Open letter to the editor of Addis Tribune
By Mesfin Arega
Oct 9, 2004

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Dear Editor of Addis Tribune,

I would like to express my greatest appreciation of you for posting my letter on your website (Re: Assault on the Ethiopian Calendar). I never thought the letter would reach the public because it was kind of harsh. Harsh, I had to be. You need to be rebuked for mocking something so precious like the Ethiopian calendar. However, take solace in the obvious fact that the letter - though nominally addressed to you - is, in fact, directed to all Ethiopians, in particular to our so called "intellectuals."

By posting my letter, you have demonstrated that you are tolerant and can accommodate ideas diametrically opposite to yours - an indispensable quality for a journalist - a vital quality conspicuously lacking in the majority of us Ethiopians, including myself. You have also shown that you welcome suggestions. For the very first time, you talked about Darfur in your last editorial, although you did it secondary to your favorite topic - Iraq/Palestine. However, this is a good beginning.

As an African, your principal concern should be the plight of your helpless brethren in Southern Sudan and, of course, Gambella. Iraq and Palestine should only be - if any thing - after thoughts. Besides, the Arabs have the knowledge and resources to stand for themselves. They don't need your help. If they are able to massacre tens of thousands of blacks in Darfur (by themselves or by proxy), if they are able to arm Eritrean rebels and Somali expansionists to their teeth (resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Ethiopians and Somalis), if they are able to buy fighter jets, tanks and artillery to Isayas Afeworki - the sworn enemy of Ethiopia - they should indeed be able to defend themselves without any outside help. As the saying goes, "Do not forget your history, lest you repeat it". Besides, have you every heard of any newspaper in the Arab world which writes about blacks and Africa - except in negative terms?

Your attempt to blame the United States for the Darfur massacre is nothing but preposterous. In fact, were it not for the United States, the Arab nationalists and their pseudo-Arab mercenaries would have achieved their principal objective - the arabization of southern Sudan by the total annihilation of the black inhabitants (much like what they did in North Africa) - a long time ago. This cannot be said of the Europeans - who, for some reason of their own, always seem to have the evilest of wishes for blacks. It can neither be said of Russia and China - themselves engaged in similar types of activities in Siberia and Tibet - not to mention their greed for oil. Unfortunately, your view is shared by the majority of our own Muslims - black Muslims who cannot discern the difference between Arab culture and Islam; black Muslims who are so naïve that they choose Arabic language and dressing style over and above their own - always naming their children not in their language but in Arabic; black Muslims who just do not seem to see the obvious fact that Arabs do not give a damn about Islam except to use it for advancing their nationalist agenda; black Muslims who do not raise their eyebrows when avowed Arab atheists - the likes of Saddam Hussein - invoke the Koran to rally them behind Arab causes; black Muslims who would rather die defending Arabic countries than their own; black Muslims who wail for Palestinians and Iraqis but are deafeningly silent with regard to their own brethren in Darfur who, by the way, are hundred percent Muslim - even though that should have been irrelevant. Are you, dear editor of Addis Tribune, one of these misguided black Muslims? All your writings so far- your disdain for every thing Ethiopian, your vicious attacks on the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and your concern for Iraqis and Palestinians - more than the Iraqis and Palestinians themselves - have lead me to suspect so. If not, please accept my sincere apology. And please, please do not reconstruct the above statements as anti-Islam. I cannot be portrayed as anti-Islam - by any stretch of imagination. I couldn't possibly be so, coming form Wollo - that beautiful province of peaceful, friendly, and loving people - models for the entire world of peaceful coexistence between peoples of different faiths and ethnicities. I have nothing but respect for Islam. But I am a black African who is proud of my own language, culture and tradition, and who has absolutely no interest in Arabic language, culture and tradition except in so far as it helps me know who these people really are. I am just trying to get our innocent black Muslims open their eyes and see Arab nationalists' hidden agenda - the use of Islam to promote Arab geopolitical interests.

