First Year Anniversary of NEVIS Review

Thank you all contributors and readers of NEVIS Review for your participation by sending us your articles, your constant feedback and encouragement . Thanks to your input, we are now able to celebrate our First Year Anniversary.

Happy Anniversary

NEVIS ET*

NEVIS Review No 25, Section II, Ref# 25.2

NEVIS Review No 25
Section II
Ref# 25.2 ( Danny Arku’s section)
October 7, 2013
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Miscellaneous Aphorisms on some observations on Ethiopian society, and with special emphasis on the younger generation
By Danny Arku
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(1) The danger of flattery

"Away, away with thee! thou evil flatterer!" cried Zarathustra mischievously, "why dost thou spoil me with such praise and flattery-honey? "Away, away from me!" cried he once more, and heaved his stick at the fond beggar, who, however, ran nimbly away” ~Fredrick Nietzsche, “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”

I have seen people with good potential to lapse into a futile, vainglorious "Now, I am at the top of world" feeling after some "good" work they produced. By this, I don’t mean that they should not get recognition. Of course, they should get recognition! And I thank them for their work! My point is, however, the recognition that they get is too high/too uncritical that it throws them into "inflated self-esteem" which then precludes or discourages them from revising their standard further/higher, and which makes them fail to learn from their mistakes in past works so as to come up with better and more perfect work. Hence, we also need critiques that show that there is a even a higher standard to which they should strive, who point out their good and weak points. Anthistenes and Nietzsche come to mind in this regard, with the former saying: ' It is better to fall in with crows than with flatterers; for with crows, you are devoured when you are dead, in the other case with flatters while alive”
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(2) Hero-worship?

It is always good to appreciate when and where one deserves it, but what I see these days is too much hero-worship in our generation .As educated persons, we are supposed to be skeptical and critical of every one and everything. If one is hero-worshiper, the logical result is this : the worshiper cannot be critical of his master, but will blindly follow, be easily gullible and be subject to be easily proselytized to his hero's point of view, however flawed it may be. Moreover, By hero-worship and personality cult, we also groom future dictators.( July 12, 2013)
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(3) Awko Yetegna….

There is too much truth in the Amharic proverb: “Awko Yetegna bekesekisut aysemam”
(How highly applicable it is esp to Ethiopian political and economic discourse and its belligerent debaters who are ready to fight and defend their own view with out even for once stepping back and reconsidering that what they say may be possibly wrong). ( May 20, 2013)
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(4) Primacy of friendship?

Most of the time, and by most people, reality/objective fact is subordinated to friendship. The primacy of friendship ( or affiliation) is the rule in most societies. Although it happens to some degree in every culture, I am very much convinced that it is very conspicuous and more pervasive in Ethiopian national culture, as collectivism seems to permeate the whole social fabric- group-think reigns supreme- to the extent of which the independence of judgment declines.
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(5) Truth or friendship?

It is better to speak the truth-or what you think is the 'truth'-and/ or even correct your friends if you think they have it wrong, logically or factually. If the friend is offended, then his friendship was not worth having it in the first place! As the great philosopher of antiquity, Aristotle, long ago reminded us, both friendship and truth are of course valuable. When the philosopher boldly set out to criticize his teacher, Plato, he remarked, “For though we love both the truth and our friends, piety requires us to honor the truth first.”Hence, it will be dishonest to give more value to friendship than the 'truth' -or what you think is the truth.
Moreover, it won't be helping some one, at least in the long run, by feeding his vanity and boosting and inflating his ego by telling him that he's done perfect work when in fact you see defects.
So I say : Dare to honestly but respectfully criticize the IDEA (not the person of course), even at the risk of losing a friend.
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(6) HDI movement of Ethiopia-

The upward movement in the Human Development Index (HDI gains) of Ethiopia should be lauded and given credit; but the ranking is still much below-at the bottom of the world- or lagging behind even when relatively compared with most African countries. The index, in absolute magnitude, is still too low. Complacence can't be the way to go forward , but honest appraisal which acknowledges and delights in the upward movement but also not denying that the index is too low, and that the ranking very dismal. Denying the HDI gain is not solution (as some opposition do); and exaggerating the gain is not a good solution (by the government). (Relevant Data: Ethiopia's HDI= 0.396 : Ethiopia's Ranking= 173 of 186 : Sub Saharan Average= 0.475)
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(7) There is no change with out temporary inconvenience

I have always said that we Ethiopians have the habit of complaining too much about temporary short-term inconvenience, quick to blame, but have no habit of appreciating good endeavors when they are due.
I see people complaining bitterly about temporary inconvenience like road being blocked/re-routed because of the ongoing light rail construction. There has never been an investment without cost of whatever type for whatever time- how could one want a good infrastructure, roads/trains and yet complain about the digging up and re-routing for some time. There is price to everything we do. It becomes unavoidable that some roads need to be blocked to result in alternative route which may unfortunately be a longer one and may take longer driving time. Still, the extra mileage and additional driving time and/or incremental cost is not a bigger price to pay as compared to future long-run economic and social benefits of a better infrastructure.
( A comment inspired by a friend, January, 2013)
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(8) Timket

