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a thread on how i feel about everything going on back home. mutuals can engage if respectfully. i’m constantly trying to learn from all communities so bear with me.
the TPLF elites really exploited the pain that tegaru & other communities experienced from the past regimes & put us in the crisis we are in today. no party in this war was for the people of tigray; but, through co-opting our trauma, TPLF gets allegiance they don’t deserve.
and this is exactly what they wanted. by going forward with ethnic federalism, they’ve made tegaru who are otherwise critical of them rush to support them on the basis of ethnicity. it’s the perfect concoction: ascribe our culture & beliefs (ie. woyane) to their party for
unquestionable allegiance and willingness to personally sacrifice ourselves for their cause. they have perfected an understanding of (visual) culture that the theories on nationalism in my visual culture sociology class probably couldn’t explain lol.
i believe, under the guise of reparations for marginalized cultures, they fostered the perfect political environment to ensure they’d stay in power as long as possible by facilitating ethnic tension. however, this “andinet” or “unity” counter-movement 1. romanticizes a past that
is traumatic for many ethiopian communities, and 2. fails significantly in addressing the generational traumas that many communities face and feel like have been invalidated. how can we move forward if we ignore the past? our present is defined by the past. let’s address it.
moreover, by amplifying the decades’ worth of crimes of one regime without addressing the decades’ worth of the preceding or succeeding ones makes the communities that were marginalized by those regimes feel like their suffering is being endorsed.
& in some cases, they explicitly are being endorsed. why would someone listen to you if you idolize their trauma?
TPLF elites have opened a pandora’s box of suffering that precedes our existence and happens as we are living. without addressing past and present traumas, we cannot
TPLF elites have opened a pandora’s box of suffering that precedes our existence and happens as we are living. without addressing past and present traumas, we cannot
move forward as a country in my opinion. had the leaders not had malicious intentions, they could have been the administration that addresses the trauma and champions peace and democracy. they instead decided to use it to their benefit, and for that, they cannot be forgiven.
now, different communities just feel jaded about one another due to the deep-seated wounds they’ve never been given the chance to heal from or are experiencing right now. we need to create space to encourage such healing and validate the experiences
of all communities in ethiopia. your trauma doesn’t negate mine and mine doesn’t negate yours. they co-exist in the same climate.
this is all from the perspective of a tigrayan. i’ve been trying to understand what is happening to other communities to understand how we got here.
this is all from the perspective of a tigrayan. i’ve been trying to understand what is happening to other communities to understand how we got here.
it’s been hard. propaganda and full-on hatred is being spewed in every faction of ethiopian twitter. the things i’ve seen being said about tigrayan people infuriated me on a primal level. the things i see being said about amharas and/or oromos left me in complete shock.
what i see in all of this, though, is pain. all of it seems to stem from reactions to pain and suffering. if we were more focused on holding our own accountable & listening to each other’s pain rather than screaming over each other about our own, perhaps we’d find common ground.
and i’ve actually found a handful of accounts that are doing this work and have made space for other communities’ trauma. that are starting to do the work to understand those they consider “different” from themselves. and they all seem to come to the same conclusion:
none of the past or present political ideologies have worked for all communities in ethiopia. abiy ahmad will inevitably—and has already—exploited people’s hate for TPLF to commit his own crimes against humanity. time will only tell just how much he’ll exploit suffering to push
an agenda that only his administration will benefit from. it’s the same cycle. so instead, let’s look to the future. let’s be innovative. let’s be empathetic. i don’t have the answers and i don’t have any interest in prescribing my beliefs on 110mil people that don’t know me.
this may seem surprising as i’ve been saying i can’t see this country the same again. but that pertains to the “ethiopiawinet” or “medemer” ideology that seems to be gaining popularity in some communities. if this becomes the identity of ethiopia, i can’t see myself as ethiopian.
but there is something that is keeping me from letting go. our shared history in defeating outside forces. our ~2000 year old state history. when we are forced to come together under a cause, it’s beautiful. we need to figure out what that uniting force is when it isn’t forced.
what does it look like naturally? to me, it certainly isn’t a cultural identity or an ideology. it isn’t a king, a dictator, a prime minister. it’s a force unexplained & unexamined. let’s lean into it and figure out a way to move forward and allow each other to exist peacefully./
