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Timothy Kalyegira's (A Ugandan) Ethiopia bashing

Fri Mar 19, 2004 12:42 pm
Dear Mr. Kalyegira:

I hope this letter finds you in good health. I thought I would share with you my feelings on two of the several articles you wrote about Ethiopia and Ethiopians.

When I skimmed through your take on "Why Ethiopia Stayed Behind" a year ago, I knew that a good-natured chiding, it was not. I thought it was such a hodgepodge of hopelessly harebrained harangue that I dismissed it as unworthy of serious discourse and got on with my life. I hoped that you too would do the same since you had fulfilled your life's mission of maligning everything Ethiopian. Little did I know that a year later you would, yet again, take up the Ethiopian cause on our behalf and come a-riding into town to once more clue us in on the error of our ways. How lucky could we get? And to think that we didn't even have to ask for it!

Your article "The Diaspora Predicament" starts out with the words: "any Africans-Ethiopians inclusive . . ." Right at the outset, you commit your first egregious error. Since, by some stroke of genius you made the stunning discovery that we Africans are Africans and therefore could safely be included, you could have gone that extra length to express it correctly. Far be it for me to correct you Mr. Kalyegira but the phrase "Ethiopians inclusive" reads better as "Ethiopians included." I do concede it is a stretch for me to point this out to you, because I grew up speaking a homegrown language written in a homegrown alphabet. But, look! If you're so gracious as to include us, don't go and "inclusive" us . . . is all I'm saying!

"The Diaspora Predicament" does not disappoint. In keeping with tradition, this article too is an unfocused yarn spun out of the lame material of a kaffeklatsch. It purports to be about all Africans in the Diaspora but rapidly acquires that kalyegirian style where you get lost in a downward spiral of Ethiopia-bashing. You really could have gone straight into your subject-matter, Ethiopia and Ethiopians. After all, there is such a huge reservoir of unparalleled respect for you in our community we respect even your right to make a fool of yourself if you so choose. "I've met a number of Ethiopians who live in America or Europe and I have interacted with them. It is one of the saddest experiences I have had. Immediately, I see the brainwashing that these 'Diaspora' Ethiopians undergo while in the West," you note! Mr. Kalyegira, just how sad the experience of meeting you might have been for those Ethiopians who supposedly met you will nev er be known. In fact, it won't even be known if anyone ever met you, but since your entire "research" has its roots in your alleged interaction with a few Ethiopians, I can't find it in my heart to doubt you. Yihunilih! To deny you the benefit of a doubt would amount to denying you the entire "scientific" basis of your claim. Even I could not be that cruel! In fact, I'm inclined to believe you. It serves to confirm my suspicion (just a suspicion) that you may be guilty of oversimplification and blatantly crass generalizations. You write:

"If I were a strategist in the Central Intelligence Agency in Virginia, . .what I would do is just grant Ethiopians visas and green cards, help them get into America, let them see and experience America . . . .! By the time they are through and the next generation is born, you will no longer have Ethiopians; you will simply have Black Americans called Ethiopians." I see why your exposé of the Ethiopian Diaspora draws its "essence" from the small-time talk you claim to have had with a small number of Ethiopians. It's obvious that you could not have visited the Ethiopian Community in America to see things for yourself. If you did apply for an entry-visa to the United States, it's fair to assume that your request was ridiculed. Why? Because, if the statement above is an indication, you would have sent your application to the wrong guy in the wrong department. That strategist at the CIA in good-old-Virginia! Mr. Kalyegira, as a general ru le, the strategist at the CIA does not go granting visas! Oh, these persnickety Americans! . . .Far more amusing still is that you, undeterred by your lack of first-hand knowledge of Ethiopians in the Diaspora, fire away all the same; typecasting adult Ethiopians as hopelessly "brainwashed" and their offsprings as "ruined." Even Ethiopian children yet unborn are not exempt.

