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Anger at police beating galvanises French protests against security bill
Evelyn Waugh aurait une journée sur le terrain avec ce qui se passe actuellement en Ethiopie. Le talentueux auteur de Brideshead Revisited and Scoop était un petit fluage raciste envoyé par un journal pro-fasciste de droite en 1935 pour couvrir l’invasion de Mussolini. Juste pour vous donner une idée de cet homme, il a écrit à un ami: «Je dois haïr les Éthiopiens plus chaque jour, bonté ils sont moche et j’espère que les orgues les mettront en sodomie [sic].»
A l’époque comme aujourd’hui, le gouvernement d’Addis-Abeba ne voulait pas de l’horreur ou de l’embarras d’un correspondant étranger tué au front, il a donc gardé les journalistes embouteillés dans la capitale. Mais si le souci de la sécurité est admirable, en l’absence de faits, reporters et «analystes» laisseront libre cours à leur imagination. Ils exécuteront souvent l’alchimie sur les rumeurs et les transformeront en substance, et ils spéculeront sur leur chemin vers l’apocalypse et toute l’Afrique en feu.
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En 1935, tout un camion de correspondants étrangers allait et venait, abandonnant Addis en été parce que la guerre n’avait toujours pas éclaté et ne le ferait qu’en octobre. L’Éthiopie a alors obtenu le meilleur et le pire du journalisme. Waugh, qui était un menteur éhonté aussi bien qu’un fanatique, a rempli son mince récit de la guerre de mensonges (intitulé avec le jeu de mots faible Waugh en Abyssinie). À l’extrémité opposée du spectre se trouvait un jeune Sud-Africain nommé George Steer qui a compris comment visiter l’Ogaden pour voir ce qui se passait vraiment. Il se souciait vraiment des Éthiopiens et risqua sa propre vie des années plus tard, travaillant avec les forces britanniques et patriotes pour la libération.
Et aujourd’hui, tout comme en 1935, il semble y avoir une sacrée différence entre la réalité sur le terrain et ce qui circule dans les grands médias occidentaux. Je ne suggère pas qu’il y ait des Waughs qui se dandinent encore, causant des problèmes, mais si vous vérifiez l’air, vous pouvez sentir l’odeur d’une condescendance post-coloniale.
Par exemple, les opérations de presse dans l’Ouest maintiennent l’arrière-plan de ce conflit dans un langage de couverture: Abiy prétend que le TPLF a attaqué en premier ou l’a «accusé d’avoir attaqué deux camps militaires fédéraux dans la région du nord». Sauf que nous savons maintenant pour un fait — même si tous les détails ne peuvent pas encore être confirmés — que le TPLF a attaqué en premier parce que l’un de ses porte-parole s’en est ouvertement vanté lors d’une émission télévisée.
Cette semaine, au moment où j’écris ceci, la BBC a dû s’excuser après avoir mal cité Abiy dans un tweet laissé pendant quatre heures. Reuters a tweeté une histoire sur l’Éthiopie avec des images du mauvais pays. D’accord, des erreurs se produisent. Mais vous devez parfois vous demander à quel point est une erreur honnête par opposition à être trop paresseux pour s’en foutre. La semaine dernière, Al Jazeera a publié un article qui mentionnait avec désinvolture «Adwa a été le site d’une victoire de guerre éthiopienne sur les Italiens en 1839.»
Gémissement. La bataille d’Adwa remonte à 1896. Hé, elle n’est célébrée que chaque année dans le pays et dans les communautés de disaspora éthiopiennes du monde entier. Et l’histoire portait la signature d’un correspondant dans la capitale.
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Alors, pouvez-vous vraiment blâmer les Éthiopiens — quelle que soit leur origine, quelle que soit leur politique — pour en avoir assez de la façon dont leur pays et leur région sont représentés? Cela fait cinq jours que cette histoire a été publiée et Al Jazeera ne l’a toujours pas corrigée, même si elle a été à l’origine de blagues sur les réseaux sociaux (Remarque: ils ont finalement publié une correction le 27 novembre). Imaginez si vous aviez foiré la date de la Révolution française ou l’année de la fin de la guerre civile américaine? Nous parlerions des heures et non des jours pour la réparation.
