Tigray Unity in Hegemony or in Equality, Mutual Respect and Justice?

Introduction

Amid political chaos in Tigray, in which a banned political party has become a de facto ruler dictating and manipulating the weak interim government, persistent noise is being heard about the need for the unity of the Regional State. It is a verbal as well as situational irony in current Tigray politics, that the forces who are busy disuniting the Region are also the ones who are preaching unity. They “accuse in a mirror” those victims of maladministration for disuniting Tigray. At this point in time, it would be absolutely necessary for the sake of clarity to revisit the meaning of unity. As a moral imperative, which is little related to ground reality, unity is something which is often taken for granted. The word is revered by most people as an effective remedy for conflict and as a guarantor of peace.

The question is, unity on what basis and peace at what cost. John Trapp reminds the blind worshippers of unity in these words: “Unity without verity is no better than conspiracy”. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “verity” as true principle or belief, especially one of fundamental importance. Pratheek Kumar has a stronger truth to tell about unity: “Unity should be real; deception and intrigues have no place in true unity”. Merriam Webster Dictionary provides the most comprehensive definition of the word “unity”: 1. Oneness or singleness or the quality or state of being made one, 2. Unification a condition of harmony or accord, 3. Continuity of purpose or action without deviation or change, 4. A complex whole or a totality of related parts. 

When the definition is applied to complex societies with high level of social organization the first definition of unity is not practical unless it is imposed by coercion or persistent brainwashing. Individuals differ at least by their DNA and their finger prints. Each has its own brain which develops in its own individual way depending on a combination of heredity, nurture and social interaction. Indoctrination may produce robots of human beings as it often happens under totalitarian regimes. It is also true in Tigray where manipulative and coercive single party rule has prevailed for half a century. A huge and complex propaganda machine that removed the sense of self-respect or self-confidence from the people, has enabled the party to just “press a singled button” to mobilize entire societies into war.

Narratives of constantly looming threats emanating from enemies outside the Region have blinded people from realizing that there are more dangerous enemies inside them. This has forged a unity of fear which is reinforced by economic dependence. Two to three million people, depending on humanitarian aid, have lost their individuality. They have turned into numbers of hands receiving relief aid and generously thanking the government for feeding them.

Skipping to the third definition, “continuity of purpose or action without deviation or change” implies that ideas and guides to action are frozen in time. People are united by the continuity of purpose or action. Change is considered by the ruling circles as a threat to unity. Tigray is a warring nation. It is known in Ethiopia and throughout the world not much for the great civilization it hosted but by its fighting skills and bravery in war against outsiders. The shared pride of being “brave Tigrayans” is what keeps extremely rich and extremely poor Tigrayans united. Since the only foundation for unity is war it becomes almost impossible for unity to be maintained in peacetime.

Whenever there are no external invasions, Tigrayans “enjoy the peacetime” by fighting one another to keep their ‘fighting spirits alive’. “Wudibna (our party), semaetatna (our martys), gedlina (our struggle), merahtna (our leaders) are half a century old mantra that have totally sealed the doors for change. TPLF has turned into a deity and the people its blind followers. Day after day, year after year the songs are the same and the slogans are boring. News and official statements are inserted in 50 years old templates. The flicker of hope for change in the last two years was nipped in the bud and Tigray is entering unprecedented political, economic and social stagnation.

Definition two and four are the desired definitions at least for the Tigray context because implied in them are equality, mutual respect and shared goals. Harmony or accord is negotiated unity. Tigray is not a completely homogenous historical, political, cultural, and demographic unit. Sharing the same language, which in fact has several distinct dialects, is not sufficient for the “iron unity” that is being called for. Twenty-two independent Arab states share the same language. Some of them fight and destroy one another. Europeans have different languages and cultures, but they are united for a shared goal in equality and mutual respect. In the fourth definition, “totality of related parts” implies that what is united is related not identical. So, unity should positively be interpreted as “unity in diversity”. In the next sections we will discuss how unity in Tigray is conceived and in what forms it is manifested. First, let me describe Tigray’s historical-geography, political and cultural traits vis-à-vis unity. 

