“…all means available!” Really! That was threat out of Cairo, to use “…all means available,” to protect the interests of its people, made no sooner than the US Treasury Department (The what!) ‘warned’ us not to pump water into the ‘Renaissance Dam’ until we sign an agreement which our negotiators haven’t ratified; an agreement which Reverend Jesse Jackson said was “…a colonial-like agreement both in spirit and substance.” It is indeed intriguing to hear in this age words that amount to war drums being echoed.
Of course, calls for Ethiopia’s invasion have remained a staple of quite a considerable segment of the Egyptian press for a long time. Ethiopia never let itself be trapped into such tit-for-tat game because it is irrelevant, childish and only the product of highly deficient minds. History has proven over and again any and all attempts to break Ethiopia’s backbone through threats or actual invasions have failed drastically, as they will be falling drastically in the future too.
Are we being sold down the river by those we thought wished us well? Maybe; or was the statement some vigilante move from those who have no idea of what really they are talking about? After all, what the impeachment saga across the Atlantic proved to us is that politics is no more about principles but partisanship.
But the million dollar question to many is why a department, which doesn’t have a damned business (Sorry for the choice of words) in our internal affairs, got the nerves to wag the threatening finger at us. The gunslinger mentality doesn’t solve issues. One hundred twenty-four years back we proved that to the world. When the going goes tough, the tough Ethiopians really get going! It has been so, and it’ll remain so. Uncalled for destructive comments from up north don’t at all help peaceful discourse.
For some of us, it seems the negotiations were to give credit to a script that has already been written, without the knowledge of the biggest player in the game, Ethiopia. True, when the news that third bodies were being included heard, many were asking… “Why? Why now when the three countries have been talking for years?” Don’t worry, so we were told, they are not mediators, but only observers. Now a department that seems to have surpassed its limits is trying to play the kingmaker role.
We contribute 86% of the Nile waters and they tell us not to touch it until they give us the blessing!
Look, Treasury or whatever, those who think that Ethiopians will take things lying down better think a second time. This is not about a mammoth structure where tourists will take snapshots and we will print on postcards. The renaissance Dam has already become about life and death for this country. That is why every last cent was contributed by Ethiopian themselves. So the person who went on record warning us was telling us to turn the gun on ourselves. Never did that happen, never will it happen.
The veiled threats coming on the Eve of Adwa victory is sort of ironic, isn’t it? Adwa too was about an agreement drafted in such a way as to put our fate into the hands of the Italians. It didn’t work. Our forefathers refused to be arm-twisted, as the young of today are openly sending the message that they are their forefathers’ sons and daughters. Now in a roundabout way, some are trying to force us into putting our fate into the hands of those who wish us only harm.
The Egyptians said they’ll use “all means available” to protect the interests of its people. Well, the same works here. Ethiopians too will certainly use whatever means to protect their rightful share of the Nile waters. That’s the name of the game. It was so, and it will continue to be so. Being stabbed in the back is not new for this country. In times of its greatest troubles while few friends stood by its side others betrayed it.
Bahiru Zewde writes, “In the history of the Ethio-Egyptian wars of the mid 1870s, a persistent theme was the audacity of the aggressor and the moderation and self-restraint of the invaded.” Self-restraint has been the driving force of Ethiopian governments over the years in their dealings about the Nile waters. Even when quite a considerable section of the Egyptian media called for our heads on silver plates Ethiopia kept to its moral high ground refusing to be drawn into the utter absurdity of some. “For sheer valour in the face of a far better-armed enemy, the Ethiopian performance at Gundat and Gura has few parallels in modern Ethiopian history.”
Writing of the Gundant battle Bahiru Zewde writes in, ‘A History of Modern Ethiopia 1855-1991’ “The battle turned out to be one of the shortest yet militarily most decisive in Ethiopian history.”
“For decades, pressing at the lowlands around Ethiopia, Egyptian forces made periodic forays into the mountains. Conquest by Egypt was the most persistent outside threat to Ethiopia during the nineteenth century,” writes Phillip Marsden in his book ‘The Barefoot Emperor; an Ethiopian Tragedy’ .
The final sentence in Raymond Jonas’ epic ‘Battle of Adwa’ reads; “The signal moment for our times, the event that reopened previously settled questions for a new century, occurred not in 1905 or even in 1898. It too place in 1896 at a place called Adwa.” And now they are threatening us!
“Ethiopia has always held a special place in my own imagination and the prospect of visiting Ethiopia attracted me more strongly than a trip to France, England and America combined.” Nelson Mandela.
Moderation and self-restraint, like in decades past, are the pillars of our dealings about the Nile waters. Trying to force us to change that status coup helps no one. Reverend Jesse Jackson after calling people of conscience to condemn the neo-colonial treaty writes that Ethiopia is, “…a peaceful nation whose only desire is to harness its natural resources to elevate its people out of poverty.”
In ‘Prevail; The Inspiring Story of Ethiopia’s Victory over Mussolini’s Invasion1935-1941 Jeff Pearce quotes a Swiss professor who spoke to Ethiopian students on the eve of the war. He tells them the Italians have planes and the students replay, “Ah! We’re strong! Our warriors are brave. No European country can defeat us! Adwa has proved it!”
Hasn’t Adwa, indeed, proved a lot of things!
The Ethiopian Herald Friday 6 March 2020
Ephrem Endale
Contributer
