Professor Merera Gudina is probably one of the people who have been committed their entire lives to bring about a democratic Ethiopia.
I was young and in college when I heard his name for the first time. I heard that he wanted a relationship with a distant relative of mine. I heard that his commitment to politics got in the way of her commitment to him. I still remember what was said, if not word for word, the message: እስር ቤት ስንቅ ሳመላልስለት ኣልኖርም።
I was young and distant to have any saying about it. However, the message has stuck with me ever since.
The second time I heard about him was when he gave interviews to local papers in Ethiopia in the 1993s before he formed a new political organization. I found his ideology to bring about a democratic Ethiopia respectable. However, it brought to my mind two questions about the process of the disposition.
Later on, I got a chance to get hold of his book out of his dissertation and read it. Two visionary thought processes stood out to me. One was his analogy of ripping the heart out of a body and expecting the body to survive. The other was his assessment of the nature of the Ethiopian political parties that came after the 1974 revolution in Ethiopia, that they reflected the fabric of the country. In contrast, following the sectarian politics in Ethiopia after 1991, that fabric was eroded and that it would be a challenge to form those kinds of parties. I am paraphrasing here both visionary thought processes.
The third time I heard about him was from a phone call during the campaigns leading up to the 2005 elections in Ethiopia. Somebody called me to tell me that he was coming to town and wanted to talk to a community where I live and that there was talk telling people to not go and meet with him. My response was very brief. አን ነን ዴመ። It means I will go.
I was shocked that there were people who would tell other people not to go and meet him. To this day, I do not know if it was true that people told other people not to go and if so, who would say such a thing. I had a preplanned commitment on the day of the meeting but canceled it and met him with other members of the community. It was my first time to meet him in person. We haven't met again since around those days.
I have been shocked multiple times in political encounters in the effort to bring about a democratic Ethiopia. The only other time that my response was that brief, and more shocking, was when I said at a moments notice: አን ህንዴብኡ። That was after two friends took me for a walk and unexpectedly told me: ህን ዴብነ። Shocked upon hearing those words from them, I looked them in the eyes, uttered those words to them, and turned back immediately.
When we met with Dr. Merera Gudina, I was supportive of his ideology. The meeting also gave me an opportunity to ask him the two questions that came to mind in the 1990s after reading his published interviews. As I listened to his answers quite attentively, I could feel his skill in navigating to answer my questions.
People from the same affinity who had been critical of his ideology were evidently not interested in bringing about a democratic Ethiopia. So, his ideology was practically marginal, at least in the early days. የሆረስ የኢትዮጵያ መፈክር ያልተከበረበት ወይም ያልተፈራበት ግዜ ነበር። That wasn't even a long time ago. It was paradoxical that there were Africans in Ethiopia who had the nerves to deny an Ethiopian political scientist the ears of members of any community.
That was then. If I am not mistaken, the sectarian political debate in Ethiopia has led to democratizing the country, instead of destabilizing it including using the country's current constitution, getting the upper hand. If so Professor Merera Gudina is now one of the political ideologues in Ethiopia whose life long ideology and activism find themselves in the mainstream of Ethiopian politics.