Tigrayan Modern Elites and their bizarre Love for
Colonial Language
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Dr. Getatchew
Reda
A Reply to Fiseha Haftetsion
Gebresilassie's "Choosing a Working Language in Multiethnic Nations:
Rethinking Ethiopia’s Working Language Policy" &
Alemseged Abbay “Is Multilingualism a problematic paradigm in Ethiopia?” (Frostburg State University)
Two articles, whose authors and titles are
given above, have been circulating since some time, the first much earlier and
the second recently The authors, Fiseha Haftetsion, and Alemseged Abbay,
propose, the replacement of Amharic with English as a national language. I
waited in vain for a rebuttal to come from someone concerned.
Fiseha Haftesion’s bizarre article is allegedly
for a feedback so he would revise it to be ready "for a publication in a
reputable journal". The major part of his article was prepared during the
author's "fellowship with ACCORD (African Centre for the Constructive
Resolution of Disputes)."Where is this centre and who financed his
fellowship are not stated other than his gratitude to Prof. John Daniel and Dr.
Kwesi Sanscullotte-Greenridge (sic) "for their constructive
comments." But it is not difficult to guess who financed it. The centre
has an office in Addis Ababa, Institute for Security Studies, headed by Tim
Murithi. Fiseha Haftetsion claims that quoting his article "is strictly
prohibited." That is, he circulates a venomous article and prohibits the
exposure of the venom in it!
I could not tell who John Daniel is, but
Kwesi Sansculotte-Greenidge is identified as "a research fellow at the
Centre for International Cooperation and Security in the Peace Studies
Department at the University of Bradford." My understanding is that TPLF has
collaborated, possibly with the United States, in establishing a virtual University for
Peace, with centres in Addis Ababa and Costa Rica! The University has an e-publication
called Africa Peace and Conflict Journal in whose second issue Kwesi
Sansculotte-Greenidge has an article on "Judiyya: A Test of Traditional Conflict
Resolution mechanisms in Complex Conflicts in Darfur." One wonders, what would
it be the comments of Kwesian Sansculotte-Greenidge on this article. It would be
strange if, being an advocate of African tradition, he had overlooked the insulting
proposal to use in an African country a colonial language (English) in place
of, not even together with, the indigenous Amharic.
But let me concentrate on the demerits of
the paper: To begin with, the author is not aware that this paper can never
appear in a reputable journal however he polishes it because no reputable
journal accepts a mediocre and insulting composition, especially from someone
who has not established his own credibility as a serious scholar. The time for
defending the civilizing mission of the colonialists, which Ato Fiseha
Haftetsion is doing, is over. Nevertheless, Ato Fiseha Haftetsion wants to
injure the only country that has not been injured by colonialism, while nations
injured by it did not know how to heal themselves from the injury they
suffered. It is either ignorance or desperation or arrogance and indifference
on the part of TPLF that it recruited Ato Fiseha Haftetsion for this gross
assignment. His analysis, findings and recommendation cannot be worse.
Look at his authorities on Ethiopian
history. They are Aregawi, 2004; Alemseged, 2004; Kassahun, 2007; Getachew and
Derib, 2006. These people could be politicians, or famous political activists,
but none of them is known in the circle of historians. And so he audaciously makes
the following points whose flaws I attach:
§
Atse
Tewodros is called "Emperor Tewodros IV." Who were the first, the
second and the third Tewodros?
§
"Among
the changes introduced by Tewodros was the beginning of the use of the Amharic
language in the recording of official documents." This is totally false;
the Emperor did not play any role in the decision of the scholars to use
Amharic as a written language. He was not borne when the decision was made.
Amharic was the official language centuries before Tewodros II.
§
"Kahsay
Mircha, a Tigrayan, became Emperor Yohannes IV of Ethiopia." This, too, is false; there is no
evidence that the Emperor was ever called, or called himself, Kahsay, but
always Kassa. The Emperor would have cut Fiseha Haftetsion's fingers if he saw
him lowering him so to ethnic confinement.
§
"Yohannes
did not introduce any change in the status of Amharic perhaps for the sake of
maintaining the unity of the empire." Totally false! It never occurred to
the Emperor to change the official national language to English or any other
language. Why should it occur to him? He was not a TPLFite in his mentality,
but an Ethiopian who knew that Amharic is no more an ethnic language within Ethiopia.
