By Yared Hiluf
Ahem! Did you say history repeats itself? You can say it again. Yes it does; it is now axiomatic. Who would have thought the world would find itself again at the brink of nuclear war, after having faced the traumatic experience six decades ago?
Fascism is on the rise. Who would in his right mind contemplate that the fascists would seize power in Italy, after their mess in the 1920s-40s which the world had to clean up?
Who would have thought Tsar Vladimir Putin would go rampant to grab Ukrainian land as if Russia has not got enough land but lacks the imagination to effectively utilise it? Likewise the remnants of Menelik are running around stealing land from Tigray as if what they had already stolen was not bad enough.
Tigray has lost land to both to the Italians, Behrie Negadh, now Eritrea, and a good deal of fertile land of Araya Azobo, and North Western region up-to and including Metema Yohannes grabbed by Amhara aristocrats.
The irony is that it could and should have been Tigray who ought to have claimed land north, south and west lost both to the Italians and the Amhara aristocrats and feudal lords, granted that of Eritrea is now a forgone lost cause, as Eritreans demanded and rightly achieved its independence.
But the Amhara aristocrats are like no one. Blamestorming is their culture of doing business.
Even though Menelek and his acolytes committed the original sin for selling Eritrea to the Italians. And once a land is sold the vendors has no legal right to reclaim the land sold as the Amhara aristocrats tried in vain under Haileselassie when they tried to grab and annex Eritrea by force from the Eritreans who by then claimed their independence.
Following Haileselassie, likewise Mengestu’s attempt to reclaim land ended in failure with massive human and material losses.
Some may struggle to accept that Menelik and the Shoan aristocracy intently sold part of then Abyssinia, or call it Ethiopia, to Italians. He was not worried about the amount of money paid, both in cash and kind. He would and had been prepared to accept a scrap value in return for the land sold. Money or material gains were not his main concern. He was eager to get rid of Bahri Negadh regardless of whether the deal was penny worth, in as long as it weakened Tigray to challenge his seat at the throne. That was his intention and he succeeded to achieve.
Once a land or in this case a nation was sold, the vendor has no legal right to claim back what they sold on their own free will and consent. That being the case the Menelik remnants now turn around and blame the TPLF for allowing Eritrea to succeed.
The Amhara nobilities are cult believers. They lust for and gloat over bloodshed as they engaged in drum beating diableries shvioos exorcise to spell.
You see them slaughter innocent people of a targeted ethnic group for the heck of it and show no humanity in what they commit.
The culture of PSYCHOMANCY and offer of blood, drum beating orgy under the cover of dark to quench the quest of a devil is intertwined in their outward religious belief, if at all they have any religion. They are obsessed in self gratifications as the Romans reclining in tricliniums and played with and exploited the lives of gladiators in the amphitheaters.
Now the Amhara elites are hand and glove with the Eritrean and both conniving to exterminate Tigrayans and apportion what is left of Tigray between themselves as they see fit. Tigray never claimed any one’s land; if anything Tigray has generously bequeathed its own land to the Afar so they constitute a workable federal government. Tigray has also in the past come to terms with the loss of land up to Alewaha, with historic and Tigrayan land mark names such as MeDefra/መንደፈራ and Rama/ራማ close and adjacent to Kobo/ቆቦ.
The Amhara elites mindset operates in reverse. A solution is a problem and the original problem was/is a solution. Otherwise how could the Eritrea their grandparents were sold be seen as a solution to the problems they face now? How could granting nations and nationalities the dignity and rights to express themselves with their languages and their identities be seen as the problem created and fostered by the TPLF when it was in the government? The problem was the oppression of nations and nationalities under the Amhara imperial rule; nations were suffocated and they burst into violence in the end, in pursuit of equality.
The Eritrean headless chicken leader who has brought the country he claimed he fought for and won its independence appears to have lost faith in his ability to lead and is about to auction it back to the Amhara elites after so many people have lost their lives. It is mind boggling and impossible to understand why so many lives were lost for a cause that could not be sustained for only 30 years.
Tigray will prove to be the graveyard of the Eritrean experiment and must likely the downfall of Amhara elitism.
Yared Huluf