An Interview with Magn Nyang

Where were you in May 1991 when the TPLF fighters entered Addis Ababa?

I was in high school then, living in Addis Ababa.  On May 27, 1991, my friends and I were sitting around in the living room talking to each other when, unexpectedly, the lights went out. It was approximately around 8:00pm. We stepped outside and saw that the whole city of Addis Ababa was in darkness.  In about an hour later, the lights came back on. My friends and I usually listen to the voice of America-Amharic program (VOA-Amharic) starting at 9:00 pm. Since the lights were back on at 9:00pm, we immediately turned on the radio and right there and then, the VOA announcer from Washington DC dropped the biggest bomb ever on us-“tonight, at about one hour ago, the lights in Addis Ababa went out and it was conformed that the TPLF guerrilla has entered Addis.” Not knowing what to make of the News, we sat there quietly and eventually retired to our bedrooms without speaking to each other.

I woke up the next morning to unusual voice (a man with an Amharic accent) on Ethiopian radio station announcing, “Today, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) that was born out of Ethiopians’ oppression and grievances has taken control of the Ethiopian Radio Station.” This announcement went on for all day.

You have indicated that the process of liberating Tigraian in particular and Ethiopian in general by the TPLF was not far reaching enough. Why do you express this view?  

One of the primary reasons the TPLF was founded, according to Aregawi Berhe (one of the founders), was to liberate Tigraian in particular and Ethiopian in general from the Showan Amhara elites’ hegemony that began in early nineteen century. The TPLF accused the Showan Amhara elites of manipulating and monopolizing political power and when Emperor Hiale Sellassie was overthrown and Dergue took charge in July 1974, the TPLF leadership saw that as a continuation of the same hegemony. Here is what the transitional period  charter said in 1991 “whereas the military dictatorship was, in essence, a continuation of the previous regimes and its demise marks the end of an era of subjugation and oppression thus starting a new chapter in Ethiopia history in which freedom, equal rights and self-determination of all the peoples shall be the governing principles of political, economic and social life and thereby contributing to the welfare of the Ethiopian Peoples and rescuing them from centuries of subjugation and backwardness.”  If the above is true, where is the freedom, equal rights and self-determination for all peoples in Ethiopia today?  Are Ethiopian rescued or even close to be rescued from centuries of subjugation and backwardness today? The answer is, no. The TPLF said that it wanted to eliminate famine in Tigray region like that of 1958-9, 1972-4, and 1983- 4. The TPLF not only failed in eliminating famine in Tigray region, it even failed to improve the farming capabilities of Tigraian farmers in the last 19 years. The Farming capabilities of farmers in Tigray today are as poor as 50 years ago. People are still starving in Tigray and in the rest of Ethiopia.

If they had understood what liberation is, the TPLF leaders would have realized that defeating the Dergue’s military forces in May 1991 was, at most, only the first important battle on the road to truly liberate Ethiopians. Far from the struggle being over, the political stage had only just been set for it to seriously begin. But unfortunately, their conception of their project was terribly limited. Far from being a true liberator, the leadership of TPLF at the Federal level in Addis Ababa is now engaged in manipulating and monopolizing political power.

What they called liberation movement did not step to office to continue with what remained of the struggle. If they had conceived of liberation in a correct and thoroughgoing manner—as they stated in the transitional period charter in 1991– they might have produced a clear road map to liberation and known what to do immediately after getting into office. Putting a star in the middle of Ethiopian flag and changing the national anthem did not mean that the struggle is over.

The TPLF leadership had superficial conception of subjugation and oppression that they fought against, and even less knowledge about how to bring freedom, equal rights and self-determination for all the peoples that shall be the governing principles of political, economic and social life. They therefore had no realistic notion of what liberation would require. I think that their failure to study and understand the scope of their project—a failure caused by the intellectual poverty, indeed intellectual barrenness, of the movement—was the fundamental reason why their struggle did not go far enough. It does now appear that the leaders of TPLF had effectively narrowed down their aims to simply replacing the Showan Amhara elites to enjoy all the privileges that come with elitism. They did not go into office to dig out the roots of subjugations and oppression that caused centuries of backwardness in Ethiopia.

The TPLF fought for hard 17 years and won a hard fought armed struggle. What make you think that the leaders were not prepared to embark on the next stage of liberation?

What count is what you do when you get into office, not how you get there. Don’t you need to promptly get to work removing the root causes of subjugation and backwardness? Armed struggle has its own role and virtues in a liberation struggle but does not, by itself, produce that orientation (the orientation that will allow you to remove the root causes of your problems).  Political education, analysis and forward planning produce that orientation. As evidenced by the last 19 years ordeal, it does not look like the leaders of the TPLF are willing to do anything to produce the orientation.

And, by the way, getting the right orientation is not even a matter of being educated. George Washington (1789-1797), you must remember, had no formal education—he grew up in the farm in Virginia; he did not go to school or university. Yet, he led a liberation struggle that freed his people from colonialism. In addition, his insight about the future of his country made the United States what it is today. So, the failure of the TPLF leaders is entirely intellectual—due to a crisis of knowledge, which arose because they did not have the mental independence and the ideological clarity to seek the political knowledge required to become true liberators. Do not get me wrong, these guys are all from Haile Silassie I University and well read. However, they, as a class have no knowledge or experience of the productive forces of the country (knowledge of production and of democratic tradition). Their ignorance and disregard of economic development is profound. As a class, at Haile Silassie I University, these guys lived by politics and they carried into politics all the weaknesses of the class from which they come. They did not know what kind of society they wanted to build after liberation. They just wanted to simply liberate.