Historical-Geographic Roots with Implications for Unity

Present day Tigray traces its origin from the earlier state of D’mt and the ancient Axumite Kingdom, which had built a Red Sea Empire and traded with the Near and Far East, Rome, Greece and Egypt. The Capital of the Kingdom and the Empire was the City of Axum located northwest of present day Tigray. Eritrea was an integral part of the core area of the Kingdom with the major Axumite port of Adulis located on its coast. The Axumite Empire included Nubia and Himyar on the western and eastern coasts of the Red Sea respectively. Donald Levine and Haggai Erlich regard Tigrayans as successors of the Aksumite Empire. The social media platform Reddit also confirms that Tigrayans and Eritreans are the only direct Aksumite heirs.

It seems logical that people who share so much of history and glory would unite. Unity during the years of D’mt and Axum was based on success in the economic and military spheres. There was no reason for the British to disunite at the height of the British Empire nor did the Turks fight one another during the long and extensive Ottoman Empire. When the Roman, British, and Ottoman Empires declined they were divided into hundreds of different independent states. Were the Roman, British, and Ottoman Empires really united? Yes they were, but the unity was not a unity of love or convenience; it was unity by coercion. When the power of imperial states weakens disintegration is inevitable. Different people and nations were held together without their will.

Axum also had territories that it held by the power of the sword. Soon after Axumite Empire declined Himyar in present day Yemen and Nubia in present day Sudan broke up from Axum. Empires stabilize by shrinking back into smaller and relatively more homogenous core areas. What remained of the Axumite Empire was the Tigrayans in present day Tigray and in the highlands of Eritrea. Tigrayans endured the post-Axum political, economic and social catastrophes. This is how people are made. Like the metaphorical steel fire melted them and water hardened them into the most resilient of people. Sealed from the Red Sea by the expansion of Islam, the environmental crisis they suffered from, and the endless series of invasions they experienced, everything pointed to the total depopulation of the core area of the former Axumite Kingdom.

Against all odds Tigrayans remained on their land and skillfully adapted to the harshest of life and defended themselves from aggressors from all compass direction. They interacted with the neighboring Lasta-Agaw and shared Christian life with them. As the throne shifted from the Agaws to the Amhara kings it was not easy for Tigrayans to be embraced by the mainstream Abyssinian society. Poor but full of pride in their history Tigrayans resisted assimilation and remained like oil on water for ten centuries.

The Fateful New Era: Return of Tigrayans to the Red Sea

In the second half of the 19^th Century the old world emerged from the dark ages of Medievalism and experienced the rise of international capitalism and the industrial revolution. Now Africa became the target of European powers as a source of raw materials, labor power and market for industrial goods. The Berlin Conference for the partition of Africa was held in 1884, fifteen years after the coronation of Yohannes IV and five years before his death. When the Red Sea was freed from Ottoman control and the Suez Canal Opened for international shipping after 1000 year it was the Axumites of the Ancient who came to a head-on collision with the expansion of European control over the Red Sea Region. Axum had lost the Red Sea to Islam. Prophet Mohammed promised never to annex Axum and Tigrayans did not experience incursions into their highland domicile from the Red Sea.

This time what came to the Red Sea were not Mohammedan brethren but state sponsored capitalists hungry for land and resources. Yohannes IV and Ras Alula were destined to be the first in the Region to challenge heavily armed colonial powers. Three ancient civilizations- Yemen, Sudan and Egypt- had already succumbed to colonial rule. European powers could not stand the idea of Tigrayans embarrassing them. First they sent Egypt to invade the Axumite lands. It was defeated in several battles by Yohannes IV and Ras Alula. When Tigrayans led by Yohannes IV turned out to be too tough Britain drew another card of deception to put Yohannes IV in a trap that ultimately led to his death.

The Berlin Conference allotted Italy only one percent of Africa. Italy wanted to maximize the negligible share by colonizing the land of the ancient Axumite civilization. This would put it over and above European powers in terms of pride derived from it. Although in 1869 an Italian missionary-cum-businessman had purchased Asseb from local sultans Italy did not find the Afar desert suitable for military buildup to invade Abyssinia. Britain tricked Yohannes IV into the Adwa (Hewett) agreement which disappointed the Mahdists in Sudan. Britain had promised to award the port of Massawa to Yohannes IV, but it allowed Italy to occupy it instead. Italy’s incursion from Massawa into the uplands of present day Eritrea started the chain of events which lasted to this very day. Tigrayans were betrayed by Britain and fought Italian incursions in Dogoli and Seati.

