Have we learned anything from a decade of self-administration?

The resiliency of the Harari people throughout the last century to hold onto their cultural heritage forces us to look deeply into the factors that made us something of a wonder to the rest of the Ethiopian people. Since Harar succumbed forcefully and was incorporated into greater Ethiopia, we have endured successive hostile rulers who made it their ultimate goal to destroy the rich history of our people and replace it with an inferior way of life. Since the conquest of Harar by the forces of Menelik II in 1888, the Harari people went on a one way trip of slow suffering and oppression that is equivalent to modern day ethnic cleansing. The conquering forces made it certain that there would be no development in Harar and surrounding areas thus forcing the population to leave its indigenous land and move out to other parts of the country. In a two pronged effort to empty the land from its Harari inhabitants, the settlers brought in their entourage of military personnel and thousandths of others who give supporting services while at the same time forcing the natives to leave their land in search of better opportunities.

We Hararis were scattered and forced to accept and live under this reality for more than a century which was the underlying cause for the overall decrease in the population that is evident for sometime now. A number of studies show that the population of Hararis worldwide is in the range of thirty to forty thousands which begs the question as to what happened in the last one hundred and fifty years or so for the population to stay stagnant. In his book written in 1856, “First Footsteps in East Africa”, the English explorer Richard F. Burton estimated that the population of Harar was around eight thousand which did not include Hararis living outside of the walled city. Since Burton’s visit to Harar, which he incidentally chose to portray the place and the people in a fairly negative light, the population of Hararis should have been a little more than three hundred thousand if we allow an annual growth rate of two and half percent which is less than the average in most of sub-Sahara Africa. Then how can we explain the discrepancy in the population of Hararis in the last hundred fifty years not to show any statistically significant difference? Allowing a good percentage for the overall mortality rate, there is a chunk of the Harari population that is missing in this simple calculation. We can fairly argue that the Harari population was gradually diluted and assimilated in the surrounding dominant ethnic groups leaving us in a predicament that we find ourselves in. Right now, the inhabitants of Harar who identify themselves as Hararis is a tiny percentage of the population making us a miniscule minority in our own homeland. Unless and until we are able to change this phenomenon, I will argue that we have not seen the worst of our destiny yet. If we let the present trend continue as it is - and there is nothing to make me believe otherwise - it will not be a long time before we see Harar without its natives and as a result the final chapter will be written in the total cleansing of our people. It is a small or no consolation at all that if something radical is not done to change this reality, we will be one more addition to hundreds of ethnic groups that have disappeared without a trace in the history of mankind.

But are we in the right course to change the reality of our people? Obviously, the successive feudal kings and the military junta made a deliberate attempt not to develop the region simply because they did not want a rival regional power emerge other than the Shoan supremacy. A concerted effort was made by the settlers to change the culture and heritage of the indigenous Hararis by forcing them to adopt the Amhara culture and way of life and to forcefully assimilate them into the larger empire. Although it made a significant negative impact in the socio-economic development of Harar, thanks to the fortitude and conviction of our ancestors, that effort did not turn into reality. Up until the downfall of the Haile Sellasie regime, Hararis were able to control and manage what is left of the economic life of the town to give it a distinct Harari flavors and the locals felt the town is theirs’ despite the unrelenting pressure exerted by the settlers to change that. But since then, a disturbing trend of Hararis migrating from the region in search of better opportunities elsewhere is being observed. The abandonment of the town by Hararis and the simultaneous migration of other ethnic groups into the region are changing the balance of ethnic groups to the determent of our survival as an ethnic entity.

Since the emergence of the Ethiopian People Democratic Revlutionary Front (EPRDF) led by the Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) and its subsequent system of governance, Hararis were able to gain the power of self-rule and administration although the fruitful outcome of this new endeavor is yet to be realized. Through their own political party, the Harari National League (HNL), Hararis were able to usurp a leadership role in the affairs of the region for a little more than a decade now. And it is the duty of all Hararis to ask the pertinent question how we have fared so far. A period of more than ten years is quite adequate to make a fair and balanced assessment of our affairs and depending on the outcome make the necessary adjustments as needed.

In order to make a balanced analysis of our situation, we have to start with the changes that took place in the last decade and there is no better place to start than with the quality of the peoples’ life. As mentioned earlier, a good estimate of the number of Hararis who live on their native soil is roughly around twelve thousand, making up less than five percent of the population of the regional state. And since the focus of this article is on the welfare of the Harari population, I will confine my analysis to this particular group.