Pendant ce temps, les organisations humanitaires ne donnent certainement pas l’exemple. Gerry Simpson, directeur associé de Human Rights Watch, aime créer des tweets sur l’Éthiopie avec des photos des guerres du Moyen-Orient et de la Somalie. Parce que bon, une partie de l’Afrique ressemble tellement à l’autre, non? Vous pouvez même le confondre avec un autre continent. Qui va le savoir? À une supposition, je dirais humblement les plus de 100 millions de personnes qui vivent dans le pays.
Ensuite, nous avons les évaluations instantanées des autres. L’ancienne ambassadrice de l’ONU Susan Rice, que beaucoup en Éthiopie détestent toujours pour ses éloges à l’égard de Meles Zenawi, a décidé de renoncer complètement à toute nuance et de déclarer ceci:
Few Western observers seem to take into account that whether the TPLF remains popular or not in Tigray (and it’s worth looking into whether this is so and how the recent regional election was conducted), a good portion of the rest of Ethiopia loathe it for their decades of repression after the Marxist Derg were finally banished for good. For many, its leader Debretsion Gebremichael personifies that legacy.
As usual, going into the complex history doesn’t fit a nice 500-word column or a five-minute analyst interview on the TV networks, let alone a 30-second wraparound package for the evening edition. Today’s conflict is often portrayed in North America and Europe as “Abiy versus Tigray” without any recognition that a) whatever his quirks that leave some Ethiopians occasionally scratching their heads, Abiy remains popular with many within the country; b) there are those in Ethiopia who support the federal troops moving in, and no doubt, others who are more ambivalent and who strongly oppose it. In fact, you find few stories in Western media that even bother to ask ordinary Ethiopians what they think.
True, the situation has improved mildly over international media finding talking heads. Al Jazeera will interview Samuel Getachew. BBC’s Newshour chose to talk to Berhanu Nega — well, more like interrogate him. But you still have to wonder why TV networks abroad passed up contacting esteemed professors in Addis Ababa and in the diaspora to regularly talk to a British jackass who had the gall to tell Ethiopians they should adopt English as their national language.
I’m nobody (I wrote a book, big deal), and I’ve had invites in the past few weeks to public international forums where I could open my big fat mouth. And the temptation is so strong to be that guy, the “expert” Who Knows All when the wiser course of action is to shut up and listen. While yes, there are some Ethiopians who are nice about it and encourage me to have my say, I think it’s far better that these slots be given first to Ethiopians both at home and in the diaspora. And then if you still need someone like me, okay, let’s talk.
Television, Zoom shows, radio… the platforms make a difference. Twitter is ThunderDome. Everyone weighs in. You don’t like my book or what I write here, you can dump the volume back on the shelf or click away, your choice.
But with video platforms, it’s far too easy to crowd out insightful voices of Ethiopians who should get their say. If we truly want to be supportive allies and not idiotic white saviors, westerners should get out of the way of the people we supposedly care about.
That doesn’t mean we don’t stop telling facts or writing analysis or even doing the occasional TV interview. But it does mean we should knock it off once and for all in telling Ethiopians what to do.
Seriously, why is anyone listening to Herman Cohen when he makes incredibly tone-deaf arguments like this on Twitter?