Yohannes’s disastrous mistake of fighting against fellow anti-colonial fighters in Sudan led to his death in a distant land away from the Red Sea. Italy was assisted by the Abyssinian rivals of Yohannes IV to annex the Red Sea Region of the former Axumite Kingdom. When Italy created Eritrea as a Red Sea colony Tigray was sandwiched between Italian colonial forces in the north and unfriendly compatriots in the south. The ancient Axumite core area was split into two weakening the power of Tigrayans and disrupting their unity. This was the first but the most deleterious geographical disunity of Tigrayans with far reaching consequences for both of them.

Unity and disunity in the Geopolitical Sandwich

Addressing the issue of Tigrayan unity or disunity most significantly begins from the creation of Eritrea in the north and a belligerent rival in the center at Arat Kilo. After the death of Yohannes IV politics in Tigray became extremely chaotic. It was fueled by Italians in Eritrea and the Monarchy at Arat Kilo which usurped the throne from the legitimate heir in Tigray. The problem in Tigray was emanating from Italian ambitions to invade Abyssinia from Eritrea. Italy sought alliance with Tigrayan nobility to that end. This was one source of disunity among Tigrayans. Some like Dejat Gebreselassie of Adwa-Shire-Axum were infatuated with Italians in Asmara. Mengesha Yohannes, the legitimate heir to the Abyssinian throne, was enemy of Italians like his father was. So was his son Ras Seyoum Mengesha; although he was occasionally ambivalent about it. He had some contacts with Italians in Asmara. Ras Sibhat of Agame was at odds with Italians in Eritrea. Italians in Eritrea were arming their allies to defeat their enemies. This was partly a cause for civil wars in Tigray.

Asmara and Addis Ababa were engaged in a proxy war in which Arat Kilo supported, armed, and appointed its allies in Tigray against its enemies or Tigrayan allies of Italians in Asmara. Were the Italians in Asmara and Abyssinian enemies of Tigray at Arat Kilo to blame for the civil wars in the sandwiched state? This is a very old bad habit in Tigray. Tigrayans prefer to blame external forces for the civil wars in which they kill one another. Gebre Hiwot Baykedagn, a Tigrayan scholar of the time, expressed his disappointment to Menilik II for neglecting Tigray. When you point one finger at somebody the remaining three fingers are pointing back at you. The warlords did little to stop the civil war that raged for 40 years. They even seemed to enjoy it as a show of their personal valor while hundreds of people died and their properties plundered.  The warlords did not care a bit about the plight of the people. When Ras Alula at last found himself in Tigray and tried to help the people in need he was killed by a warlord. Egypt and Italy were unable to kill him, unfortunately his fellows did.

The self-centered and ambitious warlords of Tigray shuttled between Tigray and Showa to get favors and rewards from Arat Kilo by incriminated each other to that end. All lost grace in Showa and became laughing stock for the Shown nobility and ordinary folks alike. By that time Tigrayans had lost a sense of purpose, and an ideal which requires unity. Tigrayan leaders, Yohannes IV and Alula, and ordinary Tigrayans together fought against Italians. Tigrayans of those days shared the ideal that colonialism is evil under all circumstance. This implied that Tigrayans tolerated the belligerence from Arat Kilo to stand for their lofty anti-colonial ideals and fought Italy and Anglo-Egypt.

Post-Yohannes Tigrayans must have been traumatized by the sudden death of Yohannes IV in a faraway land and humiliated by the Mahdists. They had taken Yohannes IV for granted and were not prepared for his death and the course of events that followed. While Showa patiently and skillfully prepared for a political, military and economic supremacy over Abyssinia the Tigrayan nobility were clueless about how it could overcome Showa and continue ruling Abyssinia. In fact, the Abyssinia of Showa had doubled, tripled, and quadrupled by conquests of the prosperous and densely populated south, east and west. Addis Ababa is a geographic center of the extensive empire created by Showa as Yohannes IV busied himself with Egypt and Italians in the Red Sea coast.