You are also no doubt a gentleman. Though I called you many names, you ignored them all by labeling me as a "lunatic". This, I take as a compliment. If writing in defense of our cultures and traditions - our identity and uniqueness - makes me a lunatic, I will proudly wear it as a badge of honor. Only the lunatic - the one who does not always flow with the wind but, when necessary, pushes against it ("Benefesew Yemaynefs"), and the one who is not desperate to conform at any price - can change the world. By the way the world lunatic is derived from "luna" (Latin for "moon"), because the incredibly superstitious Europeans - who jump at every opportunity to call us Africans superstitious - believe that a full moon triggers antisocial behavior in people, that automobile accidents, murders, admission to clinics, and so forth show increase when the moon is full.

But I am digressing too much. My reason for writing this letter is to address some of the comments and questions posed by my acquaintances and other readers of the original letter - including you. Ok. Here we go.

With regard to my reference to the Book of Enoch, some readers wanted to know which chapters talk about the Ethiopian calendar. These chapters are 21 to 25. (The Great Amharic Bible - republished in 1980, E.C - includes the Book of Enoch). In these chapters, Enoch gave us a complete description - for each time of the year - of the directions of sunrise and sunset, the different phases of the moon (new moon, full moon, crescent moon, and gibbous moon), the lengths of the day-time and the night-time (Enoch divides a day - not into 24 equal parts as we do now - but into 18 equal parts), the main star constellations visible in the sky etc.. He even told us that the moon does not have a light of its own but shines by reflecting sunlight (see 22-5).

To think that Enoch wrote his book long before - way long before - the Greeks - acclaimed by the west as the inventors of Astronomy - settled in what is now called Greece! In fact, "modern" Astronomy is nothing but a simple elaboration of the book of Enoch. What Enoch called "windows" or "doors" for the rising and setting of the heavenly objects, today's astronomers call "directions in the sky" and specify them using "declination" and "right ascension". What Enoch named as "Kiniyetat" (24-8), today's astronomers call "planets" [from the Greek "Planetai" (wanderers)]. The planets wander in the sky in a narrow region centered on the path of the sun - a belt like region known as the zodiac (or "Menazel" in Geez). In other words, the motion of the planets is dictated by the sun - as Enoch implied by naming the planets as "Kinyetats" [from the Geez "Keneye" (subjugate or dominate)].

I urge every Ethiopian to read this fantastic book. One does not have to be a Christian to read it. In fact, the book of Enoch was written long before even Judaism - not to mention Christianity and Islam - came into being, and was the foundation upon which all these three monotheist religions were built. [For more details on the book of Enoch, please read Wesene Yifru's "Ye Filsifna Tarik Be Ityopia" - an invaluable book which should be a compulsory reading in every Ethiopian school]. Part of the book of Enoch can simply be regarded as a classic book in Astronomy describing each and every astronomical phenomenon in complete detail, and in a sweet - very sweet - language.

Any reader of Enoch will clearly see why the Europeans are adamantly opposed to the idea of including it in their bibles, since the book - which until very recently was available only in Geez - is a living proof that what the Europeans claim to be the first to discover or explain was in fact done by Africans long before they even come into existence. The reader will also understand why those new "Christian" religions practiced in Ethiopia and the rest of Africa (Protestant, Lutheran, Pentecost, Jehovah, Mekane Iysus, Mulu Wongel etc.) - religions exported to Africa in modified forms for the sole purpose of mutilating Africa's young generation so as to make Africa an easy prey for recolonization - derogate the Book of Enoch as a "pagan" book. Africans should never - for a single moment - forget the insightful observation - or rather prophetic warning - of the great Jommo Kenyatta: "The Europeans gave us bibles only so that, when we close our eyes to pray, they can take our land".

The wise king who said "There is nothing new under the sun" must have read the book of Enoch. Now - since the book was available to him only in Geez - where does this leave us as to who the real King Solomon was? How come he chose to have a child - or at least reputed to have a child - with an Ethiopian? Why so close a relationship with Ethiopia?

