By Amir Baharun

“If you had stood by side of a customs officer at Tilbury docks in London in the 1950s, you would have seen the seeds of this class [African Students]  arriving: young men clutching soggy cardboard suitcases, wearing cheap suits and sad, stiff peasant shoes, on their faces fear mixed with a slight dab of arrogance, like a painter testing his pallet with a smudge of violent colour.  

Each of them, as mission schoolboys in the 1940s or early ’50s, had at some time bent over small green single sheets of paper headed ‘Oxford University Matriculation Board. O-Level’ to answer questions on such subjects as the accession of Richard III of England, the War of Jenkins’ Ear, the effect of mixing something called hydrogen peroxide with sulphuric acid, or how many chains there were in a cricket pitch. But it did not mean much, but they had good memories, and they knew the correct answers might get them to England.”

Myles Harris, “Breakfast In Hell, A Doctor’s experiences of the Ethiopian Famine, 1986.”

Writing and to be a writer is innate for some people. But for some others, it is the result of a hard work. However, writing is an art. Writing is more difficult in la langue de Shakespeare, as the French call the English language, particularly for people with a foreign tongue like us Hararians. During my college years, our professor used to tell us about writing clearly. To do so, he said: “Writing of all kinds is difficult, writing a book is especially so.” At the same time, he told us not to be desperate when we encounter problems. “Think for a moment,” he went on to say, “when we talk with someone we relay to a large extent on non-verbal communication, such as facial expression and tone of voice, to make full sense of what someone is saying. And if clarification is needed we can always ask. In book-writing, however, you will not be present when the book is read and so cannot use non-verbal cues, nor can you explain the obscure sections or correct misunderstandings. You make your meaning clear through choice of words, use of punctuation and sentence structure.” When “Bercha” was written, the author has not followed this professorial advice, to understand why, follow me, dear reader.

My generation is a generation of a famous word à la mode: “intellectual.” A generation of 70s. A generation who discovered Marxism, Socialism, Revisionism and Revolution. Our gatherings were dominated by discussions about “progressive,” “regressive,” “reaction,” “idealism,” “materialism,” etc. It has been a time of “red terror,” fear and incertitude. A time of death, hatred and revolt. Above all, a time of self-righteousness and innocence. At that time, to become an ‘intellectual’ was an inspiration for young people, but it was hard to achieve it so fast; there was another easily attainable alternative – ‘progressive’. To be a progressive one must become a sympathiser of Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Party (EPRP) or pro-military regime’s political parties; depending on their definition of “progressive”. For pro-government groups EPRP supporters were “anarchists” while pro-EPRP supporters called pro-government groups “Bandas” (pro-fascists). To become a member of either party was unpredictable but unavoidable.

“To look like a progressive, as EPRP sympathiser, young men tried to have a beard so hard; even, by cutting and bruising their cheeks with a sharp razorblade. If they could not achieve sporting  a beard, it was just simple for them to put a baseball hat on their head to cover their forehead down their eyes. That was to evade the informers (or supposed to be informers). It was difficult to walk or wander around in that manner. When the young man crosses the crowded central market or Gidir Magala with his hat covered face, he walks normally. Once he gets in the quiet narrow alley, he starts to walk faster and faster, as if he is being chased by a ferocious beast, and suddenly begins running towards someone’s house and hides behind the door. It looks like a hide and seek game, with imaginary “ It” person (chaser). When the owner of the house, the basket-weaver, cataract-clouded half blind old woman emerges to ask what really goes on, he tells her a fictitious story saying that he is being followed by a bunch of political cadres of the regime, whose work is to hunt down anti-government youth including himself and asks her to check if the road is clear. Then, he goes to the usual meeting place and recounts the story for fellow revolutionary study circle members. Sometimes they buy it, but sometimes it is hard to swallow. In the latter case, to show his loyalty to the ‘venerated’ party, he simply provokes to be arrested (to show his progressiveness) by spraying a graffiti in the broad day light for the glory of the “beloved party”.” (Mon Enfance, Baharun, 1986)

Another word with another generation has preceded my generation. The famous word à la mode was “enlightenment”. It was the word of early fifties, when first Harari generation of modern students came into existence. That was a generation of first modern high school graduates. Among them a certain person named Abdosh. This person happened to be at the right time at the right place. According to his peers, he was neither brilliant nor enlightened. In reality he has been an average and mediocre student, but who wanted to be a maverick. After his graduation from secondary school he was lucky enough to go to the brand new ‘university’, then abroad for higher education. Now, suddenly became an “author” of a book at the age of mid– or late –seventies.     

