Page 26 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 29

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Americans who supported this move, the line
between reality and assumption was utterly
erased. So the invasion and terrorization of
these countries by the US remains justified.
As Fromm rightly remarks, “There is hardly
a case of an aggressive war that could not be
couched in terms of defense. The question
of who claimed defense rightly is usually
decided by the victors.” As seen in the above
case and many more, no country wages
wars to attack, but only with the pretense
of defense. Then truth is dictated by the
victorious!
We are seeing the same narrative when
the US President Donald Trump made the
utterly ignorant remark regarding the Grand
Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). He
falsely or ignorantly claimed that GERD
blocks the water from flowing to Egypt,
making it appear as if their survival is at risk.
This is the age old diabolical plot used to
play the victim card. Thus, I think we should
just acknowledge it rather than react to it, so
I’ll move on to the other form of violence.
Symbolic Violence: This is the sort of
violence used by the powerful to terrorize
and instill fear on members of the oppressed.
it was the Pierre Bourdieu who clearly
showed this violence. Bourdieu explains
that symbolic violence works gradually
and inconspicuously through the ‘master’
narrative until it is accepted as natural. For
instance, consider Jim Crow’s segregation
in American ‘whites only’ signs in schools,
restaurants, and almost every social service.
This is the kind of fear James Baldwin
describes in ‘The Fire Next Time’. Currently,
this has become police brutality on the
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precious lives of African Americans. When
such inhumane systems succeed, they make
even black people think they are inferior. A
textbook example of symbolic violence is
also found in Patriarchal social structures
than use religious, economic and social
structures in making women believe they are
inferior. In its essence, feminism is fighting
with such symbolic violence.
Exploring all the forms of violence within
a single article is not practical in space and
inadvisable because each need time for
reflection. In the next article, we will explore
other forms of violence that have even more
catastrophic outcomes. Simply observing
how each of the aforementioned forms of
violence manifests in ourselves, in our family
and in our society helps us comprehend the
crisis around us. If we truly desire to solve
the violence we face nationally and globally,
we first need to direct our focus on the root
cause rather than the symptoms. I personally
argue that the ‘ethnic’ problems in Ethiopia
and the ‘Trump-ian’ problems of the world
are symptoms of a disease. So while we must
continue to heal the symptoms, we should
be careful not to lose track of the underlying
disease.
Abel Merawi is from Addis Ababa. He is an English literature
teacher, freelance writer/reporter for Ezega.com and an Amharic-
English translator and editor. You can reach him via: abelmerawi4@
gmail.com