I focused so much on the British/French and left say, the Germans, out. This was simply because the Germans - or the barbarians as they used to be called by the Greeks and Romans - were not African's main problem. The British, the French, the Italian, the Belgians, the Dutch, the Spanish, and the Portuguese are cowards who prey on defenseless Africans, American aboriginals and Australian aboriginals - peaceful and nature abiding people who did not have the notoriety to invent the gun powder. The Germans, on the other hand, set out to colonize the colonizers, and enslave the enslavers. That by itself deserves an admiration - if not full respect - leaving aside the question of morality.

In this regard, it is my firm conviction that the Europeans defeated us Africans and did what they did to our people and continent, not because they were brave and smart, with superior military strategies, as many people - including our own so called "intellectuals" - would have us believe, but only because their sadistic, murderous instinct enabled them to come up with what were then weapons of mass destruction - machineguns. A case in point is the battle Omdurman (1898) where a British army of close to ten thousand (supported by close to twenty thousand pseudo-Arab Sudanese and Egyptian mercenaries - much like the role played by the Eritrean Ascaris in the battle of Adwa) was saved from total annihilation by blacks - armed with nothing but spears and swords - only because it employed the world's first weapon of mass destruction - the water-cooled Maxim machinegun - capable of firing six hundred rounds a minute. Thus, Africans, not the Japanese, are the first victims of weapons of mass destruction, whereas the English, not the Americans, are the first to use them, and Winston Churchill - yes, that notorious Winston Churchill - was the first statesman to glamorize the carnage caused by weapons of mass destruction. One has to read him to realize how sadistic this man really was:

"Thus ended the Battle of Omdurman -the most signal triumph ever gained by the arms of science over barbarians. Within the space of five hours the strongest and best-armed savage army yet arrayed against a modern European Power had been destroyed and dispersed, with hardly any difficulty, comparatively small risk, and insignificant loss to the victors." [Winston Spencer Churchill, The River War: An Historical Account of The Reconquest of the Soudan, (London: Longmans, Green, 1899), page 164.]

Notice the glaring contradictions in the above statements. He hailed the barbarous, savage slaughtering of blacks by weapons of mass destruction and yet he had the audacity to call the very victims - who were doing nothing but defending their God given territory - "barbarians" and "savage". Such was the man proclaimed by the western world as the bulwark of democracy - the greatest defender of freedom and equality. And such was the man after whom the best avenue in the capital city of Africa - Addis Ababa - was named. Survival psychology tells us that it is the weakest who is the shrewdest; that it is the most coward who is the most murderous; that it is the most insecure or inferior who has to the need to constantly brag about his fictitious prowess (intellectual or physical), and the urge to label others as "barbaric", "savage", "uncivilized", whatever derogatory term he can come up with.

One of your readers ( Gebremedhin) informed us that he can't decide whether he is for or against the Ethiopian calendar before he hears what Professor Pankhurst has to say about the topic. Nothing can be more shameful than this. With all due respect for the man, what does Richard Pankhurst - a foreigner - have to do with the question of retaining or discarding the ETHIOPIAN calendar? When are we going to stop looking at the white man as our saviour - as the ultimate solution for our disagreements, problems, and sicknesses? When are we going to mature - to believe in ourselves? I would have been very happy had the reader suggested that we invite say, Professor Tadesse Tamirat, into the discussion.

Did Gebremdhin say he is from New York City - the epicenter of Black revival? In that case, I would say nothing to him except to humbly advise him to take - on any given Sunday morning - the number 2 or 3 subway line to Harlem and attend a couple of services in the historic Church of Abyssinia - a church visited by such dignitaries and greats like Emperor Haile Selassie, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, and our own pan-Africanist Dr. Melaku Beyan - one of the greatest heroes of the resistance against Italian occupation, who - like all Ethiopian greats - is practically unknown in his own country - a very poor country which spends it meager resources by building statues and memorials to foreigners who contributed absolutely nothing for the country - the likes of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin and the French poet Arthur Rimbaud - but knows not the whereabouts of its own poets, authors and philosophers - a classic example of our own expression "Abatun Ayawk, Ayatun Nafek". If that is inconvenient for him, he can just go to Time Square at 42nd street and spend few minutes listening to young black men - dressed in black robes - taking about Africa and Africans.