Naga Tuma wrote: ↑31 Mar 2021, 17:25
When I heard the recent news about a potential federation of Eritrea with Ethiopia, I asked myself if this could be for real.
I also asked what kind of vision could be driving it.
Could it be the kind of Britain's Commonwealth style of relationship between the former colonizer and the colonized even if I would hate to say that our Eritrean brothers and sisters were colonized by Ethiopia?
Could it be that Colonel Goshu Wolde's prayer for divine intervention in 1991 was finally heard?
Could it be that the raison d'être for the formation of the EPLF and subsequent armed struggle for 30 years was settled in 1991 when it took control of Eritrea and its tanks rolled from Nakfa all the way to Ethiopia's capital and took siege of its palace?
If my limited reading serves me right, the raison d'être was not the existence of that federation, but its undermining by Ethiopia. If there is truth in this reading, I don't think that there is any more score left for Eritrea to settle with Ethiopia in order to look for a mutual vision, not on Ethiopia's terms but on mutual terms.
I also asked if it may be a politically calculated vision to win through federation instead of losing to a potential future war if the attitude of Tamirat Negera type takes traction in Ethiopia in the years to come.
In addition, I have also asked if Eritrea sees a more diverse political environment in Ethiopia today compared to when it was in its liberation struggle. I still remember reading in the 1990s or so an Eritrean analyst foreseeing the influence of Afan Oromo speakers in Ethiopia as a forgone conclusion.
I would be the first to admit that I am biased in favor of Eritrea's federation or whatever mutual political arrangement it can make with Ethiopia. Given the region’s geopolitical location, I imagine synergy (መደማመር, different from መደመር) out of it. Even then, I would be happy to understand the bottom line debate among Eritreans for or against repairing the undermined federation in order to choose a vision for the future instead of living in the pain of the past.
Looking to the future and Eritrea's settling scores with Ethiopia, population data on the internet suggests that there are about 33 Ethiopians for every Eritrean. Project this data onto Tiffany Haddish, Joe Neguse, and Alexander Isak of Eritrean heritage. My biased thinking imagines if renewing the federation on mutual terms could avail opportunities for producing 33 Ethiopians for each one of them in a future generation.
As biased as I am to see the two countries try to renew the federation, whenever I see the talented Alexander Isak, I wonder if he has any time for a vacation, take a trip during that time to travel to not only Eritrea but also every possible corner of Ethiopia, watch young Ethiopians play balls, and envision ways for them to rise together in numbers even if he has set the bar so high that few may be able to reach it.
I think about what successful people like him say in the Eritrean debate about reproaching Ethiopia or vice versa.
That is just one example. In general, when I think about those Eritreans who went through the pain of the liberation movement, I always remember another parallel world, the world of FORTRAN. As the fingers of young Ethiopians and Eritreans were trained on triggers, the fingers of young people in many other places around the world were being trained on coding, compiling, and executing machine languages. The parallel between the liberation movement and FORTRAN is mesmerizing. So, I may ask humbly where in the world are Eritrea's liberation fighters in the world of FORTRAN?
I learned early on the meaning of the words ልሂቅ፣ ክህነሊቅ፣ and later on knowledge. During my life early on and in the recent few decades, I have watched the lexicons of our debates shift from those I learned early on to ጀግንነት, which is reminiscent of that struggle. There is nothing wrong with being one when necessary.
However, there comes a time when moving forward for a mutual vision may be more important than trying to step forward while looking back to the pain of the past, especially when Eritrea has nothing more left to settle with Ethiopia, at least the way I understand it.
The mutual understanding may not come overnight. Ideally, there would be a common or mainstream understanding in Eritrea. I imagine that if they start with a simple question of what else there is left to settle with Ethiopia vis a vis the raison d'être for the formation of the EPLF many decades ago now, visionary Eritreans would find satisfactory answers for themselves on their own and choose a vision for the future instead of the pain of the past.