Therefore, you want them replaced.

Yes, I do. If they continue to think that the liberation is over and refuse to embark on next stage of liberation, they need to be replaced. They need to be replaced by leaders who are willing to finish the aborted struggle for total liberation of all Ethiopians. But the question is, by whom? Hailu Shawel with his All Ethiopian Unity Party (AEUP) is now talking about reinventing Ethiopia, but he has not reviewed the mistakes of his generation and he is coming with new solutions. And, what’s worse, these new solutions are nothing but go back to the central governance.  Would a return to central governance rescue Ethiopian from centuries of subjugation and backwardness?  But even if it could, why didn’t it do so the first time? Has he told us? Has he analyzed it, and told us why and how it can be made to work this time? Somebody gives you one medicine for malaria, you take it and the malaria does not get cured, it gets worse; then another doctor gives you another medicine and the malaria keeps getting worse; and then the first doctor reappears and says you must get back to that drug you tried before. That is what Hailu is doing with his AEUP—offering us the old medicine that did not work the last time, and for that, he is hailed as a hero by some naïve Ethiopians.

Some people have said that Tigraian are minority, therefore, they should not rule Ethiopia. They are saying that there should be a majority rule in Ethiopia. What is your view on this?

This is just nonsense. Ruling a country and making it prosperous has nothing to do with minority or majority status. In fact, a majority group with an abysmally low political, cultural, ethical and productivity level is certainly not an asset. Indeed, it is a fatal liability. Nothing to be proud of. To be a leader in Ethiopia, one needed only to be an Ethiopian with a vision. And the Tigraian are indeed Ethiopians.

When I expressed the view that the TPLF has failed in liberating us, I do so, simply to emphasize that the rhetoric claimed far much more than was actually achieved. In 1991, the TPLF leaders claimed they had liberated Ethiopians from dergue’s subjugation and oppression. However, 19 years later, the only thing they succeeded in doing was getting rid of the Showan Amharas’ hegemony. But, what was the point of doing that if they, themselves, turned around and created their own hegemony?  

A fully liberated people are self-sufficient. You see, today in Ethiopia, people live at the mercy of IMF, Eu, USA, and World Bank. The government lives by begging. How can you claim to have liberated your people if what you did was just continue, like your predecessors, to reduce them to nothing but recipient of foreign donations? A leadership can only claim to have succeeded in liberating its people when it makes them self-sufficient.  I would like to say this again—the failure of the TPLF leadership is purely intellectual. Not because of their minority status, or their Tigraian origin. People who complain about Tigraian minority status are only doing so out of fear and prejudice. These same people would point to their own ethnic group to be the legitimate leaders of Ethiopia if questioned why they want Tigraian leaders gone. Apart from wanting to create their own hegemony in Ethiopia, the people who complain about Tigraian minority status do not have any plan to make Ethiopia a prosperous country for all.

Are you saying that Ethiopia should refuse foreign donations? Do you want People to die of starvation?

People will die of starvation! So what? I rather die of anger with my dignity intact than being kept alive by begged food from foreign donors.  These donors always want something in return. The only motivation they have is to keep you poor and begging so that they rob you of your natural resources. The best thing that could happen today to all Ethiopians is for the government to stop begging for foreign donations. Then, everybody would get a big jolt, sit up, and get to work to solve all problems they ignore or just grumble about. Foreign donations has instigated all kinds of delusions and illusions; it diverted people from what should be the central concern of politics—organizing the public welfare (territorial defense; internal law and order; dispensing justice; seeing to the efficient and nationalistic management of political and economic institutions so as to provide opportunities for productive employment for all and so produce most of the food you need; manufacture the things you need daily, provide enough electricity, water and adequate health care etc).

Foreign donation has distorted everything. The government, getting monitory funds from the IMF, World Bank, the EU, the US, and etc, doesn’t feel any need to gather taxes from the population, and so feels no pressure to consult or heed their wishes. Furthermore, thanks to these donations, politics in Ethiopia continues to be organized from the top down rather than from the bottom up. Foreign donations diverted Ethiopian leaders from attending to the nuts and bolts of how to govern a country. As Ethiopian politics became simply the means to grab easy money, it ceased to be about the public welfare and degenerated into sheer racketeering and creation of one’s ethnic group hegemony.   

From your point of view, when will you think total liberation is achieved in Ethiopia?

A total liberation is achieved when we stop replacing one ethnic group hegemony with another ethnic group hegemony in Ethiopia. Furthermore, a total Liberation is achieved when we have leaders, who do not conform to ethnicity politics, with 10-15 years plan on how to lead Ethiopian out of backwardness and poverty. And, in doing so, in 10-15 years, Ethiopia will start running its economy, politics, and society and culture entirely in its national interest. This is the Ethiopia I want to see in the near future. Thank you!

The Interviewee, Magn Nyang can be reached at magnnyang@yahoo.com