Tigrayans had lost great leaders in the Mahdist War and Yohannes IV’s army of Tigrayans was in disarray. What was left of the nobility withdrew to their home localities. None of them were strong enough or willing to unite and stabilize Tigray. In the absence of a strong Regional leader Tigray was hopelessly divided into smaller fiefdoms of the warlords. After his return from Metema, Ras Alula tried to instill sanity in the Tigrayan nobility but without success. Great men like him lost all hope and surrendered to Menilik II in Addis Ababa. Later on, when the heir to the Yohannes IV throne also surrounded to Arat Kilo and died in a Showan prison, Tigray was left with second rate feudal lords who lacked the capacity to properly manage post-war political affairs in Tigray and save their people from misery.

The more each one of the Tigrayan warlords lobbied, begged, dishonored themselves and quarreled for appointment by Showa to positions in Tigray the more they were looked down upon. Exactly the same thing is happening ninety years later after TPLF was kicked out of Art-Kilo and awkwardly found itself in Tigray. The huge TPLF whale is thrown out of the ocean (Addis Ababa-Ethiopia) and is trying hard to breathe inside a small pond (Tigray). It is messing up Tigray because in order to survive it has to return to Addis Ababa. When return to Addis Ababa became impossible TPLF is doing what the former warlords did: Ally with Eritrea and try to defeat Arat Kilo.     

Tigray: Unity and Disunity in the Post-Zemene-Mesafint Period (1928-1974)

The disunity of Tigray, following the footsteps of the Warlords, continued even during the brief period of Italian invasion and occupation. When in the second half of the 1920s, Italian incursion into Tigray started, the fate of Abyssinia/Ethiopia was squarely in the hands of Tigrayans. In a dangerous myopia, the adverse effect of which lasted to this day, the Abyssinian rulers of Showa had installed Italy in a strategic place to adequately prepare for its ambitions to control entire Abyssinia. Their morbid fear of Tigrayans winning the throne at Arat Kilo blinded all rational thinking for a future of Abyssinia/Ethiopia. When Italians invaded Tigray, on their way to Addis Ababa, Tigrayans were split between pro-Italy and pro-Showa. The pro-Italy noblemen under Dejat Hale Selassie Gugsa led Italian forces into Meqele without a fight. Ras Seyoum who had been appointed as commander in chief of the Abyssinian army was ordered by Emperor Haile Selassie to fight Italians in Tigray. While his palace was taken over by Italian generals Seyoum was fighting Italians in Tembien and Alaje. Tigrayans were fighting each other from both sides.

Moreover, during the five years of Italian occupation many Tigrayans served Italians as “bandas” revealing the identities of patriots to Italians and getting them killed. Tigray was divided. The renegade nobleman- Dejat Haleselassie Gugsa- stayed, but Ras Seyoum was taken to Rome as a war prisoner. The thousands of Tigrayans that fought against Italians were left leaderless and vulnerable. Only three years after the liberation of Ethiopia from Italian occupation Tigrayans in Enderta, Raya and Kilte Awlaelo rebelled against the Showa-based central government. The rebel districts demanded Regional autonomy and tax-relief. One would expect all Tigrayans with all certainty to be united in the rebellion. However, that did not happen! Tigrayans were already deeply divided due to the long period of internecine wars. Unity and disunity was based not on the historically ordained Tigrayaness, shared by all Tigrayans, but by the political and social boundaries drawn in blood and hate by the warlords. The governors of some districts in Tigray led their people against the rebellion. It is more often than not deliberately downplayed or concealed as narrow localism, for the sake of political correctness, but the truth is the Woyane Rebellion failed because Tigrayans were not only disunited but also fought one another.

Wolbert Smidt, in Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, identified the areas where the real context of Tigrayan unity and disunity lies: “Areas where Tigrayans have strong ancestral links are: Enderta, Agame, Tembien, Kilite Awlaelo, Adwa, Axum, Raya, Humera, Wolkait, and Tsegede”. Many people fail to notice the contents of the lyrics of Tigrigna songs in praise of Tigray. Everyone wants to hear the name of their district mentioned in the songs. Nothing goes right for the Tigrayan audience if a song does not include in the lyrics praise of their localities as: “Enderta is kind, Adwa is historical, Raya is prosperous, and Shire is brave”. Agame and Awlaelo would be disappointed if not rebel if their famous cuisine is not mentioned in songs about Tigray. So, Tigrigna singers are obliged by their audience to make a list of districts in their songs rendering them stale and boring.

