The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines the word in this manner: A malevolent appeal to a supernatural being for harm to come to somebody or something, or the harm that is thought to result from this.
The Encarta Dictionary‘s definition is closer to home for the purpose of this article. Encarta defines the word thus: A magical word or phrase spoken with the aim of punishing, injuring or destroying somebody or something.
Emperor Tewodros [Theodore] is to this day regarded a hero and a patriot without parallel by many Ethiopians. A self-anointed Emperor, having no blue blood claims to the Solomonic throne, he was considered a menace to the country by the nobility and the clergy but embraced by the peasantry and the down-trodden masses. Whatever noble ideas he may have had, their implementation was hampered by the nobility and the clergy. He dreamed endlessly to unite the country which had been fragmented amongst the various warlords.
The lack of appreciation of his efforts at unity and denial of support which he desperately needed drove the Emperor to commit brutal acts. He was particularly harsh towards the clergy whom he considered parasitical attachments to the society and lived comfortable lives at the expense of the lay members of their communities. At the time, this segment of the population had considerable influence in the society and was more revered than the ruling class due to its alleged proximity to God.
Tewodros became increasingly vicious, so the story goes, as his attempt at unity was continuously sabotaged by the nobility and the clergy. Added to the internal bickering, foreign interference, led by Great Britain, further aggravated his frustration. He ended his own life rather than surrendering to a British expeditionary force. According to the historians, he was in his early fifties when he died.
Emperor Tewodros, out of frustration at being rejected by some segment of the populace, is said to have cursed the country so that she may not produce a hero or a patriot. Let’s label this Curse No. 1.
Another hero the country lost goes by the name of Belay Zelleke. Belay was a patriot who gave Italian colonialists a hard time during Mussolini’s adventure into Ethiopia as part of Europe’s scramble for Africa.
After the war, Belay fell out with Emperor Haile Sellasie and was hanged for alleged treason at the tender age of 37. Belay is also credited with cursing the country for the ill treatment he received despite his patriotic struggle against Italian invaders. This was Curse No. 2.
Emperor Haile Sellasie, despite his intolerance of opposition, is credited with laying the foundation of modern education and modern administration in the country. Whatever its worth, the Emperor made Ethiopia a member of the League of Nations and later of the United Nations Organization. He spearheaded the establishment of the Organization of African Unity.
Emperor Haile Sellasie himself was deposed by a military junta that blamed him for all the ills – real or imagined – of the country. The 82-year-old Emperor had just recovered from surgery and considered in good health when his sudden death was announced by the junta. He was allegedly murdered by his captors and buried in an unmarked grave.
Emperor Haile Sellasie is also believed to have cursed the country for the ill treatment he received despite his outstanding and dedicated services spanning well over five decades. This was Curse No. 3.
There may undoubtedly be many more curses of the types described above. I am sure Mengistu Haile Mariam may have also cursed the country although thousands believe, quite rightly, that he was himself a curse bestowed on the country.
I do not myself believe in curses. But when I consider the events that have taken place in this country during the past three and a half decades, I tend to question my own stand regarding a curse. Let me illustrate my assertion by the following occurrences.
In a continent plagued by coups and countercoups, Ethiopia enjoyed relative peace and stability for about four decades during the reign of Emperor Haile Sellasie. Compared to other African countries, its economy was not on a bad footing either. Agriculture particularly was making tremendous strides. Wheat, barley, maize [corn], soya beans and cotton were cultivated in large quantities. Soya beans and cotton were in fact export commodities. Attracted by the quick return on investment and the huge local and external demand for cash crops, which guaranteed continued income, young men left their highly paid government and private jobs and formed partnerships to go into farming in the Awash valley. Industrialization was following agriculture albeit at a slower pace. Unlike many African countries, Ethiopia’s economy was in the hands of its indigenous population. As a result, flight of capital was not a threat. A Kenyan friend of mine, on a visit to Addis Ababa, could not believe me when I told him a 6-storey building in which our office was located belonged to an Ethiopian.
The military junta took over this thriving economy and destroyed it within the space of 17 years. After 17 years of mismanagement of the country in every aspect – military or civilian – the junta, galvanized by developments that engulfed the iron curtain culminating in the collapse of communism and of the Soviet Union, its major ally, came to its senses and tried to make amendments to its political and economic policies. But, alas, it was too late for the amendments to bring about any meaningful change. The junta had by now lost its upper hand on the military front in its confrontation with the various secessionist movements operating throughout the length and breadth of the country. In May 1991 the Junta collapsed and its leader fled to his sanctuary in Zimbabwe leaving his cohorts to their fate.
