For the past couple of days, I’ve been having a running dialogue with a fellow Ethiopian sister who happens to be Tigrayan. I’ll call her Selam in order to protect her identity. Surprisingly, given the nature of the topic and the passions that this conflict in Ethiopia have aroused on all sides, the conversation was very fruitful. Instead of shouting at each other, we both made our points and I told her why I oppose the TPLF.
After a few DMs back and forth, she agreed that the TPLF were corrupt and were taking advantage of the average Tigrayan and that she actually voted for CUD in 2005. She also noted that she actually voted for CUD in 2005. The old me would have judged her harshly because she supports a junta that brutalized Ethiopians for decades, but now I understand that people who support politicians, parties or ideologies can’t be judged collectively, there are nuances to these things.
She was non-committal with respect to the TPLF until this current conflict changed everything; she went from being a critic to being a fierce supporter in a flash. When people feel attacked, they embrace those who pretend to be defending them. The concept of a “liberation front” is laughable in this way, Africa’s bane of existence are these supposed liberation fronts that are nothing more than front companies for colonial powers who fund and arm them in order to destabilize countries and steal their natural resources.
But these identity based groups, whether TPLF or the Tea Party in America, work precisely because they give voice to a people who feel like they have been rendered voiceless. So it made a lot of sense why Selam immediately backed TPLF when the conflict flared up; the outbreak of violence forced her to choose sides. Remember how George Bush’s approval rating shot up to 90% after 9/11? Heck even I supported him for a brief second after...continued...
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