I came up with a wonderful formula months ago, though I’m sure I’m not the first one to think of it. You take the latest Western stupidity, pluck out the words “Africa, African, Ethiopian, Kenyan, Somali, Ugandan, etc.” and then insert terms like “American” or “European.” Let’s see how much Mr. Cohen would like his advice adopted back home: “Best solution for the United States is a truly decentralized federal system in which the U.S. remains unified but each ethnic nation of Black people, Caucasians, Hispanics, Asians, has the self-determination they desire…”
It’s convenient for the western world to frame the narrative of Tigray as a David-and-Goliath tale of nation versus breakaway region, but what’s happening is more complicated. Everyone’s aware that if this conflict turns into an insurgency, the violence could go on for years and years. Duh. Can we please dig deeper? Because I have yet to see anyone in the West point out that if there is an insurgency, this doesn’t help the cause of an independent Tigray at all, it will undermine it.
A peaceful referendum could be held to settle the issue once and for all of Tigray’s future, the same way it has been done with the issue of Quebec separatism in Canada and Scottish independence in the UK. But again, the choice has to be theirs, and people in Tigray and greater Ethiopia have to decide for themselves if they like this idea or prefer another one.
With all the chatter over the conflict potentially spilling into Eritrea — no, wait, Kenya — no, wait, Sudan — no, wait — Ethiopians, again, are justifiably annoyed. As some ask in so many words on Twitter and Facebook, What is it with you guys? Are you wishing for a broader war? Are you hoping for more Africans to kill each other?
I was chatting online yesterday with Professor Kebadu Mekonnen of Addis Ababa University. “The position we take in the debate is always made with a heavy heart,” he commented. “It’s not like the Game of Thrones, that one can follow the house one likes. We know at the end of the day that we’ll all lose our compatriots. That’s something many of the ferenji commentators didn’t take to heart.”
And if all that isn’t enough, the conflict is taking place while a steady campaign of ethnic cleansing has gone on in the country. Laetitia Bader checked in over the Maikadra massacre with platitudes, claiming, “The lack of independent investigations & access to monitors make it difficult to corroborate and identify claims of who may be responsible for such abuses.”
And so I ask: Then what the hell are you good for? For months, there have been similar incidents — in Shashemene, Dera, the Metekal region, Mandura Woreda, the Gura Ferda district. Where was Human Rights Watch for these cases of slaughter? And please don’t tell me you wrote a stern tweet. There are Excel sheets of names of victims, and Ethiopian investigators have tracked down witnesses that are willing to give their accounts.
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And by the way, just what do you consider an independent investigation? Does that imply only an American and European-based NGO? Because we’ve already seen Amnesty International apologize for screwing up and playing sides back in August. So I would really like to know why such groups are automatically trusted first before African institutions, given their recent track record.
Instead of “staying on brand” to show oh-so-sincere concern, how about you get someone to pick up a damn phone and call Addis Ababa and speak to representatives of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission about their preliminary report? And okay, yes, because we live in an age when the commission is regularly accused of partisanship, how about getting someone’s ass on a plane out to the refugee camps in Sudan and talk to witnesses there in the interests of balance and fairness?
The reality is that Ethiopians do not come in only one homogenous flavor — there are millions of citizens of mixed-heritage who don’t readily identify as just Tegaru, just Amhara or Oromo or Guarage or any single one of the dozens of other ethnicities in the country. So part of what has been going on with Tigray and with these episodes of ethnic cleansing is a nation coming to grips with a system that amounts to a kind of apartheid, forcing its citizens to walk around with ID cards that must have an ethnicity selected for them. And many seem to be sick of this.
The following was posted on Facebook:
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Some will agree with this sentiment. Others may take strong exception to it.
It would be interesting for a major media outlet to further explore this aspect of what’s unfolding.
I personally find it amazing that to even suggest Ethiopians of different ethnic backgrounds still have things in common, that they might still feel solidarity thanks to history, is now supposedly a “political” position — and that somehow this is biased. I’m sorry, but let me call bullshit on that. Again, whether Ethiopians let Tigray leave its union in peace or work out a new constitution has to be decided by them. How Oromia fits in has to be decided by them. And it’s not biased or partisan to wish the best for a great family of a people to work out its differences, or to have the perspective that even if new political lines are drawn on a map, that their future will still be an inter-connected one.