You state: "I'm told that up to 100,000 (33,000?) Ethiopians live in Washington D.C. alone. A young Ethiopian man in Kampala looked at me, with a pained statement on his face, and asked a question I never thought I would hear from an Ethiopian: 'Do you think it was a mistake for us not to have been colonized?' I had no answers, besides [sic] insisting that to have resisted colonialism was a great achievement." . . For all his naiveté, the young man knew whom to ask whether "it was a mistake for (Ethiopia) not to have been colonized." But you, Mr. Kalyegira, missed a golden opportunity to set this misguided brother on the right course to that time-honored African Weltanschauung: Freedom at any cost! What you did was equivocate. "I had no answers besides. . . !" Hah! As if there were but one and only one way to see the evil that was colonialism! But of course you had the answers Mr. Kalyegira! Who else but you could speak to the ravages of colonialism and the untold atrocities committed on its watch against the people of the continent? Having first hand knowledge of the havoc and devastation visited on your land by colonialism, you might have countered the unwise reflections of an immature mind with the same righteous anger that a true Ethiopian would have felt. Despite our lack of the colonial experience, we Ethiopians have always been unambiguous about our stand against colonialism. And that's why we never stopped with our victory, but spearheaded a movement to fight this brutal scourge wherever on the continent it reigned!

And that, Mr. Kalyegira, is why I thought you might have raked that young Ethiopian over the coals for even daring to raise the question, because it is a question that disregards the suffering of your people as much as it discounts the heavy price our forefathers paid for our independence and ultimately yours! I don't know how you see it, Mr. Kalyegira, but I would have thought that like millions of our African compatriots, you too would have no second thoughts about accepting our triumph as your triumph, just like we accepted your pain as our pain back when it really counted! . .Sure, you "insisted that to have resisted colonialism was a great achievement." But, that remark is not only offensively tepid, it is flat-out wrong! "Resist", sir, does not represent what Ethiopia did. I would like to think that all the nations that suffered the indignities of colonial rule resisted! What was unique about Ethiopia was that it was the one nat ion on the face of the earth that did not stop at resisting colonial aggression. By God, Mr. Kalyegira, what we did was DEFEAT the doggone thing! We defeated it . . is what we did! Now, say it with me, Mr. Kalyegira, say: "Defeated it!" You'll be surprised how cathartic an exercise it can be for someone who is ill-at-ease with the glory of his fellow-Africans.

Ethiopia's triumph over colonialism is a recurrent theme throughout your writings, albeit with that characteristically kalyegirian twist; that tortured tendency to be unflattering. In your earlier piece "Why Ethiopia Stayed Behind," you observe: "Humility and modesty is something that I admire a great deal in Ethiopians. I actually admire it, even more than the fact that Ethiopia was never colonized." . . .There you go again, Brother Kalyegira. The phrase " was never colonized " would indeed be appropriate if you were discussing Liberia, which was never colonized but never had to fight and defeat colonialism like Ethiopia had to do! You see the difference Mr. Kalyegira? Now, one more time, say: "Defeated it!" As for that cute statement that you admire our modesty more than you admire our triumph, you probably don't know it Mr. Kalyegira, but the reason you admire our modesty is that deep down you do admire our triumph. It would be som ewhat silly to admire our modesty without first admitting that we have a good deal to be modest about!

And then there is your re-proof that we Ethiopians tend to "live forever narrating ancient military glory and cultural superiority over the rest of Africa"... I can understand your bewilderment. It takes a certain historical frame of reference to appreciate that the "ancient military glory" that seems so ancient to you is really not ancient at all! Things being relative, Adowa is a recent event for a people whose history dates back to the pre-Christian period. You dig, Mr. Kalyegira? . . . As for your contention that we assert "cultural superiority over the rest of Africa," forgive me Mr. Kalyegira but I am so confused! I thought you said we were modest! Inde! You probably don't recall, but you also said we were great. In fact, uniquely qualified to rank the nations of Africa, you assigned Ethiopia an enviable standing among the top five nations of the continent. In that literary masterpiece "Why Ethiopia Stayed Behind," you state: "A bout the general greatness of Ethiopia, there can be no doubt. I have written and agreed many times that this is true. Ethiopia, to me, ranks or should rank among Africa's top five countries by virtue of its cultural heritage. There is no question about that." . .So, Mr. Kalyegira, if there is no question about our greatness, how come just a little farther down the page you quickly forget what you said about our greatness and take it all back with the conflicting statement: "If Ethiopia is lagging behind even most of Africa, the answer could simply be that we might not be as great as we imagine we are."

