Peacemakers
Sunday, March 14th, 2010
by Teddy Fikre
“You are selling out your country to appease Eritreans!”
“You are a colonial pig who just wants to rob Eritrean of our nationality!”
These comments were made by an Ethiopian and an Eritrean respectively. So what inspired such accusations? How can I be both an appeaser and a colonizer at the same time? Well, last week I wrote an article called “Yikirta” in which I apologized to my Eritrean haweys and hafteys for the closed mind I harbored in the past. A closed mind that made me insist that Eritrea was not a legitimate country, a closed mind that made me insist that “we are all the same, the same closed mind that would shudder when hearing someone speaking in Tigrinya instead of Amharic.
For the longest time, I thought I was enlightened. I thought that I was wise to insist that “we are one”. How paternalistic of me to think that I knew better what was good for Eritreans. It was not until recently that I realized how backward my thinking has been for a long stretch of my life. It was not until I was watching the Olympics in Bejing and got mad watching the Eritrean delegation carrying an Eritrean flag that I realized how much I was contributing to the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. A conflict that robs too many of loved ones on battle lines in Badme while we “Westernized Ethiopians and Eritreans” add fuel to the flames of war while sipping our buna from the comforts of our homes in America.
This moment of anger came at the very same time I was trying to work with the Eritrean community when I was organizing with Ethiopians for Obama. I realized at that moment I had no business asking for cooperation with the Eritrean community to get Obama elected while harboring in my mind a thought that Eritrea was not really a legitimate country. So it took me two years of soul searching to realize that I was just as polluted in my thinking as anyone else. So I wrote an article where I apologized for this polluted thinking. Keep in mind, I was not speaking for all Ethiopians, nor was my asking for Yikirta meant to portray Ethiopia as a nation apologizing to the entire Eritrean nation. I was simply apologizing as Teddy, not every Ethiopian I know was as closed minded as I was.
But what do facts matter when some are blinded by hate. I was instantly attacked by some in my own community as a sellout, branded a traitor for daring to ask forgiveness. Am I somehow less Ethiopian today because I asked for forgiveness from my “supposed enemy”? Well let me tell you about myself. On my father’s side, I am the grandson of Million Tedla, a man who served heroically during the Ethiopian-Italian War and was later executed because some felt threatened by him. On my mother’s side, I am the grandson of Yewdbar Abebe, a heroic lady who was awarded a medal by Haile Selassie for the courage she displayed in that very same Ethiopian-Italian war. My father served in the Ethiopian Navy before gaining employment at Ethiopian Airlines. My mother is a proud Ethiopian who sacrificed all she had for her children. I love Ethiopia with all my heart, since I was a kid in Ethiopia at the age of seven, I have always preached about the beauty and history of Ethiopia. Today, there is a 6’ x 4’ Ethiopian flag that flies over my balcony.
So I do not suffer fools who question my love of my country, even as I speak broken Amharic as a consequence of being away from Ethiopia for 27 years, I do a lot more for Ethiopia than the “lynch mob” who would attack my patriotism. However, I will no longer let my love of Ethiopia come at the expense of Eritrea or any other country. I refuse to let my pride be defined by the denigration of another country’s flag or her people. Pride and love in one’s country is a great thing, but too much love and pride that comes at the expense of another country is what leads to wars. So I love my country fully, while recognizing and loving Eritrea as a sovereign and independent country as well.
And because I choose this path, I will have Ethiopians attacking me as a traitor and with equal veracity some Eritreans who will never accept my extended hand of friendship and would sooner chop it off before they gain a friend. I am at peace with this; the easiest thing to do in life is to play to the fears of people. The easiest thing for me to do would have been to join in with the lynch mob and shout with anger about what I am against. The harder thing is to stand for something, the harder road traveled is the middle road, to advocate peace instead of war. Maybe it is because of this development that anytime Ethiopian-Americans for Change has an event, the turnout is sparse while churches and auditoriums are packed for events of yet another four letter freedom liberation front.
A close friend of mine called me the day I wrote “yikirta” and with raw emotions in his voice said “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God”. I thanked my friend for expressing gesture of kindness, his kindness overcome the many emails I received calling me a traitor and a colonizer. But as I told him I will tell you, I do not for a second believe that I am a deliverer of peace. I am but one man not a movement, if each one of us looked within and tried to make peace instead of spreading disinformation and malice, we would not need a deliverer, because our collective actions would deliver us. Amen!
Ethiopian-Americans for Change has started a dialogue on Facebook where Ethiopians and Eritreans join and start a dialogue. Though at times the dialogue can get very heated, more and more people who thought they were enemies are walking away gaining a new Ethiopian or Eritrean friend. Be a part of this profound dialogue, click below to join the facebook page and start a dialogue.
click to join fan page
Lastly, at 4:00 PM EST today, I will be having a dialogue with an Eritrean man who has a bit of a different take on my effort to this point. You can listen to the debate live on BC Radio by clicking up top (or below) on the TV screen. You can also join the dialogue by dialing into a free conference bridge.
click to listen to dialogue
Hello Teddy, after reading your article of “Yekirta” about two weeks ago, for some reason this was the type of article I was expecting to read the next time around. This is a given (some thing you have to expect) this days from our so-called die hard Ethiopian Patriots. This is so sad and unfortunate!
I don’t know if this is a coincidence or not, but it seems like those of us who have been away from our beloved country Ethiopia or those of us who were born in some abroad countries, tends to care much more about her well fare and her peaceful alliance with the neighbor countries than those who have lived most of their life there. This by the way is just my feeling from personal encounter with friends and family.
Nonetheless, all I can say to you is- thank you for your sensible message! And keep up the good fight.
Before I conclude my response, I would like to leave you this quotation from a wise person called Earl Nightingale.
” THE OPPOSIT OF CURAGE IN OUR SOCIETY IS NOT CAWARDNESS, IT IS COMFORMITY.”
Respectfully, Embawe Ayele (Samson)