Ethiopia: Keep Your Eyes on the Stars, and Your Feet on the Ground - Dawit W Giorgis

This article was inspired by the brief but passionate statement made by my brother Tamagne Beyene when he was invited at the podium by PM Ably Ahmed while addressing the Ethiopians in the diaspora at the convention center in Washington DC. 

Referring to the greatness of the Ethiopian history and civilization, Tamagne said that Ethiopia has been mentioned in the Bible and the Koran several times. It is indeed very true. I want to compliment this historical assertion by adding a little more.

Watching the gathering of over a million people at the Revolution Square celebrating the end of tyranny and emergence of a democratic era under a unifying leader, and a few days ago watching the diaspora at the Convention center in Washington DC gathered to just see PM Abiy Ahmed, the unifying leader of Ethiopia, and listening to the interviews of many who attended the colorful gathering of over 25,000, (the capacity of the hall) one cannot stop wondering what is going on in Ethiopia? 

Those with deep faith say it is the direct work of God and those who are not as deeply religious are now scrambling to look for an answer. Majority believe that it cannot be a simple coincidence.

Ethiopia had never sunk so low in the treatment and despair of its people. Ethiopia had never stretched its hands for so long. Psalm 68:31 say “ Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God” Today it seems that God is receiving the stretched hands. Some say that finally Ethiopia is at peace with God. 

We witness millions of hands locked in each other singing the songs of peace and love and praying that they would stay locked forever. The messianic dimension of PM Abiy Ahmed has reached the limits of over statement. Like Marcus Garvey’s movement which “was designed to restructure a fallen race and like a prophet, he was impatient for its accomplishment.” In his address Whom and What is a Negro? One can feel his impatience Garvey says:

“The power and sway we once held passed away, but now in the 20th century we are about to see the return of it in the rebuilding of Africa, yes: a new civilization, a new culture, shall spring up from among our people, and the Nile shall once more flow through the land of science, of art, and literature, wherein will live black men of the highest learning and the highest accomplishments”

Marcus Garvey never visited Ethiopia. All his knowledge of Ethiopia was biblical. The movement he organized to accomplish these goals was known as the Universal Negro Improvement Association and the national Anthem “ Ethiopia Thou Land of Our Fathers “ is to be found in the declaration of Rights of the Negro Peoples of the World adopted in NY in 1920(100 years ago!!!)

Read this beautiful lyric and feel the powerful radiation on the greatness of Ethiopia.

“Ethiopia Thou Land of Our Fathers“

“Ethiopia, thou land of our forefathers

Thou land where the Gods loved to be,

As the storm cloud at night suddenly gathers

Our armies come rushing to thee.

We must in the fight be victorious

When swords are thrust outward to gleam,

For us will the victory be glorious

When led by the green, yellow and red

Chorus

Advance to victory

Let Africa be free;

Advance to meet the foe

With the might

Of the green yellow and red

Ethiopia, the tyrants failing

Who smote thee upon thy knees,

And thy children are lustily calling

From over the distant seas.

Jehovah, the great one has heard us,

Has noted sighs and our tears

With his spirit of Love he has stirred us

To be one through the coming years “

Though the anthem was for the liberation of the black race, Ethiopia was the Promised Land, the defender, foundation and home for this united movement, which inspired the Rastafarian Movement. The outside world believed in the greatness of Ethiopia and its people. The prophets in the Old Testament and the Disciples of Christ and later Mohamed the Prophet mentioned this land of ours as the land of peace and justice. 

It does not really matter whether this civilization, which grew up along the banks of the Nile and the coasts of the Red Sea, has today different homes, different names and different governments. The bottom line is that they were and are one people as they have been for thousands of years.

There was no other name even though Egyptologist interpret it differently. The word Ethiopia referred to all known parts of Africa then, as Ethiopia. There should be no confusion of identity for all which inhabited these areas to call themselves Ethiopians. On the contrary ‘Ethiopian’ refers to every segment of the population on the lower banks of the Nile, the coast of the Red Sea. 

Today Ethiopia might not be as big as it was in history or in the imaginations of people but Ethiopia has been an all inclusive name which inspired all black people in the Caribbean, in the US and in Africa and known as the beacon of freedom and the origin of mankind.

For the last 28 years I have lived and worked in Africa. I have studied Africa and have written a lot about various aspects of the politics of African governments. I have not seen or heard of a single leader that has galvanized peoples emotions, that has united people across ethnic and religious lines and obtained the universal acknowledgments because of the values he preached, by the hope he inspired and by sharing a vision of Ethiopia for all. 

So many before him have said the same words and have preached the same principles of love reconciliation but none have been able to mobilize such feverish and infectious honor and reverence that can only be given to special and rare people that appear at certain times in history.