Which is it, Brother Kalyegira? Are we great or are we not? Are we modest or are we not? OK! How about great and modest? Great but immodest? Modest but not great? Greatly modest? Modestly great? You, sir, need to make up your mind so I can make up my mind as to what the hell I am. As long as you vacillate, I . .poor me, will never know who or what the hell I am! For now, however, since you are the preeminent authority on all things Ethiopian, an Ethiopianist to end all Ethiopianists, you leave me no choice but to resign myself to your charge of "cultural superiority." I am afraid I'm ill-equipped to stand toe-to-toe with you the Uncontested Expert and argue my point in an attempt to disprove it. What do I know about Ethiopia and Ethiopians anyway? I'm only an Ethiopian, you know?!

Besides, there is hardly any room for alternative opinion when there is a Kalyegira casting himself in the multi-role of an analyst, a preacher, an essayist, a sociologist, an anthropologist and, of course, a psychic, especially a psychic! I take pride that you my brother are all of that rolled into one single Mensch; a fact that so clearly comes through in your all-encompassing, authoritative work "Why Ethiopia Stayed Behind." Unrestrained by such trifling matters as substantiating your claims, it is here that you pioneer a brand-new methodology whereby facts and figures are skillfully left out for fear that they might detract from the narrative flow. But not to worry! We do get more than a healthy dose of your typical one-size-fits-all conclusions and grossly assumptions. "Why Ethiopia Stayed Behind" is a long-winded tirade of platitudes, hearsay and innuendo, a piece of bad writing fraught with all the fundamentals of bad writing that only the worst among bad writers could possibly think up. A perfect blending of counterfeit information and brazen bravado totally devoid of even a semblance of objectivity and rooted entirely in an assortment of simpleminded anecdotes.

Here is where you seek to expose the inner most thoughts of forlorn Ethiopians, their fears, their biases and the glaring deficiencies in their psychology that define them. The piece would have been mildly amusing under a different title: "The Collected Works of Kalyegira's Imagination." Mr. Kalyegira, when reading "Why Ethiopia Stayed Behind," one marvels at the remarkable faculty with which you unravel the intricacies of a multifaceted society, pierce our armor and demystify our Identity all in one fell swoop; within a single unfocused invective short on substance but long on ad hominem attacks. And to think that you did it all on the strength of a THREE WEEK VISIT to Addis Ababa and a quick little trip down to Debre Zeit in a two-tone minibus!

Mr. Kalyegira, your inclusion of all-important Debre Zeit in your extensive itinerary was a master-stroke. Without Debre Zeit, your attempt at offering a well-balanced, in-depth look into Ethiopia's multi-ethnic makeup would almost certainly have failed. After all, Ethiopia is not a single homogeneous entity whose diversity one would discount by skipping Debre Zeit! So, all you future historians . .take this page from the kalyegirian school of thought: Anytime you undertake an exhaustive study of Ethiopia and its people, all you have to do is go to Debre Zeit! There, dear scholar, you'll gain exclusive insight into the lives of all Ethiopians. Afar, Gurage, Wolayita, Oromo, Amhara, Tigre, Benshangul, Harare, Somali, Sidama, Surma, Hadya, Kembata, Kafficho, Anuak, Nuer, Kunama... and many others; all in their natural environment.

As rationale for your "study" of Ethiopia and Ethiopians, you offer the splendid notion that "through the eyes of this Ugandan foreigner, Ethiopians might see things that the simple fact of being part of the country might have caused them to overlook." Oh, how indebted we are to you for the enormous price you've paid to reveal to us where we went wrong! Only you, Mr. Kalyegira, would care enough about Ethiopia to take all of THREE WEEKS out of your life to "understand the dynamics that make Ethiopia" as you so eloquently put it. As foreigners, whose study of Ethiopia spans no less than THREE LIFE-TIMES, I hope that Richard and Allula Pankhurst will forgive you, for you know not what you do. But, I'm sure Sylvia is turning in her grave!

