useful the Haile Sellassie autobiography
recently translated (part two) by Harold Marcus. Not for someone
who is looking to understand the character of HIM. Even Haile
Sellassie speeches could tell you more about the man. How
Ethiopian was he?
How special is the Ethiopian case? What could be compared
with Ethiopia? Egypt? African countries? Middle East? At the
begining of his reforms Haile Sellassie liked to model them after
Japan of the turn of the century. Oh, Ethiopia was too special to
place next to anything -- she was next to everything in the deep
past, and away -- in the near past.
Haile Sellassie was a paradigm of Ethiopioness. He was
Ethiopia. And Ethiopia rejected him for this very reason.
Ethiopia didn't want to be Ethiopia anymore. Too much ahead of
his nation at the begining, he discovered at the end that he is
if not behind than out of history of Ethiopia.
They all, his offsprings, use the symbolic power of his name
and keep the distance from the Emperor. They are uncomfortable
with being nobel and elite. They want to have it both ways.
Without real power they feel that they have to be apologetic
about all the wrongs of the past. None of them equipped with the
a statesman's mind, they don't understand that Emperor will end
up being responsible for everything. Not many dare to mention the
good H.S. done throughout his long statesman's life, but they are
ready to accept the blame, which most of the time has nothing to
do with HIM.
III. FACTS AND FICTION?
Or is it fiction which takes place of facts? And why not?
1. THE OUTSIDERS
Oh, the paradox of Africa, when they learn about themselves
from the books written about them by visitors! Better than
nothing, don't you think?
The only popular book on Haile Sellassie after his death is
written by a Polish. Ryszard Kapuscinski who has written about
all falling empires from Iranian Shah to the Soviet Union. His
book "Emperor" was just another one of many. We only could guess
on matters of Kapuscinki's knowledge of Ethiopian culture. His
book has no list of bibliography, no citations, no notes. He is a
journalist, not a professor. A Polish journalist with no previous
books on Ethiopia. A foreigner with no "native" knowledge of the
culture be a good analytical source. (In italics Kapuscinski
glues the miscellaneous "testimonials" with his narrative
writing. Does this second structural element of the book help the
loose chronological approach?) Kapuscinski visited Addis Ababa
several times between 1963 and 1974. How did he get his
information? "No, I was not alone. I had a guide. Now that he is
no longer alive, I can say his name: Teffera Gebrewold."1
Kapuscinski wouldn't come back again to this mysterious Teffera
Gebrewold and we will never know why this man agreed to guide Mr.
Kapuscinki in the middle of a revolution, and we will also not
know how this mysterious source died.
An image of the last emperor has its attraction for popular
culture. China, Russia, or Ethiopia (as the most recent), they
all have their share of speculations. From Bertolucci to
Anastasia, history like stories. The end of traditional Ethiopian
power structure isn't the real interest for Kapuscinki. Or even
the story of the Emperor in his last days? How did he die? The
cause? According to the official version of 1975, he died of
natural causes. Now the former leaders of communist Ethiopia are
charged with several dozen executions, Haile Sellassie's name on
this list. What is the book? Rumors and anecdotes, mostly about
the peculiar elements of imperial rituals and protocols.
Something from the biblical times full of obscured stipulations
and superstitions. As if our obsessions with time, money, news
are not less ridiculous? Give history some time and the future
generations would laugh at our serious matters.
"Downfall of An Autocrat" -- the subtitle reads. The study of
the end of Ethiopian monarchy? The book has three parts: The
Throne. It's Coming, It's Coming. The Collapse. How does
Kapuscinki understand the idea of "Throne"? Throne and royal
court. What is the difference? Royal of imperial, Christian,
Judaic or pagan origins? The emperor was a bridge between the
past and the present, he was a "text" for his subjects to read.
Why should it a surprise that his every move has to have
presentational and representational mode? For a alien the
culture's signs are meaningless theatricality. For somebody who
doesn't speak the language, it looks like funny sounds without
message and logic.
Whenever he could be seen by a human eye, he felt
himself to be on duty and performing his royal office:
not even a servant should ever be given an opportunity
to see him in an undignified situation and be able to
ridicule him behind his back... For the time, such as
it was , that he spent with his family, could not be
regarded solely as private because in this particular
capacity also he felt that he was serving as an
exemplar to a nation structured on the lines of family
clans. At the same time, he was taking care of his
obligations as head of the imperial clan. (Lockot 54).
