The evocative Kinijit photo

By Mesfin Felleke

January 3, 2006

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Jailed Kinijit leaders (Front from L) Prof. Mesfin Woldemariam, V-flashing Debebe Eshetu, Ms. Nigist G. Hiwot, Kinijit Vice President Ms. Birtukan Mideksa seen returning to prison after a court hearing on December 22, 2005. International calls are on the rise for the release of the Ethiopian leaders whom the tyrant Meles Zenawi has charged with “treason and genocide.” Meles on Wednesday suffered a devastating blow after donors considered withholding $375 million in direct budgetary aid. Despite the first major warning, observers say more needs to be done to force Meles step down peacefully than trying to rule a country by sheer terror and bloodshed. (Photo: Fortune magazine)

This morning started for me looking at a picture of CUD leaders, a picture I chose for my laptop wallpaper, as they were walking out of a Court two weeks ago, surrounded by gun-totting security forces.

On the front row from the left is a man, my gut feeling tells me and please correct me if I am wrong, who is a security officer playing James Bond with what looks like a shot gun that is inside his halfway open jacket. Next to him is the venerable Professor Mesfin, a walking cane on his right hand and his ever present cigarette on his left hand looking like the wise old man of yore who have seen it all, predicted most of it and still laughing at the simple brazenness and folly of past and present gangsters who manage to shoot their way into the Ethiopian throne, foolishly waste so many golden opportunities to lift the country out of its misery, and then when the people have had enough of them, get banished forever into infamy.

Next to him is Debebe Eshetu signaling the big V. When I think of Debebe what comes to mind used to be one of his characters in a variety show that I watched on ETV some thirty years ago – if my memory serves me ok he was playing a poor Elvis, peering through the hole of a battered old shoe and pleading to his father to buy him new sets. With this and many other shows he made us all laugh then. But what comes to my mind now is his oration and courage during and after the televised national debates.

This time he is making us think. Think no matter what ones call in life is, there is always one higher call, and more so now if one is an Ethiopian. He is telling us the agony of a single Ethiopian at the hands of a corrupt dictator is agony for us all, the blood of an Ethiopian spilt by a murderous regime is a guilt that we all should carry unless we do something now to stop it. On this picture he is waving the V, because he knows now we are up to that task. He knows we Ethiopians are working together, maybe at a magnitude that we have never attempted before, to banish dictatorship and bring in Victory to Ethiopia, the victory of freedom and democracy, once and for all – Our Eyes on the Prize.

Slightly to his back on his right is a younger man. Not much I know about this person, not even his name, shame on me. He is giving us the big V along with that big white-teeth Ethiopian smile. He does not seem to care he is surrounded by trigger happy killers, who most probably has done a few killings of their own already during the last few months. He seems at ease with the decision he made and wondering where the rest of us are when the country needs us most.

In front of this smiling young man is a lady, Woizero Negest G. Hiwot, the Mother of all Courage, looking straight at her tormentors and telling them they now have managed to sink the country to a level it has never sank in before. That they are protecting a person, a wicked, corrupted baby killer and pillager for that matter instead of upholding the rights and privileges of the Ethiopian people. Look at the stern expression of her face and the dignity of her stride. She reminds me of my own mother, may God bless her soul now, who one time a long time ago looked as death took away her husband of many years, a sudden and untimely death that left her with four “lemeblat enji lemesrat yalderesu” little children and stood firmly proclaiming to God and herself that her children, fatherless though, will grow up well, they will walk the straight but narrow line, finish their school as high as they want and be productive citizens. She stood firm to her resolutions and she made it happen. I see that same strength of will and resoluteness at this picture of Woizero Negest her eyes on the Prize and nothing else.

And then a few steps away from her is our queen, the very determined Birtukan Mideksa. At a time and place when most members of her generation are preoccupied with the latest perfume, lipstick and where and with whom to dance the night away, this lady is fighting the criminal regime of Arat Kilo. I heard she is witty and deliberative at the same time. I heard she is consumed with justice for the Ethiopian mass, I heard she is filled with internal strength that makes ordinary souls shiver. You think I am making this up? Look at the picture which tells it all – she is surrounded by four soldiers armed to the teeth, and she is giving them the V. She is the very incarnation of those celebrated Ethiopian freedom fighter women during the Italian occupation. Just like them Birtukan has her Eyes on the Prize – the liberation of Ethiopia from a criminal regime.

After looking at this picture for a few minutes this morning, then I started to put in writing what was going on inside my head. These are men and women, young and not so young, professors, doctors, lawyers, engineers and just ordinary citizens who could have lived a comfortable life anywhere they had wished. But they all are consumed with that nagging thing most of us have – our Ethiopia, her troubles and tribulations, her corrupted, criminal regimes that seem to be coming one after another, the poverty, hunger, war and never ending destituteness her once proud name is now synonymous with. And they decided to do something about it – they put their Eyes on the Prize. It is our turn now and we are focused, we are now working together, we are now writing about it, talking and discussing about it, peaceful marches and candle light vigils to bring our case to the leaders of the free world, contacting our parliamentarians and US Congress representatives wherever we call it our new home. Granted we are just scratching the surface and there is more, a lot more to do, but just like Hailu, Mesfin, Debebe, Negest, Birtukan, Birhanu and many, many others, whose bravery I know very well, we now have our Eyes on the Prize – the total liberation of our Ethiopia from tyranny of dictatorship into freedom, democracy and prosperity.

May God Bless Ethiopia and her Children at home and abroad and help them win the Prize they now have set their eyes on – Amen