Just what it was that motivated you to write the piece is anybody's guess, but one thing is for certain. Judging from the bitter tone throughout, you might have had a personal axe to grind. Was it a woman Brother Kalyegira? WondimEn! Oh, those Ethiopian women! Even when they don't love you, knowing them is loving them. I can understand how rejection could compound loneliness and dredge up a sense of resentment not just against that specific woman but against all other women like her across the board. Here is your relentless rebuke: "Ethiopians are raised under what seems to outsiders to be brainwashing. They are raised as children to believe that their country is the greatest on earth... that their women (are) the most beautiful in the world;... If the girls are all that beautiful and elegant, why have we never heard of Miss World from Ethiopia?... I also quietly told some of my Ethiopian friends to revise their illusion that only Ethio pian girls are beautiful on the face of the earth!... Ethiopians step outside Ethiopia carrying all the legends and myths they have been fed on since childhood. Then they discover that there are other countries with... beautiful women and suddenly they are in crisis."

Your little uproar raises to near certainty my hunch that the source of your woes might indeed have been an Ethiopian woman. I can understand how to any visitor on an ill-fated romantic quest, rejection would constitute a missed opportunity. That's not to suggest that other nations of the world do not have their share of beautiful women. Of course they do! It's just that it takes a bit longer than it should to find them! And, Mr. Kalyegira, if your statement is credible, where a woman's beauty is concerned, we are blessed to suffer a "crisis when we leave home." Some folks are condemned to facing one when they go home! . . . ."This idea of somehow being the most beautiful breed of people on earth seems to be a central theme in most Ethiopians' minds," you go on. And, by way of proving us wrong, you rattle off names of women you consider more beautiful:

"Take a look at the 20-year old American pop-singer, Britney Spears. She is white, but what a beauty she is! Remember the late Princess Diana? Who can argue about that? Or Marilyn Monroe? Cyndi Crawford? The American Country music singer Faith Hill? There is this American actress Cybil Shepherd. I think she really is a truly beautiful woman. Have you seen some of those white women who appear on the advertisements of the brandy Remy? Or in the fashion magazines Vogue and Cosmopolitan. I think that too is pure beauty. I see the many white girls walk through the streets of Kampala . .with their funny blue eyes and blonde hair. Some of them should be models."

I bet Remy is selling big with you, Mr. Kalyegira! It's not my place to search for a deeper meaning, but it is clear that a person who suffers from an Identity Crisis usually harbors an underlying fantasy that finds expression in singing the praises of some Remy-Woman. Funny that you think we are brainwashed! Hah! Even those Ethiopians who live in America, whom you so unjustly slander, do not swear by Vogue and Cosmopolitan! How fitting though that you do! The only time you bother to cite a source in all of your writings, you cite a fashion-magazine for women. Then again, perhaps a picture-book might be all you could possibly refer to. Where writing is not a strength, reading too can't be far behind.

Mr. Kalyegira, what continues to puzzle me however is this: How the mind of an Ugandan man who lives all up in Uganda can make such a Non-Ugandan detour all into the same Non-Ugandan world he once, in reproaching us Ethiopians called "the stream of shallow consumer America . .a superficial western lifestyle." Okay, Mr. Bolshevik . . .but something doesn't fit! One moment you run roughshod over "shallow consumer America" but you are fully consumed by it the next. I'll tell you what "shallow" is Mr. Kalyegira: Shallow is naming Britney Spears as the epitome of feminine beauty. Incidentally, this is a woman who could not point to Uganda on the map if her life depended on it! You know, when a person's confusion flows from a deeply seated psychological flaw, what you have is not an amiable bumbler but a conflicted bumbler. The difference? An amiable bumbler is cute but a conflicted bumbler is sad! How is that for a strong opinion, Mr. Kaly egira? Is it strong enough an opinion for you? Or is it just the truth? I'm sure you remember what you said about us "being hesitant about expressing strong opinion!" As for the blue-eyed blondes walking the streets of Kampala who "should be models," you have come a long way, Mr. Kalyegira. There was a time not long ago when you could not get close enough to them to describe the color of their eyes. I suppose one should be thankful for the small pleasures of life.

If there ever was a doubt that a personal trauma might have been at the core of your qualms about Ethiopian women, here is more unintended tip-off: "If you have this adamant idea that that your girls are the world's most beautiful, then it is obvious what [sic] it leads to SEGREGATION. If being beautiful is something Ethiopians hold dear as part of their identity... then obviously they will become ashamed or uneasy about those people in Ethiopia who are not beautiful... When you build a national identity that revolves around the myth of beauty and cultural superiority, you have these uncomfortable situations of unstated discrimination."

