Page 74 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 16

Re-Education

The Bridge Between Love and Hate Abel Merawi

By Abel Merawi, Ethiopia Abel Merawi is from Addis Ababa. He

Article originally published on ezega.com is an English literature teacher, freelance

writer/reporter for Ezega.com and an Am-
haric-English translator and editor. He
wish to begin with a troubling competition with ‘others’. The un- also writes for www.msingiafrikamagazine.
childhood memory, which is a written law runs: my neighbor is my
sort of parable on the bridge friend whom I must defend against com. You can reach him via: abelmerawi4@
I between love and hate. Life in kids from other neighborhoods. gmail.com
Ethiopia used to represent a shared
rather than isolated existence. The I never understood how you can in-
gates and walls did not prevent you flict pain on those you claim to love.
from watching the life of neighbors, Nor did I ever comprehend how and risk the label ‘junta’ affiliate
and vice versa. The lives I saw were you and I declare our love through or whatever is a trendy term. If
dominant expressions of a love the hatred we harbor towards you don’t, you hate your country.
bond, but they were accompanied by others. This childhood dilemma has On the other side, there are those
unintelligible moments of sadism. reentered my life, intensified as a who expect you to condemn and
I am speaking of husbands beating national question of fealty. In the renounce not just Prosperity Party
wives out of ‘love’ or of jealous lov- political arena, there is a rhetorical (PP) and its affiliates but also all of
ers becoming nemeses. This sadistic subtext, which is openly uttered by Oromia or the rest of the nation. If
tendency was typical of authoritative the crowd pleasing citizens. On one you don’t, you hate Tigray. This is an
teachers who thrash students – ‘edu- side, there are those who expect you empty and truncated demand, which
cating’ them! Equally incomprehen- to hate and despise not only TPLF perpetually exists when we dignify
sible was the friendship or alliance but also the people of Tigray. If you it with an answer. Thus, I refuse to
formed out of mutual hatred and don’t, you face the suspicious gaze play this game as I had refused simi-

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