(by Sahlu Bekele Toronto)
The Spanish, the Portuguese, the British, the French, the Italians and the Dutch were the major colonizers of their respective colonies in Africa. All colonies except Ethiopia had suffered humiliation and conquest in the hands of these European forces. After the colonizers devoured all the resources and decided when they had enough, they allowed independence of their colonies willingly or unwillingly only about half a century ago. Ethiopia was an exception in the history of colonization. When the British army descended on Ethiopia in 1868, King Tewodros shot himself in the head not to give in to the foreign forces in honour of his people and his land at Mekdela. The British left for England taking the Kings wife and his son along with them. When the Italians marched on Ethiopia in 1896, King Menilik mobilized Ethiopians and defeated the Italians at the battle of Adwa. Having suffered their humiliation and having mourned for forty years, the Italians again tried to conquer Ethiopia unsuccessfully for a brief period between 1936 and 1941. Forced by the relentless resistance of the Ethiopian patriots who fought them in the jungle, meadows, mountains and valleys, and by the late support of the British and Americans, they finally succumbed to their defeat and went back to where they came from. So there was a short history of Italian attempt to colonize Ethiopia that never materialized. However their failure has become the mother of success by the internal colonizers we call Weyanes who have done what the Italian were not able to do and goes the saying, Enemies never come far, near!
A narrow nationalist gorilla movement named, TPLF (Tigrean People Liberation Front) as the name indicates has its mandate to secede the province of Tigray from the rest of Ethiopia. Its mission was supposed to do that and stop right there. However, the people of Ethiopia who had been repressed and reigned brutally by the Mengistus military junta did not resist these new Weyane visitors substantially because they thought they could bring peace and freedom for these were the values the Weyanes allegedly fought for. Nevertheless, they had a different agenda hiding in their package. Just like the European colonizers, they implemented the divide and rule formula in the name of the right of nationalities by splitting Ethiopians on ethnic lines and labeling them as Oromos, Amharas, Debubs, Tigrians and so on. The current population of Ethiopia is estimated to be 85.2 million of which Tigreans constitute 4.5 million the majority of whom are not even represented or served by the Weyane rulers whose job in the outset was to liberate and set them free, free from whom, I dont know. Weyanes, who are a handful duces have their claws stuck in the flesh of Ethiopians including the majority of Tigrean people and are determined to conquer and reign the nation indefinitely. Their ignorance and our stupidity is to talk about democracy, election and human rights in a vacuum and to be amateur actors all together. The issue clearly has to be a movement of independence and freedom from the internal colonization that we are truly facing. So we can forget about all the other socio political matters that come with a free and democratic system and our agenda today has to be standing against the modern internal colonization of Weyanes in Ethiopia. Do not expect a pigeon egg from a snake. That is what they are and this is the only truth. 6.07% of the population has controlled the other 93.93%. This is not democracy but is aristocracy or autocracy, simply put complete dictatorship. Therefore, the majority of Ethiopians had been and are being colonized by Emperor Meles and his Agazi Army. This colonization however could be more dangerous for the ordinary people of Tigray if the resentment against them translates in undesirable consequences at the end of the day. Uniting and standing as one force against this colonization is a timely slogan unless our view and political participation is biased by economic and other personal interests.