The late Nelson Mandela was one. Mandela was never a Saint. He was a shrewd politician. He was a man that found himself between a rock and a hard place. Mandela will certainly be remembered as one of the best negotiators in history. He was “the greatest negotiator of the twentieth century,” wrote Harvard Law School professor and Program on Negotiation Chairman Robert Mnookin in his book ‘Bargaining With the Devil, When to Negotiate, When to Fight.’

He cites Mandela’s patience, tenacity, pragmatism, and strategic thinking: “He rejected the simple-minded notion that one must either negotiate with the Devil or forcibly resist. He did both. He was willing to make concessions, but not about what was most important to him. With respect to his key political principles, he was unmovable.” 

He was one leader who removed apartheid and introduced majority rule under the first black president, Mandela. He received a divided nation and a nation still segregated along color and economic lines. South Africa remains to be a fragile democracy and the most unequal country in the world. There is no consensus on Mandela’s legacy. Mandela did what was humanly possible and only Saints can go beyond that,

PM Ably Ahmed is another popular untested leader who has inspired unprecedented hope and expectations. He has the mandate of 90% of the population to make the reform that the people have died and suffered for. The coming two years will tell us how Ethiopians will judge him. None should expect him to do a Saintly work because he is not. Half of the ball is in his court and if he does not deliver on what is possible he has no one to blame but himself. The other half is in the people's court to do their part.

In my work in Ethiopia and Africa I have met one real Saint and many other ordinary people who have dedicated their lives to do good to others unconditionally. These are people who have made differences in peoples lives by not judging but loving and helping any body that is in need. One person whom I have come to know closely is Mother Teresa, now Saint Teresa. Mother Teresa was canonized into Saint Teresa at the Vatican joining Saint Nicholas, Joan of Arc and thousands of others the Church found to be interceding with God in heaven to perform miracles on Earth.

I met Saint Teresa for the first time in 1984 in Ethiopia during the most difficult and complicated humanitarian crisis Ethiopia had ever faced. She was a simple person who preached love and peace. She is not a preacher. She does not even talk as fluently as modern day pastors. Her simplicity both in her words and in her life style humbles the greatest and the most arrogant of human beings. Her words are so powerful and the way she treats the poorest of the poor in society and the effects it has on these people feels divine. It disarms any man with ego as it did when I took her to a courtesy call to President Mengistu. (Read Red Tears)

The first time I met her was in Sidist Kilo at the shelter established by her organization, ‘Sisters of Charity.’ She took me around to see her patients in the various wards, over two hundred, picked from the streets with nowhere to go trying to find a descent place to die. Mother Teresa’s organization, gives such terminally ill people and people in great pain, the dignity to die in peace and with love around them. 

What I saw that day changed my life forever. The way she communicates with the terminally ill, the disabled, the deformed and the dying is just beyond belief and not what I have experienced any where else: and I am a man that has worked in all the countries of Africa affected by huge humanitarian crisis. The reaction of her patients was equally astonishing. They would submit to her blessings as she hugs each one of them and prays for them. The rooms of at least 50 in each are dead silent as each of the patients wait for their turn to hug her, look at her with hope, awe and reverence.

I was not able to sleep that night. The fact that I was not close enough to comfort them the way she did, made me feel guilty. I came the next day and went through the same process of visiting her patients. I was not there to contribute but to simply feel the experience the loving and holy relationship between Mother Teresa, a divine person and her patients who are under extreme pain. I travelled with her to Bale and Jijiga to see more of her centers, and the Saintly love that she gave to all her patients wherever she went. When she left Ethiopia, I saw her at the airport and hoped to see her in her HQ in Calcutta, India, which I did.

Mother Teresa was the true definition of love. One day, Mother Teresa took in a woman off the streets of Calcutta. Her body was a mess of open sores infested with bugs. Mother Teresa patiently bathed her, cleaning and dressing her wounds. The woman never stopped shrieking insults at her. Mother Teresa only smiled.

Finally, the woman snarled, “Sister, why are you doing this? Not everyone behaves like you. Who taught you?”

She replied simply, “My God taught me.” When the woman asked whom this god was, Mother Teresa kissed her on the forehead and said: “You know my God. My God is called love.”

This was the simple truth that Mother Teresa lived by. It was a faith nourished and renewed every day in the Eucharist. “The Mass is the spiritual food that sustains me—without which I could not get through one single day or hour in my life,” she said.

I did correspond with her on hand written mails even after I left Ethiopia. I cherish those uplifting letters. I met her in New Jersey when she came to visit the USA. I have a chapter titled “My Faith in Humanity “ in my upcoming book where I will deal in detail about my experience with her and people like her who made differences in the lives of people with extreme pain. Leaders like Mandela and now an emerging leader PM Ably Ahmed cannot be Saints just by the nature of their mission but can learn a lot in the power of faith, in giving poor, desperate people hope for justice, freedom, equal opportunities and prosperity for all.