If we apply any kind of economic yardstick to measure the economic development of Harar and its people, there is practically very little to speak of unless one is taking pride in the recent celebration to mark the fictitious and made-up history of Harar. I will take the following most often sited economic indicators to assess our situation and see if we have shown any marked improvement since we have assumed the power of governance, namely employment, education, housing, healthcare, basic services and investments.

1. Employment. Traditionally, Hararis were engaged in farming the surrounding areas and practically controlled the business of commerce in the town. Since demographics have dramatically changed in the walled city as well as the regional state in the last decade, the number of Hararis who are engaged in farming is almost non-existent and commerce is largely controlled by other ethnic groups who made Harar their residence recently. The percentage of youth unemployment in Harar is so high that it is easier to count those who have jobs which is a direct result of lack of any meaningful investment among other things. It’s no wonder that that the aspirations of most Hararis is to leave town in search of a better life.
2. Education. Let me start by explaining the dire situation of the traditional Harari Qu’ran Gey which is equivalent to a pre-school and kindergartens with an added significance of teaching Islamic education and the Harari way of life. Well, there is not much to report; the whole town is left with two or three Qu’ran Geys and those are in need of much repair and funding to run them. Practically, it was a right of passage for most everybody who was born and raised in Harar to go through Qu’ran Gey and its importance to the Harari educational culture can hardly be emphasized. Some of these institutions require very little to run and manage, but we were unable to surmount that hurdle and rise to the occasion of saving them. Harar has a number of elementary and high schools that is funded by the regional government but the number of Hararis in these schools is a reflection of the percentage of Hararis in the region and as such shamefully low. As I mentioned earlier, since the focus of my piece is on Hararis, let us leave that for another time and place. In the recent celebration to mark the fake millennium, the centerpiece of the show in the opening ceremony took place in a stadium that was populated overwhelmingly by students of other ethnic groups. It is ironic that the whole event was supposed to be a celebration of our history, endurance and achievement and we had to call other ethnic groups to showcase that. And in matters of higher education, statistically insignificant few Hararis attend Haramaya University, which is the only college in the region with a student population of more than eight thousand.
3. Housing. Again, let me start with the most important historical heritage of the walled city, Jugal, and the conditions of the dwellings inside. Again because of the migration of what is left of Hararis to other greener pastures in and outside of the region, right now more than a third of the population inside Jugal is other than Hararis. One of the reasons Harar was selected as the World Heritage Site by UNESCO was because of the magnificence of Jugal and its architecture. Although much needed repair was done to the streets by the last Harari administration, everything inside the wall needs repair and maintenance to preserve the importance of the town to the region and the world. Since it is the stakeholders who have a vested interest to keep watch over their heritage, Hararis should be enticed and encouraged to return to their roots and populate the dwellings in order to preserve it for future generations. Outside of Jugal, inhabitants of the region, including Hararis, who are in good financial standing are building modern structures. And the regional government made a half-hearted effort to the diaspora Hararis to build houses and invest in the region the outcome of which we shall live to see.
4. Healthcare. The state of healthcare for Hararis is a reflection of what is available in the urban centers of the rest of the country. No additional public hospital was built other than the ones that were built during the rule of Haile Sellasie. A couple of private and for profit clinics has been established by investors because of the dire need to address the health of the population, but these were hardly adequate. Although the population of the region grew many fold since the time of Haile Sellasie, the corresponding growth in the establishment of essential health facilities were absent and the regional government was forced to make the obvious admission and, of course, promised to correct the situation. Time will tell.
5. Basic Services. It needs no mention that Hararis and other inhabitants of the region suffered needlessly for years as a result of careless management of water resources. Although there are no proven water resources in and around Jugal, there was abundance of water some sixty or so kilometers further away and it took more than a decade to get serious and bring water into town. The initial water project was mired in a lot of corruption by the leaders and the funds were mismanaged and ended up in someone’ pocket. And now the ever changing figures of the water project are in the neighborhood of three to four hundred million birr and everyone knows who is going to foot the bill. To this day, water is still rationed to the inhabitants of Harar and everyone is eagerly waiting for completion of the water project as promised by the authorities.
6. Investments. If we are to believe the press releases of the regional government, it seems like private investments are popping up at a breath taking pace. But what one needs to ask is how is that possible without adequate supply of water for these investments? Taking advantage of the Hararis who visited their homeland, the government made a semblance of appealing to their emotional attachment and encouraged them to build houses and invest in other business ventures. But most everyone who had any contact with the Harari leaders in charge of these departments had a very bitter tale to tale. The bureaucratic red tape is one of the worst in the whole country and word is they treat anyone like dirt, of course, unless one has the right connections. That the leaders are there to serve the peoples’ interest is lost upon most Hararis who populate the bureaucracy.