When I first heard about the book titled “Bercha” written by the above mentioned individual, I was very interested to read a book written by a Hararian about Hararians. Then, I decided to get a copy and see what was written in it. When I got the copy, I began to read the book without any prejudice and with fair and neutral mind. But the book suddenly became uninteresting. It is like a novice writer’s essay rather than a book about “social critique” as the author describes. It has spelling errors, simple grammatical mistakes, misplaced quotation marks, historical and geographical faults and inconsistencies, pure insults, so on and so forth. Our enlightened “bro” knows about everything. He considers himself ‘a walking encyclopædia’. Therefore, he did not need to consult a dictionary. That is why he wrote: “Then the usual desert consisting of a basket of mixed fruits…” I am not sure whether he wrote about Kalahari or Sahara desert! As I mentioned at the beginning, I was neutral but as I read the book, I was forced to change my mind. The reason: the author is neither professional nor “homme de lettre” as he tried to pretend. As the EPRP story above, he tries to convince his faint-hearted readers, by using words like ‘forward looking’. … if you are forward looking buy my lies, distorted histories, etc., if you are not, you are a die-hard ‘ultra nationalist’ (equivalent of EPRP’s or Dergue’s ‘reactionary’). He tries hard to convince his readers with his cheap “reality show”.   

I am not going to rebut this vicious book line by line, but want to expose its major lies and fallacies. Before I reveal his falsified informations about Harar and Hararians, I have to ask the following questions.

·         Why did he write this book, now at the age of mid-or late-seventies?

·         To whom is this book destined?

As the first question is concerned, my assumption is: he wrote this “book” after he read Mezlekia’s book, the winner of Canadian Governor-General’s Award for non-fiction titled: Notes from the Hyena’s Belly: Memories of my Ethiopian boyhood. In fact he followed Mezlekia’s writing style in many ways, such as, narrating his stories as first person, also describing himself as the best and brightest among his peers. But their major difference is, Mezlekia did his  home work very well. He consulted dictionaries, thesaurus and used other necessary tools to write his book. Abdosh did not.

My second assumption is: as I have read his book, his grudge and revolt against Hararians is deeply rooted. He might have had a nickname with negative connotation, which made him develop self-hatred that transformed to hate his own ethnic group. That made him vengeful not only against himself but against his own ethnic group too. This makes his book less than ‘social critique’. Even during his stay in Canada or US, he might have tried very hard to have a white woman as a wife, and to change his identity. His dream was to have light skinned children rather than black. His interest was to become someone different, including renouncing his religion. Unfortunately for him, the white girls rejected him. On the other hand, because of his negative attitude against black community he had never tried to create a relationship with large black community of Montreal or Atlanta. His support for  Martin Luther King (MLK) was not for his love of Black cause but to oppose his own internal or ‘hidden mentality’.

This reminds me of the book I read years back, written by the Egyptian journalist and writer Mohamed Heikal, that goes parallel with Abdosh’s story. Heikal wrote about the former President Sadat:

“… he was ready to give his allegiance to a stronger personality when he came into contact with one, and that he knew how to accept rebuffs and humiliations. But it also meant that somewhere inside him was the need to seek revenge for his sufferings. Meanwhile the only road of escape was into the world of dreams and fantasies.” (Autumn of Fury,1983).  

The third assumption I have is: today to write negatively about Islam in some circles is a lucrative business – a short cut to gain fame and fortune .

