World History

Obama Factor: Ethiopians and Their Place in World History

by Mitiku Adisu

Important paleontological findings of the past three decades have identified Ethiopia as providing the firmest clue to human origins and to ‘conceptual thinking.’ This statement is, however, too general for our present purposes. With Barack Obama taking center stage and Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday approaching we may want to revisit specific contributions Ethiopians have made to world community. In an earlier post we cited that the Luo in Kenya, Southern Sudan and possibly Uganda claim Obama as one of their own; Ethiopians, on the other hand, opted to rename him Brook [blessed v. blessing] in the hope that he will be the one blessing we need to end the deception and misery being carried out in the name of democracy. But unlike Kenyans and Sudanese we already have Abe Lincoln, Alexander Pushkin, and Peter Ustinov in our list of notables. How so? Well, Abe Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, we are told “had very dark skin and coarse hair and his mother allegedly came from an Ethiopian tribe. His heritage fueled so much controversy that Lincoln was nicknamed ‘Abraham Africanus the First’ by his opponents.” [Focus on Africa, Feb-Mar'09] And Abe wrote one of the most quoted, beautifully crafted and poetic Gettysburg Address,

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Read More.

Ethiopian contributions also extended to Tsarist Russia in the person of none other than Alexander Pushkin [1799 - 1837]. Pushkin, whose great-grandfather was Ethiopian, turned out to be “Russia’s greatest poet” and “the founding father of modern Russian literature.” But his achievements did not come without ‘paying’ for his ‘blackness.’ Read this:

"....he (Peter) wished to make examples of them and put (Russians) to shame by convincing them that out of every people and even from among wild men - such as Negroes, whom our civilized nations assign exclusively to the class of slave, there can be formed men who by dint of application can obtain knowledge and learning and thus become helpful to their monarch."

It is worth mentioning here that racism is not the monopoly of American society; Russian society is just as bad; we already know enough of the English. But before we go onto our third witness, let us read one of Pushkin’s poems [and remember Bertukan Mideksa and all those prisoners who were denied their right to dissent]:

Prisoner

I'm sitting by bars in the damp blackened cell -

The juvenile eagle, who's bred by the jail,

My mournful friend, with his wings stretching wide,

Is picking at bloody food right by my side.

He’s picking and looking at me through the bars,

Like having a thought that is common to us,

Like calling to me with a glance and a sight,

And wanting to say, "Let us fly outside!

We're free proud birds; it is time for the friends

To fly to the white of the rock in a haze,

To fly to the blue of the sea and the sky,

Where evenly dwell only tempests ... and I!"

And finally, the Englishman Peter Ustinov [1921 – 2004] who by all accounts had a stellar career as a playwright, producer, actor [over 100 movies], human rights activist, etc. Ustinov’s grandmother, Magdalena [maqdalawit መቅደላዊት], was daughter of a Swiss military engineer and Ethiopian princess. We are told that “Of all his varied ancestry, it is the Ethiopian element that is the least documented, and the most opaque.” His grandmother was born at Magdala in 1868 “during the very heat of battle between the forces of Emperor Tewodros and those of General Napier.”

Here are three inspirational quotes from Sir Ustinov:

~ Love is an act of endless forgiving - a tender look which becomes a habit.

~ Intelligent or not, we all make mistakes and perhaps the intelligent mistakes are the worst, because so much careful thought has gone into them.

~ Terrorism is the war of the poor, and war is the terrorism of the rich.

And with that we end this session in the hope that Ethiopians will continue to marry whomever they choose and some day turn up men and women who will leave an indelible and positive mark on human history. Perhaps someone like Obama?

Reprinted from 2/09/2009 post.