Faith has an important place in their endeavor to meet the expectations of people. Astute politicians with strong faith are more likely to succeed in addressing the needs of their people. “ Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, into that heaven of freedom my father let my country awake:” (Rabindranath Tagore: an Indian poet.) With good leaders such world is possible.

Of course PM Abiy is a politician guided by the principles of the Muslim and Christian values that love is the only tie that can bind us. Leadership is all about bringing people together under shared values and creating a brighter and better future. Some ridicule when PM Abiy shares this bold ideas, imaginative goals, which may seem impossible, but ideas, imagination, and dreams are the fabric that positive leaders weave together to create the future and change the world.

Being religious or spiritual can help leaders abandon their ego and power trips and truly be an ordinary person in the service of their people. Politics can provide a practical forum for applying spiritual principles such as compassion, love, and reconciliation but if a leader doesn’t “walk the talk” and if his words are more pious than his deeds he will be quickly rejected. And Ethiopians are quick in doing that. 

Bringing spiritual values such as altruism and courage into politics could be useful attributes. But leaders have to be careful not to be seen as naïve. When God commands us to love and forgive He means to love them holistically. Leaders have to protect the people from the corrupt moral influences of others. That means leaders have to care for the people, protect them from evildoers, protect the country from people who can create discord and ambivalence and punish those that don’t abide by the rule of law. 

These require timely and calculated bold decisions. The leader must always be ahead of the game and beat the enemies by the rules. This is the responsibility of any leader who wants to protect and defend the children of God and achieve his goals. Gandhi had no trouble bringing his spirituality and politics together. He said, “I could not lead a religious life unless I identified with the whole of mankind, and that I could not do unless I took part in politics.”

Ethiopians today are yearning for a spiritually based politics guided by moral and traditional values, the kind of politics that doesn’t appeal only to a segment of the population and pits one group against another. They have gone through that for 27 years. They want “a type of political discourse that speaks to their deepest values as human beings, that provides a greater sense of community and a transcendent purpose as a nation, that offers us a higher vision of public life and service to the common good–rather than appealing only to greed and lust for power. “

Ethiopia is unique. It is unique because it is the oldest civilization and the cradle of humanity. Ethiopia is unique because it has inspired hope for freedom and better future for the black race. Ethiopia is unique because it is both in the imagination, history and legends like no other country has in this world. Ethiopia is unique because it is the first African country to accept Islam. 

It is unique because it is the intersection of Christianity and Muslim civilizations, the intersection of Arab and African culture long before it reached much of North Africa and what is now known as the Arab world. My brother Tamagne mentioned Bilal in a correct and relevant context. Let me add more by quoting another scholar; brother Najib Mohammed.

“With this spirit in mind, Bilal ibn Rabah, an Ethiopian slave living in Makkah, became a leading companion of the Prophet Muhammad.

….In Islamic history and tradition, Ethiopia (Abyssinia or Al-Habasha) is known as the “Haven of the First Migration or Hijra.” For Muslims, Ethiopia is synonymous with freedom from persecution and emancipation from fear…….the first migration [Hijra] of the Companions and relatives of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) to Ethiopia celebrates the birth of freedom of expression and beliefs, whereas, the Second Migration of the Prophet Muhammad to the Madinah celebrates the end of oppression.

History has shown that the first migration to Ethiopia and the second migration to Madinah have indeed laid down the foundation on which Islam, as a universal religion, was built. Ever since that experience, the Muslim community, wherever they settled, shifted from the positive of minority to majority, from weakness to permanent strength, from tribalism to universal brotherhood that knows no defined political boundaries…Prophet Muhammad trusted that his followers and relatives would be better off if they migrated to a country whose religion was Christianity-a scriptural religion whose Prophet was Jesus son of Mary. 

He was not afraid that his followers would convert and give up their faith in favor of any other established religion. He was more convinced that Islam would be more protected in its infancy in a fertile and prosperous land ruled by the Scripture than among the ignominious pagans of Arabia.” (The Haven of the First Hijra (Migration): an African nation is the Muslims’ first refuge “ By Br. Najib Mohammed.

Simon of Cyrene who helped Christ to bear his cross on the day of the crucifixion was an Ethiopian. In the days of the early church, very shortly after Jesus had been raised from the dead and ascended to His father in Heaven, an Ethiopian Government Official came to Jerusalem to Worship the God of Israel. The story of this event is recorded by Dr. Luke in Acts 8:26. 

The historian Josephus, quoting Herodotus, in his Antiquities Ch.10 tells us that Moses married Tharbis, the Daughter of the King of Ethiopia, and obtained a peaceful surrender. There are major references to Ethiopia found in Isaiah, 18:1, 20:3-4, and 45:14. The Sabean inscriptions found in Abyssinia go back some 2,600 years and give a new value to the Bible references as well as to the constant claim of Josephus that the queen of Sheba (Saba), was a “Queen of Ethiopia.” 