Regarding the destination of this book is concerned, it is for older generation rather than younger or future generation of Hararians and for his former Ethiopian buddies – pure and simple. As the following examples clearly indicate, he has not bothered to use the English proper names or abbreviations regarding Ethiopian political parties. He wrote: “ But Abdosh, the junta is only a front the real power behind the revolution is IHAPA, the Marxist party that is….” (P18) or “… the representatives of EHADEG, the political entity …”(260). I am sure he knows that IHAPA is EPRP and EHADEG  is EPRDF. As the book is destined to the older generation using proper English names or abbreviations were not needed, otherwise he would have written, the same way as he wrote: “Islamic Development Bank commonly known by shortened name IDB.” Or “Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC)”. (251).

Now I would like to comment on some of his distorted informations about Harar. He argues: “True, we pay our taxes to a Christian government and may have given up some of freedoms, but look what we have got in turn, highways, rail roads, schools, lights, telephones and all the other amenities that we now seem to take for-granted, brought in to the region. Left to ourselves, we probably could not have afforded such luxuries in a thousand  years…” (11). This argument shows his ignorance of the history of Harar. If he describes Dire Dewa-Harar road as a highway, it is the result of Italian occupation. As everyone knows, the railway was built by the French. The first school in Harar was built by Hararis themselves which was later confiscated by the Teferi regime. Lights, telephones and other amenities were brought by Hararian tax payers money and their looted properties. Even before the arrival of the king of Shoa, Harar was well advanced city-state compared to other Ethiopian cities. The following testimony from French Poet Arthur Rimbaud’s letter dated February 15,1881, (during Egyptian rule of Harar) to his mother states:

“Il ne faut pas croire que ce pays-ci soit entièrement sauvage. Nous avons l’armée, artillerie et cavalerie, égyptienne, et leur administration. Le tout est identique a ce qui existe en Europe; …[It should not be assumed that this country is entirely wild. The Egyptians have their army with artillery and cavalry, and their administration. The

whole is identical with that exists in Europe;…]”

This testimony shows that Hararians were not helped to get “modern amenities” by the king of Shoa.         

As the generosity and bringing modern amenities are concerned, the following  paragraph of Rimbaud dated August 20, 1887 clearly disputes Abdosh’s assertion:

“Les Abyssins, entrés en ville, la réduisirent en un cloaque horrible, démolirent les habitations, ravagèrent les plantations, tyrannisèrent la population comme les nègres savent procéder entre eux, et, Ménélik continuant d’envoyer du Choa des troupes de renfort suivies de masses d’esclaves, le nombre douze mille, dont quatre mille fusiliers armés de fusils de tous genre, du Remington au fusil à silex.

La rentrée des impôts de la contrée Galla environnante ne se fait plus que par razzias, où les villages sont incendiés, les bestiaux volés et la population emportée en esclavage…” [“The Abyssinians entered the city, by reducing it into a horrible cesspool (open sewer), demolished the dwellings, devastated the plantations, terrorised the population as the nigger’s knew how to deal among themselves. Meanwhile Ménélik continued to send troops of reinforcement followed by masses of slaves from Choa. The number of Abyssinians currently in Harar could be twelve thousand, including four thousand fusiliers armed with rifles of all kinds, from Remington to rifle with flint…

“…To enter the surrounding Galla area was not done only by raids, where the villages were burnt, cattle stolen and the population taken into slavery…”]

Rimbaud added that the worst was looting:        

“…Les Abyssins on dévoré en quelques mois la provision de dourah laissée par les Égyptiens et qui pouvait suffire pour plusieurs années. La famine et la peste sont imminentes…” [“…Abyssinians have devoured in a few months the provision of sorghum left by the Egyptians, that could have been enough for several years. The famine and plague are imminent…”]

Hararians are “undersized,” because of what they eat, – Hulbat marakh – according to “dietician” named Abdosh. It is interesting to see the scientifically established fact about fenugreek or hulbat, which is contrary to Abdosh’s. In the Government of the Province of Alberta’s Ministry of Agriculture’s official web site, one can read:

“ Fenugreek [Hulbat] has a more sustained release of nitrogen in the rumen for cattle feeding and greater mass digestion than alfalfa. It also contains diosgenin, a growth and reproduction hormone. It is thought that the combined effects of high digestibility and diosgenin content of the fenugreek plant might result in improved growth rates and increased efficiency of feed utilization in beef cattle.”

