Speaking of history..

I will try to make this post as short and inoffensive to my religions friends as possible. But I can’t promise anything! Seems to me, the only way you can make [an unpleasant] history pleasant is by re-writing it. And re-writing history isn’t something you can do with pen. With guns, perhaps! With blood, most definitely! On a blog, not so much! Try to also overlook the angry tone and editing problem. Will get to them when i have more time.

Anywho…… [as I mentioned in my comment earlier] I was reading about ‘Gragn Ahmed’ (Or “Gragn Mohammed” as I used to think his name was) yesterday when I came across the part which talks about him destroying the relics and manuscripts of the Debre Libanos Monastery. A part, in short, that reminded me something I realized in my “Survey of Ethiopian Literature” class 4 years ago. How religion has done more harm than good to further Ethiopia’s literature (something that still eats the abesheet soul more than anything else in her country’s history).

Now, one of the things I hate about fanatic religious people, one that I hold against them like none other [coz I recognize being a believer takes more guts than being a non-believer does, especially in such times as now, and coz I am a huge fan of the “feriha egziabher” concept] is how they discourage you from knowing anything about anything non-religious!! Used to go to a protestant church, so I know what I’m talking about! Where “Alemawi” movies and songs were not only frowned upon (even if you happen to be one of those amiable creatures who keep the remote control within reach in case a “zefen” comes on the screen) but openly, & sometimes violently, preached against. I remember the commotion a couple of kids who were “zemaris” at a protestant church here in Addis joining an “alemawi” Band created more than a decade ago. Their ex-pastor (or a colleague of his) said they were “eating what the ‘zendo’ is spitting” and the kids, who were still in the faith but weren’t making anything out of it (it seems), were heart-broken. Heavy shit, don’t you agree, coming from a Man of God?!. Pretty vicious!!

And reading “alemawi” books was something you wouldn’t wanna be seen doing by anyone from your church, coz it not only raises the eye-brows but comes handy whenever your good brothers and sisters “in the Lord” felt like putting you down and pointing how you were ‘the wrong’ kind of Christian. Yep! Happened to me all the time! My only comfort, and fortress, in those days was the book of proverb. Where the word “Senefoch ewQetin yinQalu” was written, loud and clear, for all to see. Infact, now I come to think of it, most of the things people do in churches these days seem to be the exact things King Solomon, the “wisest dude” to have surfaced, called ‘foolish’. And not the type of foolish Paul referred to in his message to either Romans or Corinthians! No, these were the ugly types of foolish. The kind, in short, that made a wise colleague of mine exclaim “enkuwan Egziabher yeAdwa Lij Alhone”! (For isn’t that what the whole sweatin-it, and sometimes “ilQit”, all about? Having the almighty on your team, just in case ;-)?!)