In Biblical times Ethiopia encompassed the territory of what is now known as Ethiopia, Eritrea as well as Sudan, Somalia. This is therefore every Ethiopian’s history. It is all about Eritrea, us Oromos, Tigrays, Gambellas, Gurages, Amharas, Konsos, Welayitas , Afars and Sidamas. The Ethiopia that history has recorded is about all these people, not less. It is about all who settled in this holy corner of the world that was either called Ethiopia or Abyssinia. 

Let us not split hairs and seek divisions when the historical material, the scriptures, the Koran and all the literatures spanning thousands of years are there to let us know that we were all Ethiopians then when this history was made. Let us remain so because were made to be so. Eritrea has adopted this name and has a different government but it is indeed central to this biblical and Koranic history. Sudan may have a different name and government but it was the people along the Nile valley that used to be called Ethiopians (Cushitic) By accepting history and cherishing it we feed fodder to the efforts to restore our fledging unity.

Some self righteous scholars have been tarnished by self-destructive thoughts that are pushing them to deny or make no effort to know their own history. They preach heresies. But they can’t get rid of the truth. It is there for anybody to find it. And the truth does not make any one lesser person but prouder, glorious and unified people. 

While many other countries manufacture history to build a sense of nationalism we Ethiopians (Ethiopia in biblical terms) prefer to deny the irreversible truth. By doing so we are losing an important element of the past that binds us together and also deny hope to the black race, which used to consider this region as the flag post of freedom and justice. We betrayed the dreams and aspiration of people to see Ethiopia leading the way for the greater good of Africa.

That is why the unity in some form, of Eritrea and Ethiopia, can be a prelude to regional integration. In this Ethiopia and Eritrea must be seen playing the lead role. Ethiopia and Eritrea should accept this responsibly but to do this they must first put their houses in order, harmonize their polices and ensure free flow of information and of goods and services.

Destiny has burdened PM Abiy Ahmed with the responsibility to lead the second most populated country in Africa. I once had an article criticizing the policies of the Obama administration on Africa titled “Absent from Africa.” It was published on “The National Interest.” In it I stated “ The Obama administration’s foreign policy is often criticized as ”leading from behind ” 

The term appears to have been taken from former South African president Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, in which he recommended: “It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur.” Mandela’s quote, however, is incomplete without the next sentence, which states “You take the front line when there is danger.” The article was written in relationship to the War on Terror in Africa.

Let Ethiopians think big. Let us come out of the dustbins and be what PM Abiy Ahmed aspires us to be. PM Abiy is just another human being with a calling but certainly with flaws. Let those around him be honest and bold enough to tell him not what he wants to hear but what he must hear. We understand that he is responsive, honest compassionate but not soft and in tune with the feelings of his people a leader with empathy. 

But he will also be vulnerable to human weaknesses. Let the people around him be strong enough, knowledgeable enough and committed enough to freely discuss with him and support him in making decisions that are to the best interest of all Ethiopians. Great leaders are great listeners. We expect our leader to have the wisdom and the patience to listen. In other words, talk less and listen more. “The best leaders are proactive, strategic, and intuitive listeners. They recognize knowledge and wisdom are not gained by talking, but by listening.”

Let PM Abiy not underestimate his enemies. They are everywhere. Let him be vigilant and ever watchful. The united struggle is just beginning. Let our PM be aware that ONLF and OLF are potent enemies that will never submit to unified Ethiopia. They are forces to be reckoned with. Let our PM be aware that our enemies within and outside are working twice as hard to destroy the unity you are constructing. 

Let us all be aware that while we celebrate these joyous historical moments there are those who take advantage of the unfettered freedom in the country and the compassion of our leader, to spread their evil tentacle which will be harder to unlock as we give it more time. Let wisdom reign in all our leaders. Let us join the PM in his blessed calling by guiding him, by communicating with him, by informing him and by cleansing the evil with in each one of us and amongst us. Let us be the pride of Africa, the beacon of freedom and righteousness for the black race the way Marcus Garvey wished and struggled for.

PM Abiy Ahmed you are an optimist and so are we.
“An optimist is neither naive, nor blind to the facts, nor in denial of grim reality. An optimist believes in the optimal usage of all options available, no matter how limited. As such, an optimist always sees the big picture. 

How else to keep track of all that’s out there? An optimist is simply a proactive realist. An optimist is neither naive, nor blind to the facts, nor in denial of grim reality. An optimist believes in the optimal usage of all options available, no matter how limited. As such, an optimist always sees the big picture. How else to keep track of all that’s out there? An optimist is simply a proactive realist.” Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

* In the original Anthem“ Ethiopia Thou Land of Our Fathers “ the colors of the Ethiopian flag were written wrongly but corrected by later comments.