§
"Menelik
expanded the empire by conquering neighbouring peoples to the south of the
traditional Abyssinian polity." Totally false! According to professional historians,
Emperor Menelik never went beyond traditional Abyssinian polity. The manuscripts
found in the Island of Zway, called Debre Tsion, are among the
oldest. The Gibe regions were under Emperor Iyyasu (1674-98). See Yeabba Bahriy
Dersetoch, p. 153 by Professor Getatchew
Haile. Birbir Maryam is a living witness that Gamu Gofa, where the church is,
was part of what Fiseha Haftetsion calls "traditional Abyssinian
polity." Abba Bahriy, the author of Zenahu le-Galla, (again by Getatchew
Haile) was a monk serving there until the Oromo overran the region. The
renowned Professor Getatchew Haile on this subject said – “For those who read
German, I recommend Eike Haberland's works, especially, his "Altes Christentum
in Süd-Äthiopien," Frankfurter Historische Forträge, Heft 2 (1976).
- "The people of the conquered areas were
forced to adopt the language and religion of the conquerors (Alemseged,
2004, Aregawi, 2004)." Totally false! No authority, much less
Menelik, has ever forced any one to speak Amharic. It is only in school
environment that children were forced to learn Amharic and in Amharic. Outside
schools, no authority ever interfered in the use of any ethnic language. Throughout
the history of Ethiopia, all ethnic groups were free to
speak in their ethnic language. At court and other governmental places,
translators were freely provided
by the government for those who did not know Amharic.
- "To make things worse, Amharic was imposed
as the de facto sole official language of the empire even in Tigray, the
historic core component of the Abyssinian Empire, forcing the people to
not use their language for official purposes despite the fact that the
Tigray people speak one of the oldest and richest of written and spoken
languages." This is totally false and ridiculous; in fact, it is the
mother of all lies. There is nothing of importance written in Tigrigna
before the 20th century, other than the works of Debtera Fisiha (TPLF’s
main tributary river) who wrote Tarik Ethiopia, hand written at the end of
of the 18 th century (1899) ,and the protestant converst, Haleqa
Teweldemedhin Gebru (Adua/Mai MiSham) who translated the protestant bible
into Tigringa (1933) and ‘Zanta Eyo MisYonawuyan Ab Tigray’ (The history of
Missionaries in Tigray hand written – 120 pages ) by Gobeze Goshu (
Naider/Axumite). Those individuals were influenced by the missionaries
started to use Tigringa instead of Amharic around 1920- “not even Tigringa
from Tigray” (see Dekike Teweldemedhin authored by me- Getachew
Reda-2012). There was never established any traditional institution in
Tigray that taught school children in Tigringa language during Emperor Yohannes
or before him or during Axumite era). Manuscripts coming from Tigray testify
that people in Tigray wrote either in Ge'ez or in Amharic. What a
reputable journal will ever consider publishing an article which says
"Tigray people speak one of the oldest and richest of written and
spoken languages"? But this wrong imagination about the glory of
Tigrigna was created by TPLF to be, unfortunately, its driving force to
destroy Ethiopia through destroying Amharic and its
speakers.
- "The Constitution legitimized the absolute
power of the emperor [Haile Sellassie] (Art. 5) but it did not say
anything regarding language. In practice, the use of the Amharic language
in all the public sectors was comparable to the absolute powers given to
the Emperor by the Constitution." What confusion! Absolute power of
the kings of Ethiopia was legitimized long, long, before
the Constitution. In fact, the Constitution is known for limiting the
power of the emperor, not for legitimizing the legitimized. And why and
what was the Constitution supposed to say regarding the language that has
been in use since ages?
- Regarding the 1974 revolution, Fiseha Haftetsion
says, "Owing to the then prevailing socio-economic injustices
(discriminatory language policy being one of the main ones), different
ethno-linguistic groups began to fight the central government for equality,
justice, and self determination." Fiseha Haftetsion presented this
way falsely even the history we lived and witnessed. Who were the different
ethno-linguistic groups whose main grievance was the language policy? The
major revolt came from MEISON and EPRP, and these were nationalists, not ethno-linguistic
groups.
- "In 1974, the resistance against the
imperial rule from all corners of the society reached its peak." What
has this anything to do with "different ethno-linguistic groups"?
Are "all corners of the society" ethno-linguistic groups? And
what is the evidence for the resistance against the imperial rule to have
been from all corners of the society?
- "On the other hand, identified as a defect
in the [Derg's] new language policy [is] the imposition of the Geez script
- used by the Semitic languages - on all the other languages, as well as
the continuing dominance of Amharic-speaking teachers. . ." In the
eyes of this TPLF surrogate, this virtue of using one's own script for
writing indigenous languages is the only crime the Derg committed.