Although Tigrayans almost stopped fighting each other after the Woyane Rebellion, because Ras Seyoum was appointed by Arat Kilo to be the Governor General of the then Governorate General of Tigre, the people in their respective home-districts continued to bear grudges against each other: a time-bomb for future intra-Regional politics. Tigrigna language both in Tigray and Eritrea abound with derogatory remarks against one another. The seventeen years of rule under Ras Seyoum ended when he was killed by the plotters of a coup attempt in Addis Ababa in 1960. More a technocrat than a prince was the nobleman who replaced his father as a governor.

For the first time in the history of Tigray Luel Ras Mengesha Seyoum, grandson in-law of Emperor Haile Selassie used the monopoly of power vested in him to “hammer the swords into ploughshares” and embark on development projects all over Tigray. The new governor was no ordinary royal. He had already built his reputation in Ethiopia as a minister, as co-founder of Ethiopian aviation, and planner and founder of the southern Ethiopian City of Hawassa. Mengesha Seyoum united Tigray from Meqele more effectively than it has ever been. In spite of the occasional drought and pest infestations, which did great harm to the Region, broader Tigrayan culture flourished in the forms of the founding of  a cultural music group, the frequent visits to Tigray by Eritrean musicians, and the unobstructed movement of goods and people within Tigray and between Eritrea and Tigray. It was hoped that the Governor would smoothly transform Tigray into a robust capitalist economy in spite of his feudal background. After all, it was the feudal lords of Europe who turned into capitalists. Unfortunately, the prospect of a golden age of Tigray was nipped in bud by the February 1974 mass uprising in Addis Ababa. What is referred to as a “revolution” ended the centuries old monarchy by a military coup. This marked another new era of the unity and disunity of Tigray. The brief fifteen years of hope, brought by Mengesha Seyoum in Tigray, became a “candle in the wind” and was lost forever.

The Founding of TPLF and its Implications for Unity and Disunity in Tigray

Tigrayan university students in Addis Ababa played a leading role in the February 1974 mass uprising, which changed politics in Ethiopia forever. Underlying the revolution was its ideological underpinning. Marxist-Leninist ideas had found their way into the university student movement in the sixties. Although Ethiopia was undergoing a slow and very weak transformation to capitalism, in spite of the existence of the serf-landlord economic relations in the vast rural areas, the revolution was expected to solve the key problem of land ownership and accelerate capitalist development. Fervent Marxists in the army and the university student movement diverted a stable course of reform into destructive radicalism.

The governor of Tigray went into exile and founded an armed movement in northwestern Tigray against the Military Junta in Addis Ababa. No one was there to replace him. Tigray was in a limbo. Of course, it did not degenerate into a state of lawlessness as it used to do before. The Military assigned Adwa-born military governor to the Region scratching old wounds that had not sufficiently dried up. In the midst of uncertainty there was a vivid pattern in which some well-organized and high-caliber group was taking shape. To a keen observer in those days of turmoil something was brewing behind Tigrayan fear and confusion. Tigrayans were unable to take their own aspirations into their own hands. Historically, they have always left their fate to individuals or groups who maximize their own personal benefits at the cost of the interest of millions.

A group of Tigrayan students in the university and in the bureaucracy were hatching a Marxist-Leninist oriented movement for Tigray. Sure of themselves that they know what was good for the people of Tigray they founded a liberation movement, in collaboration with the Eritrean secessionists, without the knowledge and consent of the people Tigray. They founded TPLF in some remote location in northwestern Tigray and remained in the area for many years. Meanwhile, the Military had established itself it Tigray to fight Eritrean secessionists as well as the new support group: TPLF. A century of war and abject poverty, caused by callous local leaders, was more than enough for the people of Tigray. Unfortunately, TPLF brought war and distraction to Tigray. TPLF, for the most part founded as a backup for the Eritrean secessionist movement, couldn’t settle for a single ideology to rally all Tigrayans behind it. It wavered between Marxist-Leninist class struggle and Stalinist national question. At one time TPLF kills and imprisons what it referred to as vestiges of feudalism and it drafts a document for self-determination as “Tigray Republic” at another. In spite of the flip flop on matters pertaining to Tigray, TPLFs position on Eritrean independence was unflinching.

