P.A.A.L.F.
May 10th, 2010
by Teddy Fikre
Throughout Africa, the one thing that is abundant above all is political factions with acronyms and “liberation fronts” that espouse to “liberate” people. Acronyms and liberation fronts are as African these days as the Nile River itself. I could list hundreds of political factions and liberation fronts that fight for one cause or another, seeking to oust an entrenched power only to impose the same tyranny that they fought against to begin with.
Travel to Africa, whether you find yourself in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Eritrea, Kenya, Liberia or any other country you can throw a dart at on a map of Africa, and you will find wars and conflicts being fought on behalf of a people or a cause. The list is too long for me to name the various political factions and liberation fronts that seek equality, human rights, and democracy by waging a fierce battle for political supremacy. There are countless cases of political factions breaking off from an existing political faction, a liberation front break away from a liberation front, to wage their own quest for conquest.
In the past, I thought this was a noble deed, people who fight for what they believe and sacrifice their lives for principles that they cherish. In due time, I am seeing this for the folly that it is. For the most part, I come to the sad realization that these four letter political faction acronyms and liberation fronts are exactly what is wrong with Africa. Instead of seeking cooperation, most seek domination disguised in the name of a people they are supposed to be fighting for. I have also come to the realization that the people who suffer the most are not the leaders of these political factions and liberation fronts; rather, those that suffer are those that follow the leaders’ dictates, the young soldiers who die in the battle fields across Africa for a senseless cause and the parents of these soldiers who mourn the death of their children.
What we are witnessing is the balkanization of Africa, in Ethiopia alone, there are countless liberation fronts whose main goal is to seek their own country, whose leaders want to be a head of state of a future nation. This is folly at its utmost, while the rest of the world is uniting and finding ways to cooperate, most countries in Africa continue to find ways to break apart based on narrow interests and myopic visions. We are witnessing a counterproductive, ego driven agenda where the goal too often is to get the last word instead of finding ways to speak together. The further we fragment as a society, the more we regress ; while liberation fronts in Africa continue import AK47s to fight for their “principles”, people in the countryside continue to starve, images of the huddle masses begging for rice from hovering helicopters dominating our television screens daily.
I am by no means an expert in African politics; in fact, I have chosen for the most part to stay away from African politics days. I recently saw a movie called the Lord of War. The protagonist in that movie, Nicolas Cage, is a weapons dealer who would sell weapons to a “Liberation Front” until they gained power, only to turn around and sell weapons to the group that just got ousted. This movie is profound beyond most movies I have seen, for it captures the true essence of these liberation fronts in Africa. Western companies continue to benefit from the perpetual wars that are fought by narcissistic leaders in Africa.
It is my hope that I will see the end of liberation fronts and the continual offspring of political factions based on acronyms and see a movement that seeks cooperation instead of conflict. I pray for the day where Oromos, Amarahs, Tigrays, Gambellas will find ways to work tougher instead of working against one another. I hold out for a day where everyone’s voice is heard instead of one group speaking the loudest while they seek hegemony. Until then, I am going to start my own political faction called People Against Acronyms and Liberation Fronts—P.A.A.L.F. How ironic that I too turned to an acronym based political faction, alas I am more African than I thought. Reminds me of another famous acronym—T.I.A., This is Africa.
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This blog submission was written by Teddy Fikre. The views of guest bloggers are not the views of Ethiopian-Americans for Change. Guest bloggers represent the broad dissection of views and outlooks within our community.
revolutionary greetings , I agree with the points raised in this article , Africa has become a paragon of crisis and conflicts .But I see all these problems as symptoms .I think we must focus more on the cause or the hidden hands behind this.Can we all buy the notion that Africans cannot unite or we cannot gorven ? Surely there is some force which is fuelling all this discord and disunity for global capitalist interest , until we all see through this and identify the enemy and strategies and fight it as one Africa will be a cocktail of chaos until kingdom come.Let us not that Africa is teh richest continent on Africa , China is waking up ,Iran is waking up , India is waking up , why not us ? Surely there is a deliberate way to diunite us.