"Timket is one of my favorite holidays, together with Meskel, both because of their colorful celebration. I am not to talk here about how colorful it is since every Ethiopian knows it. It is even getting more beautiful every year. Typical example of the intermarriage of culture and religion! What I am more surprised by is the cooperation and discipline of the youngsters (mostly from 15 to early twenties) during the eve and the Timket day. They were helping the people lay the mat, flagging the streets, beautifying the city. Some of them with little-to-nothing to eat and with poor clothes, but their faces radiating joy, enthusiasm, pride. Most of all, they are, as always respectful, no violence, no youth mischief! (it become more remarkable especially when one compare them with youngsters of the same age in large cities of the so-called the developed countries like in the US).Moreover, it seems that Ethiopians “national culture” (in the sociologist’s sense of the word) is in such a way that people seem to be even well-disciplined without or with little presence of police surveillance. I like this "collectivist" kind of cultural phenomenon with its foundation and its moral equivalent called the "natural morality" or Hegelian Sittlichkeit (as a result of customs, habits passed down from generation to generation) as opposed to what Hegel calls moralitat-subjective morality, (typical of Western "individualist" societies) . These are tremendous “social capitals” we have to be proud of, guard and nurture so that it won’t gradually corrode" ( JAN 2012)
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(9) Why the Ethiopian brightest obsessed with politics?

It is sad to see the best Ethiopian minds in facebook and other social media engulfed in only political affairs, pushing aside historical, economic, cultural and global and universal issues. Why are the best Ethiopian minds have all their energy directed to and are obsessed largely, sometimes solely, by current political analysis/affairs?
Politics, important as it is, is only one aspect of a society's life. There are other issues that also matter! We need to have a multiple engagement which include politics of course, but also that includes social issues, culture, literature,books, music.... ( July 2012)
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(10) Brief passing t remarks on two books
A)
Hiwot Teferra's "Tower in the sky"- I was enthralled by her superb story telling, excellent command of English language ( as if it is her mother-tongue), and enthused by her ability to put even the details into her motion-picture like story. Infact, I have reservations when she ended her story with renunciation of every collective effort but solely focus on ‘personal development’, and aversion to anything politics/Marxist, however understandable that may have been following what she and her generation went through. I overall think that she has written a good book, as I see it. But what struck me more than anything else is this- how was it possible that some cadre -some ignorant dilettante, an "Abiyot tebaki"-can go and just shoot a human being- just as simple as that- shoot just because he was found reading or possessing over EPRP's newspaper...How cheap was human life during the Dergue?! Bizarre period of Ethiopian history.

B)
Prof Mesfin's "Mekshef ende Ethiopia Tarik” seemed to be an amalgam of very lucidly written philosophies of history, Ethiopian history, a very remorseless (and honest) social criticism ( and sometime seething with anger condemning some social values which he thinks are holding us back as society; and also his frustration on the "Hige Arawit" (Hobessian "State of Nature"?)- his recurrent theme.
It also tries to show some ways forward so that Ethiopian history won't "mekshef" again. Of course, don't agree with some of his distorted assertions and embedded faulty assumption and of course some of his outdated shibboleths-For example, I believe that it is not a big deal to talk about changes of the names of institutions through time, which they may rightly do as the function and scope of the institution changes through time or, if someone, for example, Tigist is called TT or TG-,although it can be taken as manifestation of neo-colonization, it is only a symptom of another problem However, overall, I strongly suggest it as a good read.
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Ed's note
Danny Arku is Editor-In-Chief of NEVIS Review and welcomes comments and suggestions on his writings.The above short interesting notes above are written in different times as facebook updates, and Danny decided to collect and share it with NEVISers.Finally, as usual, NEVIS ET’s disclaimer: we would like to remind NEVISers that all the opinions which are expressed in all the series of articles in NEVIS Review are the authors' personal opinion and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of NEVIS, the society or the NEVIS editorial team, ET
NEVIS ET*)
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NEVIS Review No 25, Section I, Ref# 25.1

NEVIS Review No 25
Section I
Ref# 25.1
October 7, 2013
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Are you Oromo First or Ethiopian First?
By Awol Allo |The Glasgow Legal Theory
(Credit -http://glasgowlegaltheory.wordpress.com/; Published on July 19, 2013)