The affairs of Hararis in managing both the regional government and serving the interests of their own folk was bewilderment for those who happen to know the reality recently. But these affairs have been going on for some time now. Since it has become a norm, element of surprise has been taken out of a routine that would have been unthinkable a few decades ago.

Now let me turn to the subject that I have thought a long time to write about. It is a product that we have been partners in introducing it to the rest of the world and I would like to examine briefly the result of our contribution to the rest of the world.

Welcome to the world of Khat, Qat or Chat.

Other than the social and economic problems mentioned above, one of the greatest hindrances to any kind of development in Harar is the role Khat is playing in our every day life. I will be the first one to admit that Khat is not a substance that can be compared to other deadly drugs that are wrecking havoc in most western countries. When I used to live in Ethiopia, the use of Khat was not that widespread; and I remember that farmers used to spend half an hour or so to put a mouthful of Khat and prepare for the days work that is waiting them ahead. And our elders will put in front of them a symbolic quantity of Khat before they start a secession of religious (Din) discussion or hymn (Salawat). Fast forward to the present and you wonder what the hell (pardon my language) happened in the last thirty or forty years. Khat has taken hostage of a good percentage of not only the Harari population, but the country as a whole. It is as if the genie of Chat is suddenly escaped out of the bottle and casting its spell on whoever crosses its path. In the good old days, the chewing of Khat was mainly confined to the Muslims of Oromo, Harari and Gurage (Silttis), etc. for the most part, but today one can hardly find a community that is not affected by it. If there is a substance that can shower an individual with the curse of laziness, we have found the discovery of a lifetime. If anyone needs to take the life out of someone or a whole society without actually killing them, they should just introduce the charm of Khat. This is the curse of the ages that we are facing right now. I used to wonder why countries such as Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) had severe punishment such as a death sentence in the case of the Saudis and long prison sentences for UAE for procession of Khat, but I do not wonder anymore although I believe the punishment is still excessive.

The sad part of this whole phenomenon is no one is touching the subject in any form. There are people with vested interest in the business of Khat including the Federal Government who are making tons of money while the country and the people are dying with the disease of idleness, boredom and misery. The export of Khat to neighboring countries and to the west as well is a lucrative business that made many people very rich. The government is turning a blind eye as long as it is making money and turning the people docile and careless to what is going around them. In the case of our own Harari president, I have had it on a good source that he brought a bag full of the fresh Khat during his visit to North America in 2006 and was going at it during his stay. I have a number of questions if this turns out to be true and let me remind some of you who would like to jump in and defend the president in your zeal to show your patriotism, give him a chance and let him defend himself because I give him enough credit to do that. But if the incident is true, here is my question to our president; were you not aware that Khat is still treated as an illegal substance and procession is a crime in America and to a lesser degree in Canada? Couldn’t you have imagined the shame to you and your people if caught red-handed by the authorities? And what was the message that you tried to convey to the people who invited you for the occasion? Although most everyone knows that you are addicted to the substance, would it have been too much to wait until you return to Harar to continue the habit?

The main reason I brought this point is not to embarrass the president about this particular incident because the chewing of Khat and wasting time is not a hot topic of embarrassment in Ethiopia as a whole. Everyone will tell you that even the prime minister is not immune to the epidemic. This is not a disease that is mostly confined to the masses; it covers most everyone from top to bottom. The reason it is not addressed as a dire social problem is those who should be concerned and are in a position to find solutions are also infected by the disease, thus leaving us in a situation of catch-22. Everyone is aware that among the top two or three social and economic problems facing Harar right now is the culture of chewing Khat. As I mentioned earlier, Khat had a symbolic role in the past and was not intrusive in the day to day live of the inhabitants and was not a major concern of societal ills; but times have changed for the worse and now Harar is becoming a ghost town for a better half of the day. Why? You guessed it, a good percentage of the productive citizens are having fun with Khat disregarding their responsibilities to their families, children and those who hired them as well as the larger community too. And nobody in his right mind should find any merit in these states of affairs and stand to defend it. And it should not come as a surprise to anyone that the role of a leader is crucial in finding a solution. But our leader, in this particular case, has become the problem rather than being the solution. I find it very disturbing that no one raised the issue that most of our leaders are addicts, because most of us are in the same predicament of chewing Khat. We have reached a level where it becomes difficult even to acknowledge that there is a grave illness inside our community. I am not in particular blaming the president for cultivating the habit since he is the product of his environment, but right now he is in a position of immense authority and he is responsible for the welfare of not only the Harari community, but the region as well. And I am sad to he is acting very irresponsibly.

