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Ethiopian scholar, Professor Ephraim Isaac, is known too well that he hardly needs any introduction. Just to say a few words about him, Professor Ephraim is a founder and the first professor of Afro- American studies at Harvard University when the Department was created in 1969. He is author of numerous scholarly works about the Late Second Temple period and classical Jewish and Ethiopian religious literature. This writer caught up with Prof. Ephraim during his recent brief stay in Ethiopia and had a talk with him about the Ethiopian diaspora in the United States . Excerpts:
Question: You have lived more than forty years in the United States and it is believed that you have a deep knowledge about the Ethiopian diaspora there.
Answer. I myself came to the United States in September 1956 . At that time, there were about two hundred Ethiopians. They actually did not come as part of a diaspora. They all came as students. Most of us had scholarships from the Ethiopian government or from independent foundations and organizations. In other words, what I am trying to say is, of the some 200 Ethiopians who were in the United States, practically everybody was there on a scholarship to study in the University.
By the mid 1950s, there was no real organization of Ethiopians in the United States . So, in 1959, three years after I went to the United States , a group of us Ethiopians, living in Minnesota got together and we talked about forming a union of Ethiopians in America . And a few friends of mine and I were able to collect addresses of some 150 people and sent letters out. Almost everybody responded positively.
Then we set a date to meet in Chicago , Illinois in December, 1959. And about 50 per cent of Ethiopians in America at that time showed up at the meeting. That meeting, we agreed to form an organizations and named it Ethiopian Students Association in North America (ESANA).
I was one of the active people. So, they insisted I become President. I remember the Reverend Ezra became the secretary. They appointed about five or six people to form an executive committee to organize Ethiopians to get together. After we formed an organization, we agreed to create a constitution, worked on the constitution, and agreed to meet in the summer of 1960 at Howard University which as you know is a black university in Washington D.C. And, we also decided to have at that time a cultural exhibit. I myself met with the then Ethiopian Ambassador to the USA , Ato Birhanu Dinke. He encouraged us too. He was very much interested in Ethiopian culture.
We were able to collect Ethiopian handiwork, clothes, netelas and Ethiopian gadgets. Howard University gave us a room in which to put up an exhibit. More than a hundred Ethiopians which was almost like fifty per cent of those who lived there showed up at that meeting. It was a wonderful gathering.
Q. What was the objective of the organization, ESANA?
A. The purpose of the organization was primarily to give Ethiopians a chance to have a social contact with each other, to promote Ethiopian culture in America , and to make Ethiopia known, to make whatever contribution we could make through our education activities. We were of one spirit. It was a strong, united, Ethiopian Youth group. At that time, there wasn’t such a thing such as Amhara, Tigrai, Oromo or Eritrea . In fact, I remember some of the people, who came to this meeting, like Amanuel Amde Michael, who was originally from Eritrea . we didn’t look at each other as Amharas. Oromos, Tigres but as Ethiopians.
We also instituted a publication of a magazine. And we called it the Ethiopian Students Association in North America Journal. The first issue of the magazine came out in the 60s.
Q. Did you personally contribute any article to the Journal?
A. I wrote an article about the history of the Ethiopian church. Later I wrote an article about Ethiopian literature. Our focus was cultural, nothing political. We talked about the economic potentials of Ethiopia . Most of our articles dealt with history, culture, religion, traditions of Ethiopia .
Q. Would you comment on some of ESANA’s achievements’?
A. The first meeting of ESANA was in December 1958. The second meeting was in the summer of 1959. And, at that meeting, I was appointed President of the association for the second time. That year, we organized again the varieties of Ethiopian cultural activities. These were really the roots of cultural activities in America . Because nobody has done that before. We also organized symposia on Ethiopian culture during that year. Of course we were trying to establish a union of Ethiopians, raise membership fee, collect more addresses of Ethiopians. The Ethiopian Embassy also helped us find the names of some of the students who came through government scholarship.
