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Tribal Patriotism
As a young girl growing up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia I do not for all intents and purposes remember knowing or caring about my tribe in contrary to the current popular trend. For all I knew I was just a kid, an Ethiopian kid just like everyone else and that is all that mattered. Our interaction with each other did not at all depend on which tribe we belonged to or what part of the country we were born in but I recall we just mostly were delighted to be Ethiopians, we really loved our history collectively and there basically was this unexplained pride we had just because we were Ethiopians, in an immense and boastful way.
Now by and large coming to the realization that all I was familiar with whilst growing up, the values that I thought my society had was just a myth, a mirage of the false image that was fed to me, I came to learn that tribe meant everything to my population and it contradicts every fiber of my being as this was not the reality that I thought I was in, it is a rude wake up call to come to understand all that you held dear was all a lie.
Is this what came of the patriotic manner we overwhelmingly were raised by? what a letdown. Did all those historical facts that sung our greatness, our unity, our love for the place we call home, our values and beliefs just perish away? It is mind-boggling and for the life of me I cannot figure it out. And I am curious to know at what age did we start thinking tribally? When did this shift of hate and score keeping set in on our psyche to a point where logic and humanity have no place any more. How did we predominantly start identifying ourselves with this narrowness, live by it and feel strong enough to die for it. Defining all your worth according to the tribe your lineage came from. When did we start exclusively looking after, actively working towards the betterment of a specific group of people and the downfall of others? then left our country in the shadows, a sad realization indeed because I surely did not get the memo.
We would witness civil wars and unrest all over Africa, I remember that we were profoundly honored that we for the most part were really stable to a point of being smug about it, well that back fired ha. Our stability attracted major flow of foreign investments, large international organizations, stakeholders and tourists. Subsequently the reality now is seeing everyone understandably rush to leave my country, as they are obviously afraid we are going to end up becoming the next Syria.
I wonder where did it all go wrong, how we ended up in this level of chaos with in just three years, it quite surreal that the world is watching my country Ethiopia crumble and not doing anything about it, at least nothing decisive. Which pretty much feels like you are basically seeing a car plummeting straight towards you but you are too frozen to move and save yourself, so you just basically let it happen, feeling helpless and powerless to stop it, demonstrating all that, that was taken from you piece by piece to a point where even your screams falls to deaf ears, you will cease to exist and the world will just move on like you were never there to begin with and making it even more poetic is the fact that the first humans roamed this soil and now it is ignored and discarded nonchalantly.
It is disheartening and earth shatteringly hurtful to find out that every one of my heroes in reality were not fighting for Ethiopia, for me or for us but themselves further cementing my trust issues with any political entity or movement. They are only fighting for a small group of people that they deem enough to be called theirs, the ones they were born in to, the culture, tradition and language they grew up around, which is all that matters to them sadly, the rest do not matter. Every political dissident, political prisoner, change maker that used to make me anticipate and be assured of a better day are no more. You know the types of revolutionaries that you are fully confident with and you tell yourself that if these people were in charge they would undeniably work towards bettering the future of my country, fix the broken system and create a greater tomorrow for the coming generation but they turned out to be sell-outs, proving that they were just waiting for their turn at the helm, they were not for the people they were for their pockets, only so that they could do what the previous tribal government already demonstrated. It is a repeating cycle that does not have a foreseeable end in sight in my opinion, every single freedom fighter is going to transform in to their true colors the moment they have any authorized power and standing by becoming as tribal as the current system, which makes it all hopeless and pointless to fight for or believe in. So this tribal patriotism predominantly makes me feel like there is nobody fighting for this ancient country regrettably, there will always be a selfish agenda rooted in a tribal commitment coupled with false hopes, lies and on the surface “democracy”, yes my recent take has such a gloomy attitude towards any leadership, future or political culture of this country. To sum it up this is how I feel currently: Is that I died at 31, I have been addicted to my Ethiopia’ness and blackness since I can remember, loyal to it, and believed in it with all my being. I hated TPLF like most of Ethiopians and was elated when Prime Minister Abiy came to power but politics for me is not about charm offensive as I am not looking for a heartthrob but a leader. Are we better off than we were before the warlord? Did we attain a better quality of living, freedom of the press, inclusive political climate, lower inflation rate, increased FDI, a secured country where we can travel with ease, a Stronger Economy, wider geopolitical influence, have we found solutions to our multifaceted problems? Can someone please tell me in factuality where we are winning because I am truly lost. The government took the media narrative, kept us in the dark for months, and when we finally get some facts we are in total denial as the PR to brainwash us worked too perfectly. I apologize to the people of Tigray as we are all culpable of the mess we created, celebrated, passionately spread digitally or over conversations, even our silence whispered support. So in conclusion rather than being a manipulated sheep that just got introduced to the word Junta let us see between the lines, realize Tigray people are more important than a political party we have beef with, when victims speak we should listen because the way we are reacting to their pain is making it clear that we do not care. So I mourn who I was because I literally lost my identity in a split second, I do not know how to express it but it feels like Death. Now a civil war is my new reality, the capital city Addis Ababa maybe taken over, uncertainty is looming all around me and I feel stuck in every which way possible. We may have dug a deep dark hole we may never get out of or it may be an instance that may change the course of our history and put us on the right track, we shall see I guess.
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I feel your pain and dismay
On the News Outlet, we saw in Belgium how your tribes are hostile tgo each other.
I think it's really special to meet you.
Instead of competing against each other and killing, people would be more lovingly and tolerant with each other.
After all, we are all people. Then why treat each other so badly.
It's a pity that man fails to have a fun and uncomplicated contact with everyone.
I hope it gets better for everyone in your country. I'm sure to follow you and want to support you with my words where I can.
How right you are in each of your words
And I think this happens a lot in many other countries, especially Latin America.
Rights, opinions, and rules are hardly respected.
Everything is a mess, and we realize when we go from being Innocent Children to Conscious Adults
I have never been to Ethiopia. And I do not know his situation, but from how you have described it, remember the situation in our country Venezuela as well.
Where I grew up believing so many things and cultures that they taught us, so that when I matured, and I became aware of what was happening around me, I realized that everything was a falsehood, and that nobody does anything to change things.
And they remain in a pool of Ignorance to everything that happens within our Venezuelan Country