This is an insightful description of "performance" by the
monarch, which is not a private person by definition, since he is
the image of God. For an outsider any of our ritual could be a
theatre "act" (Super-ball, Oscar awards, even our advertising
industry); for a believer the monarch's behavior is the way of
communicating with God and people. The throne is the centerpiece
of the court and the royal family, nobles, people -- they all are
the players in this divine drama.
In addition, we only could guess how much the emperor
himself saw his public persona as the means of governing.
"Cultural revolution" (education), imposed by the emperor on
Ethiopian aristocracy, destroyed the "ancient" ideology. Addis
Ababa student unrests, which are mentioned by Kapuscinki, went on
for a decade (since the coup of 1960) before the ideological
decomposition of the traditional power model resulted in the 1974
revolution.
2. NO WITNESSES CALLED
Not a single immediate affiliate of Haile Sellassie wrote a
book. It would give us some insights about how to understand the
lost power which was picked up by the army because it was laying
on the street. Maybe for the same reason the Emperor had nobody
to pass the crown, nobody was there to give a new life to the
concept of monarchy. Furthermore, the members of the inner throne
circle are not talking to tell the story. Many members of the
royal family, including the Crown Prince, were outside of
Ethiopia. So were the former ministers of the cabinets and
officials who had connections with the emperor? Silence.
Washington D.C. alone has Ethiopian population of forty thousand.
Many of them were openly engaged in opposition to the Dergue
regime, and -- to the emperor. The testimonials are of the low,
the simplest (servants) sources in regard to the emperor -- do
they give a unique perspective of the end of the monarchy?
It would be very beneficial to investigate the perception
of the common people of the last days of the empire, but they are
probably the least representative group to choose for
understanding the events of the revolution. Also, we should
remember that the traditional view of the very position of an
absolute autocrat would prevent him from sharing his thoughts or
emotions with anybody.
Haile Selassie's ability not to reveal his inner
self -- his feelings, thoughts and character -- was often
noted. The impenetrable nature of his reserve becomes
clear to anyone investigating the range of his linguistic
skills. Nobody who had not hears the Emperor use a
particular language could know which languages he was able
to speak. The learned Ethiopians who assisted him in his
private studies -- often people who held inconspicuous and
lowly positions -- would not reveal even that they had
access to the Emperor at all, let alone the exact way in
which they had assisted him, or how great was the Emperor's
knowledge in their fields of learning. (Lockot 44-45)
This testimony by Lockot would be important to remember in
separating the issue of Haile Sellassie's personality from the
Ethiopian imperial code of behavior which a king has to impose
upon himself. Absolutism or Autocracy means that a monarch in
image and likeness of God is alone. Thus are the limitations of
the individual imperial model of power. "Up till his death, he
remained the solo virtuoso." (Lockot 55)
3. MAKE IT UP
In the evening I was listened to those who had known the
Emperor's court. Once they had been people of the Palace
or had enjoyed the right of admission there. Not many of
them remained. Some had perished, shot by the firing
squad. Some had escaped the country; others had been locked
in the dungeons beneath the Palace, cast down from the
chambers to the cellars. Some were hiding in the mountains
or living disguised as monks in cloisters. Everyone was
trying to survive in his own way, according to the
possibilities open to him. Only a handful remained in
Addis Ababa where, apparently, it was easiest to outwit the
authorities's vigilance. (K. 4)
This opening paragraph, full of contradictions, leads us to
the original sources of the book; who are they? "F.," "L.C.,"
"Y.M."? How were the interviews conducted? Through the
interpreter (Teffera?), who for some reason is unable to sustain
a genuine and a colloquial style in his speech? Were the
conversations taped? Because these so-called testimonials are in
quotes we could safely assume that there is an implication of a
primary source. The taping itself makes the challenge of meeting
a foreigner by the former palace employees highly unlikely.
"Gaining the confidence of informants required time and
patience," writes Marcus in his book, "especially when one was
inquiring about individuals whose records might be blemished in
some way." (Marcus, XV).
This introductory note was written by a well known and
reputable scholar of Ethiopia after the Dergue regime was gone.
Ababa Zewde, Esther's uncle, Dej. Zewde Gabre Sellassie, who was
present at the times of the imperial finale, who saw it all wrote
a book about emperor Yohaness, not Haile Sellassie. Talkative and
articulate, he would avoid the experiences of the year 1974. As
if the ghost of the emperor sealed the lips of his relatives.
What is it? Guilt?
Look, who is speaking; Kapuscinki "Y.M.":
And here I would like to make one thing clear: His
Venerable Majesty was no reader. For him, neither the
written nor the printed word existed; everything had to be
relayed by word of mouth. (Kapuscinski, p. 7.)