Really became a very strong organization. I am very happy to say that the people on my committee were all very committed. We continued to solicit articles about Ethiopian culture and publish them.
In the summer of 1960, I decided to return to Ethiopia for a year, before I went to Harvard, to teach music because I had studied music. In fact it was during that year, that I translated the Handel’s Messiah into Amharic. It was performed two years ago here.
The year I came back to Ethiopia , Mulugeta Wodajo the brother of the late Kifle Wodajo, became the President of ESANA. When I came back in the summer of 1961, I went to Harvard Divinity School . And, at the meeting we had in Washington , people insisted that I became president again. So, I was president of ESANA three times.
When I was in Ethiopia in 1960-1961, I met a group of Ethiopian leaders and talked about formulating a literacy campaign called the National Literary Campaign of Ethiopia.
And, so, after my last year as president, I felt that the student organization was mostly talking, talking and still talking. And I am always a person who believes that doing is more important. In fact, I got up and I said, “I don’t believe in the verb to be. I believe in the verb to do.” And many Ethiopians remember that. So, I said, what I like to do is to create a committee to support a national literacy campaign organization and that we wanted to formulate a committee for Ethiopian Literacy Campaign. This was in the ‘60s. And so, other people were assigned to be members of the executive committee of the Ethiopian Student Associations in North America . Then I became chairman of the Committee for Ethiopian Literacy.
We were the first Ethiopians, even African group to get a tax exemption status to raise fund in America . And I am very proud of that. Today there are hundreds of indigenous African groups that have tax exempt organizations. Even dozens of Ethiopian groups have dozens of tax exempt organizations. But at that time, in the early ‘60s, we were the first African group.
Q. What about the fund raising?
A. We started fund raising for the literacy campaign. Now, as that fund raising campaign became a very strong organization whereby Ethiopians were united all over the United States- California, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Utah, Upstate New York, Washington D.C, Minneapolis were organizing fund- raising dinners.
By the way, at that time, there were not Ethiopian restaurants either. So, we had to do the cooking ourselves. We had to prepare the food ourselves. We usually use a university room, a dining room, or a university hall, whereby again we will have an evening of Ethiopian dinner and, invite people with Ethiopian show, dance, music.
Q. Did you make it?
A. Oh yes, we did. We were very successful. And I invited a few well known American leaders like Senatol Jarvez, Edward Dermis to become members of our board. While we were moving in this positive direction energetically, some of my successors wanted to make the organization a political organization. So, around 1961, the student movement moved away from our original objective of social, educational and cultural focus of Ethiopian unity in America into a political activism. Hagos Gebre Iyesus was appointed president. And I remember Melese Ayalew, Abraham Abebe, Hagos and Wondwossen Haile were members of the executive committee. And they changed the name of our journal from Ethiopian students Association in North America to Challenge.
I was always interested in the verb to do running the literacy campaign organization. In the summer 1964, there was a meeting which I myself had to organize at Harvard University . And we were meeting in a place called Philips Brooks House. Once a student union was realized, we managed to raise a lot of money. Some of it was already being sent to Ethiopia . The new leadership of the union wanted to have 25 per cent of the money to run the journal Challenge and the union. And I had difficulty with that for two reasons. One, as an exempt organization, it is not legal for the organization to engage in any political activity. Secondly, raising money in the name of the Ethiopian people to educate them and to use some of that money for our work, was I thought, morally unacceptable to me.
When some of the student leaders demanded that we give them 25 per cent of the money we raised, I got up at the meeting and I said, “Look! According to US tax exemption law, this is illegal. And according to God’s law it is immoral to save money in the name of poor people, to educate them and to use it here in America . So as a founder of the Ethiopian Students association in America , however, I believe strongly that this organization should not die. Part of the problem was that people were not paying membership fee. So it needed money. This summer I worked in a private library, made 400 dollars. I would give a quarter of that money to you.” I continued “You give ten dollars each”. Everybody was stunned”. People started to give money. And they raised enough money. Nobody asked me to raise money out of the literacy campaign and give it to the student union.
