Sidama Intellectual Seyoum Hameso Unveils Evil Amhara Projects of Cultural Genocide in ´Ethiopia´
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
July 27, 2008
Contributing to a very informative book on ´Arrested Development in Ethiopia´ that he edited along with Mohammed Hassen, Seyoum Hameso analyzed – within a part dedicated to ´Nationalism, democracy and Self-determination´ – a critical topic, namely ´Languages, Nations and National Self-determination in Ethiopia´.
In it, Seyoum Hameso reveals how the Amhara invaders of the different lands and kingdoms in the south of Oromia (Sidama Land, Hadiya, Gedeo Land, Kaffa, Shekacho Land, Kambaata, and Anuak) pursued a colonizing policy by tyrannically imposing Amhara Monophysitic settlements among the subjugated nations.
The illegal Amhara settlers, by using the threat of guns against totally unarmed but highly cultured indigenous nations, have ceaselessly usurped and practically stolen for more than 100 years the natural resources of the occupied and annexed territories.
At a later stage, and this is what Seyoum Hameso brilliantly demonstrates in his contribution, the scarce presence of the Amhara settlers (less than 1% of the local population) and the few local renegades, traitors and Quislings (equally less than 1% of the local population, people selected to "represent" their subjugated, tyrannized and massacred nations) became the means of, and the pretext for, the imposition of a new dimension of Amhara Monophysitic tyranny, at the educational, linguistic, cultural, spiritual and religious levels.
In fact, the Cultural and Spiritual Genocide perpetrated against the subjugated nations targeted their total annihilation and, when rejected (as it has always been), it was matched by the physical genocide that the racist, perfidious, criminal and inhuman Amhara settlers carried out with the help of the Abyssinian pseudo-national army, which was in fact a heinous tribal force of death squads.
The nightmarish situation that Mr. Seyoum Hameso describes so serenely and plainly has survived down to our days in the barbaric realm of the Tigray Monophysitic (pseudo-Christian) dictator Meles Zenawi, who is reviled by more than 80% of the country´s nations and ethno-religious groups.
Ginbot 7 and Kinijit: Amhara Aspirants worse than Tigray Butcher Zenawi
Even worse, the slight progress made with the nominal introduction of the (otherwise non-implemented) federalism is now rejected by the villainous, ultra-right, chauvinist and fascist Amhara political parties, notably Ginbot 7 and Kinijit.
Shamelessly playing the role of the "suffering" democrats who have been jailed by Meles Zenawi, people like Andargachew Tsige, Muluneh Eyoel, Ephrem Mademo, Berhanu Nega and Giday Assefa have it easy to exclaim that "the Spirit of Ginbot 7 will prevail" and to shed their ridiculous crocodile tears about Ogaden.
In fact, all know what the Ginbot 7 ´spirit´ is; negation of federalism, denial of the right of every subjugated nation to secede, and preparation for another turn of Amhara tyranny and African Genocide. If they were true in their intentions, they would explicitly accept the right to secede for the Sidamas, the Ogadenis, the Oromos, and all the rest.
But if they did so, they would drastically harm their own interests, and they would be constrained to go back to Gondar because all the Amhara at Finfinne are simply illegal settlers.
That´s I why Seyoum Hameso´s text not only sheds light on what happened in the past, but also helps us get an illuminated vision of the nightmare evangelized by the Ginbot 7 racists and the disreputable Leaders of Kinijit who are the former friends, colleagues and ministers of the Communist thug and tyrant Haile Mengistu.
That is why I re-publish excerpts from Seyoum Hameso´s contribution, adding at the end a unit from the author´s portal Sidama Concern (About Us), and details about the book that I highly recommend to all those who want to know more about the (meticulously and scrupulously but futilely) hidden (by the untrustworthy and highly manipulated Western mass media) realities of the Abyssinian tyranny.
Languages, Nations and National Self-determination in Ethiopia
By Seyoum Hameso
From: Arrested Development in Ethiopia
Essays on Underdevelopment, Democracy and Self-determination
Edited by Seyoum Hameso and Mohammed Hassen
The Red Sea Press, 2006
Part III, Nationalism, democracy and Self-determination
p. 203 – 209 (Chapter 9)
On the one hand, conflicts over such matters as language policy, representation, education curriculum, land claims are by definition among collectives rather than individual persons. For instance, an individual right to freedom of expression does nothing to resolve the question of language of instruction in schools, the individual right to vote does not resolve the issue of how electoral boundaries are to be drawn. If such matters are to be mediated through an individual rights paradigm, one would need to assume that the State is a ´neutral´ guarantor of non-discrimination among the holders of competing claims about the issue. Since no State can possibly be neutral regarding these matters, its policies and practice will in reality be a system of group rights´ that support the majority language, history, culture, and calendar. The need for the collective
rights model is clear in view of the fact that most of the recent and current conflicts and civil wars around the world are about rejection of assimilation or pursuit of multiple national cultures (An-Na´im 1998:150).