Only in your mind, Mr. Kalyegira, does beauty lead to segregation. "You are beautiful, therefore, you segregate," is a fallacy that flies in the face of reason. Leave it to you to come up with an engaging notion! If an Ethiopian girl rejected your advances, would she be accused of discrimination? Of course, not! The worst one could say about her would be that she has a discriminating taste! Get it, Mr. Kalyegira? As for "becoming ashamed of those people in Ethiopia who are not beautiful," you have some explaining to do. Just who are the people in Ethiopia who are not beautiful, Mr. Kalyegira? Those people you say "look identical to the very dark-skinned Black people of Southern Sudan?" It's insensitive and shameful that you would equate dark skin with being not beautiful, but it's not surprising at all coming from someone whose idea of a beautiful woman is a dead white woman! Marilyn Monroe, Mr. Kalyegira? Marilyn Monroe? But why? Any Ugandan girl could bleach her hair and go stand over some subway grate with her white halter-dress blowing in the wind! Min nekah ante?

Mr. Kalyegira! Where, pray tell, does your anger come from? So disillusioned are you with Ethiopia and Ethiopians that you propose to start a movement in Ethiopia to fight for what you call the rights of ugly people. You write: "Come to think of it maybe I should also launch an Ethiopian guerrilla group and call it the Ugly People's Liberation Front (UPLF) to fight for the rights of the ugly people! What happens to some of us ugly people? Should we be sent to prison, because we don't meet beauty standard? " . . .You, my brother, need to ease up on yourself. But, if your "ugly" statement is an attempt at self-deprecating humor, you need to watch out, because you could run the risk of being believed. Otherwise, Mr. Kalyegira, I'll have you know that your UPLF would die at inception in Ethiopia, because in Ethiopia, beauty is a norm and not an exception. From light-skinned to dark-skinned, from straight nose to flat, from thin lips to th ick, from the urbanite in modern attire to our mothers in home-spun shemma, from the Surma girl in magnificent body paintings to the bare-breasted Hamer, from women sporting elaborate tattoos around their necks to those with hands and feet dyed in henna, we are all beautiful!

And you, sir, might not know it, but you too are beautiful. All you have to do to know it is come to grips with your Identity! Wrest yourself out of the abyss of self-doubt and stop longing for what you cannot be and cannot have! Even if you don't owe it to yourself, Mr. Kalyegira, you owe it to Uganda. There has to be a better way to repay Uganda than to engage in verbal blunders in the name of Uganda. As a proud Ugandan, you, sir, should rid yourself of that now largely discredited mentality of an ex-colonial subject. As one of Uganda's best and brightest, you would have failed Uganda and by extension would have failed us all if you do not become reacquainted with yourself! It's a sad day in Africa when in the 21st Century the highest aspiration that an African brother has is to romanticize Cybil Shepherd! And I, Mr. Kalyegira, would have failed you if I neglected to give you a slice of the proper vision so you too can see things as they are and not as your fantasy dictates! To my humble mind, by virtue of our common African Identity, your fate and my fate are inextricably linked. Damage perpetrated by a loose cannon under an Ugandan Identity is a damage perpetrated on me too!

The beauty of certain Africans should never have been a matter of contention between us Africans, Brother Kalyegira! And you, sir, will find that it's a bit difficult to love Ethiopia without loving us Ethiopians even if we annoy you to no end. And, if we really do annoy you to no end Mr. Kalyegira, may I surmise that it might be the facts that are annoying you? . . ."Ethiopians genuinely believe that their land is the most fertile, their food the ideal and the best, their women the most beautiful, their history the richest, their climate gives them 13 months of sunshine, their country is mentioned countless times in the bible, their music is the best on earth . . . and, of course, they are the only Black people on earth who successfully beat off colonial rule . . .," you bemoan.

I know that to your mind, our choice to safeguard our independence at any cost is something to be scoffed at. I also know that one could indeed do something to correct the bad choices one makes. But, for the life of me, I do not know how to correct the good ones. Perhaps we should turn to you for guidance. Boy, if that's not a frightening prospect! Alright, Mr. Kalyegira, we will beat ourselves up for surviving, for defining ourselves, for realizing early on that validation comes from within, but how on God's earth do we correct the fact that we are mentioned in the Bible? What a torture it must be that every time you read your Bible, Brother Kalyegira, you have to read about us! And if you thought you could switch to the Holy Qu'ran just so you could avoid us, think again because there too you will run into us ubiquitous Ethiopians! A recurrent nightmare, Mr. Kalyegira? No! Poetic Justice!

