BY TEKLEBIRHAN QGEBREMICHAEL
Short Story
“Everybody is equal,” said Selamawit in a mock trial organized by the law school at Haileselassie University (now Addis Ababa University) defending the plaintiff who happened to be the youngest son of King of Kings Haile Selassie, Teferi Haileselassie. The King of Kings had insisted that Teferi should attend the law school in the country in preference over law schools in the UK or the USA for obvious reasons.
The lawyer for the accused rose gracefully, re – arranged his flowing robe, cleared his throat and slowly said: “Your Honor, I do not believe that everybody is equal in every aspect, but he or she is equal before the law,”
“Thank you. Correction upheld,” said the judge and added, “let us proceed with the trial.”
“Thank you, your Honour. As I ventured to suggest, it is not appropriate or correct to say that everybody is equal in general and we should therefore append the phrase ‘before the law.’ I say this because not everybody is equal in the outcomes of IQ tests. For example, in a recent IQ test conducted at the university, there was a wide difference between the IQ result for my client and that of the plaintiff’s, although both were found to be significantly above the normal score of 100,” said the defendant’s lawyer.
“How does that bear on the case we are trying?’’ asked the judge.
“Your Honour, my client is accused of demeaning the plaintiff by saying that he is physically and mental superior to the plaintiff as he is physically taller by about four inches and mentally superior by over 40 points,” the lawyer answered.
“Let us hear what the prosecution has to say to that,” said the judge.
Selamawit, Teferi’s lawyer, rose gracefully, flicked off a speck of dust from the sleeve of her flowing robe and said:
“Your Honour, nothing could be further from the truth. Teferi’s father H.I.M Haileselassie is not known for his physical height, but for his mental perspicacity and Machiavellian astuteness. He has brushed shoulders with the world’s greatest leaders including President Kennedy, Queen Elizabeth and General De Gaule. He has ruled Ethiopia for over 50 years now as Regent and King of Kings with remarkable success. So, Your Honour, height and IQ have nothing to do with superiority.”
“You seem to have proved almost beyond a shadow of doubt that physical height has practically nothing to do with achievement as both Time and Newsweek Magazines have described the physical height of the King of Kings as ‘diminutive’ rather pejoratively, which has irritated and angered me beyond description. But you have not presented any evidence to disprove the positive relationship between IQ and superiority,” the judge remarked.
“Your Honour, I do not know of any IQ test that the King of Kings has taken, but his great achievement is an unequivocal testament to his high IQ if indeed IQ is a reliable measure of intelligence,” Selamawit said.
“And what do you have to say to that,” said the judge turning to the defendant’s lawyer.
“Your Honour, properly designed IQ tests are globally accepted as measures of human intelligence, and there seems to be no alternative to the IQ test at present. According to the IQ test conducted by the Haileselassie University, my client’s score is 170 as against 130 for Teferi’s. That is quite a gap and it cannot be easily refuted,” said the defendant’s lawyer.
Selamawit hurried to the podium in front of the judge for rebuttal and she said:
“Your Honour, even a properly designed IQ test cannot possibly differentiate between innate (inborn) brain capacity and such capacity enhanced by varying amounts and qualities of information, including that acquired from experience. Besides, as information is received through the sense organs, equally good sense organs should be assumed for IQ tests to measure innately equal brain capacities. So, at least not the whole of the IQ difference observed can be accounted for by innate inequalities. In addition, innate brain capacity is influenced by nutrition, health care, social environment, quality of education and training, etc.”
It was well past lunch time and the judge had to adjourn the trial hearing. He announced the date and time of the next hearing and ended the session.
He drove back home and commented at his late lunch to his wife: “It was a hell of a trial today, darling. I have read quite a bit about the whole concept of IQ but I never imagined it was all that complicated. Innate brain capacities are affected by factors like nutrition, including breast –feeding, the soundness of the sense organs, health care, the quality of education, etc. and the final brain capacity is not just innate but inborn plus enhancement there of. How then can you compare IQ’s?”
