In Defense of Classical Ethiopianity
and against Ethnocentricity
17 June, 2009 | Teodros Kiros, PhD
Guided by the Transcendent, proud of my Ethiopianity, motivated by the thinking
heart, and seasoned by the teaching of time, lately, I have been quietly consuming
the massive literature produced by our able scholars, our committed columnists,
our rightly embittered politicians, and the reading public- and I have come to the
inescapable conclusion that, however, incorrect I may be, we are agonizing about
the paths that our country must take, as the next election looms large, and
Ethiopians will once again either perish by the votes that they make, or flourish
precisely because they have deliberated carefully, uncontaminated by prejudice,
unaffected by fear, and un weakened by the fact that they will have to choose
between bread and freedom. Ethiopians must choose freedom against bread, and
dignity over servitude.
Ethiopianity to replace the poisonous weeds ethnocericiy enveloped by the
shallowness of pseudo self-determination. The Ethiopian people need not be
distracted by the false rights of determining their identities by wearing the
garments of ethnicity when they prefer to wear the fabric of Ethiopianity, with the
right to speak different languages, if they must, without locating themselves in
narrow shells of ethnicity.
Everybody by now knows that the party in power is using ethnocentricity to
ground itself in the Tigrean people’s heart, but the silent Tigrean majority is not
taken in by this worn-out tactic. The ordinary Tigrean has seen through the dirt,
and if some have not, the morally upright Ethiopian Tigreans will have to spread
the new tent of humanity against Ethnocentricity. This will take time, and time is
not on the side of those who rightly seek regime change.
Sculpting mature citizens who think for the nation organized by the common good,
the nation’s common good, framed by genuine Ethiopianity needs time, place, and
moral measure. The ethnocentricity of the last ten years has damaged classical
Ehtiopianity, Ethiopia’s gift to the idea of Africanity. The wholeness of what it
meant to be an Ethiopian has been displaced by the fragmentations of negative
ethnicity. The opposition must redefine this damaged landscape, by a new
humanity, mediated by love, forgiveness, and new thinking.
For the last ten years Ehtiopians have confused speaking a language with belonging
to an ethnic tribe. Ethiopians have been freshly taught that the different languages
of Ethiopia are expressions of ethnic identities, as if one cannot simply speak a
given Ethiopian language, say Amharic. Tigrinya, Oromiffa, without belonging to
an Amhara, Tigrean, or Oromo ethnic groups.
Put formally, one could speak an X language, without belonging to a Y ethnic
group. That all that a person has to be is an Ethiopian who is born to region A,
speaks language B, without belonging to ethnic group C. I call this Classical
Ethiopianity.
Ethiopianity is therefore expressed through languages, which are not anchored on
ethnicities. What we have in Ethiopia are language groups and not ethnic essences.
Classical Ethiopia was organized by a linguistic frame. It is this linguistic frame
that contemporary Ethiopianity is seeking to destroy, and we Ethiopians must
resist this destruction.
I leave it to our brilliant opposition politicians to transform this insight from
abstraction to concreteness and move fast with time. We have no time now, but
we do have the vision, and most importantly, we have the support of a historical
people, the Ethiopian people themselves, known for their decency, their loving
kindness, the vastness of their forgiving hearts, and their bravura and patience.
Let us use these resources and fight for a new Ethiopia. What will save us now is
our humanity, our Ethiopianity, and the deep bonds of our sameness, and not the
divisive ethnicities that the regime in power has boxed us in. We must jump out of
these ethnic boxes towards the sunlight of classical Ethiopianity.
and against Ethnocentricity
17 June, 2009 | Teodros Kiros, PhD
Guided by the Transcendent, proud of my Ethiopianity, motivated by the thinking
heart, and seasoned by the teaching of time, lately, I have been quietly consuming
the massive literature produced by our able scholars, our committed columnists,
our rightly embittered politicians, and the reading public- and I have come to the
inescapable conclusion that, however, incorrect I may be, we are agonizing about
the paths that our country must take, as the next election looms large, and
Ethiopians will once again either perish by the votes that they make, or flourish
precisely because they have deliberated carefully, uncontaminated by prejudice,
unaffected by fear, and un weakened by the fact that they will have to choose
between bread and freedom. Ethiopians must choose freedom against bread, and
dignity over servitude.
- I appeal to every Ethiopian that
we use our public reason,
combined with our consciences
and think hard about what we
must do to map out the future of
our country. We must fight the
ethnocentric party in power
armed by the principles of
Classical Ethiopianity.
Ethiopianity to replace the poisonous weeds ethnocericiy enveloped by the
shallowness of pseudo self-determination. The Ethiopian people need not be
distracted by the false rights of determining their identities by wearing the
garments of ethnicity when they prefer to wear the fabric of Ethiopianity, with the
right to speak different languages, if they must, without locating themselves in
narrow shells of ethnicity.
Everybody by now knows that the party in power is using ethnocentricity to
ground itself in the Tigrean people’s heart, but the silent Tigrean majority is not
taken in by this worn-out tactic. The ordinary Tigrean has seen through the dirt,
and if some have not, the morally upright Ethiopian Tigreans will have to spread
the new tent of humanity against Ethnocentricity. This will take time, and time is
not on the side of those who rightly seek regime change.
Sculpting mature citizens who think for the nation organized by the common good,
the nation’s common good, framed by genuine Ethiopianity needs time, place, and
moral measure. The ethnocentricity of the last ten years has damaged classical
Ehtiopianity, Ethiopia’s gift to the idea of Africanity. The wholeness of what it
meant to be an Ethiopian has been displaced by the fragmentations of negative
ethnicity. The opposition must redefine this damaged landscape, by a new
humanity, mediated by love, forgiveness, and new thinking.
For the last ten years Ehtiopians have confused speaking a language with belonging
to an ethnic tribe. Ethiopians have been freshly taught that the different languages
of Ethiopia are expressions of ethnic identities, as if one cannot simply speak a
given Ethiopian language, say Amharic. Tigrinya, Oromiffa, without belonging to
an Amhara, Tigrean, or Oromo ethnic groups.
Put formally, one could speak an X language, without belonging to a Y ethnic
group. That all that a person has to be is an Ethiopian who is born to region A,
speaks language B, without belonging to ethnic group C. I call this Classical
Ethiopianity.
Ethiopianity is therefore expressed through languages, which are not anchored on
ethnicities. What we have in Ethiopia are language groups and not ethnic essences.
Classical Ethiopia was organized by a linguistic frame. It is this linguistic frame
that contemporary Ethiopianity is seeking to destroy, and we Ethiopians must
resist this destruction.
I leave it to our brilliant opposition politicians to transform this insight from
abstraction to concreteness and move fast with time. We have no time now, but
we do have the vision, and most importantly, we have the support of a historical
people, the Ethiopian people themselves, known for their decency, their loving
kindness, the vastness of their forgiving hearts, and their bravura and patience.
Let us use these resources and fight for a new Ethiopia. What will save us now is
our humanity, our Ethiopianity, and the deep bonds of our sameness, and not the
divisive ethnicities that the regime in power has boxed us in. We must jump out of
these ethnic boxes towards the sunlight of classical Ethiopianity.
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