Here's something else that Poet Laureate Tsegaye said on the issue of freedom and what freedom means to the Ethiopian. If nothing else, Mr. Kalyegira, I thought you might take away from it the notion that there might be a bit more to freedom than being able to take pictures at Entebbe Airport as you so breathlessly point up. Poet Laureate Tsegaye writes: "Manifold wars and violence have been visited upon the common people relentlessly to snuff out freedom from the Ethiopian soul, the one distinguishing characteristic that makes the Ethiopian what he/she is and that enables him/her to walk with his/her chin up no matter what his material condition may be . . . .Because of his/her extraordinary love of freedom, the Ethiopian bears any burden and goes to any length without food, without shoes or enough clothes and supplies to fight and die for his/her freedom. This is what has won the Ethiopian respect among fellow Africans and many othe rs!" (Kebrit 1999, translation: Nigussay Ayele)

By contrast, Mr. Kalyegira, your concept of freedom soars to such new heights that it lends itself to very little criticism. Here's your version in all of its wisdom: . . ."I can say I have come close to a much more accurate understanding of the dynamics that make Ethiopia. Comparing Ethiopian (freedom) with Ugandan Freedom, when the Ethiopian Airlines flight touched down at Entebbe International Airport, right away I began taking photographs of the airport building. I also took photographs of the presidential jet. Watching me were the intelligence agents who maintain security at the airport. None of them stopped me. What kept going through my mind was 'This is Freedom! No wonder people always comment on how free Uganda is!' This is what one misses most when one is in, at least when I am in Addis Ababa. Total Freedom. This is the most important difference between Uganda and Ethiopia. Freedom of the most abundant type imaginable can be felt all over Uganda!"

Your strongest evidence yet for the comparative lack of freedom in Ethiopia is, of course, the fact that those intelligence agents responsible for security at Entebbe Airport never stopped you from taking pictures of the airport and the presidential jet! That they simply stood around and watched! I say to you my brother: Y'ALL NEED TO FIRE THEM! AND QUICK! Just as they stood around and watched when the Israelis raided your Entebbe Airport back in 1976, three decades later, here they are once again JUST WATCHING because old habits are hard to break. Scary thought these days! No wonder you fly ETHIOPIAN . . .Going to Great Length To Please!

Otherwise, Mr. Kalyegira, your Airport anecdote is either the poorest point of departure ever thought up by man or woman to define the concept of freedom or . . it is way ahead of its time! Also, you are wrong with your observation that "seeing an easy heartfelt laughter in an Ethiopian" is rare. I'm here to tell you, sir, upon reading your model of "Abundant Freedom" I found myself rolling on the floor because I know a good joke when I see one! Sure, I still don't laugh at every joke that every joker tells all over creation. You observe that in Ethiopia, people tend to "sit quietly behind their computers doing their work, speaking in low modest tones and rarely do you hear the laughter, and the jokes that tend to fill Ugandan offices." How distressing, Mr. Kalyegira! How sad it is that we hold on to that obsolete idea of doing our work when we are at work and working. Will you forgive us?

In berating the Ethiopian Community in Kampala for being reticent, "reserved, cautious and private" as you put it, you have this to say: "These people are exposed to one of the freest countries on earth, Uganda, where anything can be said by anyone on any topic. If you want to be a racist, foolish, sensible . . . you are free in Uganda. You are free to write or utter sense or nonsense on radio, television or the Newspapers! You can get away with any opinion on any subject."

