The English translation of the President’s Independence Day speech (as it appears on Shabait) had 1623 words. Of those, 1062 words (65% of the speech) was a mumbo-jumbo that only Ghirmay Sandiago can understand on “a special interest group” that is trying to spoil Obama’s plans for change. Year after year the content and style of his Independence Day speeches have steadily deteriorated reflecting more disorientation and a tendency towards “I don’t know what’s going on” kind of confession. This year’s however feels more like “I don’t know if I will ever see again” kind of mumbling. I felt sorry for him as all I could see while reading was Sadam’s picture in the hole.
Horrible as the guy was, the picture of a once elegant “superman” turned into a heap of bristly hair, bloody face, and filthy rugs was one that moved the hearts of even the sons and daughters of those he gassed and a humiliation for the Iraqi identity. I do however admit that I admire his courage at still being able to tell his mumbo-jumbo with a straight face. The disappointment and worry underlying the tone of the President’s speech was echoed by Zemihret’s address on behalf of the Festivities Committee (whatever they call it). Zemihret expresses his worry that the sanctification of Independence Day and with it the whole Yika’alo history is going extinct as the numbers of those who either participated or can still remember May 24, 1991, are dwindling and the numbers of those who have no idea what we are talking about is growing.
Although nothing was said by both men you can sense the feeling of guilt consciousness and frustration in the rhythm of their words reacting to the empty stares of the disgusted audience. After reading the English translation I decided to read the original Tigrigna script on Hadas Eritrea assuming it would appear on the May 24th issue (forgot the time difference – another way of saying ‘stupid me’). Here are the topics on the front page of that issue: British Climber (Hakhwaray) Reached Tip of Mount Everest; The Couple that a New Zealand Bank Mistakenly Transformed into Millionaires; A Chinese who missed his home and travelled for 2 months to find it; and an American who made the Guinness Book of Records for placing 43 snails (aronyes – gobyes) on his face (Congratulations!).
I thought this page targeted those who have no idea what we are talking about on May 24th, maybe as a catch to make them buy the newspaper. Sure, enough the garbage was loaded on the next page (nice trick). The editor of the page is Mebrhit (lighter) Welday (just to give her credit), who obviously had such a tight schedule that she made no attempt to write anything original on this important date in our history. May be she is one of those who have no idea what we are talking about although she seems to have a good memory of 1992 otherwise how would she pick an undated copy of Hadas Eritrea for that year (unless there was only one issue for the year) and stick it into this one. Her choice as heading for the page, “zantatat…”, further amplifies Zemihret’s worries that the actual history of 1991 is turning into zanta and tsiwitsway just as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is zanta. I went on reading. The first zanta: a group of young people who confused an Ethiopian soldier for a hero and celebrated by carrying him around and passing him over to others as jigna be’Al sire.
The second zanta: a Yika’alo who inspired the fetish in a gebar shimagile who saw his fantasy of drinking the sweaty and stinky wash of a hero’s feet come true. The rest was blah… blah… blah…. The first zanta reminded me of another zanta that someone told me a few years back. Sometime during Weyane’s war the army had a visiting speaker from Asmara and an army kadre translated his instructions (not to have mercy on Agame) into Tigre. A warsay who had some difficulties with the similarity of looks, language, behavior, and uniforms of people in the battlefield asked the kadre: le agamena wo agamehom kefo nifentiyom. No offense, especially, that the person relaying the first zanta in the newspaper was Ismail Adem (maybe the same warsay).
The second zanta was disgusting as I am not into that kind of stuff. Carry on to the next page to see how these zantatat actually work out in the streets of Asmara: the meaning of netsanet in the eyes of the youth (Tigrigna does not make a distinction between Independence and Freedom – and the word harnet is rarely used to mean different in PFDJ literature – so I chose the netsanet in this context to mean freedom – it helps my twisted reading of the paper and the heading is “netsanet bi’ayni meniseyat” anyway). I managed to identify three groups (each group consisting of 1 person and 1 empty group whom I chose to represent) and very different answers.
Group 1 (Alamin Hamid Alamin – a typical Hot-Dog name): “To me personally … beyond the words of rahwa, fisaha, hagos, and wezete; … tehatatinet and halafinet would give more meaning to netsanet. Because izi netsanet izi is due to the struggle and martyrdom of generations, taking the aspect of tehatatinet, netsanet should be the occasion when we ask ourselves: What was the struggle all about? Did the wishes of those martyred come true? How can we guarantee the continuity of the message of the generations before us?” This was my translation, and the quotation marks may not be appropriate (but who cares).
Group 2 (Tekhle Mebrahtu): “Going back to my childhood, I still remember the day when I was liberated from the Dergi solders that used to terrorize me, zer’iduni zineberu. Shi’u ane kab gezay tela’ikhe … I still remember the instant I saw … ar’adtey ab’tsirgiya tederbiyom. And abzi nay bits’hinay gizi’e (time of youth), netsanet is timhirti (education), ib’et (growth), silTane (development) … and as a youth halafinet misikam iya. Izi kha’a … seeing those who neti zeysiger zimesl bideho segirom netsanet zemtsi’ulna; I feel confident nezi zelo bidehotat kem nisegro.”
