AADWA, a political bridge for Ethiopia, I By Obo Arada Shawl

April 1, 2010

This is not about April the Fool. It is for real. Today, a certain Ghanaian provoked me that I am either from a small country known as Eritrea with no resources and or that of Ethiopia a country endowed with famine whose people are ignorant and miserable to say the least. In fact he suggested to me that Ethiopians and Eritreans should unite primarily for their own survival and secondly for the sake of Africa. In fact, further he stated bluntly that Africa is not uniting because of Ethiopian and Eritrean dispute of insignificant space.

To his surprise, I informed him about Ghadafi’s recent suggestion of dividing Nigeria into Muslim and Christian nations just like the Muslim Pakistan separated from the Hindu India. This Ghanaian who thinks himself as a torchbearer for African freedom continued to argue that Ethiopia and Eritrea were Christian countries before but now both have turned to be Muslim countries in order to be rich. I said to my self, what a ridiculous assertion.

Here is my argument with this seemingly gentleman with full of naiveté. Eathiopia (both Eritrea and Ethiopia) were and are still endowed with Nature. By this I mean the ideal climate with Sun’s Energy, Human Origin and Social System. I explained to him that these factors by themselves are enough qualitative factors to emulate by other countries and societies. The Social system adopted by America, the wish list by many nations in order to claim origin of the Human species and by many nations including the USA to strive for Energy.

I suggested to him to differentiate between manmade famine and God’s will.

As to the resources, I asked this Ghanaian to further check with the American geological department whose slogan in the past says, “Everything begins with mining” but now the same department advises, “it takes a mine to build a bridge”. I hope he understood my analogy with Eritrean mining and Ethiopian building bridges.

Why is there so much misinformation about our country? I guess it is because of our misgivings. We tend to cover not our vices but our virtues. In the process, we are destroying our good values and at the same time projecting wrong side of our true history, culture and faith. I believe it is our own making. We have lost our integrity.

Let us take for instance, the way our politicians depict about our country. Every so-called politician would exaggerate the magnitude of Ethiopia’s problems in terms of economics, war and destitution. Every time a politician attempts to explain to me about vast problems, I immediately counter with questions about specific problems. Let alone to convince me with specific Ethiopian problems, they could not in good faith explain the nature of government and the governed. Maybe our people had lived as “Republicans” with no or limited government for centuries, which denies us the knowledge of, elected representatives.

On the other front, those who came to power have mainly depended on foreign advisors or pretended that they know the wish of their people. First of all they assume about the assumptions of their constituencies in the absence of facts and figures and secondly they deny freedom of access to radio, television or online (RTVO) as in the current governments in both countries.

So, let us rectify the situation by calling names. ADWA £ AADWA. The place of conquest of Adwa is less than or equal to AaDwa, the concept of conversion voluntarily from one position to another.

The first ADWA has reference to the place of war and the current leadership. That means the war at Adwa is a symbol for victory as well as “colonization”. There is too much dispute over those events. I leave this dispute to historians, if at all we have pro and independent historians. Another factor is about the current leadership whose value is based on riches as opposed to wealth. I am of the opinion that the virtue of the Tigrai people dubbed as poor was/is to be revered and admired. Their virtue was what made Eathiopia a proud nation. To be an Eathiopian was meant to have rights and freedoms given by the Almighty God. We had lived in Eathiopia with a history of becoming good, and of attempting to follow our conscience.

The solutions, I am proposing is the revisiting of Aassimba – the heart place of the enlightened Army, why the need for the long march of DEBTERAW’s path to FREEDOM – DEMOCRACIA- and Walleligne’s concept of self-determination for rights and freedom. If we link these three events, there is no doubt in my mind that the question of millions of Eathiopians including that of my Ghanaian colleague will be clear and answered without delay. Eathiopia was striving to be a moral nation until the leaders of TPLF appear on the scene. Selling children is an outright immoral, for example.

If there will be any reconciliation to take place within Eathiopia, it would be a reconciliation among the leaders of TPLF, among the EPLF/ELF, among the OLF and among the ISAPAS. Others will follow these major groups/ fronts or however you call them. This is because DEMOCRACY by EPRP, SEPARATION by TPLF, COLONIALISM by EPLF/ELF and COLONIZATION by OLF and UNITY by the DERG were not only historical issues and concerns but they are still burning questions of our time especially for the young generation. There seems neither healing nor closure without addressing these issues objectively and genuinely. The current call for freedom, justice, democracy, unity and the like by Kinjit is a recycle of the past. We have to build on what we had achieved. We cannot deny the past.

Incidentally, colonialism, separation, colonization and unity were incorporated in the struggle of EPRP’s concept of DEMOCRACIA. It is all recorded not only in the minds and hearts of millions of Eathiopians but also in some history books. All that is required is a political dialogue that is geared to understanding the issues for the purpose of reconciliation as opposed to revenge.

The only gut should come from those members, supporters and sympathizers of the EPRP and those who wish solutions not only for the local, regional, continental but also international. AADWA is not a semantic language. It is a concept of the body, the spirit and the mind of many Eathiopians, call them progressives or founders. While others have been fighting vis-à-vis individual personalities, EPRP’s struggle was focused on ideological and political ideas and issues.

TRUTH WILL PREVAIL

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