Mr. Kalyegira, if I didn't have you as living proof that one can indeed write utter nonsense and get away with it, I would have questioned the truthfulness of your claim. While you were at it, however, perhaps you might have explained just how one can write nonsense on a radio. (You might want to rework that sentence a little bit, if you care.) Other than that, sir, I am impressed with everything you say about your freedom. If I have a minor reservation, it is with your claim that y'all don't draw the line even at Racism. When the right to be a racist is actively encouraged in some crackpot of a person, it could lead to unsettling consequences. Mr. Kalyegira, racism (and the expression of racist views) almost always has its basis in preconceived notions, which almost always has no basis in reality. It is particularly repulsive when a person with a knack for stereotyping recklessly labels a whole people "racist" only because he can! Co nsider the following, Mr. Kalyegira, because I doubt if you did when you first wrote it:

"I told my friends in Addis Ababa if you were to conduct an opinion poll over who they think are more racist, Ethiopians or White South Africans, 70% of people anywhere in the world would answer that they think Ethiopians are more racist." . . . .70% of the world! (ha,ha!) Your ability to gauge the feelings of six billion humans without asking a single question of a single human lays to rest any doubt I might have had about your super-human attributes! Mr. Kalyegira, even for someone who is adept at fishing facts and figures out of thin air, that 70% is a little comical. Why not 97.4%? . . .But, we breathe a collective sigh of relief that you settled for a measly 70%. What troubles me, however, is that you seem to take as much pleasure from telling us that we are racist as you do from being one yourself! Your feelings about us, sir, are as random and preconceived as your expression of those feelings is ill-considered and ill-conceived . Believe me, it's not a person's right to spew out hatred that frightens me. It's the person himself that scares me out of my wits. After all, as the metaphor goes, the most dangerous part in a car is the nut behind the wheel!

So unhappy are you with us Mr. Kalyegira that you rate us worse than even the known racists of the world: . ."It would be a pity if as time goes on, many people begin to think that the White South Africans, with all their racial background, are actually more social than the Ethiopians." . . .Mr. Kalyegira, you have every right to choose the company you keep, but if I were you I'd take my chances with an African before I do with an Africaaner. If nothing else, how could you trust someone who spells Africa with two "a's" ? But look! Since it is your preference to rub shoulders with the architects of Apartheid barely a few years removed from their racist handiwork, Voorspoed! (Good Luck in Africaans) Voorspoed indeed my brother, because he who refuses to learn from past mistakes is condemned to repeat them.

"These (White South Africans) are people who were raised from childhood in a country where racial separation and tendency to despise Blacks were not just a social norm, but official church and government policy. Yet, the White South Africans in Uganda today, are among the friendliest people you can meet," you assure us. Hard to believe that you don't get it! These people were not simply "raised in a country" where racism was "official policy" as you so blatantly point out. The very Policy you speak of was THEIR brainchild! And, with that kalyegirian air of self-acknowledged insight you reproach the entire world for "portraying" them as racists. Here's your frontal assault on reason as the world has known it:

"I have wondered to myself: 'Are these the racists that the world portrayed them to be' ?"

However far the length you were willing to go to praise the virtues of your new-found friends, I had hoped you wouldn't go far enough as to question their racism, because they themselves do not deny it! Even Uncle Tom (defined as: contemptuous name for a Black man who is abjectly servile and deferential to whites) was never so gullible as to outright deny his master's bigotry. Sure, Apartheid's concept of white supremacy is a bankrupt notion but is by no means a dead-and-buried notion. And, when it gets hardwired in the brain of a willing subject who at least by appearance is an African, it becomes a bankrupt notion that is a disgraceful notion. You really don't see it, Mr. Kalyegira, do you? Deplorably enough, what you see is this:

"The White South Africans are popular, they play Rugby and Cricket with Ugandans, they are always at Ugandan parties mixing and laughing with Ugandan, and even wearing Ugandan traditional dress. Many of these white South Africans date Ugandan men or Ugandan girls."

Pardon my ignorance, sir, but what exactly do you mean with "many of these white South Africans date Ugandan men or women?" I hope you're not implying that gender plays no role. Otherwise, Mr. Kalyegira, I could kick myself for not knowing that all I had to do to get in your good graces was wear your traditional outfit (hold the dress) and have my way with some Ugandan woman! I too could have done that if only I had known that was all it took to shake off the racist label. Inde! I don't know much about Cricket, but I swear I too could have dated me some Ugandan woman. I might even have enjoyed it. (Disclaimer To Wife: HodiyE, this statement about dating and enjoying all these other women is strictly hypothetical!)