The Politics of Language
This chapter begins with the exploration of the historical background to the elements of collective rights, languages, cultures, nations and nationalisms of oppressed peoples. The present day Ethiopia comprises of several ethnonational groups. Over 70 languages are spoken in a country with a population of 70 million people. The major ethno-linguistic groups are Cushitic, Semitic, Nilotic and Omotic. The Cushitic group constitutes the majority, but for over a century, they remained a "political minority." They include Oromo, Sidama, Afar, Somali, and Hadiya. These people of Cushitic descent are believed to constitute about 60-70% of the empire´s population and they live in the southern, western, eastern and central areas of Ethiopia. Semitic groups, who form the other major group, include Amhara, Tigre, Gurage and Adere. With the exception of the last two, most Semitic groups live in the northern and north-central parts of Ethiopia. The Nilotic and Omotic groups live in the western and southwestern regions. Like elsewhere in the world, all or most of these groups have their own distinct cultures, languages and socio-political structures. Due to the process of conquest and concomitant settlement of the Northern people in the South, there are sizeable minorities who speak northern languages.
Languages are the markers of national identity. For obvious reasons, systematic study into the languages and linguistic groups in Ethiopia is lacking as it has been discouraged by the state system. Both the cultural and the political landscape has been dominated by northern languages and ethnie. One of these languages is Amharic that assumed special status accompanying Amhara dominance momentarily interrupted by Italian occupation (1935-1941). When Italian army was defeated by the Allied armies, the Emperor received external support and attempted to upgrade absolutist feudal autocracy by introducing some measures such as promulgating the constitution, the formation of professional military service, and the establishment of schools.
The first state school was opened in 1908 to promote French language. After 1917 until the late 1940s, Amharic and Geez (the languages associated with the Coptic Orthodox Church) were promoted. Between 1947 and 1958, English was made the medium of instruction in all schools and Amharic being given as a subject.
This was changed in 1958 when the medium switched to Amharic in primary schools while English retained its place in secondary schools. The move toward Amharization of curriculum was all too apparent with the associated measures of power centralization which precipitated, in the early 1960s, in armed conflict in Eritrea and a failed coup attempt against the Emperor. The move by the imperial regime was a clear indication yet of the policy of assimilation into Amhara culture. The imposition of language of a single ethnic group as the medium of instruction in primary schools and as official language helped secure the dominant position of Amhara elite in other spheres of life for a considerably long time. On the other hand, it caused enormous socio-political imbalance crowding out other indigenous languages, and by implication peoples.
Through time, the very existence of modern education posed informed challenge to the autocratic feudal system and the whole system crumbled in the face of devastating famine and oil price hike. What followed the 1974 event sounded like a revolution but there was hardly a fundamental change in the nature of Ethiopian state. In the name of socialism, the military regime pursued centrist and assimilationist policies. In the sphere of education, it introduced mass literacy program with the prime aim of mass mobilization for its political goals.
A limited literacy program in indigenous languages was introduced, but in Geez or Ethiopic script and all formal education continued to be delivered in Amharic.
In a country where the majority of the people—over 80 per cent—live in the rural areas without speaking nor writing Amharic, maintaining the status of Amharic had perverse role in higher education. In primary schools, the use of Amharic language as a medium of education in the majority non-Amharic speaking areas was fiercely resisted as unfair and unjust as it favors Abyssinian settlers at the expense of indigenous speakers at the state level. According to Edmond Keller, the Oromos, Eritreans, and Somalis, among others, resented the use and imposition of Amharic language "not only because it disadvantaged them in the competition for university places, but also for the implication it had for the destruction of their own languages and cultures" (Keller 1991:140). It goes without saying that the imposition had serious implications on jobs and other social and political activities.
Like any other foreign language, the imposed medium served as a constricting and restricting factor for non-native Amharic speakers who score poorly on Amharic language (see Hameso 1997a). At one time, passing Amharic at a secondary school leaving examination was a requirement to join the only university that existed in the country. The development of indigenous languages and education through mother tongue were denied the opportunity to thrive. Many people were compelled to change their names or attempt to hide their cultural identities. Daily life in a prison house of nations is a constant misery.