Group 3 (Mini Me): has no comment except to underline the names of the members of Groups 1 & 2. I as a moderator, however, would like to borrow a quote (don’t ask me what it means) that Hiwet Tekheste (another youth commenting on tirgum netsanet on the same page of Hadas Eritrea) borrowed from some female Eritrean writer saying “Netsanet is an imaginary idea in admas-hasabat (the structure of thought). Netsanet is an opportunity to determine your own destiny within the confines of sine-hasabn (ideology) sine-mgbarn (practicality).” What she is saying (I guess) is that only what can come true is real so don’t dream because dreams never come true (in Eritrea) and netsanet is a dream.
My point is that this spontaneous response by the two young men (and higdef’s view by the female) living in identical conditions is a subtle reflection of the kind of Tutsi communication that the two population groups (highlanders and lowlander) are engaged in. In the surface you get the impression that they are both betting on the same hamster. Deep down they are negotiating the terms of drifting far apart. The first group says you did not sacrifice alone (“izi netsanet izi is due to the struggle and martyrdom of generations” to borrow Alamin’s words – a generation of lowland Jebhas followed by a generation of highland Shabias) and you cannot eat the cake alone; we need some tehatatinet here.
It is those who cannot look back (anymore) and express their fascination at seeing ar’adtey ab’tsirgiya tederbiyom in 1991 that Zemihret is worried might have no idea what the President is talking about when he effectively says“Look – zikheberkinin zikheberkumn – get over it. Zeridukha zineberu are gone and now halafinet misikam iya. And if we need help with the cake we know where to find you (Kessela).” This brings me to my take on S.G.’s call for Reconciliation (as usual a well written and founded and well timed Mother of All Reconciliations). Salih, my friend, maybe you have been away from the family of All Reconciliations for far too long (to remember their faces) because the one you described was the Auntie of All Reconciliations. The Mother is the one next to it (the ayni-ungule), the one that is premised on the assumption of perfect foresight by both parties to the reconciliation.
They both agree that Lowlanders have a long tangible and still live (18 years and counting) experience with the consequences of trust and goodwill, and they are not settling for less than tehatatinet for the past and an upper or at least equal hand for the future – no handouts. They also do know that Highlanders are told that they had the same exact consequences (for 10 years 1961 -1970) for repenting (to the graceful deeds of Andinet and the loving care of kumandis), for trusting and goodwill towards their fellow partners. Those who forget are constantly reminded by the Rabbi that the sixties were not fan at all (read Sibhat Efrem’s interview on meadna.com). Of course, we, the Lowlanders, are better positioned to make our case because the experience is still live and in real time as opposed to Highlanders who need history books to prove any claimed injustice (especially to those who have no idea what we are talking about).
Here is the rear end of the Mother of All Reconciliations: forget about trusting each other’s goodwill. As a Lowlander I would tell any Highlander to forget about trying to convince me to trust you ever again; not after you brought their Tererti (land grabbers) to the game; not after you killed the dream of a free dignified being in our own land. I would also tell them to forget about trusting any of us; not after what our “heroes” did to their “heroes” in the sixties. And mark my words, if you ever make the mistake of trusting us (the moderates) you will end up being forced to wear the hijab, pay the zekat (or jizia), and you may be flogged in public for drinking siwa. But not as bad as you might think as we promise you genet in the next life – money back guaranteed. Mother of All Reconciliations is the one that tells us to place material barriers and guarantees that make the intrusion into each other’s rights physically impossible (just as a positive outcome of nuclear armament might be to make peace cheaper than war by rendering stepping your boundaries too costly to attempt).
Here, Highlanders have the advantage as Higdef will do (for now) until Lowlanders catch up to its level and call for a proliferation in a cold war style. Just a little bit of patience! I promise it won’t take long if you read the latest trends. 1. Moderates are being pushed to the sidelines and those who refuse are rushing to grab front seats before the show begins. You don’t believe me? Ask (my heroes) Beshir Ishaq and Hussein Khalifa. 2. The political culture of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is being adopted in its totality with PFDJ and settlers on the one hand and Palestinian ways of dealing with mustewtinin on the other hand. 3. Consolidation of separate identities is well under way with the Hamasien-Akele competition relegated to the back (where is Adhanom by the way) on the one hand and biherat coming together on the other hand.
Honoring Mama Reconciliation’s advice, I organized a contest on the use of the word mustawtinin (settlers) in a sentence. The latest winner was Weldesus Amar who managed to shyly sneak a version of it in a unity declaration that he signed with the Gash Barka organization. I am sending Ismail Nada his prize. Mesfin Hagos’ Illuminati are invited to enter the contest by using the word in a sentence for a chance to win a Jerry Springer bracelet.