I am answering your question by saying, as a member of that organization, as its founder, I did not want that organization to go into demise. However, I always felt that a student organization needs to be supported by membership fees and by sacrifices that you make and not by taking money away from charitable organizations. So, I am very happy to say that nobody said anything about that.
Until 1969 when I graduated from Harvard, I had then concluded my service as member of the committee for Ethiopian literacy. However, since I was already appointed Executive Director of the Literacy Campaign here in Ethiopia , even if I lived in America , I continued with the literacy campaign of course.
Q. How about your activities related to culture?
A. In 1968, one of my own major activity was to have a large American Ethiopian cultural show. I went to the Prudential which is one of the biggest insurance companies in America . At that time, American organizations were waking up to the importance of black cultures, black people everywhere looking for things to do. Before that, it should have been difficult for me even to meet with any official at the Prudential. But, we were lucky that, at that particular time, Americans opened their ears. So I made an appointment with the senior Vice President of Prudential to convince them to give us their trade show floor, which is a huge floor, to have a one-week Ethiopian show. And I went to the then Mayor of Boston and asked him through friends who were working there at that time to declare Ethiopian Cultural Week. The Mayor of Boston Declared Ethiopian Cultural Week, in summer of 1968. So we had from Ethiopia a whole list of Mesob, Netela, Barnetta. And the then Ministry of Education collaborated with us.
People from Ethiopia donated varieties of Ethiopian craftworks such as whisks. And for a whole week we had a full floor of Prudential Centre having Ethiopian cultural show. We raised a large amount of money for the literacy campaign from the cultural show. Thank God. This time, the student movement was becoming more and more political, there was something of a fracture even among Ethiopians. I was becoming personally very sad that the union itself was becoming a ground of political disputes. Whereas, when we started, we were one spirit, one family, one goal, one future, one objective, and I say it was the highlight of my life.
During the time when I was President of the Ethiopian Student Association (ESANA), we were strong, united.
So at this time, when we had this exhibit, however, everybody came together really. The then Ethiopian government, of course appreciated what we were doing. President of Prudential, and other officials came to the show. It was one of the first ever African activities in that town.
In 1969 when I finished, I became the first Professor of African American Studies at Harvard. By that time, I was becoming very sadden. More and more Ethiopians were coming to America . And I remember, even in Boston alone, there were more than six or seven hundred Ethiopians.
Q. Why did they go there?
A. I think many of them were coming as students. In fact, even I myself, at that time, sponsored about 8 students in one case. In those days, I always wanted education to expand as much as I loved Ethiopia . I sponsored some 50 other people by getting them scholarships or by appealing to colleges to give them scholarships.
So, Ethiopians began, to come to America at this time as some of the first exiles I think, if I am not mistaken, in the late 1960s. This, I think, was because political problems were beginning to develop at home. But still, a majority of them were students in colleges.
Then by the early 70s, I think more and more people were coming. But actually a large number of Ethiopians began to come in the ‘70s especially after the Derg revolution.
Today perhaps, there are probably more than a quarter of a million Ethiopians in America . In Washington alone, people tell me there are 100,000 Ethiopians. I don’t think the figure is that high. The largest number of Ethiopians is in Washington D.C, in Boston , in Los Angeles .
Q. What was the fate of your organization, ESANA?
A. In the late ‘70s, they also changed the name of the organization ESANA (Ethiopian Students Association in North America ) to ESUNA (Ethiopian Students Union in North America ). And then ESUNA started breaking up into Eritrean student movement, UPESUNA and a few other organizations. But eventually, after the rise of the Derg, many of the leaders came here, sorry to say, some of them also died here. Of course, I was never involved in the politics. I was always involved in the literary campaign, education. The first organization fizzled out five years ago; a group of Ethiopians have reformed in to a new organizations.