The issues of socio-political domination coupled with resentment over linguistic,
cultural and political symbolism led to protracted struggle oft en involving intense conflict and warfare. In the early 1990s, the armed conflict was concluded in favor of yet another northern-based rebellious group, namely the Tigray People´s Liberation Front (TPLF). The Front, after assuming control over political power in 1991 with professed commitment to socio-political justice, promised guarantees for languages and cultures, as well as administrative structures based on federal arrangement. At the level of theory, these promises were unprecedented in the history of Ethiopian empire. Within a year, the regime which included the leaders of southern national liberation movements, draft ed an interim education and language policy. The elite from oppressed national groups supported the project, in manners not dissimilar to what Dmitry Gorenburg observed elsewhere:
Although native-language education is particularly important in promoting nationalism, the level of education in general is likely to be positively correlated with support for minority nationalism because individuals with higher levels of education are more likely to retain a strong sense of common ethnic identity. Highly educated people, regardless of the language in which they received this education, are more likely to be interested in history and culture generally, leading to greater exposure to information about the ethnic group and its history. In many cases this exposure can lead to a sense of community with other members of the ethnic group that is similar to that imparted by being educated in the native language. Individuals with a more extensive education are also more likely to follow current political events closely, leading to more knowledge of the local nationalist movement´s activities (Gorenburg 2000:123).
The support for new direction was not limited to nationalists from oppressed nations who joined the Transitional Government whose role, without exaggeration, was important. The commencement of primary school education in indigenous languages was received with greater enthusiasm among non-Amharic speaking peoples. Most languages became official languages of respective "administrative zones" temporarily protected by constitutional guarantees. For example, Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution stated that "all Ethiopian languages shall enjoy equal state recognition" and "the member states of the Federation shall determine their respective official languages" (Ethiopian Constitution 1994).
The implementation of such broad constitutional provisions is doubtful. A decade after the pronouncements, there is no clear direction of language of education policy and it is not clear how indigenous languages are to be treated in the future. Except the brief interlude of the transitional arrangement in the early 1990s, there has been no open discussion into language policy in Ethiopia. Secrecy still underpins language policy.
Initially, it seemed that there was a semblance of policy shift which had important implications for indigenous languages. The idea of conducting primary education through the medium of a child´s mother tongue augurs well with the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization´s (UNESCO) recommendations. In areas where the new policy was implemented, education in mother tongue was embraced with great enthusiasm. In one such area, in Sidama for example, a development worker wrote:
I visited about 25 elementary schools mainly those built by our development program. I see that the children are very much interested and motivated to learn in their mother tongue. One child said:
´We now know what we are learning because it is our own language´
(personal correspondence).
The issue here is not only of indigenous languages but also of developing the scripts for these languages that have so far been denied the opportunity to develop their own language. In adopting a new script, most Cushitic languages are compatible with the Latin script which is phonetically more suitable than the Geez script. (Note that Cushitic languages have sounds that cannot be fully spelt and pronounced in Semitic languages and Geez or Ethiopic script). The use of indigenous languages was politically emancipating from the bond of cultural domination.
The reasons for the objection to language imposition and the search for alternatives are political, social and pedagogical. Politically and socially, Amharic, as the language of the ruling elite, was an instrument of domination and a device to screen out disfavored ethnies away from public office. Initially, children from non-Amharic speaking areas find themselves in tremendous disadvantage in translating, and attempting to understand and reflect new concepts which is not the case for native Amharic speakers. To non-native Amharic speakers, the language imposition restricts access to education and knowledge. Moreover, the early childhood disadvantages transcend directly to later life in which the same mechanism is used as a means of discrimination.
Pedagogically, as far as non-Abyssinian nations are concerned, Amharic language is difficult to learn with Geez or Ethiopic script which has 275 character symbols as opposed to 26 in Latin alphabet. The adoption of the latter scripts is found to be more suitable compared to the Ethiopic script with restrictive impact on children from non-Amharic speaking origin. It means that pupils starting at elementary schools were diverted from studying their immediate environment, language, culture and history and they were forced to learn about issues, languages, cultures and histories that are remote to them, their life and their environment.
There is also the issue of access to existing computerized ASCII formats in
Latin script without the need to incur additional costs to develop new language
soft ware for non-familiar and difficult scripts. This presents a vast potential opportunity to translate written materials in English and other languages from around Africa and from the world without the constraints of Ethiopic script. Finally, as far as the majority of people are concerned, such a policy is perceived to pave the way for linguistic and national independence from alien, repressive and abusive central authority. Yet the new initiative and policy are not without problems.