Anyway . . .all I set out to do, Mr. Kalyegira, was to convince you to rescind your charge of racism since I am willing to oblige. The only difference between me and your beloved Africaaner would be that I would never eat your food, wear your clothes and take liberties with your women only to go on and seize your land as if you did me wrong! You yourself acknowledge that "the White South Africans are already starting to dominate businesses in Uganda." Brother Kalyegira, here is another phrase in Africaans that you will find useful down the line: "Mr. Knudsen, hoeveel kos dit?" (Mr. Knudsen, how much is this?) What worries me is how long it will be before one fine afternoon in Kampala you walk up to Mr. Knudsen, greet Mr. Knudsen respectfully and ask Mr. Knudsen what the hell happened to your land! "Goeiemiddag Mr. Knudsen, waar is my land?"

And Mr. Knudsen's response?

"Aangename kennis Kafir-boy!" (Nice to meet you Kafir-boy!). In September, 2003, it was widely reported how a new wave of foreign settlers into Uganda stirred up old feelings of race and disempowerment among Ugandans.

Speaking of invasion, you had this to say on the patriotic spirit of Ethiopians: "If a country were to invade Ethiopia, thousands of young people would scream in anger and rush to go to the battlefront to 'fight for their country'... but you ask a young person to roll up his sleeve and give a hand to cleaning up the streets of Addis Ababa... rather than embarrass the country by begging visitors and tourists, and he will feel insulted."

Ethiopia is an imperfect Union, Mr. Kalyegira, but their imperfect Union Ethiopians love perfectly. The defense of their nation against outside attack has always taken precedence over all other considerations. Even the street-beggars along our dirty streets have the foresight to know that, where independence is concerned, even begging can be a privilege. I know you know about poverty, because your poverty is just as "poor" as our poverty. What you don't know is this: To us "crazy" Ethiopians, sovereignty is a dynamic that transcends all! It may be passé now but it used to be definitive of heroes to fend off an enemy before those dirty streets you speak of are no longer yours to clean. I would hope that you too would that for Uganda, Mr. Kalyegira. Then again, maybe not. Some folks do not know the enemy much less fight the enemy. Their priorities misplaced, they do better fighting their friends instead.

Mr. Kalyegira, you would have us believe that you consider us your friends. In fact, you state that the very reason you wrote the piece is to reciprocate our friendship. To "revenge for all this friendship from Ethiopians" as you put it jokingly. But how can I believe you when there is cherished little about us that meets your approval? You don't even like our SUN! The same sun that shines over Uganda. "Rain, rain, rain, rain" you complain and continue on with: "Whoever came up with this slogan about 13 months of Sunshine should be arrested and put to jail." Allow me to break it down to you Sir before you go throwing folks in jail: The slogan reads: "Ethiopia, 13 Months Of Sunshine" not Addis Ababa! And since, of all the seasons in the year you picked the Rainy Season to travel to Addis Ababa, may I ask what, if anything, you knew about the nature of a Rainy Season before you left Uganda? I'll tell you, Mr. Kalyegira! In the Rainy Sea son what? What Mr. Kalyegira? Yep! In the Rainy Season... IT RAINS!

Mr. Kalyegira! It is indeed commendable that you found a cause bigger than yourself to work on, but as unreasonable as it is, such an undertaking presupposes at least a passing familiarity with the facts. If only . . .if only you had not taken a notion into your head that you could write about Ethiopians without knowing Ethiopians and before knowing how to write! If only you knew when it's all said and done you and I are brothers; that our Homeland is your Homeland and that you were coming Home when you came to our Homeland! The Honorable Nelson Mandela on the prospect of visiting Ethiopia once said: "I felt I would be visiting my own genesis, unearthing the roots of what made me an African." . . .Mr. Kalyegira, if we are good enough for Nelson Mandela . . . we should be good enough for you!

Call me fastidious, even facetious if you like but doggone it, in your next piece about Ethiopia, beside blind groping for weaknesses in the Ethiopia Identity, I will expect you to have a point even if you fail to make it! Why? Because it is a good idea to have a point. Unfair? Yes! But if nothing else, before you put pen to paper, it will force you to think. Sure, thinking has never come easy but... by the Grace of God, miracles do happen! I hold out the hope that some day, however painful the experience you too will stumble upon "thinking" and will discover just how uplifting it can be... to think! Until you do, however, ponder the virtue of silence! Or, as my people would put it, ere benatih esti zim bel!

Yours truly, Melak SOURCE http://www.ethioindex.com/medrek/viewtopic.php?t=5389 Go to Source of article