What a crime! The real crimes are not
mentioned because they would remind us of the similar crimes committed by TPLF.An
accusation, such as, "the imposition of the Geez script - used by the
Semitic languages - on all the other languages," comes only from someone
who is functionary illiterate, because sound symbols or scripts or letters are
language neutral. In other words, any script—e.g. that of Ge'ez, Arabic, Latin,
etc---.can be used for writing any language. Letters are imaginary pictures of
language sounds.
Persian, a non-Semitic language, is
written in Arabic script, a script invented by the Semites for their Semitic
language. Ge'ez can be written in any script, including Latin. If according to
the author “the imposition of the Geez script - used by the Semitic languages -
on all the other languages," is a crime, why was imposing Latin/English on
Ethiopian different languages replacing Amharic/Ge’ez not a crime?
Fiseha Haftetsion's suggestion is the
non-Semitic languages of Ethiopia should be written in Latin. Here, we
should ask two pertinent questions:
(1) Why is the Latin script preferred over
the Ge'ez script for the non-Semitic languages of Ethiopia? Latin was certainly not originally
designed with Ethiopian non-Semitic languages in mind.
(2) Is not the Latin script a development
of a Semitic script? It sure is.
We know that the Latin script is called
Alphabet? Alphabet comes from "alef bet,"a Semitic name for a Semitic
invention. It is called so because the Semitic script begins with "a"
called alef, and "b" called bet. The letter "b" was called
"bet" (meaning "house") because it initially looked like a
house. Our bet has still preserves the form of a house: በ. (B). A closer study of some of the letters of the so-called
Latin script would reveal how it developed from a Semitic script. For example,
it is not coincidental that the Latin "t" looks like the Ge'ez "ተ", the Latin "w" looks like the Ge'ez
"ወ", the Latin "m" looks like the Ge'ez
"መ," the Latin "o" looks like Ge'ez
"ዐ". What would we get if we write the letter
"o" and put a line through it? The Latin got "Q", and we
got ቀ. Both developed from a symbol created to represent
the same sound.
§
"Under
this section, the language policy experiences of Nigeria, India, and Switzerland are examined. These countries are
selected based on their similarities to Ethiopia in terms of diversity and their
experiences on the subject matter." This is totally wrong. I can
understand the similarity of the case of Switzerland with that of Ethiopia but not of Nigeria and India which were colonized by Great Britain and English was imposed on them. Proud Switzerland never considered using a foreign
language. Similarly, Ethiopia was never colonized nor ever considered using
a foreign language when it had proud leaders. The strange thing is that Fiseha
Haftetsion examines the language policies of these countries but he recommends
none of them. For example, he tells us that Switzerland uses all its four languages and Nigeria and India use their own local languages and English
as national languages. But for Ethiopia he recommends to do away with the indigenous
national language to give the place for English! Why was the need for examining
the language policies of these countries?
§
"The
EPRDF is composed of four parties: the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF),
the Amhara Nation’s Democratic Movement (ANDM), the Oromo People’s Democratic
Organization (OPDO), and the Southern Peoples’ Democratic Movement
(SPDM)." Come on Ato Fiseha Haftetsion Gebresilassie! You must have
written this to deceive your advisors. The reality, and what you and we all know,
is that the EPRDF is composed of TPLF and its Telettafis, created by TPLF.
§
"Among
the indicators of ethnic exploitation for the TPLF was the imposition of the
Amharic language of the Amhara rulers on the Tigray people that had its own distinct
spoken and written Tigrinya language." This totally false statement is repeated.
Tigray never had a written language other than Ge'ez and Amharic. Ask Dejjach
Subagadis, Ras Alula and Emperor Yohannes, all from Tigray, what their official
language was. "Amharic, of course!' would be their immediate and unequivocal
reply. Check letters they wrote to foreigners and foreign authorities. All
letters of communication written in Amharic even from ordinary Tigrayan from
Tigray are published for all to see.”Internal Rivalries and foreign threats 1869-1879
Edited by Sven Rubesnson (Document 4 p/6 Assegeheng to Antonie d’Abadie, 12
Feb, 1869”. See
also all document or letters of communication by Dejach Kifleyesus Amde Michael
ruler of Enderta (1747-1773) Ras Welde Selassie
Kifleyesus (hereditary chief of Enderta -before Emperor Yohannes).
Check also all Emperor Yohannes’s letters.
All indicated Amharic not Tigringa was traditional written language in Tigray.
If it did, it never came out strong or never was favorite written language of
communication comparatively to the the already favourite Amharic language by
ordinary Tigrayans and by “all” hereditary chiefs of Tigray. No hereditary chief
in Tigray started to replace Amharic for Tigringa. No document showed such, if
at all there was any attempt. The leaders and citizens clearly understood that
Amharic language and its written alphabet is born out from the womb of Ge’ez.
