Get Ethiopian & Harar history right!
By Haaq Angisach
August 2, 2005 — An article by Hibret Selamu under the title of “Ethiopia – The undemocratic electoral system” published by Sudan Tribunal on May 27,2005 is saddening, and written with out any contemplation of democracy, indigenous right and the apartheid history.
On his article the author has exposed himself to the whole world his unawareness, and disrespect to the rule of law and democracy, which protects the rights of all, particularly the rights of the minority in any given diverse, multi-ethnic and harmonies society. He is either in denial of Ethiopian and Harar history or he is engulfed by hatred and ignorance, therefore he must be proud of propagating in his article a return to the dark ages of his ancestor’s unjust and oppressive rule.
One might twist and turn historical facts for political ends, in his case it was grossly abused beyond belief and almost impossible to justify by any one’s standard. Even-though his view about Harar and harari people changes nothing and not worth responding, we would like to take this opportunity and reveal his lack of knowledge on some of the points he made on his article.
Hopefully this will enlighten some of the facts to his audience whom he tried to confuse. Similarly it will also educate people like him and the like who believes intimidating minor ethnics will regain them power. The writer not only offended the Harari people but also made a mockery of South Africans, who fought long and hard to obtain freedom from apartheid regime.
How dare he put resemblance between the current Ethiopian situation and the South African apartheid regime? Does he really know what apartheid means? Does he really know Harar and Harari people’s history?
What is apartheid?
Apartheid is social and political policy of racial segregation and discrimination enforced by white minority governments in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. The term apartheid (from the Afrikaans word for “aparness”) was coined in the 1930s and used as a political slogan of the National Party in the early 1940s, but the policy itself extends back to the beginning of white settlement in South Africa in 1652. After the primarily Afrikaner Nationalist came to power in 1948, the social custom of apartheid was systematized under law. The implementation of the policy, later referred to as “separate development,” was made possible by the Population Registration Act of 1950, which put all South Africans in to three racial categories: Bantu (black African), White, or Coloured (of mixed race). A fourth category, Asian (Indians and Pakistanis), was added later. The system of apartheid was enforced by a series of laws passed in the 1950s.
The Group Areas Act of 1950 assigned races to different residential and business section in urban areas, and the Land Acts of 1954 and 1955 restricted nonwhites residence to specific areas. These laws further restricted the already limited right of black Africans to own land, entrenching the white minority’s control of over 80 percent of South African land. In addition, other laws prohibited most social contacts between the races; enforced the segregation of public facilities and the separation of educational standards; created race-specific job categories; restricted the powers of non-white unions; and curbed non-white participation in government. (Alonford James Robinson, Jr.).
These were some of facts in South Africa history in the apartheid era. It is beyond our comprehension to see a person would make such a comparison between the constitutional rights of the harari people to govern fraction of their historical land to apartheid South Africa.
History of Harar and Harari people
There is no way we can write the history of Harar and Harari people in few paragraphs. However, just for your information Harar has rich, proven and documented historical, cultural recognition going back over a thousand years. Its people exhibit distinct cultural behaviour. The city itself composes many world heritage protected sites; some even call Harar itself a living museum. A proud city with lots of historical buildings, mosques, minarets, shrines and markets. Centre for education, trade, and agriculture with its own local currency.
Up to seventy-six known amirs (kings) ruled the ancient walled city of Harar, from Amir Habuba (969-1000) to Amir Abdullahi (1885 – 1887). The late Amir Abdullahi lost a fierce and bloody war to Amhara invading forces of Menelik at the battle of Chalenqo in 1887.
After the fall of Harar the Harari have never given up on their natural right to govern themselves during brutal and dictatorship rule of Hailesilase and Mangistu regimes. In 1948 the Harari people organized peaceful movement (Kollobe) for self-determination. Unfortunately this movement was crushed by the tyrant regime. The leaders of this movement were exiled and many were sent to Debra Markos, Gema and Gore notorious prisons.
These are some of what the foreign writers wrote about Harar:
The ancient metropolis of a once mighty race, the only permanent settlement in Eastern Africa, the reported seat of Muslim learning, a walled city of stone houses, possessing its independent chief, its peculiar population, its known language and its own coinage; the emporium of the coffee trade and the head-quarters of the slave trade and the great manufacture of cotton cloths, amply it appeared deserved the trouble of exploration. Richard Burton (xxvi, 1894)
Before the rise of Addis Ababa and Nairobi was the only city worth of the title in East Africa between the Ethiopia city of Gondar, to the north of Lake Tana, and the Arab city of Zanibar, on the island off the east Africa coast. Arnold J Toybee (1965)
Who are indigenous people?
