By Samuel Estefanous
If you are AAU alumni and went to College in the good old 90s and around the turn of the Century , you are certain to be instructed and literally be groomed by this team of ‘convict-scholars’ freshly released from Dergue prison systems or though set free decades ago still read from virtual prison memoirs on and off Campus.
Some faculties had them in relatively large numbers until yet again EPRDF caught the terminal virus of anti-scholarship dengue fever and summarily kicked them out of AAU. It used to baffle us on no end why the Dergue had kept the Nation’s best minds behind bars. I mean some of these scholars were/are so outstanding that they could take up a random subject and deliver a memorable lecture that stays with you for the rest of your ‘natural’ life. God knows they were selflessly committed to their trade and students. In the event you didn’t know, back then a University professor wouldn’t teach approved ‘portioned syllabuses’ from text books like a high school teacher does.
Major Admassie’s Pleading
A side lecture to the topic of rule of law would go something like this -subject? Over centuries Ethiopians across the board have developed and sustained blind trust in the supremacy of the law bordering on naivety as viewed in historical context-በሕግ አምላክ ሲባል ወራጅ ዉሃ እንኳ ይቆማል፡፡ Case in point? They demand and expect justice even from their savage tormentor according to the ‘rules and procedures’ the latter had adopted; Case Brief- Major Admassie’s arbitrary incarceration, followed by his quick release and his subsequent swift re-incarceration when he requested copy of the judicial verdict which had set him free.
That unfortunate pleading requesting a copy of the judicial verdict had claimed eight years of the Major’s short life. Some rule of law! You may exclaim and dismiss the whole thing as the exact antithesis to rule of law. You see, you miss the point here if you do despair that fast indeed. This isn’t about the military junta; this is about the enduring sense of justice instilled in the souls of regular Ethiopians. One might be tempted to observe Major Admassie, an educated officer and former MP of the Imperial Parliament, should have known better than going around offices of court registers demanding a copy of judicial verdict proving his unlawful detention. He couldn’t help it. Implicitly and naively perhaps against his own better judgment he had believed in rule of law even when extra judicial killing was the order of the day. But the urge to keep a record for his descendants proving his innocence before a court of law was unbeatable.
Wouldn’t a good playwright develop this into a sensational drama script and tell an enduring edifying lesson as well?
In a way to varying extent we all trust our fate to the authorities like the proverbial bull; I mean even when we are supposed to have known better than that we never give up. We never say never again. Contrary to popular perception, we are a race of timid, law abiding, power venerating servile souls. Even the Ge’ez root word for the term ‘Revolution’ has a negative connotation that suggests vanity coupled with insubordination- ታበየ፡፡
What about the powerful that humiliate us on a daily basis? What about the filthy rich that have orchestrated state capture in broad daylight? What about the unspeakable crimes being perpetrated by regular folks which were quite unthinkable just a few years ago? There is little law abiding in all of these, one may naturally protest. With good reason but if you do the math this bunch of ‘country wreckers’ hardly account for 5% of the population. And eventually the law is going to close in on them- that is why it is out there for- to close in on the law breaker.
The Chief’s Unruly Elephant
It is like that famous anecdote of the Chief’s Elephant as beautifully played by Asres Bekele. I have a faint memory of the whole play but I remember the general theme of the story. On a trip to the lowlands, a cruel local Chief had seen domesticated elephants and he was so marveled by the rumbling giant creatures that he bought one and brought it back to the village. But the creature was so unruly that it lay waste the peasants’ fields of barley and teff in just a couple of days. Starvation was imminent. So the poor peasants secretly got together and discussed their options.
The natural choice was to leave the village to the Chief and his cursed elephant and move south. But the elders had another opinion, the elephant doesn’t plough the land, it isn’t milked, its isn’t edible, it doesn’t generate income except being a curse on our children, so we should present our petition to the Chief and make him see reason, after all he is like a father to us being Chief and all; besides even if he rejects our plea favoring the elephant over our children, over time he would get over his fancy and his excitement would run thin so at least some of us might be able to live the curse out.
As dictated by the resolution of the council, a delegation of timid elders arrived at the court of the Chief. At the sight of the imposing figure of the Chief, the sparkling commanding aura of his retinue and household, the emaciated weak peasants instantly lost courage and couldn’t utter a word.
‘Speak up, you miserable gutter rats, why have you come to disrupt my good morning routine?’ the Chief thundered.
‘It is about the elephant, Excellency’
‘What about it?’ the Chief hissed in anger
‘It has become the talk of the entire Woreda, our village has never been graced with such a blessing…Excellency…’
‘You know I have always your best interest in my heart and in my mind, you ungrateful wretches! Is that all you have come here for?’
‘No, Excellency,’ the peasants instinctively cuddled together. ‘We want more elephants to grace our village even better. In our uninterrupted long history we have never looked this beautiful!’
The moral of the story…you might as well figure it out for yourselves.
God Bless.
The writer could be reached at estefanoussamuel@yahoo.com
Editor’s Note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
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