Q. How do you call it?
A. It is called ESUI (Ethiopian Students Union International). And, as a matter of fact about five years ago they invited me as their keynote speaker of the formation of their organization at their first major meeting in South Carolina . I was very impressed. There were five hundred Ethiopians who attended that meeting most of them were from America . And a few also came from Europe . This organization is now growing and I keep in touch with them.
Q. What is the purpose of this relatively new organization?
A. This organization is going back through our original objective of promoting Ethiopian Union. A lot of them are committed to the issue of HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia . A large number of them are committed to promoting computer literary in Ethiopia . I have joined up with them because I know that their objectives are cultural, educational. And I am very pleased that, about 30 of them, who are leaders of this movement had a leadership retreat, learning about what is leadership. And Haile Gerima and I were two people they invited to come and talk about leadership. I spent Sunday with them. It is very impressive that their objectives are “the verb to do” like mine. Their objectives are scientific, educational, cultural and public health. And it is very promising when I see this new group of Ethiopian youth. I see a great future for my country.
Ethiopians are really very gifted people. In the United States , for example, they may start as taxi drivers, hotel workers. But eventually, they work themselves out. And today, in America , there are a large number of Ethiopia ’s who are very successful in business, in software ( Silicon Valley ). I understand that there are at least 30,000 Ethiopian just in that valley alone.
I know Ethiopians who are professors, doctors, lawyers, Ethiopians who are extremely successful in their respecting fields. It is very encouraging to see that Ethiopians who do not get involved or waste much of their energy in political bickering really do succeed. Somebody quoted the black American comedian Bill Cosby as saying that “look at Ethiopians and see how successful they are.” You find Ethiopians in banks, universities, and you find them in the American Congress. Unlike me, many of them have become American Ethiopians. But many of them have strong attachment with Ethiopia .
Q. Any other Ethiopian organization in America engaged in constructive work?
A. There is an organization in America called Ethiopian Sports Federation. This organization comes into existence several years age. The late Dr. Akalu Wolde Michael started this football group. And now every year, a large number of Ethiopians get together. Actually I went there, to Los Angeles to help promote the Ethiopian Millennium idea. This summer, I was in Los Angeles . There were may be more than 25,000 Ethiopians in the stadium.
I must say that this is a good medium for Ethiopians to meet. I think there are people who come from Ethiopia too with their business. People who have jewellery and clothing stores set up all kinds of booths. It is a very impressive set up.
A year ago, in Atlanta , my good friend Athlete Haile Gebre Selassie was their chief guest of honour. The Sport Federation in America organizes such programmes every year.
Q. What do you have to say about Ethio- American relations?
A. Ethiopian- American relations is about a hundred years old. I recommend to you two books to read. One is a book entitled “Signs of Sheba” by William Scott. Another book is by Joseph Harris. He was chairman of History at Howard. He wrote a book entitled African- Americans and the Italo- Ethiopian War. If you read those two books, they give you introductions about the early relations between Ethiopia and America . And a couple of years ago was the hundredth anniversary of the diplomatic contact. When I look upon it, I kind of laugh because I have lived nearly 50 percent of that time in America .
And I still remember with nostalgia, the good old days of my youth when I played a little humble role to form the Ethiopian Students Union. Of course, my own objective was cultural, educational, and social, creating solidarity among Ethiopian to work together, promoting our culture.
After I became involved in studying Ancient Ethiopian traditional culture, I just felt the whole world needs to know that this (Ethiopia) is a country with fascinating traditions, rich culture, very important manuscripts that can be written or copied for hundreds of years; a country with many ancient monuments, rock hewn churches and so on. I am not only to popularize this and to make the world know but that this popularization would bring money to our country, that there would be more investment in Ethiopia in the area of construction, establishment of schools, hospitals, the establishment of educational, cultural institutions.
So, our purpose was not simply show for the sake of show. When we worked for the literacy campaign we became very concerned about illiteracy in our country. We felt our brothers and sisters also need to get some education. We were getting the best in the world. But why not our brothers and sisters get the best education? At that time in many of my lectures, I always talked about poverty, disease, illiteracy. And we felt the only way to do that was by strengthening our solidarity, by working together.