“You are thinking too deeply and that is no good for your appetite. I think a lot of factors have to be controlled including, of course, age, income group, health status, educational level, etc. The result may not be perfect, but it would give you a pretty good idea of how intelligent people are, unavoidably with a rather large margin of error. That means the difference must be significant for it to be reliable. At any rate, IQ is still a significantly shady measure of human intelligence,” his wife said losing a considerable amount of her own appetite despite her advice.
“Honey, the implications of ruling in favour of IQ results are quite dangerous and far – reaching. Teferi, the plaintiff, is actually superior to the accused, Yilekel, in terms of political influence and material resources because he is the son of the King of Kings. If IQ scores are to be the basis for influence and wealth, then Teferi and Yelikal would have to reverse positions. Further, if high IQ is to be taken as a measure of superiority, low IQ’s resulting mainly from economic deprivation may have dire racial ramifications. Well, honey, this is no time to jump to a hasty verdict. So, I’d better sleep over it,” the judge said and walked to his separate bedroom to take a nap.
The judge of the mock trial, Prof. Paul at the Law School, almost forgot that it was only a simulation and not a real court trial as he was known for his total immersion in the legal profession, real or otherwise. A few days later the mock trial continued at the appointed time and place.
The judge banged the gavel and said: “I am ready to return a verdict. The defendant is guilty as accused. There is no conclusive scientific evidence that IQ scores are reliable measures of superiority or lack thereof.” Teferi and Selamawit embraced as in a real court victory. Yilekal and his lawyer walked away glumly as in a real court defeat. Prof. Paul was ecstatic with joy at the fruits of his painstaking teaching efforts and clapped heartily.
You might wish that would be the end of it all, but it was not. Yelikal took the decision of the mock trial rather seriously. Admittedly, he was a –very–great –distinction student at the Law School and his actual IQ was even greater than that declared at the moot court. So, he thought to himself thus:
“What good is it being a super genius if there is no reward for it? In all honesty, I should be King of Kings by IQ rights, not Teferi’s father who does not even have the courage to take an IQ test. By the way, if nutrition, health care, healthy environment, quality of education, etc. are decisive factors in IQ scores, then Teferi should have scored significantly higher than I did, but he did not. So, the innate part of IQ must be equally decisive. My mission, therefore, should be to become King of Kings and raise the average national IQ of Ethiopians from the estimated present level of 70 to at least 115 in 15 years. You know something that is the IQ of a moron!” He got literally mad at 70 when he compared it to his own score of over 200.
There was no chance of instigating a popular uprising against the existing regime because of, well, the low national average IQ. So, Yelikal had to look for other ways of achieving his mission. The spoken word or the written word was no use. So, he had to think of using the gun rather than the gab or the pen. The Haileselassie Harar Academy was where the gun was. He joined it after graduation from Haileselassie University Law School. After he completed his courses at the Academy, he quickly rose through the ranks of the military to become a Brig. General. He tried to organize a secret military coup but he was outmaneuvered by Col. Mengistu Hailemariam whose IQ was quite high but significantly lower than his. Col. Mengistu had him executed by firing squad.
A few years later, Prof. Paul who had returned to his native country, the USA, and was then over 80 years old, heard the sad news of the execution of Yelikal and was reported to have commented thus:
“IQ is a very simplistic measure which attempts to fathom the incredibly complex nature of the potential of the human brain. It would appear that individuals have not just one IQ but several IQ’s for various mental faculties. Hence, one could be a musical genius like the Ethiopian Tilahun Gesses who is not that good, I gather, at mathematics or a distance running genius like Abebe Bikilla, and so on. Yelikal failed to appreciate Hailesellasie’s Machiavellian political genius which kept him at the pinnacle of power in Ethiopia for nearly sixty years! Why the King of Kings was outsmarted by Mengistu is quite clear, I believe. IQ deteriorates with advancing age.”
The Ethiopian Herald March 17/2021
