‘If the Ethiopian government does not protest the invasive bill, Ethiopia will be a colony for the first time in history.’

Between 1977 and 1978, tens of thousands of Ethiopians died in a nightmare labeled the “Red Terror.” In this bloody period, where Ethiopia’s former leader Mengistu Haile Mariam dictated a military state, some analysts say that up to 150,000 Ethiopians might have been gunned down in the streets of Ethiopia. 

However, that period was ironically the most peaceful and successful period under Mengistu, because in the mid 1980s around 600,000 Ethiopians died in that world famous famine under Mengistu. Out of those dead, about 317,000 of them were said to be the victims of the dictator Mengistu’s revenge on the peasant population. The dark episode was not just risking starvation, because such risks have been normal in Ethiopia. Even during Emperor Haile Selassie, 200,000 Ethiopians died in the 1972 Wallo famine while millions were lucky to be in risk of starvation. The episode was not just negligence either. Instead, it was labeled an “economic war” where Mengistu purposely starved 317, 000 Ethiopians to death (while the remaining died due to natural causes.)

So much death, so much misery, it was a catastrophe filled with hate and brutality. After Mengistu’s government was overthrown by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front in 1991, many people standing and looking at the ruins wondered, how a person could be so cruel and cause so much destruction. The families of the victims were quick to conclude that Mengistu and his ministers were sheer devils and demons. But, that certainly was not the case, for Mengistu was not born evil. He grew up as any ordinary person.

Close relatives of the dictator say that his childhood was normal and nothing could forecast the destruction he would end up causing. But as he grew older, Mengistu adopted the same Ethiopian centralist and extremely patriotic policies that have never been compatible with democracy and tolerance during the last century in Ethiopia. The State of Ethiopia, as any ethnic Oromo refugee Minnesotan will tell, is a diverse country created by various conquests and black colonization of other black people of different ethnicities. Thus, naturally, to have a centralist policy in Ethiopia is suicidal.

Large ethnicities like Oromos are too big not to become their own countries, let alone be divided into four exploitable small provinces under Mengistu’s centralist policy. Only deep federalism and even better, ethnic federalism has been the antidote to keep all ethnicities united while keeping the formerly colonized ethnicities under one umbrella nation of Ethiopia.

Despite the centralist policy being disastrous, it has been famous and accepted by the people of Addis Ababa. Despite the death of 150,000 Ethiopians during Mengistu’s “Red Terror” and the death of 300,000 more people in his economic war, the pro-centralist population cried and complained when their hero Mengistu was deposed. No matter, the 85 percent rural Ethiopia overpowered the people of Addis Ababa in 1991 and destroyed Mengistu, along with his devastating centralist policy.

So in the last 35 years, two Ethiopian groups intensely have advocated this suicidal centralist policy. One was Mengistu’s government and the other is the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), a current opposition party in Ethiopia.

The CUD is ironically led by one of Mengistu’s favorite ministers, Hailu Shawel. Despite being an old man, Shawel found emotional strength from the same place that loved Mengistu, Addis Ababa. Shawel also found financial strength from the same people who used to work or support Mengistu and other Ethiopians who share his centralist policies in the Mengistu Diaspora. Just like the people of Addis Ababa, the Mengistu Diaspora living in Washington, D.C., and consisting mainly of people who fled Ethiopia during the civil war, cried and complained when their hero Mengistu fell. Thus, it was not a surprise that they quickly embraced Mengistu’s minister Hailu Shawel and his CUD opposition party when Mengistu resurrected in 2005 under the CUD disguise.

Just like Mengistu, the CUD leaders were not born evil but they possess those same famous policies that brought Ethiopia to the brink of self-destruction during Mengistu. Yet unlike Mengistu, the new EPRDF ruling party in Ethiopia brought the first multiparty elections in Ethiopian history, the first free press and the first multiparty parliament in Ethiopian history.

All of these new developments meant that the Mengistu disciples, CUD, did not need to use violence to express their grievances. (Unless, of course, they still prefer the old fashion way of violence to snatch power.) Indeed, dozens of other opposition parties joined the multi party parliament recently formed, with a sad exception of Shawel and his party who decided not to join the parliament. The excuse they gave was, “joining the parliament makes the ruling party appear democratic.”

So, indeed, the best way to make the ruling party appear very undemocratic was to start riots and use the Mengistu Diaspora resources for subsequent propaganda when the ruling party harshly responds to the riots. As expected by analysts, the CUD certainly used every Diaspora tool including initiating a U.S. House Bill HR 2003 to – as Ethiopian U.S Ambassador nicely put it – “employ the U.S. Congress in support of a partisan Ethiopian political agenda.”