This is what we found on the web site of UNDP and Indigenous Peoples:
A Practice Note on Engagement
The covenant of the League of Nations referred to non-self-governing or colonized peoples as “indigenous” peoples. In the 1950s, ILO began referring to the problems of “indigenous populations in independent countries,” which is to say culturally and geographically distinct communities that were non self-governing, marginalized and colonized inside the borders of independent states.
The terms “indigenous people,” “indigenous ethnic minorities,” and ”tribal groups” are used to describe social groups that share similar characteristics, namely a social and cultural identity that is distinct from dominant groups in society. United Nations human rights bodies, ILO, the World Bank and international law apply four criteria to distinguish indigenous peoples:
(a) Indigenous peoples usually live within (or maintain attachments to) geographically distinct ancestral territories.
(b) They tend to maintain distinct social, economic, and political institutions within their territories.
(c) They typically aspire to remain distinct culturally, geographically and institutionally rather than assimilate fully into national society.
(d) They self-identify as indigenous or tribal.
Despite common characteristics, there is not any single accepted definition of indigenous peoples that captures their diversity as peoples. Self-identification as indigenous or tribal is usually regarded as a fundamental criterion for determining whether groups are indigenous or tribal, sometimes in combination with other variables such as “language spoken,” and “geographic location or concentration.”
We wonder what the writer thinks of the definition of indigenous people by UNDP and world bodies. It doesn’t really matter what people like the author and all the Amhara chauvinists think, they simply want to roll back history and enjoy what they inherited from their forefathers, which is minority Amhara ruling class ruling the rest of the nations.
Any fair minded person who observes and studies closely the history of Harar and Ethiopia in general undoubtedly would come to the conclusion that Hararis under Amharas over-century old rule suffered immensely. They have sustained systematic and constant violation of their very existence. Their fundamental rights of association, freedom of expression and self- determination and the right to practice own religion freely was extremely restricted or denied. Special secret departments were erected in Harar to deliberately dismantle, ethnically cleanse and force many Hararis to migration. The walled city was deliberately over populated to undermine the security and assimilate Hararis with migrants to diminish their identity. The greater Harargie region was ruled by Amharanisation Code of conduct, whilst the whole region was on purpose reduced to a chain of military camps. The history has a way of turning over every stone. He must be utterly ashamed to turn over this dark side of the history referred to his failed Amhara rulers.
Ethiopian Constitution
Article 39
Rights of Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples
Every Nation, Nationality and people in Ethiopia has an unconditional right to self-determination, including the right to secession.
Every Nation, Nationality and people in Ethiopia has the right to speak, to write and to develop its own language; to express, to develop and to promote its culture; and to preserve its history.
Every Nation, Nationality and people in Ethiopia has the right to full measure of self-government which includes the right to establish institutions of government in the territory that inhabits and to equitable representation in state and federal governments.
The right to self-determination, including secession, of every Nation, Nationality and people shall come in to effect: (a) When a demand for secession has been approved by two-thirds majority of the members of the Legislative Council of the Nation, Nationality or people concerned; (b) When the Federal Government has organized a referendum which must take place within three years from the time it received the concerned council’s decision for secession; (c) When the demand for secession is supported by majority vote in the referendum;
(d) When the Federal Government will have transferred its powers to the council of the Nation, Nationality or People who has voted to secede; and (e) When the division of assets is effected in a manner prescribed by law.
A “Nation, Nationality or People” for the purpose of this Constitution, is a group of people who have or share large measure of common culture or similar custom, mutual intelligibility of language, belief in a common or related identities, a common psychological make-up, and who inhabit an identifiable, predominantly contiguous territory.
The Harari people have suffered as much (if not more) as the rest of all the oppressed nations in Ethiopia by the undemocratic and brutal feudal system over a century. They had contributed significantly to the famous Ethiopian student movement, which had a proud history on fighting this brutal feudal system. History is our witness that during the fight against Mengestu’s terror regime the Harari youth stood firm side by side with rest of their brothers and sisters and paid the ultimate price.
It is only fare for the harari people to share and enjoy the constitutional right for self-determination with the rest of all oppressed nations of Ethiopia regardless of their numbers. The reactionary forces who are desperately trying to roll back history will never succeed.
Last but not least, let us hope that one day people will stop from spreading politics of hate and incite hostility amongst harmoniously coexisting diverse communities of Ethiopia.
Haaq Angisach is a concerned Ethiopian Hararis living in Australia.