(http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/agdex124?opendocument

Also according to foodreference.com web site, Hulbet or fenugreek is:

“Rich in vitamins and minerals, and because it is a seed and a legume, it is high in    protein. (Which makes it very useful in vegetarian diets).”

(http://www.foodreference.com/html/artfenugreek.html)

These two are a few examples among many others.

He wrote: “Like wise, we have nothing but contempt to our Kottu or Somali neighbours, although they both excel us in many respects. In fact we consider ourselves superior to anybody and every body. To us, all Africans and African Americans are Gafas, or slaves and the whites are just Kafirs or heathens.” Again inaccurate information. There is close social and cultural intercourse between Hararians, Oromos and Somalis. Many Hararians have either Somali or Oromo blood in their veins. The ignorance of this septagenaire shows that he read very few books. Not Hararians, but Ethiopian highlanders who do not consider themselves as Africans. The British journalist Peter Gill quoted one Ethiopian as saying:

 “Like British whom they are said in many ways to resemble, the Ethiopians are an island race. Their highlands are their island, surrounded by the lowlands and desert. Ethiopians regard themselves as African in just the way that the British regard themselves as Europeans – that is, with qualifications.” (A Year In The Death of Africa, 1986).

The other point is, he narrates in detail about his sexual adventures with Caucasian females and even in one occasion a Caucasian male, but never with African Canadian or African American females. Then, who is bigot? Quelle hypocrisie!

His blatant lie is concerning the mortality rate of children in Harar. He accuses Hararians as infanticides for “the children’s mortality rate, which probably is the highest in the world, but cannot be proven for lack of statistics…. It was customary for a family to lose as much as 50% or more of its children before the age of five.” (86). Sounds pretty damning, doesn’t it? But it was not the problem of Harar alone. Harari traditional house became his bête noire and responsible for the death of many children. He forgot about poverty and lack of medicine or simple vaccination. He could have verified the following paragraph before he wrongly concluded and stated about Hararian houses, again from Peter Gill’s book:

“It is recorded that when Save the Children Fund first set foot in Ethiopia at the time of Mussolini’s war in 1936, the locals could not for the life of them understand what all the fuss was about. The fund’s initiative there had been entrusted to a formidable woman by the name of Mrs. Lothian Small, who set about the establishment of what was described as a combined child welfare centre and emergency feeding canteen. The need was evidently great. Statistics were very inadequately prepared, she declared to the March 1936 issue of The World’s Children, but she estimated that the infant mortality rate was as high as 600 per 1000—‘i.e. of every ten babies born, six never see their first birthday’.”  

 Therefore, it was not the problem of only Hararians as he stated, but nation-wide problem.

“Our patriarchal and immensely chauvinistic character has to date prevented us from giving our women folk due credit for wonderful work they do in all walks of life.”(189) Here my question is, what about ‘a due credit’ for his own wife? Where was his recognition? I have not read anything about her in this book, except a sentence or two, i.e. during their visit to India. What about her pain, agony, hardship, and bitterness during his incarceration under the Dergue rule? Is her ‘due credit’ sharing a common bed with her while dreaming about the other? For the reader of  the book his wife is not in the picture; where as his neighbour’s wife, whom he had a special relationship; has a big part in it. As he clearly put it: “Zeenu taught me everything I know about love and love making during that summer. I was so enthralled by her that years later in my adult life, there were times when I broke up with a girl friend simply because she did not physically measure up to my first love in looks or in bed. She was the yardstick by which I measured up other woman.” (171). So, where is a “ due credit for wonderful work” she did?

He criticizes our chat consuming males while he recounts about drinking “… bottles of our favourite beer” as the habits of modernized, enlightened, and civilized guys like him. If he condemns chat, he should have condemned alcohol too. There is no a bad evil or a good evil. Evil is simply evil. In spite of chat’s evil nature, it should not be forgotten that, it is a source of income for many Hararian families. Hence, this could have been analysed and looked in a different perspective.

The absolute imbecility of our “enlightened diplomat” is when he wrote the following paragraph: “Now I tell you, how can a community of less than 30,000 individuals, one that can’t even fill a medium sized football stadium, and has no more than a few hectares of land to it is name, claim independence! Personally I do not think that our ‘Club’ members really knew what they were doing, or perhaps their thinking could have been clouded by outside influences.”(233).