Now, if the Ethiopian government does not protest the invasive bill, Ethiopia will be a colony for the first time in history.  Historically even the powerful Ottoman Empire, Egyptians, Mahdists, Italians and others failed to colonize old Abyssinia and modern Ethiopia. The Mengistu Diaspora and engineers of the riots have finalized their revenge bill with the leadership of Donald Payne, the famous New Jersey congressman leading his Newark District towards one with the highest crime rates in America.

The United Nation monitoring group’s report this year revealed that many Gulf and other organizations and nations including Eritrea have been arming and supporting the insurgency in Mogadishu and in other places to harm Ethiopia.

Ethiopia desperately needs the support of the United States, since many nations are arming anti-Ethiopian rebels everywhere in East Africa. By considering, let alone support, such a bill by the Mengistu Diaspora and its CUD party amounts to crimes against the state of Ethiopia. The bill attempting to reduce security assistance is one disastrous thing and the bill playing partisan politics is another thing. Security is very important for Ethiopia. And the fact that the Meles Zenawi government has tolerated such a confrontational group like CUD, all equipped with Mengistu’s policy and with an openly anti-state attitude, has itself become a miracle.

‘We have to break the curse of “mental slavery” that has reduced our people to copycats of other cultures.’

I may not be a historian, but I love history. History helps me put the dots together to create a clearer perspective of what happened yesterday. By derivative reasoning, I can better understand the present. By “present” here I mean the New International World Order.

Being African born and as old as the state of Israel, I claim to have seen a bit of the world over the last half a century or so of my earthly life. I have read books, including history books that tell us that a European man was the first to discover Mt. Kilimanjaro.

I have also read history books that credit Dr. David Livingstone, the British missionary, for playing a key role in helping end the slave trade. Slavery time was an epoch in human history where black people from Africa were sold as merchandise into foreign “property owners” to provide free labor without reward.

More importantly, I have lived for a while in America where I meet people from this great nation who look like the sisters and brothers I left back home. The major difference between them and us is that they speak American English. (I am still struggling to understand some of their slang as I am more conversant with the Queen’s language. What we call maize, they call it corn!).

One other thing on languages, those of us from Africa have a couple of other native languages that we speak, but my African-American brothers only speak their English, and find it hard to even point to the map of Africa and say that’s where their ancestors came from. Everything has been taken away from them – names, language, culture, etc…. They were stripped of all connection from Africa, except for their black color.

The history books that we read, written by those who had enslaved our people, are written from their perspective. Their agenda to make Africans appear like a people without a culture, vision, tradition and education – all these have succeeded to “enslave our minds” into believing that we are incapable of doing anything for ourselves without them.

It is those same history books that demonize the black race that our children and grandchildren will end up reading thus cementing their minds into a “westernized mindset.” They will, if not awakened, continue to drop their beautiful African names replacing them with Mary, Paul, Bob, Catherine, James, Edward and the like. This is the starting point.

Come to think about it, if our names now (as Africans) are John Joseph, Walter Francis, Catherine James and the likes of Elizabeth Brown etc and so on and so forth, what names will our next generation of Africans bear? Those African names with historical meanings, our languages that define who we are or where we come from will slowly disappear.

Africans in the Diaspora have been easy prey to this cultural erosion Dr. Maulana Karenga, the founder of Kwanzaa, has dried up his voice to arrest this trend, but how many of us are listening?

The agenda of those who have sought to subjugate Africans as an inferior race will do whatever it takes to make us grow with a low self-esteem. Parents please help your children overcome this malady!

Africa, far from being misnamed the “Dark Continent”, has indeed been the cradle of civilization. The University of Timbuktu (now Mali) flourished in the 1300s to the 1500s with students coming from the Arabian Peninsula to learn at the “feet of masters of law, literature and the sciences” at a time when Europe was emerging from the Middle Ages.

“The manuscripts paint a portrait of Timbuktu as the Cambridge or Oxford of its day, where African historians were chronicling the rise and fall of Saharan and Sudanese kings, replete with great battles and invasions,” observes Joshua Hammer, a South African who studied archeological records of the great ancient civilization of Mali.

“Astronomers charted the movement of the stars, physicians provided instructions on nutrition and the therapeutic properties of desert plants, and ethicists debated such issues as polygamy and the smoking of tobacco,” he adds.

Manuscripts written in Arabic have been discovered in archeological excavations in Mali dealing with diplomacy and Muslim scholars then spoke about the rights of women, inter faith tolerance and on such matters as conflict resolution.

At one time, the German explorer Heinrich Barth, who had been sentenced to death due to violating local traditions, was saved by the spiritual leader of Timbuktu, Sheikh Al-Bakkay Al-Kounti. The great Islamic scholar argued that the Sultan of Masina should spare the life of the German as “he did not make war on us and he is a human being.” The German explorer was allowed to leave unscathed.

