AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF ETHIOPIA

[Kissi, Edward]

 

Dear Gashe Abiy,

Selam!

Mr. Prime Minister, permit me to use a public discussion forum created and moderated by one of Africa’s eminent scholars to reach you at the home of Africa’s pan-Africanist aspirations.

 

Sir, when you were granted the deserved Nobel Peace Prize, I celebrated that honor in my own modest way as an African; a Ghanaian who studies the history of your country; a man who is married to one of your country’s finest daughters, and an African immigrant in America who is aware of someone who wished the Nobel Peace Prize you got had been awarded to him.

 

I was in your country many years ago---in 1994-95----soon after the TPLF ousted the Dergue after 17 years of destructive war. Sir, I need not refresh your memories about Ethiopia’s human capital that was wasted in that prolonged war of attrition, and the millions of Ethiopians who were rendered as refugees in that costly capital flight from your country. I spent 13 months in Ethiopia travelling to many parts of your country, from Makelle to Wollega, Dessie, Mertuley-Mariam, and to Dire-Dawa, and many awrajas (districts) in between, documenting war-time atrocities akin to war crimes, rape of women by state soldiers and soldiers of rebel liberation fronts, and deliberate interdiction of foreign food aid and uses of it as weapons of war. I never imagined, Mr. Prime Minister, that the atrocities I documented, from Ethiopia’s archives, and from the lips of victims of that seventeen-year war, for my doctoral dissertation research, in the latter part of the twentieth century, will resurface in Ethiopia in the third decade of the twenty-first.

 

As your people say “bichawin yebela, bichawin yimotal” (he who eats alone dies alone), and as my people lament “eka anintonwi a na aka ani” (when it touches the eye-brow, it affects the eye too), it seems clear to me that we share a common concept of “collective concern”----a moral summons to our collective humanity. What affects one tarnishes all. Our kinsfolk in South Africa call it ubuntu. So, might we conclude that I may not be Ethiopian by nationality, but I am Ethiopian by empathetic association. I am also an African and I see a collective toll on all Africans when avoidable disasters happen in Africa. That obligation on the part of all Africans to speak out against destructive processes anywhere in Africa is what I call “moral pan-Africanism.” I am a moral pan-Africanist.

I have been hearing and seeing some disturbing news of rape, killings, mass burials, and atrocities committed in Tigray by state forces and some unnamed militias that remind me of Ethiopia under Mengistu Haile Marian. That comparison may not be fair to you, Gashe Abiy, but there seems to be a gradual or galloping descent into an “atrocity zone” in Ethiopia comparable to the situation in the 1970s, and 1980s. Today, Tigray is experiencing what scholars of the study of genocide call “the precursors of genocide.” You won the Nobel Peace Prize much to my delight. I appeal to you to bring a semblance of what that prize embodies to our beloved Ethiopia.

As you are well aware Ethiopia was the first country in the world to sign the UN Genocide Convention, in July 1949. The United States signed it 39 years after your country did. Your country was also the first in the world to expand the concept of genocide, which the UN narrowed to the biological destruction of a group, to cover and criminalize the targeting of people on grounds of their political affiliation in the Ethiopian Penal Code. What is happening in Ethiopia today, Mr. Prime Minister, contravenes the moral and legal provisions of that Penal Code. They also violate Ethiopia’s moral standing in the history of international human rights law and policy.

Mr. Prime Minister, since what affects Ethiopia affects all Africans, I am appealing to you, Sir, to use your position as leader of one of Africa’s most respected countries-----the headquarters of the African Union-----, and your identity as the most recent winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, to restore peace and decency to Ethiopia.

That will be a mark of honor on the foreheads of every African on the continent and every person of African descent in the world, as well as all non-Africans of conscience and goodwill.

Amasegenalew!

Your brother,

Edward Kissi

 

 

 

[Ibrahim Abdullah]

Ethiopia Tikdem! 

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[Emeagwali, Gloria (History)]

In 2018 there was an assassination attempt

 on the Prime Minister.  I recall the great 

shock and sympathy that masses of people 

demonstrated  in Addis Ababa that day.

One year  later, in 2019, there was another very

 scary event with the assassination of a few 

trusted officials of the Amhara region.

Forward to November 2020, in a prelude to

secessionist activity,  about one thousand federal 

troops were abducted and  held hostage

in Mekelle. The Tigray People’s Liberation 

Front (TPLF) has been implicated in all of 

the above.

But collective punishment is not the

answer to these atrocities. The Prime Minister

must win the hearts and minds of the

 people of  Tigray while responding to

the ongoing  trials and tribulations from a

determined organized resistance. We 

recognize the dilemma and feel his pain.

We hope that he summons the courage 

to tell the Eritrean troops fighting in the 

region - many of whom are ethnically

 affiliated with Tigray-

that they should now retreat and desist 

from looting and rape.They are going

beyond their mandate.

We are also aware that thousands of

prisoners were let loose by the TPLF

and that they are implicated in some

of the dastardly acts.

The world anticipates that as a Nobel Laureate, 

 he will address all forms of retribution, 

hate, aggression, human

rights  violations, criminality against 

women, and collective punishment 

in Tigray,  and that peace and

 justice will be restored.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSUination of several government
africahistory.net; vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwalianother
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Associationforcthe 

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Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF ETHIOPIA

 

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[Kissi, Edward]

I am with you, Gloria, in our collective quest. Respect for the dignity of people in Africa, by state and non-state entities, is a necessary continental moral project for the 21st century. Thanks for adding your voice as another Ethiopianist.

Edward Kissi

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From: Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emea...@ccsu.edu>
Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2021 12:12 PM
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Subject: Re: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF ETHIOPIA

 

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