Tigrayans, whose position about Ethiopia’s territorial integrity has never been compromised, were accused of assisting the separation of Eritrea from Ethiopia and the consequent loss of Ethiopia’s access to the Red Sea. In those days most Tigrayans never supported the separation of Eritrea from Ethiopia. It was TPLF that was putting Eritrean Independence on their lips. Tigrayans were again divided and so was the Region. In what was referred to as the “liberated areas” of TPLF- Adwa, Shire and Axum- there was a partial if not complete support for Eritrean secession. People in the rest of the Region were either ambivalent, arising from persistent propaganda campaign from TPLF, or out rightly supported the military in its war against the Eritrean separation from Ethiopia.

In the first few years of its foundation most of the challenge about Eritrean independence was coming from districts of the Region that were not controlled by TPLF. The northwest of Tigray is historically and culturally connected with the highland communities of Eritrea. The core leaders of TPLF were drawn from that part of Tigray. The area was historically known as Tigray before the name included all other parts of the Region in the 1970s. This was a subtle resurfacing of hegemony and counter-hegemony of the warlord era in Tigray. This is denied by TPLF as absurd! The discomfort among TPLF’s core leadership, arising from the inclusion of fighters from “unwanted districts”, came to a head-on collision in the notorious purge known as “Hinfishfish”. TPLF to this day obliterates any mention or documentation of the brutal inner party feud. One would cautiously conclude that hostility between the people of different districts of Tigray is inherent to its political and social life

TPLF at the Helm in Ethiopia and Unity and Disunity in Tigray

TPLF-led armed struggle ended in 1991 and TPLF and its allies captured Addis Ababa. The privileged members of the TPLF controlled the economy, the military and the security apparatus in Ethiopia. The end of the armed struggle opened a new platform for unity and disunity among Tigrayans: Category 1. Sixty thousand died and similar number were injured in the armed struggle. A huge monument complex was built in Meqele for what are referred to as martyrs. The families of the dead and injured remained poorer than they were before except for a selected few: “All martyrs are equal; but some are more equal than others”. Category 2. Top commanders and senior political leaders found themselves in the two Capitals for a luxurious life, wealth and privilege. Category 3. In the pretext of maintaining a just ratio in the army and bureaucracy tens of thousands of former TPLF fighters were demobilized for a mere 3000 birr as compensation. Category 4. Millions in Tigray, who continued to live on humanitarian aid, form the bulk of the miserable group in Tigray. The armed struggle did little to deliver them from their plight. Category 5. Hundreds of former Derg-cadres and counter insurgents against TPLF. Category 6. Those who opposed the liberation of Eritrea and those who supported it.

Disunity in Tigray also manifested itself in the sphere of sub-regional justice. TPLF considered those in the northwest of Tigray, who helped it throughout the armed struggle, as first class Tigrayans. There was massive land grab in Enderta and Raya to resettle the population of “TPLF’s original liberated areas”. The injustice in Enderta and Rays triggered grievances and an undercurrent of hate among the victimized people. Administrative positions at all levels were allocated not according to merit but by blood or marital proximity to the core TPLF leadership. Historically, the dividers were districts, but during the TPLF incumbency they multiplied: economic dividers, social-cultural dividers, and political dividers.

The Tigray War and its Implications for Unity and Disunity

In the final years of the second decade of the 21^st century TPLF experienced “100 Richter Scale earth quake”. A massive Oromo youth movement dismantled the huge and complex TPLF edifice within a short period of time. Taking their tenure in the pinnacles of political and economic power for granted none in TPLF predicted the catastrophe. When the change of government removed TPLF from almost every position in the economy, in the bureaucracy, the army and the security apparatus TPLF, which lived by the force of arms, lacked the political craft to stay in Addis Ababa and take the inevitable with grace. When a portion of TPLF desired to adjust to change as deserved, hardliners wanted to fight back. Immersed to its throat in power and wealth TPLF had forgotten that it landlocked Ethiopia and is cursed for it in every household in Ethiopia. Its amazing performance in the economy and the military was no substitute for the lack of access to the sea, widespread nepotism and the absence of democracy and good governance.

