EMPRESS INK: "Our Women & What They Think"
Issue #7
November 15th 2003
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Re: Ethiopian Happenings
by Sher
I write to take issue with you over your recent editorial on Negroworld.com. While this particular transgression may not be hugely significant, I would like to point out to you what I believe are the vestiges of a time past which linger not only in your mind but also in the minds of all our African brothers and sisters.
"The Ethiopian calendar which is 7 years behind the western calendar begins with the month of Meskerem (September)."
While your intended meaning is clear, I cannot help but notice your use of the word "behind" to give the Ethiopian calendar some location in our minds. It is this word which I believe often predetermines the destiny of Africans throughout the diaspora. We are a race that has been left "behind" not because of our history of enslavement at the hands of other races but because of our belief that we are in fact "behind" and are powerless to propel ourselves forward.
A greater lie we cannot tell ourselves. As a people we need to cast aside the shackles of slavery and discrimination and rise up to assume our natural and rightful place in the global halls of power. We are deriding ourselves by believing that the empire will be restored by reaching out to each other to connect and reestablish the cultural and familial ties that have been severed by our forced separation.
Indeed a community must have a true sense of itself. A people must know their history, be aware of their present and remain focussed on their future. However, knowledge and understanding of oneself is purposeless without much more. We must educate ourselves not just about our history but about the histories of other peoples. We must understand the world in which we live and the terms that dictate global communication and interaction regardless of the source of their creation. We must be lawyers, doctors, engineers, architects, teachers, pilots, politicians, economists, accountants, nurses etc.
We cannot seize power until we are able to sit at the table with those of this world who would keep us powerless. And we cannot do that until we are more educated, more tenacious, more focussed, more astute, and indeed more determined to succeed. Only then can we rise as leaders rather than the dictates of a time that is passing us by.
It is valuable but insufficient to simply know ourselves and know our history. We are a great people but we remain largely uneducated and hence unable to create the opportunities and command the respect and recognition which we seek and ought to be accorded. Until Africans begin to see themselves as a race of diverse and talented people whose potential must be tapped and aggressively developed. I fear we will indeed remain behind.
Respectfully, Sher
EMPRESS INK Vol.1
