Mereja Forum

[teodroseIII]

We are a society that has never dealt with the traumas of the 1970’s. Far from healing from the horrific events that led to the genocide of more than 500,000 at the hands of Mengistu Hailemariam and his henchmen, traumas were compounded by another 27 years of despotism that instilled fear and loathing deep into the psyche of our nation. The first step towards restoration is to admit we have a problem, but we have been so scarred emotionally and spiritually that we would rather resort to insults and screaming matches instead of having conversations that can lead us to rejuvenation.

Grant it, my memory of Ethiopia is fleeting and distant; I left my birth land at the age of seven in 1982. Thirty seven years of assimilation and chasing the America dream has robbed me of my ability to speak Amharic fluently and washed away my accent. All I have are faded memories of my time in Bole, my grandmother Emaye and the happiness I felt as a child in a land that I love with all my heart. Yet in between these recollection of mirth, I remember the angst that my parents felt and the sense of uneasiness they harbored.

In hindsight, I realize why my parents were so apprehensive and why they used to try to hush me up whenever I used to talk freely about Ethiopia. Society was truly Orwellian back then, Ethiopians were distrustful of friends and strangers alike during the height of Marxism in Ethiopia. For a good reason too, the Derg would lock up anyone that was suspected of being subversive or associated with the opposition. All it took was an unsubstantiated allegation or a whisper of gossip for agents to knock at your door. Untold number of Ethiopians disappeared and were never heard of again without being....continued...

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