What? What is that? Never-mind, that the man wrote his own
speeches, and there are many of them. His library, the books he
loved from the time of his teen years:
Of these, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Napoleon
Bonaparte, Machiavelli, Augustine of Hippo, Thomas a
Kempis, Voltaire and Goethe were the starts that occupied
the firmament of Lidj Tafari in his early youth, influenced
as he then was by his father Ras Makonnen and by his
teachers. (Lockot, 2)
To this day those titles are not translated in Amharic, he
read them in French. Who was the "Y.M." quoted by Kapuscinski we
would never know. But the illiteracy of the ruler is sensational,
and -- makes sense; the revolution should replace somebody for
whom "the written nor the printed word existed." Were so many
fooled or mistaken, assuming that the emperor was a reader? (In
several languages). Why is this agenda of equality so
transparent? Why do we have to drag down the best; great
politician, artist, scientist? What if they are not like us? What
if some are better than others? What if we are wrong in our
pursuit of a total equality?2
4. IDENTIFICATION AND IDENTITY
The most important lessons of studying any culture is that
it teaches us not to "package" data in familiar concepts but
treat data archaeologically. Facts and events must be understood
within the context of culture, without leaving the framework of
its fixed meanings. "Visible events had their roots in the
tangled web of Ethiopian society." (Lockot 55) In the nets of
memories. Not surprisingly, we know little. But do we know that?
Haile Sellassie was born on July 23, 1892, Western style.
What does it say to you? The end of 19th century, summer...
Actually, it's the rainy season in Ethiopia, the last before the
year in September. Oh, I guess now it's different frame all
together. According to Ethiopian calendar it was 1885 (seven
years behind) and their understanding of the century is different
from yours and mine. He was born after the great victory over the
Italian in Adwa, which was more important for an Ethiopian than
an invention of an oil engine which took place at the same year.
He was born after the feast of St. Paul and Peter. Don't you
think that an American who happened to be born on the Forth of
July (not the day before or after) would be affected by this fact
in shaping his identity? Was it important that at the age of 38,
Ras Tafari got a new name and identity!? Not Tafari but Haile
Sellassie. What difference does it make was he a ras, negus or
negusa negus? For him and all around him it was a matter of vital
importance. Try it on yourself and try to understand the
complexity of this ancient universe. Maybe there was some wisdom
in changing a name at the time of great changes; let say from
Bill to something else, since Bill happened to be a president
now. Perhaps, this different sense of yourself could help in
being different, being higher, better, wiser.
5. THE VOICES AND SOUNDS
I have gone to much trouble to detail the careers of
people mentioned in the autobiography. As a whole, the
life histories reveal much about the types of people who
dominated post-war Ethiopia. They help to explain how
Haile Sellassie exercised leadership, and they clarify
often obscure social and political relations. Thus, the
annotations transform an important original source into a
reference book for those who wish to study the reign of
Haile Sellassie. (Marcus, XVII)[18]
This is an important point, in order for us to "read" any
testimonials we need to "read" the informants, we need to
position them within the socio-cultural context of present
reality.
"He would appear..." (K, 147). "He descend on them..."
(147). "... I would read aloud to him..." (158). "There I would
leave him..." (159). He? Him? And at the same time Kapuscinki would insert all possible "His Most Exceptional Majesty," "His Merciful
Highness," "His Venerable Majesty," because he understands the
exotics of imperial lexicon. He doesn't understand that "he" or
"his" wouldn't be used by the servants of an "autocrat." It's not
a matter of speech but a mentality. Yes, we have trouble in
understanding how a single person could refer to himself as "We"!
Whatever we don't understand, we ridicule -- that's the way to
deal with the past.
Status was also reflected in grammar, for the use of
pronouns and the conjugation of verbs in Amharic served to
indicate rank and respect. Persons speaking to their
equals would employ the second person singular, for verb as
well as pronoun. (Pankhurst, 166)
Popular reference to a person of emperor "Jan Hoy" (Amharic
for His Majesty" or "Your Majesty" was never used in
Kapuscinski's book. Also, very common abbreviation "H.I.M." (His
Imperial Majesty) is not in any of the texts. But that is the way
his relatives to this day refer to Haile Sellassie. He never was
a dad, or grand-daddy. They themselves never were in a position
of just a kid or baby; they had their roles to play in the
complicated speeches of public behavior. They all were public
property before they were born. Life was a mission, and, of
course, it had not only a meaning but was full of purpose.
