Ordinary people, extraordinary deeds!

By Lulit Mesfin | August 30, 2007

Residents of Ferensay Legacion, a famous neighborhood in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, express their joy by awarding a car to opposition leader Ms. Bertukan Mideksa. Bertukan was released recently after nearly two years of incarceration.

Muluneh Eyoel, secretary general of Kinijit (from left), all-smiles Bertukan Mideksa, Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam and Kinijit official Debebe Eshetu at the ceremony the residents of Ferensay Legacion, a popular neighborhood in Addis, held in honor of Bertukan.

Despite nearly two years of imprisonment, which disrupted their political campaigns, Coalition for Unity and Democracy (Kinijit) leaders remain highly popular in the country. (Photo courtesy: Tamagne Beyene)

It takes a village to raise a child in Africa; it also takes a village to pay homage to sons and daughters who make the villagers very proud. It happened on Sunday August 26, in Addis in the tight knit neigborhood — popularly known as Ferensay Legacion — to a rising star and one of the brightest in the constellation of Ethiopian politics.

Bertukan Mideksa , the young charismatic Vice-Chairwoman of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy Party (Kinijit) was celebrated by her neighbors and Kinijit supporters after her long awaited release from Kaliti Prison, Ethiopia’s Robben Island. If pictures are worth a thousand words, indeed her mega-watt smile and those of her supporters really tell the story. Not only did her neighbors celebrate her triumphant return to her neighborhood with a huge party, but they also presented her with the keys to her new car.

What made this extraordinary gesture of love, respect and adulation incredibly touching is that these profound acts of generosity did not come from the well heeled bourgeoisie, but from everyday people who are reeling from the stratospheric rise in the cost of living in Addis and everywhere in Ethiopian’s neighborhood.

While I can’t speculate on all the emotions Bertukan felt, I am sure if her eyes were tearing, it was not because she was given a car, or a sumptuous banquet, but because she is missing five of her neighbors, brutally gunned down in cold blood trying to protect her from Zenawi’s security forces on that fateful November day in 2005. Talk about being your sister’s keeper!

It is hard not to love Bertukan. Bright, articulate, principled, a master of memorable one liners and tough as a nail. When the Central Committee of CUD elected her as the Vice Chair of the party, on September 24, 2005– they, both, made history. Bertukan, as the first high ranking woman of a major party, and Kinijit as the first major party in Ethiopian political history to install a woman at the pinnacle of power. No mean feat in a patriarchal society, where power and influence has always been the prerogative of men.

If the immortal Taitu is looking down, I have no doubt she is smiling beautifully and flashing a double V. Victory for Ethiopian unity and democracy and Victory for Ethiopian woman hood.

Indeed the Sun Has Risen In Ethiopia, Darkness Is No More!

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Lulit Mesfin is Senior Editor of Ethiomedia.com. She can be reached at [email protected].