The removal of TPLF from the Federal Government and its subsequent flight to Meqele widened the difference between the new government and TPLF. As matters got more complicated the people of Tigray rightly felt that they were the targets. TPLF, which was alienated by most Tigrayans, got an overwhelming support from all Tigrayans regardless of their differences. The hate, rejection, displacement and mass imprisonment of Tigrayans all over Ethiopia bound TPLF and the people together. When the war came Tigrayans did not rely much on TPLF leadership. They created their own armies and relied on retired generals for leadership. The unity of the people of Tigray was nearly perfect. However, after the Pretoria Agreement, which ended the war, TPLF failed to learn from its mistakes that led to the war and wanted to do the “business as usual”. As if the war and all the death and destruction that occurred were just one of Shakespeare’s drama TPLF started to pick up, from where it stopped before the war. In the two years after the Pretoria Agreement the unity of Tigrayans that was built around the ideals of “Hagere Tigray” was shattered and the factional infighting in the ranks of the TPLF turned the peace process into a nightmare.

Post-Pretoria and Unity and Disunity in Tigray

In the last two years alignment of forces for and against one another has been the most complex ever.

Group 1: TPLF faction led by a quartet (Debretsion, Alem, Fetlewok and Getachew). The group is determined at all costs to continue TPLF rule over Tigray into eternity. The quartet has its partial support base in Adwa, Shire and Axum. This group made several unsuccessful attempts to get favors from the Federal Government. Now that TPLF is banned by the National Election Board the group is crossing international borders and forging alliances with PFDJ in Eritrea to fight against the Abiy Government. Group 1 is demonized in Tigray for allying with a genocider of Tigray. Group 4 has given full support to the immoral and illegal action by Group 1.

Group 2: TPLF faction, led by Getachew Reda, former president of the interim government set up following the Pretoria Agreement. Getachew has his support base in Raya, but also the rest of Tigray (Enderta, Tembien, Kilte Awlaelo, and Agame). This group has founded a new party.  

Group 3: Substantial number of Generals and other high ranking military officers of the former TDF who are loyal to Group 1. This group was responsible for the illegal overthrow of Getachew Reda’s Interim Government and allowing Group 1 to terrorize the support base of Getachew.

Group 4: Countless Tigrayan social media outlets, who violate all moral codes of decency, to support Group 1.

Group 5: Media outlets who are trying to shape the narratives for a better Tigay. Group 1 and 4 jointly showers all kinds of accusations against Group 5.

Group 6: A splinter from the army operating in Afar against Group 1 and 3. The group is known as Tigray Peace Force and its name does not imply violence. Groups 1, 3, and 4 accuse the military splinter Group 6 as a criminal gang, supported by Arat Kilo to start a civil war in Tigray.

Group 7: General Tadesse Werede-led Interim Government. It is alleged that the new president had a hand the overthrow of Getachew Reda from the Regional presidency. Group 1. Requested for his appointment as the new president but now he has become a lame duck in the face of the machinations of Group 1 and the banditry of Group 3.

Group 8:  The Tigrayan diaspora divided between Group 1 and 2 has lost its track. The enthusiasm during the war has dwindled and confusion has reigned.

Group 9: Tigrayans in Addis Ababa and the rest of Ethiopia. Over a million Tigrayans work and live in Addis Ababa and some of the major cities of Ethiopia. Their fate is very much linked with what happens in Tigray. Thousands suffered during the War misunderstood as collaborators and spies of TPLF. In fact most got their wealth with their own sweat; while many others derive it from their associations with TPLF. Few in Ethiopia distinguish between the two; all feel threatened as a result.         

“Hagere Tigray” TPLF’s New Dress to Impress

TPLF is no more politically alive. The loss of its legal status, the coup it plotted against the TIG and zonal admirations, and the great blunder it committed by associating itself with PFDJ have effectively rendered it irrelevant in the politics of Tigray. TPLF is in a dangerous state of denial. To regain relevance, particularly in the diaspora it has resorted to Tigray nationalism; an ideal it repeatedly abandoned every time its hopes for Arat Kilo are rekindled. After the war TPLF divided Tigrayans. Now, as a last resort it hopes against all odds to unite them under its leadership. TPLF’s new rallying cry has become the debatable concept of “Hagere Tigray”. For whatever reason TPLF picked “Hagere Tigray”, is it a consensus among Tigrayans and could serve as a unifier?

“Hagere Tigray”: Unifier or Divider of Tigrayans?