VI. CONCERNS AND CONSIDERATIONS
God forbid, this book could become a subject of Reference
Cycles on Haile Sellassie. I tried to find the way not to speak
about something that was said before me. Look what the loose
genre of Mr. Kapuscinki's book produced?
As one of the emperor's palace retainers explained:
`First of all death from hunger had existed in our Empire
for hundreds of years, an everyday, natural thing, and it
never occurred to anyone to make any noise about it.
Drought would come and the earth would dry up, the cattle
would drop dead, the peasants would starve. Ordinary, in
accordance with the laws of nature and the eternal order of
things... Consider also... that it is not bad for national
order and sense of national humility that the subjects be
rendered skinner, thinned down a bit. [Kapuscinski, 1983,
111-112.]
And how did the emperor responded to all the suffering and misery? (Schwab, 1985, 15).
Peter Schwab is the author of several books on Ethiopia and
has been cited by many other Ethiopianists. Kapuscinki's
text made it's way into another (academic) book, and the reader
of Schwab's texts would take Kapuscinki's text as a source. It
follows then that Schwab's text with Kapuscinki's inclusion
becomes a source for another researcher.
"Noisy Connections" are normal. Connections do come with
noise. The distance from the events does not necessarily clear up
the picture from the rumors and myths. Any communication brings
in an additional level of noise and distortion.
In the eyes of many today, his image appears blurred,
but the most striking characteristic of Western public
opinion, where the person of Haile Sellassie is
concerned, in ignorance -- ignorance which only appears
to deepen as the date of his fall and death recedes
into the past. Stereotyped political slogans, unfounded
accusations and simple slander are commonly accepted as
fact. (Lockot v)
Second, the study of the monarchy as a social model of
power (which survived through so many centuries) is not only our
scholastic obligations to the past but the working knowledge of
our own societal relations of the present.
There was much that confused me: it was obvious that life had been more satisfactory in Ethiopia during his regime
than later; and that educated Ethiopians, during the last
fifteen years of the emperor's reign, had talked
optimistically about the future, a quality lost in the
mayhem of the period 1974-78. As Mengistu Haile Mariam
lurched from crisis to crisis without solving the country's
many problems, I concluded that thoughtful people would
want to know why and how Haile Sellassie had been able to
keep the country relatively peaceful, while providing a
statesman like leadership that had been creative and
reassuring. This certainly led me to undertake a biography
of the emperor. (Marcus xiv).
The situation, regarding the historical position of the last
emperor, is no better even after the fall of the Dergue in 1991.
Haile Sellassie is still persona non grata in Ethiopian official
history. One would think that since a political "urgency and
recency" of the royal power isn't an issue anymore we could (and
should) see the historical phenomena of many constitutional
monarchies from the cultural studies point of view. These may be
indication that his legacy is too big for the Ethiopians to deal
with.
But what about the scholars of Ethiopia? Tell me, do we
still have this anti-monarchy agenda? Is the history still too
close to us? Why can't we re-examine the meaning of what was for
so long a "classical" form of power distribution? It would add
some sense to the tabloid level of understand of British
monarchy, which occupies American tabloid media. What is there
for me? History was a traditional reservoir for anthropology but
what did we learn? What can we pass on?...
Today is February 21, 1997. A month ago my wife's grandfather, Asfa Wossen, died. She didn't go to Washington D.C., she didn't fly to Ethiopia for the funeral. She stayed at home in Fairbanks, AK. There were several calls, we talked, in the morning we all went to work -- Esther, I and our two children (to school). December and January were very cold this year, some days under forty minus. Alaska is a state of the United States of America and you have to work all the time, if you plan to stay "middle class." The news were from another world, taxing and unwanted. Her grandfather had little input on Esther's life, as well as her father. Even the visit with her two children, the
only great grandchildren of the Crown Prince, self-proclaimed
Emperor of Ethiopia in 1989, changed nothing. The abyss was too wide to bridge. He died thirty seven years behind his expected death. As a son of Haile Sellassie he died in 1960. Second time he did in 1974. In 1997 it was the final death.
Was it?
What was the death of Ethiopia's (exiled, never crowned)
monarch in 1997? It was his father's death. It was the death of
the family. My children too. Esther was sick for a few days
without understanding what was taking place.
NOTES
I am gratefull to all the writers I just bashed for their time and interest in Haile Sellassie life. It's a matter of disaggrement, not the lack of appreciation.
(c)2004 HIM contents (summary of the HS web-biography) *
"Ethiopians & Rastafari" by Esther S. Antohin
Liberty is always unfinished business. --anonymous
