Ditto

On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 5:24 PM, Baba Galleh Jallow
<[log in to unmask]>wrote:

>  Mboge,
>
> I think I agree with this position. Nkrumah, yes, in spite of his many
> shortcomings. Haile Selassie, certainly not. We must not reward people
> merely for sentimental reasons clouded by either wilful or genuine
> ignorance. Thanks for sharing.
>
> Baba
>
>  ------------------------------
> Date: Sat, 25 Feb 2012 12:22:44 +0100
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [G_L] Pambazuka - Say no to Haile Selassie statue at AU
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
>  Say no to Haile Selassie statue at AU An open letter to acting AU
> Commission Chairperson Asrat Deferes 2012-02-23, Issue 571<http://www.pambazuka.org/en/issue/571>
> http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/80178<http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/80178>[image:
> Bookmark and Share]<http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pub=fahamutech> Printer
> friendly version<http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/80178/print>
>
> *cc A D* <http://www.flickr.com/photos/adavey/2128322386/>Emperor Haile
> Selassie was no pan-Africanist. In fact there is overwhelming evidence of
> his autocracy and rejection of the Black cause. It will be an injustice to
> African history to erect his statue at the new AU headquarters in Addis
> Ababa.
> H.E. Mr. Erastus Mwencha
> Acting Chairperson of AU Commission
> African Union Head Office
> Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
> [log in to unmask]
>
> Your Excellency,
>
> The Ethiopian Pan-African Society would like to express its views on the
> demands by Ethiopian individuals forwarded to you to consider the erection
> of the statue of ex-emperor Haile Selassie along with that of Dr. Kwame
> Nkrumah at the premises of the new AU headquarters. We strongly urge you
> not to consider this demand as the ex-emperor was neither a pan-Africanist
> nor a model head of state to be emulated.
> Whether or not the ex-emperor of Ethiopia has contributed to
> Pan-Africanism cannot be judged:
> • out of abstract sentiment or out of opposition to the current regime in
> Ethiopia
> • through the songs of Bob Marley, other Rasta reggae singers or through
> the Ethiopian singer, Tewodros Kassahun
> • through sentimental anecdotes on such as what happened at the founding
> conference of the OAU in 1963 as a certain Mismaku did recently.
>
> 1. Africa is in a deep crisis emanating from a prevailing system of
> governance that is corrupt and dictatorial through and through. That calls
> for an egalitarian system of governance that takes the crying plights of
> the ordinary African into consideration. Cultivating the new generation of
> Africans imbued with the spirit of Pan-Africanism that springs from the
> plight of the poor and with freedom and democracy in the first place is an
> absolute pre-requisite. Construction of Africa’s own history can be part of
> this process of cultivating such a new generation. The place we give to
> past heads of state in the contemporary history of Africa is as crucial.
> This is where our serious objection to the eulogy paid to the ex-emperor of
> Ethiopia.
>
> Anybody who has contributed to Pan-Africanism must be judged by the
> person’s contribution to the construction of the very thought of
> Pan-Africanism; or by what they did in practice to advance Pan-Africanism
> be it in the area of liberating Africa from colonisation or by a
> construction of ideas towards an egalitarian (democratic and free) system
> of governance for the continent. To that extent, the ex-emperor of Ethiopia
> or his government had not done anything exceptionally more than what the
> rest of independent states of Africa did at the time. The support the
> ex-emperor rendered to the Kenyatta family during Kenya’s struggle against
> British colonisation and the military training given to Nelson Mandela
> before his imprisonment were not exceptional at all as other African
> governments, the front line state to Southern Africa in particular, had
> done more to the extent of being attacked by the apartheid regime. Tanzania
> and Zambia have been attacked and Mozambique in particular was subjected to
> regular aerial bombardment by apartheid forces, which finally shot down an
> aircraft killing the country’s president, Samora Machel. (Speaking of
> statues, Samora Machel, Edwardo Mondlane, Amilcal Cabral, Patrice Lumumba
> were real heroes of Africa’s liberation and who stood for Pan-Africanism
> and sacrificed for it. These are the ones who deserve statues along with
> Nkrumah.)
>
> 2. At the beginning of the second millennium, the BBC held an opinion
> survey and collected votes from its listeners in Africa as to who their
> ‘African of the Millennium’ was. Kwame Nkrumah was voted first by a huge
> margin followed by Nelson Mandela in the second place. It is for their
> monumental contribution to Africa’s liberation and to the thought of
> Pan-Africanism as well as for their exemplary role that Kwame Nkrumah and
> Nelson Mandela were voted as ‘my African of the millennium’. This is a
> prototype of African perception of leaders who contributed for Africa.