“Hager” is a Geez word which has widely ranging meanings. In its simplest definition it could mean just a place and a community living in it. At a higher level it indicates an independent state. In the context of Tigray and its current politics “Hagere Tigray” has a debatable meaning. Nationalist Tigrayans refer to the Region as “Hagere Tigray” implying an independent state. Is the name in present tense or in future tense? Regardless of the anger and frustration we all share and unaffected by the dreams or aspirations we entertain, the constitutional bottom line is that Tigray is a Regional State in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Referring to Tigray as “Hagere Tigray” in its current state of political geography puts Tigray in a difficult position with the federation although it has no representation in parliament and in the federal council of ministers.

Independence, if it is really desired by a well-informed and well-prepared people, is a virtue. Nevertheless, it should not be a reaction to anger and hopelessness by some former federal officials. Neither should it seem as easy as “slicing a watermelon”. The livelihoods of millions would be affected by the glittering rhetoric of radical nationalist politicians. The devil lies in the details. Demanding independence, voting for it, and celebrating a landslide with flying colors is only the beginning. The details of post-independence South Sudan, Kosovo, and Eritrea are nightmarish. It is understandable that so much of death and destruction, by the very Federal State to which Tigray belongs, is unacceptable to say the least. However, the manner by which political states are run is more complex than the emotions and grievances we harbor.

In order to avoid being taken advantage of it may be wise to swallow anger and act in sobriety. As in nature, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction in politics too. Premature declarations of intent in public is a political bad habit in Tigray which is politically suicidal. Nationalist and disgruntled politicians in Tigray are oblivious to the millions of displaced and aid dependent people around them. They pay scant attention to the death and destruction that occurred in the two years of the Tigray war. Dressed in designer suits politicians in Tigray spend hours in conference halls talking about their intentions to liberate Tigray from Ethiopia. They are intoxicated by the round of applause they get from the audience. They care the least about how their irresponsible statements are perceived in Ethiopia and beyond. Adding fuel to the convenient narratives that Tigray will separate from Ethiopia if Wolkait and Humera are returned to Tigray is self-defeating. Moreover, Federal effort to restore the economy of Tigray is frustrated by the independence rhetoric.   

There is no consensus even among the pro-independence advocates. Some go for independence of Tigray with Ethiopia and Eritrea as neighbors. Others seek independence for Tigray to merge or federate or confederate with Eritrea. The people of Tigray have no idea what the political elite are talking about. It is a political tradition in Tigray that it is the elites who decide on the future of millions of people without being delegated to do so. This is particularly true of the Tigrayan diaspora. They almost invariably feel that their wishes are Tigray’s command.    

Tigray Unity in Hegemony?

Last week I read a comment to my Tick tock post which was written by a highly placed TPLF functionary. Leaving the words of insults aside the key statement in the comment was that I have been working to disunite Tigray. What most probably led to this statement is my most recent book in Amharic about the injustices in Meqele City and Enderta province by a grand scheme run by TPLF in the last 30 years. Is talking and writing about injustice act of disuniting? Did Abraham Lincoln disunite America by talking about the injustices in the slave owning southern states? In Raya, Enderta, Wukro and Adigrat, people held huge rallies against the violent removal of elected zonal, district and city officials, in a joint operation by some contingents of the army and TPLF leadership. Was this quest to defend democracy and good governance or an act of disuniting Tigray?

There is no doubt that Tigray is a divided society.  Throughout the article historical drivers of Tigrayan disunity is described and explained. Deep divisions along ancestral district boundaries are not a myth. Underlying every political crisis in Tigray are the administrative geographic boundaries which through time evolved into social boundaries. TPLF’s hundreds of fans and cadres are determined to forge unity of Tigray under the hegemony of a particular family group based in a particular locality. This is unacceptable by any standards in the 21^st Century. Long gone are the days in which people united by “blood and iron” in a manner Bismarck and Garibaldi united Germany and Italy respectively. It is healing to accept that persistent and systematic coercion by TPLF resulted in the psychosocial division between the Northwest and the rest of Tigray. The best remedy for the dangerous disunity in Tigray is not to pursue the business as usual hegemony but by allowing equality, mutual respect, and justice to prevail. This requires a new breed of politicians who are liberal, accommodative and forward looking. TPLF is anchored in the past.