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Patriots to the Cause of Humanity
We can be reminded of this fact even in tragedy. According to the EHRC preliminary report on Maikadra, victims told its investigators that “other residents, who were Tigrayan themselves, helped several of them survive by shielding them in their homes, in churches and in farms.” Let’s assume for a moment that at least part of the report’s findings are true, that these accounts can and will be verified. Think about what it means. The report mentions a woman hiding 13 people in her house and then leading them to safety at a nearby farm. “She went as far as staying with them the whole night in case the group came back in search of them.” The report talks about another Tigrayan woman “who was hit on the arm with a machete while trying to wrestle a man away from attackers who set him on fire.”
Journalism — like drama — is fueled by conflict. And without conflict, the professional know-it-all analysts and the reps for the human rights organizations would each be out of a job, but luckily for them, “business is always good.” As much as the Western media routinely go on about the strife and killing in Africa, the examples above speak of the African spirit.
Evelyn Waugh delighted with spiteful relish in Ethiopian suffering. George Steer wrote two of the best books ever about Ethiopia, chronicling its people’s bravery and endurance. We can either have the best or the worst of professional standards in journalism and human rights, but the path seems fairly clear. Ethiopia is where humanity began, and any acts of courage at Maikadra in the face of despicable evil testify to that core of human decency that rises above the grudge of blood, the hatred of “the other.” When will such examples lead the international coverage?
And if ordinary Tigrayans have risked their lives to save Amhara, just as brave Oromo saved Amhara victims in previous incidents months ago, it’s pretty obvious that Ethiopians don’t need any lessons from the West over bargaining across a negotiation table or how war isn’t the answer (after the U.S. and its allies tried to answer the questions of where are those WMDs in Iraq, and how many innocents can we kill with drone strikes in Afghanistan).
Let’s allow Ethiopians to work out their own problems and come up with their own solutions. With that in mind, let an Ethiopian have the last word here. “There’s an enormous task ahead of us after this conflict is over, which is a careful rethinking of the Ethiopian state,” Professor Kebadu Mekonnen told me. “We need to give the next generation a hopeful future, a future that grants them the ability to go anywhere in the
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How Historians Have Failed Ethiopia
Ask folks who were there in the 1970s and managed to survive the ordeal about the Derg. Ask them about the horrible misery caused by a cult of Marxist psychopaths, the slaughter of innocents and the rapes committed. A British ambassador to Ethiopia was once asked who introduced Communism into Ethiopia, whether it was Chinese or Russian agents. “There was no need,” he replied. “The revolution was largely brought about by British and American Communist school teachers and university lecturers.”
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It makes sense. It’s hard to convey just how powerful an influence Western teachers can have in the developing world, even to this day, and these individuals no doubt got a big ego boost from their idolizing students hanging on their every word in the 1950s and Sixties. Of course, a people must ultimately search themselves over how they’ve earned or been stuck with the government they have. …
Published in Digital Diplomacy
·Aug 31
How Western Media is Failing Ethiopia
If you want to know the history of modern journalism in Africa, it starts with “Doctor Livingstone, I presume?” A news article about one white guy going off to find another white guy, a missionary, in what today is Tanzania. In the newspaper account, the Africans were pretty much scenery.
The situation did not get better with time. The correspondents who showed up to cover Ethiopia’s confrontation with Italy in 1935 were disappointed when talks at the League of Nations dragged on and the shooting wouldn’t start. They were pissed off that there was no spectacle, so most of them left. …
Ethiopia, Oromia, and that Seattle Video…
People have sent me the clips and ask me about the video in Seattle, showing the clash between Diaspora protesters for Oromo nationalism versus those who still believe in a united Ethiopia. Jeez, as if I have answers.
No, I won’t link it here. It’s ugly, uglier than the video of the clash in Calgary. If you’re going to ask me, okay, I’ll give you my thoughts, but you may not like them.
First: the labeling. It is incredibly counter-productive and dangerous to label the protesters, even those in this incident as Islamist. Yeah,
