Ruth Getachew is a second year architecture student at Addis Ababa University Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development (EiABC). She as well is a young talent who is growing to make an accomplished painter. Last Saturday, she had exhibited one of her works, Mobility in Africa, in an event organized to commemorate the 123rd victory of Adwa. She recounts that the background of her paint, a jigsaw puzzle, represents people. When people join their hands, if not their minds, they surely form a bigger picture.
However, the puzzle does not necessarily represent the people of Africa. It may show the entire universe. Only one section or a piece would not give meaningful picture. There is mutual interdependence. In that case, the entire universe gets true meaning. Human being is imperfect. However, when we come together, the flawed side fits into a space that complements it, as is jigsaw puzzle. A physician needs to have an entertainer. The entertainer needs to have a teacher to their children…. By the way, the imperfection is the cause of the creation of man’s secondary world, the social world. The social world is the result of mutual interdependence and interconnectedness. Why an individual needs someone if s/he is perfect? They could have slammed doors behind themselves. “From this, we can say that mobility barriers are potent in perpetuating human’s imperfection.
My paint depicts two nation-states—one with abundant water and another with land resources. The rubbles from a collapsing wall represent a colonial partition, a territory, and when it collapses, the two nations start to get common farm along the boundary.” Look at the arrow in the paint that stabs its other end. Nature is like that. However, colonial power disturbs the natural recycle. When it is explained with another feature on the paint—the pasture, the ox seen in the paint is grazing. It grazes moving forward the arch, when it goes ahead, the grass behind him will get the chance to grow. In addition, when the ox eventually, comes back, it gets fresh pasture, isn’t it? Alas, the ox stops at a point due to the colonial powers’ intervention. Thus, it is sure to starve to death due to overgrazing. The story does not end there. There is what we call food chain. Migratory bird, since they can cross the territory, they move forward freely.
The boundary cannot directly affect their lives. However, they fly to the other area. Unfortunately, when they come back their previous niche turns barren due to overgrazing. Also since, they are part of the food, chain massive death of any other animal or plant will affect them in spite of their flying ability. The colonial demarcation or what is called boundary seems to have disturbed the normal cycling of life, therefore. As pastoral community cannot move freely, the likelihood of drought is there. That is what we call global warming. Look at the brain deliberately scattered on the paint. Can you see the purple wine pouring down, a metaphor of creativity.
The size of the brains are different, depicting that creativity go independently of age. Moreover, mobility helps cross-fertilize ideas, knowledge systems and innovations among all segments of the society. To the opposite, the colonial coordinates make mobility much difficult, limiting humanity’s creativity. That wine beats the gear as water does to a turbine and sets it in motion.
The more the flow of the wine is the faster the gear’s motion and out of that fast motion flickers fire which changes the rope, or resource reserve into pure gold. The gear is also a symbol for development.
The rope as a resource but tying Africa as the same time implies that the reason to African slavery is its resources. For example, if a person has something invaluable there are always some other selfish people who would wish to loot the treasure. If the person had nothing, nobody would be attracted.
The Ethiopian herald March 8, 2019
BY STAFF REPORTER
