Identity

Blue Nile Falls

This is an email I sent to a correspondent:

My cousin...was here the other day with her children as well as her brother and his wife.

It is interesting. She stopped her memoir as she entered Canada. I was right about her reticence to write about her Canadian "experience."

[...]

She told me she is [now] writing a "fiction.

[...]

She brought up "identity" as part of her concern in her book...

I told her that "identity" in Canada was always going to be an issue for her (and people like her, although didn't say that).

"Ethiopia is going through some kind of renaissance. Why don't you and your family figure out a way to return? To go 'back home?' You came here through the most difficult way possible (they crossed deserts and countries before reaching Djibouti and finally coming to Canada as "refugees.")

Don't worry about culture and language. Both, especially for Ethiopians who live the culture daily, are easy to regain. Your children (they don't speak Amharic but understand it) will easily pick it up.

A country is a big thing. Everyone needs one."

She (and her brother) were listening to me intently.

I am glad I attended the dinner. I was curious to see what she would do after her "memoir."

[...]

I also said that in general that people like my father, important people ("big people" in the Amharic literal translation) could set an example and make the exodus back home. My parents have bought two houses from the inheritance house (which they sold at a fantastic price to high-rise developers) in Addis Abeba. They go back now every few months. They have invited me again in November but I have declined the invitation.

They could set an example for all these destitute, culturally bereft Ethiopians by returning (to Ethiopia). A courageous exodus.

Ethiopia is undergoing a "renaissance," I told them at the dinner. "After famines, revolutions, communist governments, ethnic wars, it still stands. Ethiopia, and Ethiopians and specially the Amhara, is resilient. It has withstood incursions and invasions through the centuries. The Amhara are still Amhara. Ethiopia is still Ethiopia. You could be part of this renaissance."

My father was quiet but I could see that he was stunned. He didn't expect me to say these things openly, although he knows my views.

I didn't plan this either. It was as though I HAD to do this. And I'm glad I followed this direction.

My cousins left without rancor or ill-feelings. I have told the truth, and they know it.

Interestingly, the last part I said, "Ethiopia, and Ethiopians and specially the Amhara, is resilient," is almost a direct quote from what her father said to them as they started their journey across the desert, which she discusses in her interview with the CBC. I hadn't listened to this part of the interview until today.

She says about her father (my father's now deceased brother):

He grew up hearing about Ethiopians defeating a common enemy and keeping Ethiopia independent for centuries. Ethiopians were very proud people then and I'm sure they still are. So he has that in him. This desert wasn't going to defeat him. He's done it. His ancestors have done it before. And that kept us very strong, because he was 100 per cent sure we would make it.

I am simply telling her to make that journey in reverse, so much easier now that they have so much more than those clothes on their backs when they crossed that desert.

Then they can be Ethiopians once again.