Mereja.Forum

[Naga Tuma]

I did not wish to write this commentary. I read commentaries here and there. I react to some of them. This is one of them after coming across a new one recently regarding Ethiopia's Hidase.

There are more Ethiopians now than a decade or two ago who talk about Ethiopia's Hidase. As more people talk and write about it, an important question ought to be asked in order to have a coherent narrative about it.

A simple indicator for a Hidase is cultural revival. That is what I understand about it.

When I say Ethiopia's Hidase, I mean cultural revival across the board in which every community studies and develops its culture. የታደሰች ወይም የምትገሰግስ ኢትዮጵያ ዉስጥ ማንም ኢትዮጵያዊ በየትኛዉም የኢትዮጵያ ምድር ዜጋ እንጂ እንግዳ የማይሆንበት እንድትሆን።

A simple example of a spark for a cultural revival in one community was a cultural night years ago in San Jose, CA. Giving all due credit to all who were involved in organizing it, to this day, I do not know how many know how the idea was initiated and the cultural night happened. Perhaps, only one of the traditional cultural artists who performed that night would quickly understand it if it were explained to him.

Involvement in it wasn't a task that I asked for. I was elected to a committee despite my resistance at the time because of my desire to stay focused on academics.

Once tasked, working on that spark for a cultural revival was in good faith. It didn't come without personal observations of the prevailing preaching at the time against culture. The preaching against a demonstrated outstanding talent of one youth that ended in abandoning it is a glaring exhibit.

Making the cultural night happen was a consciously chosen alternative to it. Consciously because you can't abandon or preach to abandon a culture and claim to embrace the associated language. After all, are they separable?

In my view, that cultural night went successfully. I do not know where in the world Jawar Mohammed was that night. I also do not know how many of those who danced to it expressed gratitude about it afterwards. That is not the point here. If one gets a moment to sit down in the back to get a moment of reflection seeing a happy crowd, it would be a worthwhile cultural night.

The point here is that this is a concrete example of a consciously initiated spark for a Hidase. When you have such a concrete example that has an associated solid story, you would save yourself from speculative commentary about what Ethiopia's Hidase or Ghisgase means.

[Revelations]

Do you still live in SJ?