While I am still on the subject of our Harari leaders, let me bring in the issue of the Harari National League (HNL) and comment on its activities or lack thereof. It is not surprising that most of the issues and questions that are being raised by most Hararis are begging for answers from the Harari leadership which is disturbingly silent on almost all issues. Since I am focusing on Harar and Hararis, the sole responsible organization for the welfare of the Harari people, namely the Harari National League (HNL) has been silent on its activities since the inception of the organization. The HNL is a political party which supposedly should have been spear-heading the struggle of the Harari people but because of its deafening silence, I am beginning to wonder if it really exists or it is just a phantom. A friend who visited Harar last August informed me that he went four different times to the office of the HNL and could not find a soul to address his concern. The League has offices in several places in the country and practically all of them are without personnel. One can hardly find any of the offices working regularly, including the ones in Harar and Addis.

Since the League came into being, there is not a single report of its activities that have been widely disseminated to the Harari public. The financial status of HNL and what it has been doing since its inception is only known to a very few individuals who are running the organization. If I put the question to anyone as to who were the presidents of the League since it came into being, I bet that very few people will come up with the answers. Most Hararis are aware that the League is controlled by very few individuals in Addis with good business connection to the Federal Government and the Harari leadership. Within the Harari society, the League has become a club of a few selected individuals with business interest who do not care an iota what happens to the larger Harari society. Of course, we should not blame the League for what happened to our community since almost no one raised any issue so far. In the absence of any challenge to its activities, the League trampled on the aspirations of Hararis who thought innocently that it was working for their benefit. I hate to be the harbinger of bad news, but this is not even news, it has been going on for more than a decade and none of us bothered to question what was going on. And this was precisely the reason that even the prime minister himself took the opportunity to criticize our leaders for not doing much for the development of the region. Regarding the development in Harar, I will quote the prime minister in his own words and he said “… we are only seeing a flicker and not a light at the end of the tunnel.” And mind you, we are still in the tunnel, but who is not aware of that? But once again, since it is never late to ask, can we, as Hararis, ask the League what it has been doing all these years? By that, I mean what did it do specifically to mobilize the Harari masses in and outside of the country for their benefit? For the Diaspora Harari community, when was the last time you heard any news about the functions of the League or for that matter its very existence? I say the blame goes both ways but the League gets the lions share.

Although we Hararis went out of our way to show the world about our heritage and development last July in our effort to accommodate the wishes of the Federal Government in a made-up millennium event, it was evident that we had little to show for it. We have gathered all the ethnic groups in the country and declared Harar is their town from now and that they are invited to take pieces of whatever is left. As it stands, we are a very tiny minority in our own homeland and our leaders are inviting everyone to come and make us totally disappear in their zeal to entertain and pleasure their masters. Harar is the fourth holiest place in the Muslim world, but you can hardly tell that from what the evangelists of the west are doing right in our midst. One could fairly argue that Harar is a Christian city because of the abundance of churches that sprung in the last thirty years or so. As we loose the grip of our very existence and unique identity as a wonder of Islamic culture, we are being rapidly replaced with other cultures and religion because of mainly the leadership that we have in place. And some of our Harari brothers and sisters, in their infinite wisdom, warn us not to disturb this ideal condition and bring us an outcome that is worse than this. If you pardon my saying so, I believe we are in the middle of a crisis unlike anything we have seen in our past one hundred years of history. And, the sad part is we are not even awake to smell the coffee.

History is replete with examples of few individuals who make important decisions about the outcome of events that affect the lives of millions of people. Take the example of Adolph Hitler, millions of people perished as a result of the rise of this lunatic and the influence he gathered in his ascension to power. If I name any dictator, you will find the suffering of thousandths, if not millions, of people as a direct result of a single person’s decision. But believe me it does not take a dictator to adversely affect the lives of millions of people, every single one whom is precious to the Creator, I can site democracies that are turning into dictatorships and competing evenly with the same deadly outcome. A few Harari individuals and their associates are playing a game with our collective destiny and all of us have the right to question and get adequate answer for what is happening.

