We can learn a lot from them -
08-10-2002, 02:46 PM
No they just know who they are and love it. We need to learn from them: Lets not be quick to brand them. We (Kenyans, ... most of us) are just a bunch of "British wanna-bees"
Give credit where its due. They try to hold it down. Read the article below for more....
PEACE
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BY TIMOTHY KALYEGIRA
FROM UGANDA
I went off to the Crown Hotel, a small, cottage-like hotel about 8Km on the outskirts of the capital, where I could enjoy peace and quiet. Later that afternoon, I returned to town to send some e-mail to Kampala. (As if in e-mail, there is any such thing as geographical Kampala.) It was painful to realize that, although Ethiopia is one of the world's poorest countries, the capital Addis Abeba is still far larger and better planned and laid out than Kampala. That hurts! However, after careful observation, I managed to compile this overall impression of the land of the Cu****es. The Ethiopians are one of the proudest and most self-absorbed people on earth, in the same league the English of the United Kingdom and the Jews. The Jews, because of centuries of persecution, are a little reserved about openly celebrating and advertising their Jewishness, preferring to maintain a behind-the-scenes influence. Americans, for all their bravado and patriotism, can be quite shallow. Ethiopia gave me one of the greatest surges of pride I have ever felt in my life. The first, second, third, and fourth love and pride of nearly every Ethiopianis a country called Ethiopia. I had a few disillusioning experiences and observations while in Ethiopia, but this fierce degree of patriotism took my breath away. It was a thrill to learn to live among people who are not poisoned by the westernizing effects of colonial rule and how that colonial experience depleted our self-confidence. On Ethiopian State television, the predominant programming is Ethiopian. There is very little air time put aside for anything other than Ethiopia, except for world news, a few Black American comedies and the children's TV series "Sesame Street" which airs on Saturday morning. Most of the material on TV features Ethiopian folk and Pop singers and bands, or documentaries filmed in rural Ethiopia where the poor farmers and peasants talk about their lives, problems, and hopes. White people only appear on TV if they are part of the news, such as when the Canadian ambassador is signing a trade or development agreement with an Ethiopian government minister. And even then, at the signing ceremony, the Ethiopian minister acts with such confidence, as if it were the Ethiopian government extending a grant or loan to the Canadians. In Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, cultural shows at hotels, for example, are usually put on for white visitors and tourists, who sit back with this patronizing attitude, as waiters and managers do on them, often ignoring their fellow Africans. The urbanized and educated middle class in these East African countries - as well as most other African nations - tend to ignore cultural festivals and performances, and seem to find them embarrassing. In Uganda, culture becomes topical at marriage introduction ceremonies, the annual coronation celebrations in Buganda, Toro, Busoga, and Bunyoro, primary and secondary school cultural festivals at the National Theatre in Kampala. Otherwise, it is pushed to the back of the mind in favor of western-type events in the Viper Room, at roadsides during motor rallies, and fashion shows. In Addis Abeba, the lower, middle, and upper classes alike relish these festivals, which take place several times a week and increase in numbers over the weekend. I observed them to see how they behaved during cultural shows. Usually, their eyes glued to the stage. In most, if not all-African countries, when a group of white people pass by or enter a room, there is an automatic movement of the eye to glance at them. I watched carefully when a group of white tourists entered one of the dining rooms at the Crown Hotel during a cultural performance. Not one single Ethiopian head turned to look at them! Not the chefs, not the maids serving meals and drinks, not the manager, not one of the other Ethiopians. After about 40 minutes, the four white men and one woman rose and left the building. Again I watched. Not one single Ethiopian head turned to look at them. And it was not as if these Ethiopians were making a special, stubborn effort to ignore the whites. It seemed to come casually and naturally. Just as the Swiss-Canadian singer Celine Dion or the Black American Motown-Philly revival group Boyz II Men and the Houston-based all-girl group Destiny's Child arouse passions among the teenage and twenties age groups, Ethiopia' s folk-Pop singers of the Paulo Kafeero and Fred Sebatta type of Uganda, are the center of the emotions of the Ethiopians, both rural and educated and urbanized. At the major nightclubs in Addis Ababa like Montego Bay, if the music leans too much toward Joe, TLC, the Backstreet Boys, or other American singers for several consecutive tracks, the dance floor clears and becomes empty. Rather than play music off CDs or LPs as happens in Ange Noir, Vogue Discotheque, or Club Silk in Kampala, in Addis Abeba the most popular feature of nightclub music are the live bands, to whose music the patrons dance. Should the music get back to Ethiopian, the dance floors gets flooded with wildly enthusiastic young people - all dressed in jeans, T-shirts, miniskirts - leaping up and down to their traditional dances. Another perennial favorite, without surprise, is the late Jamaican Reggae singer-songwriter Bob Marley and his instrumentalist/backup singer group, the Wailers. (For some odd reason, the 1970s Euro-Disco quartet Boney M is extremely popular with both old and young alike, including teenagers born after the group disbanded.) Music from Congo is also a favorite in Addis Abeba. The only white group that might get some trace of sympathy in Ethiopia is the British Reggae band, UB40. On February 6, it was Bob Marley's birthday and the radio station and nightclubs in Addis Abeba played a deluge of his music and spent all day explaining his history and message, until one almost got sick of Bob Marley. But throughout my entire holiday, one thing came across that impressed and filled me with pride: the sense of superiority and pride in themselves that pervades the entire fabric of Ethiopian society, from the President, down to taxi drivers, primary school children and night watchmen. It is incredible! Once an Ethiopian realizes you are a foreigner, the next question, almost as if on cue is, in their broken English: "How you like Addis Abeba?", "Is zis first time you come to Ethiopia?" Should you say you enjoy the place and it is a very nice country, a gleeful smile breaks out on their faces. Just before I set out for Addis Abeba, a serious young Ethiopian in Kampala, who is critical of the snobbery of his countrymen, warned me, "In Addis, even the beggars are proud!" An understatement this proved to be! Young children begging on the street would approach me, or any other foreigner. They would come in a bunch or alone and smile at you, talking at you as though you were equals in both status and age. When I would give them money, they would thank me and walk off, heads high, or they would say, "chiao!" and go off to a nearby kiosk to buy bread. Some of the beggars in Ethiopia gave one the impression that they were doing you a favor to even give you some of their time and beg from you! Night watchmen or uniformed hotel doormen would open the front door to the guests with a confident smile as if they were army Major Generals ushering you into their military base. The gate men at the Sheraton Addis, like all other Ethiopians, behaved toward me as if we were equal. They asked (as always about Ethiopia), if this was my first time there and what did I think of this or that historic site, this or that museum, and so forth. Fascinating! Sometimes, it felt like I was on the set of a Hollywood film! Ethiopians, even if you tell them you are visiting from America, Germany, Britain, Sweden, or any of the much-fancied advanced western countries, will rarely bother to ask you details about your country, no matter how advanced. All they persist within conversation is, "How you like Addis? Have you been to Axum?" [The historic Cu****e kingdom to the north of the country]" Have you seen the museum?" Most of the medium and large hotels show BBC television and CNN. At most, you will find one Ethiopian watching CNN or BBC. They leave these international news networks to foreigners. Most of them speak some measure of English, although is extremely rare to meet an Ethiopian who can speak fluent English. And strangely, the older generation of Ethiopians, those above the age of 40, speaks better English than the younger generation. Most Ethiopians speak English in the same way you would use a torch during an electric power blackout - a necessity that comes in handy during emergencies. Otherwise, they are glad to return to the only language on earth that makes sense to them, Amharic.
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