>
> 3. Apart from issues of construction of ideas and direct contribution to
> Africa’s liberation, another crucial element is the leaders’ own internal
> policies on governance. What were their policies particularly as regards
> the various ethnic groups within their own countries? Pan-Africanism is an
> African outlook and is deeply rooted on the identity of Africans as black
> people because of the dehumanisation by colonisation. This is indeed the
> bottom line as nobody can be a pan-Africanist disregarding black identity.
>
> The record of the ex-emperor of Ethiopia in this regard is shocking to say
> the least. First, slavery was practiced in Ethiopia widely. People of the
> border regions who are physically Nilotic or Bantu were taken in custody by
> the monarchy, nobility and feudal lords under his regime and kept forcibly
> as slaves. In fact, in order to prevent escape, tissues from the hamstrings
> of most of the male ‘slaves’ were cut out. Ethiopia had difficulties in
> joining the League of Nations precisely because of the practice of slavery.
> After the war, chattel slavery continued to the final days of the emperor
> in 1974. The ex-emperor of Ethiopia had not lifted a finger to end slavery
> in his own country. On the contrary, he was one of the big owners of
> chattel claves.
>
> Secondly, the nobility at the time of his rule never considered themselves
> as black and African. For political reasons, being African was ‘accepted’
> particularly when the OAU was about to be established. But, being black has
> never been accepted. No wonder when the ex-emperor visited Jamaica in 1967,
> he said in an interview with a journalist that, ‘We Ethiopians are not
> black’. The ruling ideas of a given society at a given point in time are
> also the ideas of the ruling class. That includes negative ideas filled
> with all sorts of bigotry. But if such ideas are not deconstructed
> thoroughly, they persist for too long. This notion of ‘not being black’ is
> still widespread in Ethiopia. It is even noticeable today among members of
> the Diaspora, who refer to Nilotic or Bantu Africans as ‘black’. These are
> undeniable facts that can be proved so easily.
>
> Thirdly, one can also look at the ex-emperor’s policy on Ethiopian ethnic
> groups other than the Amhara. Discrimination and political as well as
> economic marginalisation was the daily companion of millions and millions
> of non-Amhara Ethiopians. Their lands were taken over by the feudal lords
> and were treated as second-class citizens. Many were forced to change their
> names to Amharic ones to be accepted. Those who resorted to rebellions were
> met with fierce punishment including outright massacres as in the case of
> Tigray (1943), Eritrea (1961-1974), Ogaden (1960-1974), Bale (1967), Sidamo
> and many other places. The ex-emperor’s ‘Imperial Body Guard’ shot in the
> crowd of university students on December 29, who assembled to pay the last
> respects to their leaders assassinated the previous day by the ex-emperor’s
> secret police. The repressive rule also clamped down against trade union
> activists and student leaders. Trade unionists such as Abera Gemu and
> student leaders such as Tilahun Gizaw were assassinated in broad daylight.
> (Incidentally, Tilahin Gizaw was a champion of Pan-Africanism who received
> a gun shot by police during a demonstration against Ian Smiths’ Unilateral
> Declaration of Independence and he was also instrumental in organising a
> rally in solidarity in 1969 with the struggling people of South Africa and
> Zimbabwe.)
>
> The ex-emperor was also known for his cruelty and viciousness. Apart from
> the massacres committed in the Ogaden, Eritrea and so on, his regime had
> also practiced the most heinous crimes. Lands were confiscated from the
> rural population (poor farmers and nomads) without compensation; political
> opponents or conscientious objectors were met with police brutality
> including torture. Political suspects were banished to remote areas. The
> ex-emperor is even accused of practicing witchcraft orgies in which he
> sacrificed children for a spirit called Korit at Lake Bishoftu. In 1961, he
> personally ordered the corpse of Girmame Neway, the slain coup leader, to
> be hanged and displayed in public. When all these crimes were committed,
> the ex-emperor appeared extremely calm and ‘dignified’. Needless to say,
> sir, we simply cannot list all the crimes of the ex-emperor.
>
> We hold that the current regime in Ethiopia is as autocratic as ex-emperor
> Haile Selassie’s and Colonel Mengistu’s. We applaud the struggle of the
> people of Ethiopia for justice and freedom. We understand that the
> Ethiopian Diaspora is also active in this struggle. But fighting against
> injustice with injustice done to Ethiopia’s history is something that won’t
> work.
>
> Sir, we fully support the erection of Kwame Nkrumah’s statue at the
> premises of the new AU headquarters and strongly demand that you ignore the
> demand to have a statue for the ex-emperor Haile Selassie alongside it. If
> other African heroes are to be included in the list deserving their statue
> in the AU premises, we suggest the inclusion of Nelson Mandela, Patrice
> Lumumba, Amilcar Cabral, Samora Machel and Edwardo Mondlane.
>
> Sincerely yours,
>
> Asrat Deferes, Chairperson, The Ethiopian Pan-African Society, Addis Ababa
>
> http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/80178
>
>
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