immigrant stories: theirs*ours
12 October, 2007 | 6 comments | Category: I.dentity, ethnicity, i.mmigration, peace & conflict
him: do u ever ask yourself why you do it [blog]?
me: yes
him: do you find answers for that question?
me: yes
him: so what are they?
me: i tell myself i write cos i want to share my thoughts about ethiopia’s conflicted identity
i want to put things in writing cos that is valuable to me…i want to provoke thought
him: why restrict urself to one country?
me: no reason. except i’m dealing with it, personally
him: our story is everybody’s story.and their story is our story.
me: true, maybe you can write an article about that, I would love to post it!
him: lol….what i’m trying to say is that. the ethiopia thing should not be your focus, but rather your lens. to the whole world. you can post this conversation if you want
me: the thing is, i don’t believe i’ve reached my level of awareness about other countries’ issues in the personal way i know about ethiopia.
him: i can understand that. as long as ur open to it i think you’ll be fine
me: hmm…actually. i was being ambitious…
wanted to do a comparative thingie about yugoslavia’s states, the orthodox churches*
– and the connection with ethiopia and the orthodox church i.e. nationalism
him: that is an excellent idea. it would have worked beautifully. i have two friends i went to school with and they were best buddies. one of them serbian the other one bosnian
me: wow. that’s crazy
him: and u know their story….so similar to ours. one summer… it was a serbian and a bosnian, a greek and a turk…living together
me: hehehe. roommates?
him: ya, friends, roommates…brothers
me: that’s intense. what was their experience?
him: middle class kids. still best friends. so u see where i am coming from?
my mother and father are from the north. both near the eritrean border
and i was born in addis ababa. i spoke tigrigna first, then amarigna, when i was 4. then english eventually
i was an immigrants son, first genenration….like most of us addisabans, from all over ethiopia
me: 
now that i think of it…so was i!
him: yup. immigrants are a window into history
me:ohhh actually…i had a draft for a blog post: “we are all immigrants”
him: lol…yes we are
me:inspired by lemn sissay’s quote: “The Vikings were immigrants too – we are all immigrants.”
him:hmm…thats very true
*countries with “national” orthodox churches rely on church ideology for a common bond across the nation. amongst individuals, across ethnic groups. many ethnic conflicts involve countries with orthodox chruches. its like a conspiracy theory, i’in’ it?
We are all dealing with the identity issue, the ethnic conflict within ourselves, our families and neighbours – can we take a few minutes and listen to the experiences of others with an openness to feel their walk? …find a common ground that feels smooth for both of us? after all, they really are just like us: “immigrants!”…unless…
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6 comments to “immigrant stories: theirs*ours”
maralorelei, October 12th, 2007 at 4:52 am:
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Thank you for this post! Not only do I look forward to all you have to say about Ethiopia, for it is one thing to study the country in my post-colonial literature class, it’s a whole different thing to read about your personal experiences and knowledge. I also thought the way you presented this entry was interesting–the dialogue is funny and quite represents male/female relationships quite well, whether politics or race is involved or not!
Origin of Ethiopian Flag: Saxony-Anhalt, Germany « |y?hasab s?nduQ|, October 12th, 2007 at 1:12 pm:
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[...] own prejudices and the fact of the matter lies in that the Ethiopian Imperial Dynasty & the Orthodox Church were successful architects of a “common consciousness” that served the rulers’ purposes. And because of [...]
tpeace, October 12th, 2007 at 1:16 pm:
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Thank you for your kind words maralorelei! It would be great to hear ur perspective as well. About the male/female bit…that’s very funny
I didn’t even think about that. You might be interested to know this conversation actually happened!
Reading our Ethnic Past through Genes « |s?nduQ|, March 12th, 2008 at 7:51 am:
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[...] These type of arguments are waged across conflicts of identity. The claims seem infinitesimal because… [...]
7Free, June 30th, 2008 at 9:01 am:
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It’s like analyzing a DNA sequence- there is a pattern somewhere, and if you look for it, you’ll find it and yet get lost in translating it. This is the way I feel about your blog, WOW:-)) It’s like the old days girl, getting lost in your head – discovering mine – finding a path – a view into ”me” and a glimpse into my favorite qixbi – YIGERMAL.
A couple of years back, a certain Timothy Kalyegira from Uganda wrote a piece entitled ”Why Ethiopia Stayed Behind”…he touched on issues like the Orthodox Church and too much patriotism, Islam and self distruction, Evangelical Church and segregated fraterinty…bicha it got my father sending him the predictable how-dare-you-insult-my-glorious-land email (the guy did give out his email ad welcoming all comments while being interviewed on ETV’s ‘Meet ETV’) and it got me thinking about “our” Orthodox Church and it’s inseparablity with “ethiopianism” – kinda figures why Pentecostals are worse than traitors for your average Ethiopian, ….esti read that aritcle qixbicho (am I allowed to use your name? lol), you can find it @ http://www.africaalmanac.comLove you!
tpeace, July 9th, 2008 at 9:52 am:
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so glad to see you came to visit!! And for the record, I would joyously post stuff you write on here…:)
so hollaOH! Oh! I know that article actually…I thought it was so good, very critical and honest – from an outsider’s perspective. One of those that really make you think!