Well said IA.
The late Emperor Haile Salassie may have his critics in Ethiopia but he was a great pioneer pan-Africanist. Meles Zenawi clerarly has personal and hatred issues with the late Emperor as an Ethiopian leader. Those do not and should not detract from late Emperor’s pre-eminence as an African leader. It was in appreciation and recognition of his leadership on African unity that Addis Ababa was chosen as the seat of what is now the African Union.
Meles Zenawi denies Ethiopia’s history and her historical leadership of the continent when he denies the pre-eminence of the late Emperor as an African leader. His posture on the place of the late Emperor in African countries’ integration raises serious issues about whether he (Meles) is good for Ethiopia.
Kwame Nkrumah was great too and is worthy of recognition as a great and visionary African leader. He , like the late Emperor had his weaknesses as all great leaders do. There was also Nigeria’s Nnamdi Azikiwe
who is widely acknowledged by many pre and post independence African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah, Kenneth Kaunda, kamuzu Banda and Nelson Mandela among others as their inspirer and mentor.
oa
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Ida Tafari
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2012 5:15 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ethiopians Give Lackluster Welcome To Kwame Nkrumah Statue
It is important to acknowledge the King, His Imperial Majesty Haile Salassie as the originator of the Organization of African Unity. We have photographs of his acknowledging when Nkrumah became the head of the organization. Why would anyone want to leave him out as the initiator of this important organization. Those of us in the African Diaspora are particularly aware of his efforts to unite the African world, and to defend the integrity of Africa. This did not begin in 1959. How an Ethiopian head of state today could define the King as feudal is an absolute lack of knowledge of history. Ask any of the students that left Ethiopia and went off to study abroad the conversation they had with the King before leaving. This attitude problematises Ethiopia today. If you cannot defend the integrity of the King Selassie, how can you lead Ethiopia today? You are likely to give your country away.
Ida Tafari
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] on behalf of Abdul Karim Bangura [theai@earthlink.net]
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 1:17 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
Cc: leonenet
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ethiopians Give Lackluster Welcome To Kwame Nkrumah Statue
Ethiopians give lacklustre welcome to Kwame Nkrumah statue
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The arrival of Ghanaian great Kwame Nkrumah in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa
40 years after his death has been met with notable local resistance.
Ethiopians are signing a petition demanding that a statue of the pan-Africanist leader which was recently unveiled outside the new African Union headquarters be joined by one of the late emperor Haile Selassie or removed.
As well as the signatures, a group of Ethiopian elders, opposition politicians and scholars have written to the AU Commission voicing their disappointment at its decision to "ignore" the deposed emperor.
The golden statue of Nkrumah was erected to commemorate his founding role in the Organisation of African Unity, the AU’s predecessor.
The late Ethiopian monarch’s supporters have argued that their man, who became internationally famous for his resistance against the Italians under Mussolini, was a longer-standing supporter of African liberation than Ghana’s founding president.
“It is Haile Selassie who is described by African leaders as the father of Africa not Nkrumah,” said Yacob Hailemariam, an opposition politician who has spoken out against the choice of the Ghanaian.
The campaign has, however, infuriated Ethiopia’s current leader Meles Zenawi who said it was “crass” to question Nkrumah’s choice as an African symbol and has repeatedly denounced Selassie, who died in 1975, as a “feudal dictator”.
“It is only Nkrumah who is remembered whenever we talk about pan Africanism,” Mr Meles told local media. “It is a shame not to accept his role.”
The AU confirmed that it had received a letter signed by prominent Ethiopians, many of them living abroad, but declined to comment. The protest letter says that Selassie who ruled Ethiopia for 40 years had “the legal, moral, historical and diplomatic legitimacy to have his statue erected next to Kwame Nkrumah.”
The inauguration of the new headquarters in Addis Ababa was meant to underline Ethiopia and Africa’s burgeoning friendship with China which funded the $200m construction. However, the summit served to remind the outside world of the AU’s reliance on foreign funding and on its propensity for squabbling as Cameroon’s Jean Ping and South Africa’s Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma fought each other to a draw over the leadership of the 54-nation club.
The revelation that the AU relies for two-thirds of its funding on Western donors and that many members had both failed to pay their dues or fulfil their aid promises made during last year’s Horn of Africa famine, dampened the occasion. The empty coffers reminded many observers that the main patron of pan-Africanism in recent years was the deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi who was killed last year.
The statue row has enabled Ethiopia’s downtrodden opposition to rally support and opposition blogs have started to refer to the AU’s new 100 metre tall marble home as the “sarcophagus of Africa”.
Under Prime Minister Meles, who backtracked on his promise to leave office and ran again at the last election, the country has become increasingly authoritarian, imprisoning opposition leaders, curtailing non-governmental organisations and harassing political opponents.
The two competing African champions might have found the whole row quite strange as they were close supporters of each other’s causes before the emperor was deposed by the Derg coup leaders in 1974.
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