Where have we heard this sort of story before? We have heard this type of story  from many old guard pro-status-quo Ethiopian politicians during the 1991 Charter debate and this paragraph pleases them for sure. I wonder if he has ever read the contemporary history of Europe, to learn that the number of inhabitants is not a hindrance for independence, as one can find prosperous mini-states or principalities, (some of them members of United Nations and associate members of European Union) with less than 30,000 population. To name: the Principality of Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra, etc. 

The population of Harar is shrinking according to “demographer” Abdosh. “What is interesting is that not only did the map looked almost identical to its present layout, but its population at the time of my reading the manuscript was estimated to be around 30,000. That started me thinking. How is it possible that the population of a small well knit community which boasts of immense social and economic prosperity and which on the individual level seems to be breeding like rabbits shrink instead of multiplying many fold over that long period of five centuries. Even today, a generation later the number of Hararians within Ethiopia and abroad does not exceed that figure by much….”(86). Once again Abdosh is obsessed with sex when he uses rabbits as an example. Okay, let us raise the following question to please our “writer”. Why were not Hararians multiplied as he put it? Here are a few answers: 

1.      Hararians lived and are still living in a very dangerous neighbourhood. To survive they have to defend themselves, sometimes by sacrificing their life.

2.      Plague was common at that time, that was a cause for decimating many of Harar’s inhabitants. For example, during Burton’s visit in 1855 smallpox was ravaging. Killed how many? Nobody knows.

3.      Historically, most Hararians had a strong religious discipline and were pious people. Like

the author of “Bercha,” having an adventure or affair with neighbour’s wife was unaccustomed and an heard of.

4.      Hararians were the only people (most of the males) who practised monogamy among the Muslims in Africa.

As the population of Harar is concerned, here is a written testimony of Richard F. Burton: 

“Harar has … little population of about 8000 souls is a distinct race.” (First Foot Steps In East Africa, 1855). 

Even if we account based on Abosh’s assumption, Harari population has more than doubled not shrunk.

The most disgusting preoccupation and obsession of Abdosh was about hearing a live sexual performance of his parents. “So I did not have the good fortune of catching my parents sleeping together ever.” He adds: “…my own father and mother slept on separate mattresses on the opposite corners of the Gidir Nadaba, and we, me and three of my brothers and sisters shared the three lower levels. But for the life of me, I don’t remember having seen any thing funny going on from upstairs…” When he had never got an opportunity to hear from his parents he decided to take the matter in his own hands to act and show his parents. “One weekend my niece was visiting… Deep  into the night I was awakened by the touch of a little hand groping my tummy. I realized it was my niece who was cuddled into my own sheets and rubbing her naked body against mine…. At first I was a little irritated and gave her hand a mild slap, but soon I felt a funny kind of pleasure around my groins…. She then began breathing hard and making weak moaning sounds.” That was the time to show his parents how they should have performed.

Honestly it is disgusting to wait the whole night with two eyes wide open and two ears ready to hear the “funny” voice of his mother and father. It is despicable. This reminds me of an impromptu interview in Edmonton, (Alberta, Canada) by local TV station. Almost all teenage students (girls and boys), when asked if they have ever imagined the sexual performance of their parents, their answer was (without hesitation): “ no way, I can never imagine my parents performing sex.” But Abdosh did. The word obscene appears inadequate to properly describe his mentality. What a weird taste!!! His story in the “book” is promiscuous, repetitive, largely concentrated with obsession of sex.

At last, the culmination for his act of obsession concerning the live sexual performance was in 1957. When his friend told him, “[y]ou would love to watch them do their act [lesbian sexual act].” That was a long time dream came into reality. He describes the situation as it “was a live scene from the highest x-rated porno movie ever saw.”

