‘Yaa’Tafari koo’  

“I bet young Teferi had soaked in more than his fair share of Oromuma on accounts of those ‘royal instructions’ delivered and conducted by the pipe smoking native folklorist.” Samuel Estifanos

Editor’s Note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com

By Samuel Estefanous

Makes me wonder…how come we don’t have native scholars as illustrious as Fitewerari Tekle Hawariyat and Blata Merse Hazen?  Dr. Getachew Haile actually characterizes the Blata as a lone twinkling star in a wide monotonous and dull constellation. If you ask me I believe it is their profound, informed and honest private reflections of public affairs of the time that endears them to us. As one slavishly devoted to the Ras Mekonen family, the Fitewerari used to project the renaissance of Ethiopia through the agency of the old Prince and heirs until his famous fallout with Dejach Teferi who had him locked up-all shackled and chained. 

His crime? Not paying his respect when the Etege was passing through the part of the country under his jurisdiction.  In his defense among others he says it wasn’t in his job description to fawn at the feet of the Etege and he got himself into hot water. I know there is much more to it but the true ‘cause of action’ against him was his presumed disrespecting of Etege Menen.  Those weren’t easy times for one unwilling to observe the slightest court etiquette and manner.  Yet such differences of opinion didn’t prevent the Fitewerari from unfolding for us the rich trajectory of the Ethiopian system of government and established manners of social interaction with the Emperor holding center stage.    

Incidentally, if one is familiar with Ethiopian legal history he would be fascinated and intrigued by the finesse of judicial rites and customs of the day. Just imagine seeking royal leave to wear one’s cloak (netal) in the style other than reserved for magistrates sitting in session. One such royal edict reads ‘We hereby grant that so and so is allowed to wear his cloak as fits him until such time his aching arm heals.’   

I cannot flesh out the exact reasons but somehow Ras Mekonen impresses me as an eternally sad figure straight from Shakespearean tragedy. Maybe it is the Fitewerari’s  gentle and loving depiction of the governor as almost an ascetic than a warrior who had broken Hararghe. Can you believe that? Back then it wasn’t unusual to speak like ‘ሐረርጌ አልሰበር ብሎ አስቸግሮ ስለነበር…breaking a Nation like a cowboy breaks a wild horse? Looks like it but I am not sure as this breaking thing has never been one dimensional. If you see it from another perspective, it could translate as bringing back a belligerent prodigal son back into the warm family fold as well. 

They say for the most part, the Ras was melancholic and engrossed in the holy books. He was thoroughly Hararized in just a few years and instilled in his family and subordinates undying and enduring devotion to Hararghe that superseded ethnicity and creed.  No wonder his kin Ras Emiru says he had to accept his appointment to governorships of Wollo and later Gojjam lest he should be accused of having an ‘Excess of Love’ for Hararegh. The intrigue at the court of Shoa wasn’t something the Harargehs were able to stomach. To this day ye’harar lijoch tap into this enviable collective inheritance seeded by the Ras and Co.   

At any rate the Ras was almost a recluse. After the death of Teferi’s mother, Tayitu saw a lucrative vacancy to claim the richest province of the country by marrying off one of her young relatives to the Ras. It was a royal match- making sanctioned by Tayitu and endorsed by Menelik, so he had no choice but to accept the child-girl in matrimony but there was no way he was going to consummate the marriage. He had already advanced in age but the bride was yet to mature into girlhood. It was a horrible, horrible greedy political marriage concocted by the world class intriguer-in-chief, Tayitu.  Seeing that the Ras wouldn’t consummate the marriage, Tayitu wouldn’t let him be. She went to the extent of casting aspersion on the Adwa warrior’s manhood to oblige him to give her ‘a Yeju’ heir to Hararegeh, but Ras Mekonen flat out refused to ‘violet’ the child. Teferi knew all these but in the reminiscences of his life, he wouldn’t write anything unflattering about Tayitu except making the dignified observation- ጣይቱ ፈቃደ ብርቱ ሴት ናቸዉ፡፡    

No wonder young Teferi grew up into a wise, consummate, reserved and most important of accommodative rulers who was able to balance incredibly divergent and occasionally virulent interests at his court. I mean in a country that wouldn’t design a burial ground for her iconic historian Aleka Taye against the royal wish of the Empress Zewiditu, the significance of the Emperor’s permission to allow the broadcasting of Radio Gospel was almost surreal.  Only if God had blessed him with a matching heir, we would have been spared half the tragedy the country had faced in the past six decades.    

Though the Ras had other children such as Dejach Yilma, later in life all his concerns and attachments were reserved for and solely bestowed on Teferi. He was grooming his son for greater purposes than he was himself destined to accomplish. However, there was something that had befuddled the common folks and court chamberlains alike-his choice of the traditional governess (perhaps doubling as a wet nurse) for the young prince! According to Fitewerari Tekle Hawariyat, the old woman loved Teferi to distraction but she was a local Oromo woman and spoke to her young charge in the only language she knew- Oromiffa. The Fitewerari gives us a photogenic depiction of the usual ‘drill’ at the Princely household. After the regular meals were served instead of being instructed by accomplished church scholars of the highest standing, young Teferi was treated to the antics of endless traditional Oromo peasant household folklore. The old lady would light her long stemmed pipe, recline on her chair and begin to hold forth addressing the heir to the throne as ‘yaa Tafari koo’…

I bet young Teferi had soaked in more than his fair share of Oromuma on accounts of those ‘royal instructions’ delivered and conducted by the pipe smoking native folklorist.  I am positive in large measure that accounts for his ‘excessive’ Oromo friendliness throughout his reign. At one time there was a concerted effort to eject Amanuel Abraham from the cabinet and ship him out to some diplomatic outposts in Europe or Asia one more time. Apparently as the state minister of education (the minister being the Emperor himself), Ato Amanuel had flooded schools with Oromo students. The Emperor knew what he knew but he wanted to disprove the allegations with facts and ordered a country wide census of school children identified by their respective ethnicity. The data was collected and computed, and computed again. There were hardly any students who had identified himself/herself as Oromo-just between 500 and 600. The Emperor presented the facts ‘here is the flood beware lest you should be carried away. I am not suggesting he was an Oromo PP of his day…yet again, ‘people’ are always pawns, aren’t they?  

God Bless. 

Editor’s Note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com

The writer can be reached at : estefanoussamule@yahoo.com 

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