Mereja Forum

[teodroseIII]

It has been a tough couple of weeks for all who have been following the conflict in Ethiopia that reached a major milestone yesterday afternoon. I know whatever distresses people like me, who have been engaged with the developments taking place in Ethiopia from the comforts of distant lands, have felt pales in comparison to the angst that people on the frontlines—civilians and combatants alike—have been enduring in Mek’ele, Shire, Hawzen and beyond. Same goes for the anxieties countless millions of Ethiopians have been feeling from the time TPLF made the fateful decision to attack their own country’s defense forces.

It is precisely because I have been so vested in Ethiopia and care deeply about her people that I write this open letter to you Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. As an Ethiopian who left my birthland at the age of eight not out of choice but out of force due to the menace of Mengistu Hailemariam and his ruthless regime, my voice could be dismissed as the chatter of the “diaspora”. But I humbly submit to you, You Excellency, that I and the millions of expatriates who have been scattered into the wind are in fact constituents to be courted; we are the talented tenth that Du Bois alluded to who could return home and fundamentally reverse the brain drain that is kneecapping Ethiopia and Africa writ large.

Beyond the potential that an influx of talented and motivated Ethiopians returning home could have in terms of fostering a transformational change for the land of origins, it is an imperative that we get beyond the age of division and enter into an era of inclusion. It is specifically on this point that I write to you today Ato Abiy; for too long Ethiopians have been sliced and diced into the ghettos of ethnic Bantustans to the benefit of the TPLF and the detriment of everyone else. The violence and chaos we have been witnessing for the past couple of years are not your responsibility as much as they are the manifestations of a plan hatched a long time ago to destabilize Ethiopia by...continued...

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