Most historians believe that the city of Timbuktu was founded in the 1100s by a Tuareg woman named Bouctou. She operated a rest stop for camel caravans along the Niger River that grew and developed to a city. The city reached its peak in the early 16th century under King Askia Mohammed who united West Africa in the Songhai Empire.

Timber, gold, salt, spices, fabrics, foodstuffs, cowrie shells and nuggets of gold were the main trading items. Timbuktu was to become a major center of learning and a great commercial city in West Africa.

Today, our children do not hear these great stories. Fortunately, UNESCO has taken up the task with the present Mali government to recapture this legendary civilization of Timbuktu. More importantly, South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki has also expressed support in ensuring that this rich history of our great African civilizations is preserved for future generations.

This is where it ought to begin. In order to reshape the destinies of the Africans and all black people in general in the Diaspora, our rich heritage must be passed on to future generations. Our children must be exposed to Africa’s great past. We have to help them believe in themselves as a people, a people with a past, a culture and a rich civilization. In so doing, we can help them curve their future.

African historians must come forward to tell African stories to our children. We have to re-write history books that form the bedrock of their formative years. We have to break the curse of “mental slavery” that has reduced our people to copycats of other cultures. We cannot afford to let other people define who we are, this is our topmost priority if we are to rescue future generations from this mental epidemic!

Next time you are asked who discovered the mighty Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain, tell them that my [the author of this article] great-great grandfather, Kimborido Kasei Righiria, born and raised at the foot of the mountain, lived with it before any white explorer set eyes on it. Give him credit for that!

The views expressed here solely belong to the author and Mshale does not necessarily subscribe to them. You can comment on this article.

African countries are increasingly realizing that they can not alienate their citizens abroad if they are to succeed in revitalizing their economies.

Earlier this year, the government of Kenya sent its finance minister, with an entourage that included members of the private sector, on a U.S. mission, calling on Kenyans to invest home. In the month of March, Zambians met in Dallas to explore investment opportunities that exist in their motherland.

During the Labor Day weekend, the Uganda North American Association held its 19th annual convention in San Francisco, where President Yoweri Museveni’s deputy, Gilbert Bukenya, urged his fellow citizens to – in addition to praising his boss – encourage relatives to start small businesses instead of spending the remittances they receive.

A week later, Liberians gathered in Bloomington, Minn., to listen to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s emissaries talk about the investment prospects in their country. African ambassadors and other diplomats have been tirelessly trekking around the United States on campaigns to woo investors – African and foreign – into pumping cash into the economies of their respective African countries.

And on Oct. 4, the highly-publicized three-day Pan African Trade Summit comes to the University of Minnesota’s Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. The summit will perhaps be one of the largest to come to Minnesota, and a keynote address from Gov. Tim Pawlenty and the Nigerian Vice President Dr. Goodluck E. Jonathan, is testimony. Scores of African immigrant businesses and some Fortune 500 companies will also participate.

As expected, the African Union and several African countries will send messengers to the convention, in a quest to get a piece of whatever cash will be flowing around.

Africa’s acknowledgement of the Diaspora’s role in developing the continent is understandable, considering countries like Kenya received remittances totaling nearly $1 billion last year. That is a lot of money for a country whose GDP is below $20 billion.

Mshale has covered many past conventions and, boy, are they fancy! Attendees pay hundreds of dollars and – in addition to the “the opportunity to network” – they get costly banquets, scenic tours, boat cruises and other niceties that most of us can only dream of. 

Once the conventions end – usually with a black-tie award galas held at prestigious hotels to honor people who have made “significant contributions” to the cause – it seems like whatever ideas and “commitments” made in the plenary sessions before dinner vanish into nothingness. Organizers of the events also seem to slowly fade away, only to resurface months later to urge their compatriots to register for the next conference, which they promise would be better than any previous one.

To live up to the hype and boost future registration, event organizers invite high-ranking government officials – vice presidents, ministers, ambassadors – who spend insane amounts of money, inconsistent with their meager economies, to travel to the United States.

Most of the African immigrants who shell hundreds of dollars to register for and travel to such conventions are well-meaning, genuine about wanting things in Africa to change for the better.

Unfortunately, the sincerity of some of the people who make up the machinery that organizes the conventions is questionable.

Many do so for self gratification and to advance their political ambitions, here and in their home countries. The overzealousness exhibited by such selfish individuals threatens to cause schisms within various African immigrant communities.

Africans who are serious about improving their own lives outside the continent and those of their relatives home have to come up with ways to police the organizations that do business in their name. Creating independent watchdogs that monitor governance, track progress of the goals set between conventions, and demand open-book accounting would be a great place to start. Members should also insist that officials incorporate annual financial reports into the programs of every convention.

If the Pan-African Trade Summit is a success and organizers decide to make it an annual event, we hope they will return next year with a long report on the strides they shall have made.

Otherwise African immigrant organizations will be seen as nothing but meaningless and wasteful yearly social gatherings.