❗️"እናቴ የደም ዕምባ እያለቀሰች፣ ወንድሜ ተረሽኖ ከገደል አፋፍ ላይ እየተገፈተረ፣ ክብሯን የጠበቀች እህቴ በባለጌዎች እየተደፈረች በዚ ሽልማት ልደሰት አልችልም። የእናቴ እንባ ሲታበስ፣ ሃገሬ ወደ ቀደመ ክብሯ ስትመለስ እደርስበታለሁ::" ኢሳያስ
Loose translation: “I won’t celebrate when my mother is shedding tears of blood; my brother brutally slaughtered & his body thrown off a cliff; & my genteel sister raped by hooligans. I shall celebrate when my mothers’ tears are wiped & the dignity of my homeland is restored.”
This is the acceptance speech by artist Isayas Tadesse, winner of the “Short Film” category at the annual Gumma Awards.

There is so much to unpack about his speech on a stage where many expect it the least; but I would only say a few things.
Isayas spoke that in front of the pseudo “arts community”, a distinct member of our society majority whom lost the moral courage that being an artist requires - to speak for the downtrodden & the hurting. It’s particularly clear since Nov 4; a rupture the war in #Tigray revealed.
As such what that also laid bare or confirmed is that the “arts community” in Ethiopia has always been the bastion of the voices of the status quo set & defined by the powers that be.

In this regard, Isayas showed he is an affront to the “arts community” but a hero to his own.
That explains why he chose to speak in Tigrinya, his mother tongue, & used the term ዓደይ (Adey) which Tegarus use to refer specifically to Tigray & not necessarily Ethiopia. Isayas used it when referring to celebrating his award when or after the dignity of Adey is restored.
The rest of us are better off accepting the bitter truth that an overwhelming majority of Tegarus have given up on the idea of Ethiopia, whatever its structure. We have made that possible when we let foreign invaders violate their way of being! I don’t know how we can reverse it.

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More from @TsedaleLemma

28 Mar
Re:NEBE’s latest decision on OLF’s breakaway faction: Regardless of his legitimate concern with NEBE, Jaal Dawud Ibssa should take today’s decision by the Board to delegitimise the so-called General Assembly led by Jaal Ararso Biqila as a window of opportunity to unite the party.
In return Jaal Ararso should take a lesson or two from post 2005 systematic & engineered fracturing & weakening of opposition parties (a tactic being played by PP), dismember whatever he put together & agree to convene OLF’s General Assembly under the leadership of Jaal Dawud.
The two men should realise that the upcoming election the NEBE is organising, if it happened, will be the beginning of a long & bitter struggle for the Oromo nation & their relationship with the state to be reconstituted thereafter.

A weakened OLF can’t lead such a struggle.
Read 4 tweets
21 Mar
Sunday thoughts!

One of the cascade of shocks the #Oromo nation continue to endure in the wake of the yet unsolved assassination of Haacaaluu Hundeessaa is the following crackdown on multiple individuals who represent a significant political agency of the Oromo in the 🇪🇹to come.
Among the consequential arrests is the likes of Bekele, Jawar & Hamza, seen here after 40 days of hunger strike for what they believed in. But it’s a mistake to think the crackdown was limited to them. Speak with any Oromo, you will learn that there is a pre & post Hacaaluu 🇪🇹.
That’s so not only b/s Hacee was assassinated, but also everything that the Oromo lost after that either to death, jail or disappearance (be it individuals of political parties), share one thing in common: they’re known among the Oromo as icons of a struggle for a pan Oromo cause
Read 6 tweets
18 Mar
This week Be’aman Netsere, a seasoned Orthodox Church scholar, & Yared Shumete, a humanitarian, published their travel experiences about the war in #Tigray.

Both raised facts Ethiopia needs to reckon with.

Most important, Be’aman confirmed the #Axum & #Dengolat massacres. Image
He also captured pics of Eritrean forces freely roaming near the Axum obelisk.

But it’s what he said about the deafening silence of the EOTC both on the massacres & the wanton destruction of its own holy sites that needs to be paid the at most attention, imo! Image
Yared too raised important factors that need a collective reckoning: the psychological trauma the people of #Tigray are enduring as a result of this senseless war & his fear on whether they will make the annual walk to Adewa in connection with the March 02 Adwa Victory Day. ImageImage
Read 5 tweets
29 Dec 20
The powerful pro-war camp has deployed 2 potent means to silence anyone against the armed conflict in Tigray or for a negotiated settlement (dialogue): to defame all as paid by the "Junta" & to chastise all as an "ethnonationist" wanting to save the TPLF."

Four things to say 👇🏿
1- No armed conflict in the world, much less politically complex as the one in Tigray, has ever been resolved without a roundtable negotiated settlement. So please stop intimidating/threatening anyone who is an advocate of a negotiated settlement. It may happen that way anyway.
2- TPLF's life doesn't depend on your "ethnonationist" nightmare's advocacy anymore than the other parties to this armed conflict, including foreign actors, are on your unquestioning support to it. 

Such arguments are simply the limit of a hawks' depravity of imagination, sadly
Read 5 tweets
4 Nov 20
A war against the member of the federation is an epic tragedy! But not unexpected.

@AbiyAhmedAli's grand ambition of nation building experiment failed spectacularly, just a few months into its plan.

As such,losing his political capital & support base was a natural outcome. 1/4
But out of the ashes of this failure morphed not a democratic experiment, but an increasingly transactional political dispensation. Quickly it turned Abiy's version of nation building into a deal b/n him & his allies based on who gets crushed & who gets a seat at the table. 2/4
Sadly, the price tag for this transactional political order keeps skyrocketing; what started by jailing formidable opponents of Abiy's failed nation building project has now morphed into a civil war to get rid of TPLF, a powerful opponent, "once & for all" using the military. 3/4
Read 4 tweets
27 Sep 20
William, with all due respect to your decision, I have to say this: when an article summarily calls "the Oromos are now the killers" it does more than criticize one individual; it simply labels the whole community as killers. There is no moral & ethical ground to platform it.
When an article calls an individual to "apologize on behalf of Oromos" it's not a criticism of this individual, it's a verdict against the entire community that they need to apologize for all the "bloodshed" caused by a few; & do they need to apologize on behalf of the state too?
When an article calls for an individual to set a "moderate middle ground for the Qaarrees and Qeerroos", it's not criticizing this individual only, its collectively labeling a generation as radicals in need of being moderated by the individual!

And last, but not least...
Read 4 tweets

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