On of the sad news from many Hararis who went for the recent festivities was that they are surprised to find out that Harar is a ghost town right after lunch every day. Mind you, I am not talking about other normal times, but this is right in the middle of the hoopla where the Harari leadership made every effort to invite Hararis and others around the world and decided to kill the town after mid-day. Most of the programs that took months of preparation (according to them), were cancelled if it happened in the afternoon and if it interfered with the ritual of Khat. And somehow, they learned that the programs took place in the afternoon right out of the blue. And changes to the programs were made right there and then, giving precedence to the culture of Khat, making sure that nothing interfered with this noble endeavor. A stranger unfamiliar with our community might think what I am writing is some sort of fiction, but most us of who are concerned about this holy land know very well what is written is true and there are so many more things that are disturbing.

In their eagerness to show their patriotic affection to their country and their people, most of our brothers who went to Harar for the recent events spent a good chunk of f their time chewing Khat and contribute their share of an induced mass hibernation and came back to boast about getting the fresh substance rather the dried Khat that they are used to chew. That, indeed, is part of being a good Harari and, our children also noticed what happened there as I hoped they would. I am sure the children did not find anything new in the behavior of their dads because they are already used to see them spent their spare time idly chewing Khat even in the west, but they thought that they will be treated differently once they got to Harar, but that turned out to be a wishful dream. As the time approached to go to Harar and when the children saw the eagerness of their dads to visit their motherland, the children innocently thought that they were going to spend quality and memorable time visiting places and relatives, observing what ill’s the society and discussing ways and means of finding solutions, teaching them about the wonders of their heritage, play soccer and do other physical activities, etc., no! but that was just a wishful dream. The children woke up fast and realized that the whole trip was planned for the pleasure of their dads and most of the time was reserved for the worship of fresh leaves that they having been dreaming about for such long time.

For some of you who are not used to read a long piece of article, I apologize for subjecting you to this ordeal but these are issues that were begging for attention. But before concluding, I would like to answer some of your concerns before you even ask the questions because I really want to make these about the problems that are facing us as an ethnic group and a community. I would go a step ahead and kindly remind my Harari brothers and sisters not to make these about personalities but try to stay focused on the issues at hand. The only way I could address some of your concerns is by delving into the foundations that led me make my case in a learned manner and addressing issues accordingly. And as you are all very aware, logic is the basis and pillar of a learned and meaningful discussion and helps us to think very clearly and present our arguments accordingly. Therefore, let me address some of the accusations leveled at me in the past and probably will follow as a result of this article by going to the source.

Logical fallacies

In writing this article, I tried to brush up the Logic course I took a long time ago in college and found this description in matters of rational argument. In one of the web-sites dedicated for this sole purpose, if defines deductive reasoning as such: “Deductive arguments are generally viewed as the most precise and the most persuasive; they provide conclusive proof of their conclusion, and are either valid or invalid. Deductive arguments have three stages: premises, inference, and conclusion.”

When logical arguments do not follow this method accepted by almost all scientific disciplines, then any argument is actually thrown out as invalid. And I would like to show some of the fallacies that are brought forward in our discussions regarding our affairs.

1. We keep on criticizing our Harari leaders for everything, but they are the ones who are facing the reality on the ground and doing their best. If you think you can do better, why don’t you go there and do it rather than bad-mouthing them while living a comfortable life overseas? First thing first. This is a circular argument and falls under the category of logical fallacies. In our example, if someone is criticizing the work of the Harari leaders with ample evidence, then the counter-argument is to refute the allegations with adequate proof. It will not do the subject any good to ignore the original criticism and level a counter-allegation in hopes of creating confusion. It will not make for a sound argument and will not solve the problem if the issue is diverted. And in all fairness, isn’t it just simple common sense to hold those leaders who have been elected to do the peoples’ job responsible for their actions rather than other concerned Hararis who may simply point out weaknesses?

2. Why do we keep comparing our development to that of the Western world that we are familiar with? We should understand that our people live like most others in a poor third world country. The problems took centuries to develop, why do we expect change to come overnight? Once again, this logical fallacy falls under the category of red-herring meaning introducing irrelevant facts or arguments to distract from the issue at hand. The rational way to address the issue is debating the issued raised in the argument and backing it with related and ample proof. The issue is not about comparing our problems and finding solutions the way it is routinely done in western countries. If we happen to find examples of similar conditions in other parts of the world and how successfully the problem is dealt with, then there is no reason to adopt the method befitting our conditions.

3. Do you have personal grudges against some personalities? There is a name in the basics of logic for this argument and is called Argumentum ad hominem (argument directed at the person) which is defined as the error of attacking the character or motives of a person who has stated an idea, rather than the idea itself. And all I can add to this is let us stick to the issues and remove the personalities from the argument.

I wish you all the best in this holy month of Ramadan and may the blessings of the Almighty Allah be upon all of us. Amin.

Sincerely

Surat Singh