That was the question put to Jawar Mohamed by Al Jazeera’s The Stream co-host Femi Oki. Jawar’s response—‘I am an Oromo first’, and that ‘Ethiopia is imposed on me’—raised a political tsunami that provides us with a unique and revealing insight into the moral parochialism and ethical deadlock that pervades our political imagination. Many moved too quick and jumped too fast- seeking to obliterate the political stature of the man they lauded as ‘progressive’ and ‘visionary’ not long ago. Their love affair with Jawar came to a sudden halt with his declaration of loyalty to his ethnic subjectivity, as opposed to his Ethiopian subjectivity. Their objection was not merely against Jawar’s specific claims but a concern with why the ‘Oromo’ question, and why at this time.
As I tried to understand the modes of reasoning, forms of rationality and kinds of logic that permeated the political earthquake that followed, I am reminded of my own politics of location. How should I interpret these multi-polar exchanges that seem to traverse the spheres of politics, affect, thought and reflection? How can I avoid playing into the existing political fault lines- the politically disarming essentialism of Ethiopiawinet and the hyper-coding of ethno-nationalism? I have no answer to these questions except to say that there is no position of neutrality, an outside from which one can speak an objective truth in any discussion of issues so fraught with contingencies and complexities. In what follows, I will only address the debate that pertains to this specific question of what one is in and of himself and how that question is deeply tied to power, force, and right.
Let me begin with the notion of Ethiopiawinet—a master-signifier central to the political storm. What does it signify and how did it come to have the kind of political reality that it has? Allow me to take a bit of a detour here to establish my point. In his ‘history of the present’, Michel Foucault says this about history: “history had never been anything more than the history of power as told by power itself, or the history of power that power had made people tell: it was the history of power, as recounted by power.” History as an index of power, and as an operator and reinvigoration of the hegemony of a particular group! I think those who met Jawar’s response with such utter surprise and outrage are those dazzled by this magical function of history. This history weaves the heterogeneity, indefiniteness, and complexity of the country’s past into a coherent narration. Key events and moments in the nation’s history—stories of origin, war, victory, conquest, occupation, pillage, dispossessions, marginalization, etc—becomes discursive formations tied to power, force, and law. These dissymmetries were coded and inscribed into juridical codes, laws, and institutions- providing Ethiopiawinet the kind of truth that it now has.
Disregarding the vulgarity that has been so ubiquitous, even the most sophisticated of replies take a similar and predictable pattern: Ethiopiawinet is a kind of reality with a deeper meaning and therefore goes without saying. In a short genealogical excavation of Ethiopia’s essentialist historiography, Semir Yusuf offers a trenchant critique of the mainstream history of modern Ethiopia. He provides an interesting insight not into the truth of history but the formation of truths and the system of meaning they constitute and circulate. They overlook the ritual inherent to that concept, the deployments made of it, the reappropriation to which it is subject, the erasures it inflicts, and the claims it seals and keeps inaccessible. I suggest that we conceive Ethiopia as a creation of a grand historical narrative and Ethiopiawinet as an ideology. Ethiopia, like the United States, Great Britain, France, Kenya, or any nation for that matter, has crafted beautiful lies of its own aimed at creating a ‘historical knowledge’ that serves as a weapon of power. Ethiopiawinet, like American-ness, British-ness, Scottish-ness, and Oromumma is an ideological construct. Both as an imaginary and symbolic form, it has no preemptory force that gives claim to truth and rationality.
In Ethiopia, however, historical knowledge was installed in a rather invasive way, in a totalized and totalizing way, eliminating every form of counter-narrative from circulating in the social body. Because of this exclusive access to narrative production, Ethiopiawinethas come to inscribe itself not only in the ‘nervous system’ of its subjects but also in the temperament, making people believe that there is a hidden truth to this beautiful lies and myths. As a result, Ethiopiawinet became a ‘master signifier’, as psychoanalysts would say, and came to signify something pure and superior. For those who embraced the category without questioning its constitutive logic, it is a fixed, stable, and preemptory category that signifies something divine and adulterated. It is perceived as something absolute, eternal, and immutable, an ontological form that has its own intrinsic reality. I think it is precisely this ontologization of an ideological category that explains the fury of Ethiopianists. They don’t recognize that the truth of Ethiopiawinet is a making of our own, that is not independent of social system and power relations. In their refusal to recognize the right of an Oromo to give an account of himself in his own terms and the unassailable sense of correctness that accompanies this refusal explains just how embedded and symbolic this ideology is.
For others, it is a depoliticizing category that mutes differing articulations of identity, commits historical injustice, and conceals the battle cries that can be heard beneath the rhetoric of national unity. By muting an expression of loyalty with the subject positions that power uses but deliberately and systematically misrecognizes, the dominant articulation of Ethiopiawinet depoliticizes other identity categories. By depoliticizing it, it silently erases the injustices it perpetrated against these subjectivities. By refusing to embrace this type of Ethiopiawinet, by proclaiming his loyalty to Oromumma, Jawar is attacking the hinge that connects ‘historical knowledge’ of Ethiopiawinet to power. It is not a denial of his Ethiopian identity but a displacement, and an attack on an exclusionary conception of Ethiopiawinet that is deployed as a weapon in political struggles, and one that does not recognize the right of people to be called by a name of their choosing. If there is any right of people, it is the right to be called and identified with the name they want. The refusal of Ethiopianists to recognize the voices of others reveals a play of power at work in every invocation of this concept.
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The Personal is the Political