In chapter 10, under the title of Bahai and world religions, Montreal, 1956, he wrote: “…reading an article in the Time Magazine some months ago describing problems faced by the forward looking Moslem governments in the Middle East and elsewhere on account of the encroachment of the fundamentalists on their authorities….” This is historically inaccurate.  So, who were the fundamentalists and who were ‘forward looking Moslem governments’? Fact: first of all, the word fundamentalist became common and le mot célèbre since the Islamic Revolution in Iran, that was in 1979 not in 1956. In 1953 the progressive or ‘forward looking’ government led by Mohammed Mossadegh of Iran was deposed by US and British governments not by the fundamentalists as the narrator described. By the way, 1950s has been the era of de-colonization, Suez crisis, so on and so forth.

The funny thing he wrote in his book repetitively is about “…the pygmy Indians of the Amazon…” The author apparently believes Pygmies are Indians from Amazon. The fact is that, they are black Africans like himself and from tropical part of central and east Africa not from Amazon. The other funny thing is “…I was sent off to Brussels to assume my post as the ambassador plenipotentiary of my country to Belgium and Benelux countries….” The “enlightened” Ambassador does not even know what Benelux stands for. Without Belgium, then, what would be Benelux? It would be called Nelux. (Benelux = Belgium + Netherlands + Luxembourg. This shows his poor knowledge in basic geography.)        

I have another anecdote: “…I left a lucrative job and a life of luxury in Canada and then refused a generous offer to join the ECA …” I would have hoped something extraordinary from our “enlightened” compatriot, such as to become like Bill Gate of Ethiopia or Africa, not a functionary of some sort. By the way what is ECA? Most of his readers might have difficulty understanding. (ECA is United Nations Economic Commission for Africa also known as Prof. Adebayo Adedeji’s Organization, after its long serving Commissioner’s name).

What a striking resemblance between the following paragraph and a video taped interview of Mr. Mohammed Abdulrahman Bahar Sheikh (senior civil servant in successive Ethiopian administrations) whom he has also mentioned in page 183 as “Mohamed A/Rahman, your own friend and colleague…” conducted by a fellow Harari living in California on August 30,1992. Was it just a coincidence? The paragraph says:

 “In support of Wadood’s point, ordinary Amharas have benefited little from the government of Haile Sillasie. Any one who knows or traveled in Godjam, Begemder, Menze, Marabite and other Amhara land up in the north cannot but be shocked at their primitive state of development and stark absence of any signs of modernization. The whole region, and believe me I have seen it all, is literally backward, devoid of roads, schools, hospitals, water facilities and related infrastructure. Little has been done to develop the economy and the people still live in extreme poverty, and suffering…” (188).

At last about his book reviewer: Surayya Jamal’s derogatory comment of “…miniscule ethnic minority,” and “…false sensed of self-exaltation,” is a baseless criticism. As Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi put in his book about Jewish identity as a minority:

 “Jews were outsiders who wanted to remain just that, a minority looking at the majority with pride and contempt.” He adds: “Jews, the untouchables of the West, could best be described throughout most of their existence as forming a cast. They did not marry non-members or mingle with them, and they were limited to certain occupation.” (Original Sins, Reflections on the History of Zionism and Israel, 1992).

Hararians are proud people. They inherited from their forefathers and foremothers an extraordinary religious, cultural and linguistic identity that makes them distinct. It is their right to keep and preserve it. That does not mean “self-exaltation!”

In sum, his writing has nothing to do with ‘social critique,’ it is rather pure insult. If he were interested to act as a social critic, he could have focused on our cast system and exclusiveness. Unfortunately, he justified the social intolerance and segregation when he wrote about his sister’s friend by accusing her, for possessing “evil eyes”. Or his unfounded comment about Hararians’ disdainfulness of their close neighbours that could create mistrust and intolerance rather than tolerance and harmony among them.  Historically, social critics wrote for tolerance. As Voltaire, one of the best social critic of his time, has fought against intolerance and tyranny of majority in France. He put it clearly in his book L’affaire Calas:

 “… tolérance n’a jamais excité de guerre civile; l’intolérance a couvert la terre de carnage. [… tolerance has never aflame civil war; intolerance covered the earth with carnage.]   

Abdosh’s book has a striking number of factual errors, illustrating either the haste with which the book was put together (because of his age) or simple ignorance on the part of the “enlightened” author. Even though, he constantly stresses in his book about his so-called enlightenment and intelligence.

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