Buffalo bovine falling coup de foudre with leonine

Temesgn Kebede 12-26-18

In an audacious speech, though not surprising from a person every word his tongue coined and uttered had no curtsey and manners, Colonel Mengustu repeatedly  blazoned  in public places that Tigray did not have the financial resources at its disposal to purchase basic items such as blackboard writing Chalks  (

Yes indeed, Colonel Mengistu was on the money. He was 100% right! It was true the people of Tigray did not have money to purchase Chalks. But whose fault was it that they did not have the resources? : What Mengestu forgot was that the people of Tigray were  methodologically  and connivingly stripped off  and made bare naked for over a century starting from the reign of Menelik to the very dictator who made the speech. I won’t go into details but to sketch a few: Arguably, one could understand a leader, as that an emperor, the likes of Menelik may not have had wanted to fight against the Italians for fear of being defeated, specially if one cared, as Minilik appeared to have done, to preserve his own life, So that way one would let the Italians stay in the places they incurred unruffled and unperturbed. But then one would ask: what was the role of an emperor if he could not defend part of his empire? Worse still, one could not understand why Menelik has to willingly on his own violation sign off the land and its people to a foreign aggressor (Italians) unless he had his own a sinister plan to break up the Tigrians   and the Italians were God sent to help him accomplish his design so the Tigrians no longer pose any threat to his empire building. Further convincing prove to support the case even  when the opportunity to drive them out of the land precipitated after the Battle of Adua, Menelik turned it down using flimsy excuses. His daughter Queen Zewditu, followed by Haileselassie continued their missions of breaking up what little remained of Tigray and gave it away as trophies to warlords (a portion of Tsegedey to Ras Wellie, Zewditu’s fibula friend) west and south bound.

As recent as yesterday Prince Mengesha Seyum confirmed his father Prince Ras Seyum governed up-to WeHa MeLash in the south and Welksit Tesfedie in the west infill 1948 when by decree regions were transferred to wello and Begemdir, live on DW TV.Likewise what remained of Tigray proper was left unattended and uncared for with no meaningful educational institutions to train, no effective hospitals to tend, nurse and cure diseases. Compared where high schools, universities, pedagogues, polytechnics and more were operating in the rest of the country, Tigray had next to none. So to come to the point: what is so surprising if Tigray could not harness resources enough to purchase Blackboard writing Chalk, and its youth left to beg in the streets?

Shouldn’t the rulers who were meant to be fair and just to their subjects to blame and shame rather than the victims of their crude and cruel rule!! Members of the ruling establishment and their myrmidons may not understand what it means to live under the brute rule that repeatedly exposed the people of Tigray to famine and political submissions. In my own life time I witnessed three biblical famines (50s, 70s and 80s). One has to be in the victims shoe to sense and feel the pains the people of Tigray were made to suffer. But rulers and their acolytes would never do that. It is in never their blood to accept and mend. That was why the Tigrians rose in arms and were determined to break the yoke of oppression once and for all. We will do it again. We will never submit to those who are hell bent to humiliate and deny us justice as served for all citizens.

So also the Eritreans and other nationalities who were kept under the same chains of oppressions managed to break the chains! Free at last free!! The Tigrians were and still are grateful for the initial support they got from Eritrea and they showed their loyalty both at the time of liberation and after. Every living sole in Tigray and Eritrea knows the respect the Tigrians extend to their neighbours. Here are some proofs.

At the time of Referendum Tigrians fully support the call for the recognition and independence. But what is more important  was that the Ethiopian government of the day endorsed the referendum to go ahead without demanding boarder delineation which could have taken years to complete and subsequently with it complicating issues raised could have even prolonged the process and Eritrea may have had to concede on many grounds in order to complete the referendum so as to be recognised as a sovereign state in the international stage without which nation building becomes difficult if not impossible. This was a golden gift by the Ethiopians to the Eritreans. But as usual a gold in hand is considered worth lead.

When President Isaias Afewerki printed Nakeffa and tried to compel the Ethiopians rulers to accept parity exchange with the Birr so that he could turn on the printing machine and come up with ad Infinitum Nakeffas to purchase whatever Ethiopia produced, he got livid when rejected and resorted to what he routinely practiced on Eritrean people by inflicting death in the streets of Zalambessa. First he killed 29 villagers at the border. This was soon followed by air bombardment of Mekelle where 44 young students were killed.This led to a war at Bademe two years later. Eritreans lost the war and Ethiopian army was marching with little or no resistance and were nearly about to take over the capital and with it Isaia’s fate were to be sealed off for good. But the Ethiopian army was ordered to halt further march and reverse.

One feels they did this not because they wanted to save the neck Isaias. Far from it. Isaias was and still is a pain in the neck to anyone and everyone to get rid of. But there is no question that Ethiopia had no intention of reconquerIng Eritrea and stay put not doubt as some ‘NefteNaghas’ would have wanted. It was a matter of going in and coming out in days if not a week with possibly with Isaias handcuffed. But even that was not done.

The question the Ethiopian rulers of the day felt and faced was this: in conquering Eritrea they felt as if they were about to tarnish, trample and downgrade the pride of the Eritrean people and with it the Status quo of the Eritrean Liberation struggle that last 30 years at international level.  However, by not doing the mission that was foisted upon them, the TPLF caused irreparable split among themselves and with it they undermined the pillars of the Tigrian struggle for independent existence. Such was the price the Tigrians people were forced to pay for the sake of Eritrean pride and international recognition as the unbeatable people who endured and fought for 30 years.  That said the Tigrians may have to pay such a price but the benefactor (Eritrean) at least have to be aware of sacrifice the Tigrians paid for historical reasons. Shortly following the fall of the military dictators, in unison they brought about, for right or wrong the people of Ethiopia and Eritrea found themselves at war. If anything the Tigrian portion of the Ethiopian rulers covertly or overly defended the Eritrean side in a copy cut style Menelik did when he declined at Adua when  urged to push ahead and claim back Eritrea from the Italians  (again for right or wrong I won’t  dwell here to reason out.)

Now we see Isaias flirting and shuttling up and down the country gripped with coupe de foudre with the daughters of former masters but with vitriol disdain and hatred against the Tigray and Tigrians. And one wonders the sanity of this person the life of Eritreans he feels is in his pocket. After all he is also claimed to be  a Tigrian by heritage, everybody expect him denies this. The extent he travels to demean Tigray attests that there is something wrong with Isaias.