The fact that Amharic is still the official language of the government carries all the weight that it acts as a medium of instruction in schools. In the so-called southern region, more than ten language groups were merged to form one region for the sake of administrative expediency. This regional grouping uses Amharic language as official language because it found it impractical to use all the constituent peoples´ languages. Besides, as the northern settlers in the South do not speak the local language, they prefer Amharic as official language and the medium of education in Ethiopia. This makes it difficult for the region to continue using any of the constituent languages other than Amharic. In effect, this makes it likely that the old policy will revive, forcing a switch to Amharic at secondary schools. This causes what the conflict between Kiswahili and English did in Tanzania. There, the language of education, instead of "becoming a liberating, door-opening agent, it becomes constricting and restricting factor where basic concepts which should grow with a child, and be added constantly as the child learns more, are shaken midway by an ineffective change of medium" (Yahya-Othman 1990: 51).
Today, as before, various problems confront access to knowledge. Like other poor countries, the perennial problems of illiteracy and low levels of income limit access to educational materials. In the context of Ethiopia, the lopsided "development" based on few urban centers resulted in phenomenal neglect of peripheral areas which also happened to be homes of the majority of people.
One consequence of uneven distribution has been that libraries are limited to the few urban centers. The most affected are the marginalized groups, women and people in the rural areas. In one instance, in the South, there were only a couple of public libraries for a population of over three million people and there are only three libraries in three high schools for that population group. The problem of insufficiency of libraries was compounded by the shortage of books. The lack of reference and supplementary books meant that students could hardly develop their analytical understanding of textbooks. The knowledge industry is controlled by the political centre which applies discriminatory principles in the sphere of education as in anything else.
The real problem remains political. The oppressive and authoritarian nature of the polity causes the suppression of ethno-national diversity and dissent. Though the TPLF regime promised reforms on state monopoly and censorship of published information, the rhetoric falls far behind the deeds as changes were halfhearted, minuscule, and extremely slow in pace. In 2003, even the slightest gains by the oppressed people from the arrangement of the early 1990s were reversed worsening the social, political and economic imbalance. In the field of literacy, most schools and higher education establishments are still concentrated in and around the capital. The major publishers and small to medium-sized private printing presses are located in Addis Ababa. The biggest printing houses are owned and controlled by the government. School textbook publishing is monopolized by the government´s Educational Materials Production and Distribution Agency (EMPDA). The same agency publishes children´s books and controls the suitability of content and availability of materials for schools.
In another context, there is an obstinate political resistance to the new initiatives
particularly from the benefactors of the old regime. The adoption of Latin script and the new initiatives in primary schools seemed to reduce the role of Amharic. Adherents of Coptic Church around Addis Ababa tried to excommunicate the use of indigenous languages in non-Amharic or Ethiopic script as the work of the devil. Similar loathing exists among institutions predominantly peopled and created by Amharic or Amharanized technocracy.
The leaders of the ruling party, who paid attention to language issues in their own nations, lacked the political will to pursue and encourage the same policy throughout the country. This reluctance caused intense uncertainty as to how far the policy of education in indigenous languages will continue. There are also serious concerns over human rights situation of independent writers, editors, publishers, and educationists many of whom were jailed or exiled.
As the result of political problems regarding the future of the teachers trained in indigenous languages, the students who started their schooling in their mother tongue, and indeed the future of education policy are in a limbo. To compound the problems, the pupils rarely have access to supplementary materials. When translated from Amharic and other foreign languages, the books are inaccessible because they are direct translations and not developed in accordance with the local reality. Therefore, children who started their primary schools in their mother tongue are trapped in the process of language instruction where there is scarcity in written materials. In sum, the key areas of national development (namely language, culture and education) are overly controlled and undeveloped.
From the Sidama Concern website - About Us
The Sidama Concern is devoted to scholarship and human right activism with the aim of supporting society by providing information. As a medium, it focuses on the history, culture, and economic-political developments of Sidama people of north east Africa, in today's Southern Ethiopia. As events in the surroundings have effects on the said populations, it also covers the current affairs in the Horn region.
As part of its aim, the Sidama Concern encouraged knowledge creation and promotion of hitherto neglected area by producing and reproducing works related to the Sidama world and its surroundings. In a small way, it contributes to understanding of the prevailing contradictions and the human condition. We also believe that change, progress and improvement are always possible provided there is will. And the will comes from people.
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Bibliographical Note
More on "Arrested Development in Ethiopia – Essays on Underdevelopment, Democracy and Self-determination":
http://www.africaworldpressbooks.com/servlet/Detail?no=41 and
http://www.amazon.com/Arrested-Development-Ethiopia-Seyoum-Hameso/dp/1569022585
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Picture: Seyoum Hameso
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