THREAD

Tesfa (hope) for #Ethiopia

Yesterday morning, I published a letter to the #Tigray|an community with the aim of extending a hand of friendship even though we might be on the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to the conflict in Ethiopia.

I honestly did not know how the letter would be received; there was a part of me that was expecting a blowback from both the Tigrayan community and those who support @AbiyAhmedAli’s campaign against the TPLF. Such is the state of affairs in our community where anything less than

100% agreement is treated with 100% contempt. This is why most Ethiopians have withdrawn from politics only to cede the stage to the vocal fringe who insist on tearing open scabs and perpetuating historical pains without doing anything so salve wounds.

So I was not only pleasantly surprised, I was floored when I started getting direct messages after direct messages from the Tigrayan community thanking me for seeing them and not demonizing their side. I also received an outpouring of appreciation

from the pro-Abiy side even though I wrote a letter that humanized the struggles of Tigrayans because I did so without diminishing the struggles of their side. There is a way to communicate without alienating sides, in fact warring factions can be brought together

through conversations. People who read my writing know that I am far from a TPLF supporter, I have taken them to task over and over again for dragging the country into war. But I’m also not an Abiy apologist, I have also criticized him in the past for creeping towards

the very same despotism that his predecessors regularly trafficked in. I have always said that people on polar opposites of debates who are convinced that they are each other’s enemies can find a common cause once they realize

that they are actually sharing the same hurts. I interviewed @MarciaLDyson once and she made a comment that really stuck in my heart. She said that humans have a commonality of pains and that people who are on different sides can find areas of agreement.

I know that to be true; time and time again I have run across some of the most rabid Trump supporters only for us to come to a level of agreement about the ways we are all getting gamed by a crooked system that enriches the rich and impoverishes the poor.

I’ve even talked to a former KKK member during my time in South Carolina who once apologized to me once I talked to him about my journey from Ethiopia and the struggles I went through trying to fit into America. What he hated in the abstract, a “black” man who life conditioned

him to disparage, was washed away once I humanized the things he abhorred without context. But as much as I knew that once enemies can bridge gaps and become allies, I really doubted that this axiom would apply to the divides in #Ethiopia.

The pains too deep, the misunderstanding too wide, I just knew that I was going to get nothing but grief for my efforts when I wrote the letter to the Tigrayan community. To the contrary, aside from the occasional tweet or two of people reflexively

throwing barbs at me without even reading the article, I’ve been getting one message after another thanking me for what I wrote. It was touching and some of the messages made me tear up, the profuse thanks I received for understanding and relaying their pains of Tigrayans

was especially moving. One sister in particular noted that she has been getting all kinds of taunts and insults for simply conveying her concerns for the safety of her family in Tigray. This is the tragedy of all wars, though I find myself backing Abiy due to the criminality

of the TPLF, I nonetheless am VERY empathetic to the plight that our Tigrayan brothers and sisters and the difficulties they are going through. Most of you don’t understand and cast stones without appreciating their predicament, if they speak out against TPLF at this moment,

they will be seen as supporting the campaign that most Tigrayans feel is being waged against them. If they speak against the campaign, their words will be seen as support for the TPLF even if a lot of them silently see them for the mafia that they are.

But what was affirmed throughout this whole day is what I thought was not possible for our community, it is possible to find common ground and build a consensus if we only talk to each other instead of yelling past one another.

Moreover, there is a marginalized majority on all sides who yearn for a different path forward but who have been browbeaten into silence by the vocal and zealous minority. There is tesfa for our country and that hope is not in people who are so hurt that all they know how to do

is hurt others. The hope resides in those who were hurt but retained their empathy and their compassion for humanity. To those people, to the Tigrayans, to the Oromos, to the Ahmaras, to the Somalis and to all Ethiopians who refuse to be tribalists

yet have withdrawn into the shadows because they see no hope, to you I tell you to rise up. TENESU! Our country needs us, we can’t keep our mouths shut and still our tongues only to see extremists burn our country and our people to the ground. There is strength in numbers,

have the audacity to buck the trend! Worse comes to worse you will get insults, who cares! We are children of jegnoch and arbeghnoch whose ancestors took the brunt of cannons and chemical weapons; surely, we can take the heat of some ethnocentrism who talks with half-knowledge

and even lesser vision. I am not saying to get into screaming matches with those folks who only know how to hurl insults; be kind to them for they only do what they do because they are deeply wounded. What I am saying is to dare to speak your mind and challenge conventions

and I swear you will be shocked to find that others will join your effort. Change happens in this way, it is not through a big bang, it is one by one, first within then without, soon enough, block by block, province by province we will turn our country around.

Even though our efforts might be long and the toil will make us weary, one day, when we look back in our old age, we will do so with pride knowing that we did not skulk into the night but that we had the courage to rise to the challenge.

Over the next couple of weeks, my wife @BettyBeke and I will work to create a common platform for Ethiopians of all stripes to come together and work towards a common goal. If you are interested in joining this effort, email us at [email protected].

Let me end it with this, after nine months of being shrouded in darkness and not being able to see past restrictions, eventually the water breaks and a journey starts that is at first horrific as the comforts of confines lead to cries and tears.

But eventually the journey ends in the embrace of loving hands. I’m talking about the birthing of a child, but I’m also talking about the birthing of a new day for Ethiopia. The water is breaking at this moment, but broken waters, tsebel, lead to a new day.

May God bless #Ethiopia. ትዮጵያ ለዘላለም ትኑር::

By the way, this was the article that was the catalyst for this thread and for all the messages I received. Act with love and love will react back to you. #Message https://ghionjournal.com/a-letter-to-our-tigrayan-brothers-and-sisters/

Lastly, @BettyBeke and I have been trying to get this to be a thing, share this thread using #HealEthiopiaTogether, let us change the narrative from that of only conflict to that of people working together. This is truly how we heal #Ethiopia together.

-ALEKE-