True, every nation weaves together its own necessary myths to keep the social fabric and its ideological edifice together. But these ritualized myths that glorify the uninterrupted and untarnished glory of the nation should not annihilate the political agency of those who occupy this subject position. Oromumma is not a necessary biological category. It is a political category. It is a subject position and an identity category. Those who embody the material and lived experience of being an Oromo are political subjectivities with unique and different experience of their own. They were treated with contempt and indifference because they spoke their language. Their dignity and humanity has been reduced because they asserted their identity. For those who endured the every day gestures of humiliation and coded dehumanization, the personal is the political. They become subjects of resistance when their identity is frustrated, demeaned, when my identity, so to speak, fails as a result of a wider systemic failures. It is when the individual links his failure with systemic failure, his with the universal, rather than the personal inadequacy; that the stranger in him emerges. This is precisely what Jawar meant when he said, ‘because we are forced to denounce our identity, we ended up reaffirming and reasserting our identity’.
The words of Steve Biko are poignant reminders: When Steve Biko says, “Merely by describing yourself as black you have started on a road towards emancipation, you have committed yourself to fight against all forces that seek to use your blackness as a stamp that marks you out as a subservient being”, he is trying to politicize blackness. He is trying to destabilize the naturalized nexus between blackness and subservience. Those whose sense of worth questioned, whose dignity squashed, and humanity contested because of their subjectivity will have a different narrative of who we are as a society. Surely, the rage in Jawar’s head, the fire in his belly and the energy with which he sought to reassert his dignity and worth as an equal speaking being represents a redemptive quest for the recognition of his subjectivity and his claims as a discourse worthy of voice and visibility.
In politics, what is not said is more important than what is said in public. I personally do not need a lecture by a mathematician or for that matter a historian that these things happen in Ethiopia. I do not need anyone to tell me that they never occurred. I have seen people argue in meetings that other languages should not be spoken in public places such as universities. I have seen students in academic institution frown upon students who chose to speak in Afan Oromo; I have heard religious figures claim that it is a curse to preach in Afan Oromo. I have seen people pause with astonishment when someone fails to fit their caricatured image of an Ethiopian. And we have all seen the hostile turn around in Taxis whenever a different language other than Amharic is spoken. I know many of you will dismiss this as ‘inferiority complex’—but these are the embodied experiences of a subject that no ideology or vilification can displace. What was evident from the events of the last few weeks was that the hubris of Ethiopiawinet does not and cannot recognize other subject positions unless they speak from within its discourses and frameworks. Whatever the latter says, the former hears it as a noise, not as discourse.
Hegemony is a form of political theology. The hegemonic groups see his hegemonic position as a bestowment. They demand that the oppressed and excluded makes use of the very vocabularies, analytic categories, archives, histories, discourses and standards used by the oppressor when articulating their grievances. It demands that the oppressed and the excluded renounce its claims to past injustices for a reconciled future without saying the terms of that reconciliation. That kind of Ethiopiawinet can no longer go without saying. We need a new beginning, a new concept of Ethiopiawinet that embodies and celebrates diversity and listens to all its voices. We need an Ethiopia of all its people can walk tall assured of its dignity and worth. This subconscious hegemony that compels us from within to squash the dignity of those who refuse to use a partisan and exclusionary discourse is no way to get to that free and democratic Ethiopia.
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(Ed’s note. Although it has been a while-almost three months- since it is first published, we, the NEVIS ET, thought that the article, due to the fact that it has brought up robust arguments and manifests coherent analysis- may stimulate further thought of the members of NEVIS/‘new visionaries’ society’s members and encourage us to engage in critical reflection and re-examination of our individual and collective identity. According to the same website we cited above as a source, glasgowlegaltheory.wordpress.co , Awol Kassim Allo is “ a human rights lawyer from Ethiopia. Currently, he is the Lord kelvin Adam Smith Scholar at Glasgow University Law School. His research interests ranges from critical legal theory and the sociology of human rights to political theory and epistemology. At present, he is interested in concepts of performativity and genealogy..” Finally, as usual, NEVIS ET’s disclaimer: we would like to remind NEVISers that all the opinions which are expressed in all the series of articles in NEVIS Review are the authors' personal opinion and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of NEVIS, the society or the NEVIS editorial team, ET
NEVIS ET*
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