Fed up with the unpopular and murderous policies of the military junta, and in large measure disillusioned by the propaganda the Woyane (TPLF) disseminated during its struggle to topple the regime, Ethiopians embraced the change of government in May 1991 with enthusiasm. However, to the dismay and consternation of many, woyane’s true identity as another brutal dictator in civilian attire emerged shortly after its control of the country minus, of course, Eritrea whose secession woyane helped bring about.
With no clear cut economic policy and the paucity of skilled manpower within the ruling clique to draw up one, the new regime succumbed to the dictates of the IMF and the World Bank and, in its attempt to implement their so-called Structural Adjustment Policy, exacerbated the already acute unemployment situation. The country was declared a federal republic along ethnic lines. Spearheaded by the ruling Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front [EPRDF], political parties with religious and ethnic orientation mushroomed overnight in their tens and twenties throughout the country. A number of these parties were headed by former prisoners of war, defectors from the armed forces and the air force, as well as those dishonorably discharged from these forces. Some of these people presently hold titular high-ranking positions in the military and civilian bureaucracies of the federal and regional governments.
EPRDF pays only lip service to democratization and even that for the consumption of donor countries. Political elections held to date have only resulted in the death, imprisonment and banishment of innocent people. The May 2005 election in particular, despite being exemplary in its electoral turnout and discipline, was hijacked by the ruling party when it realized that it had lost its grip on political power. This action on the part of the government prompted street riots whereby, by the government’s own admission, 193 unarmed peaceful civilians were brutally murdered by security forces In one such demonstration, a youth trying to retrieve the body of his slain brother was himself shot point blank and killed while their incredulous mother looked on. In another, a ten-year-old boy returning from school still wearing his school uniforms was shot at close range and killed. To date no one has been charged with these murders.
The fledgling private press has been muffled for good following the 2005 election. Leaders of opposition parties, newspaper owners, publishers and editors were rounded up and thrown in jail for treason, a crime which carried the death penalty or life imprisonment under a hastily promulgated law of the ruling clique. A kangaroo court was set up to try and sentence these “criminals”. Political gatherings were totally banned. Websites of the Ethiopian Diaspora were blocked. Foreign-based Amharic language radio broadcasts were jammed with Chinese technology and assistance. Ethiopians were now at the mercy of the state-owned media: ETV, Radio Voice of Ethiopia, and the two daily newspapers – “Addis Zemen” and the “Ethiopian Herald”, all of which magnified, as expected, the achievements of the government.
According to these “reliable” sources, since the failure of the May 2005 election Ethiopia’s economy has registered an unprecedented annual growth of 10-12%. It has not been possible to corroborate these facts from independent sources. The so-called agriculture-led economic policy of the government is said to have created favorable conditions for farmers to become “millionaires”. To encourage others to follow suit, these “millionaire” farmers are showered with gifts and awards. The state-owned media unashamedly bleat that Ethiopia has shown the world that it is, indeed, possible to be a millionaire on a hectare or less of farm land, plowing with oxen and other traditional hand tools. Cadres, camouflaged in farmers’ outfit, are paraded on ETV and coaxed to narrate their success stories.
Mounting internal and external pressure on EPRDF for the immediate and unconditional release of the prisoners of conscience, coupled with its belated realization that the treason charges would not stand a chance in a neutral court of law, compelled it to think of a face-saving mechanism to extricate itself from the entanglement it had placed itself in. The face-saving mechanism came in the form of hastily assembled mediators under the “wise” leadership of a prominent Ethiopian-American scholar who stated that after months of arduous negotiations and more than a dozen plane trips from and to the United States of America, he had convinced the prisoners to admit guilt and request a pardon from the government. Not to embarrass the elderly mediators and in the interest of the nation’s unity, the government would then “graciously” consent to show magnanimity and release the prisoners, only to send their leader back to jail a few months later to continue serving her life sentence on a flimsy and trumped-up charge of denying the pardon. So much for EPRDF’s respect for senior citizens. I hope the mediators will some day let us read or hear their version of this unfortunate saga.
The May 2010 “election” was, of course, an absolute sham. Never in the history of political elections has one party won 546 seats in a 547 seat parliament in a multi-party contest involving in excess of a dozen parties. The Ethiopian public’s reaction to this news was one of shock and incredulity. But the “winning” party was even more shocked by this outcome than the general public or the opposition parties. So shocked, in fact, was it that following the announcement of the election results, employees of the state-owned media sweated blood to fabricate plausible justifications for the “landslide” victory of the ruling party. Apparently, the cadres have overstepped the bounds of modesty in rigging votes.
Incidents of this type seriously undermined the democratization process in Ethiopia, and led me to ask if my beloved country had been blessed or cursed by our ancestors.