Their names and their accessorial names indicated Amharic names- because it is
theirs, not any bodies. It is only the present deluded TPLF elites want Amharic
to be eradicated from the face of the earth to be replaced by foreign languages
“English/Latin” in the name of “Globalization” (conspiracy!).
None of the (letters/documents) was in any
language other than Amharic and Ge'ez. This is what happened regarding Amharic:
The rulers who came after Emperor Yohannes inherited its use as a national
language from Emperor Yohannes, just as the Emperor inherited it from his
predecessors. No politician is to be credited for it. Amharic became the
national language by historical accident and popular choice.
§
Regarding
TPLF's Constitution, Fiseha Haftetsion laments, "Despite the extensive
rights given by the TPC (Transitional Period Charter) to the nations, nationalities,
and peoples of Ethiopia, article 19 of the same document declares English and
Amharic texts to have equal authenticity ignoring the duty to translate the
charter to any of the other languages as one could expect in situations of true
language equality." What is this? Was he expecting the Transitional Period
Charter, which was shelved away within months, to be translated into eighty languages?
§
Regarding
minorities in a given Killil, Fiseha Haftetsion states, of course, expressing
the position of his bosses, "The minorities may be ‘indigenous’ people to
the area that have their defined territory within the states or ‘immigrants’
who came in search of economic opportunities from the other regions." What
a fallacy! What a distortion! And what an ignorance! He does not understand
that we, all people of the world, came at different times to a given region
from another "in search of economic opportunities from the other
regions." He is not aware that popular movement is an ongoing process. He
does not see how, by ignoring this historical fact, he is creating an Adam and
Eve for every ethnic group in the world. Are the Semitic language-speaking
Gurages, who live in the south, "indigenous" or "immigrant"?
The fundamental point is, however, that no one who lives anywhere in his own
country, including Fiseha Haftetsion Gebresilassie, can possibly be called an
immigrant, just because he/she lives outside his/her birth place. There is no
Ethiopian Diaspora who lives in Ethiopia.
§
After
applauding TPLF's policy that children of what he called "immigrants"
to learn their primary and kindergarten education in the language of the Killil
they live in as guests, Fiseha Haftetsion regrets that "children in Addis Ababa are forced to learn their primary and
kindergarten education in Amharic, regardless of their ethnic
backgrounds." What a contradiction! Whose are these children, of the indigenous
or immigrants? He and his like—"immigrants," according to his classification—want
to live in Addis Ababa and benefit from the policy TPLF designed for the
"indigenous" people!
§
In a
nutshell, Fiseha Haftetsion Gebresilassie's disappointment is "the predominant
position given to the Amharic language by explicitly recognizing its importance
as a language of country-wide communication, despite the historic association
of the language with oppression and discrimination." Has English, the language
he wants to replace Amharic, no association with oppression and discrimination
in Africa? Actually, the historic association of
Amharic was not with oppression and discrimination but with the legacy of
preserving the unity of the nation.
§
"Despite
the privileged status given to Amharic, there is no certainty of advantage
associated with speaking the language for Ethiopians . . .. Rather it symbolizes
the dominance of its speakers, negatively affects the promotion of other languages."
Who are "its speakers"? As far as I know, the majority are those who gave
up their languages and adopted Amharic during the process of national unity. Amharic
was initially the language of the Amharas of the region of Amhara Sayint. The
rest of those outside that region, including those who founded the ShoaAmhara
dynasty in 1270, have been from the different ethnic groups (Tigrayans
included). One can call them the Amharicized or naturalized Amharas or
"nationalized" Ethiopians. Furthermore, dominance comes, as Fiseha
Haftetsion knows, from the barrel of the gun (as TPLF did it), not from
speaking a given language. Nevertheless, he and his group can be like the rest
and part of them as soon as they speak Amharic.
§
"Adopting
English as the sole official working language of the Federal Government of
Ethiopia by displacing the position of Amharic would have two advantages.
(1) It would contain potential violent
conflicts over language use and (2) Maximizes economic benefits from global
employment and business opportunities."
With this bold statement, Fiseha
Haftetsion nullified all the cases he examined in the preceding paragraphs, Nigeria, India and
Switzerland, none of which ever thought shamefully of throwing out their
national languages in favour of a foreign language. The two advantages the
author listed do not exist; at least, we have no evidence for their existence.
They are his creations. If there is any violent conflict regarding the use of
Amharic, it is what has been nurtured and promoted by his TPLF. The second in
his list of advantages is most ridiculous: Indians are not at a disadvantage
because they have their national languages besides English. For his
information, English-speaking American business is moving to India.
getachre@aol.com