Q. Did you witness such solidarity among the Ethiopian diaspora solidarity which you aspired for at the outset?
A. At the beginning we had one hundred per cent solidarity. Then from the years 1965-75, politics became so hot. We started splitting into different movements. However, since the late 1980’s I think people began to realize that our country has lost a great deal because of the Derg revolution. And they started coming together. At least, if they did not come together, there was an attempt to come together. However, we have not yet fully succeeded to come together. I am an optimist, though. We will. There are two groups in the Ethiopian diaspora. The well established Ethiopians, (the older Ethiopians) are still fighting with each other, on political grounds. There are unfortunate conflicts between and among them.
The second group (the youth) even the chairpersons of these groups are coming together. They are, Our early Ethiopian students association coming further, and building a solidarity.
They are moving away from political bickering. contributions They are learning more about our culture, making contribution to Ethiopia . That is the spirit of the youth. Therefore, I am very optimistic. Even among the old people, among many of my friends, there are many who are definitely committed more to make positive contributions to Ethiopia .
Q. How about the involvement of the Ethiopian Diaspora in Ethiopian development ventures?
A. I was in Gondar , several weeks ago where I gave a lecture in Gondar University to 850 Ethiopian students on religious tolerance. But what amazes me is, as we were, coming into Gondar , there is an area which is called “ Little Ethiopia”. In Losangeles there is a place called “Little Ethiopia”. So , what amazed me is that our friend who took us to Gondar from the American Embassy said, “This area is called Little America ”. And there are many buildings along the road and he said it is called Little America because these buildings were put up by Ethiopians who live in America .
I have met many Ethiopians in Addis Ababa from Boston , Washington and other places who are back here building houses ever and even small hotels, starting universities and colleges. I think Ethiopians in the diaspora are making major contributions to their country. But we need to build more solidarity in America which is in the making in a positive way.
Q. What is the significance of the forthcoming Ethiopian Millennium which you mentioned early on?
A. The importance is one opportunity in a 1000 years. We are going to start the Ethiopian year 2000.
All peoples throughout the world, Muslims, Christians, Jews, Chinese are concerned specially about the Millennium Development Goals. (MDGs) and we want also our (Ethiopian) Millennium to become Hiddasse Ethiopia (Renaissance of Ethiopia)
And I am very pleased to tell you that, a large number of black Americans are becoming interested in the Ethiopian Millennium. In as much as they always search for some black cultural importance, they have now joined us. They have even called this Ethiopian Millennium, African Millennium. There is now a group of African American ministers every month to organize a large number of people to come to Ethiopia for the occasion.
This Ethiopian Millennium has many purposes in terms of wakening up the African American community. I suggested that our government should encourage Ghana , Nigeria , Kenya to call this the Ethiopian year.
Q. Do you think the upcoming Ethiopia Millennium will have any positive impact as such?
A. Number one, for us, let it be the Hiddasse, the wakening up. For others, it can bring a large amount of money to this country. Unfortunately, we do not have enough hotels. A large number of black Americans want to come here. The more people come here, the more income we get in the form of tourism. And from tourism might follow, people coming here who might invest in Ethiopia . It can have a tremendous economic impact.
Q. You have, for the past four decade or so, occasionally a shuttling between Ethiopia and America . You are, unlike many others, an Ethiopian citizen. You have been expressing your concern for the well being of Ethiopia . So, what do you wish for your country?
A. In my lecture, I always say “ Ethiopia is a sleeping giant. This is a country, that, not only, could be economically successful, feed its people, cloth its people, shelter the people. It is a country that can even become a source of economic help to others elsewhere. So, my great wish is “ May God to bless Ethiopia and help the people wake up, we have a certain amount of energy. We should not waste that on inter-ethnic, inter-religious quibbling, but use it to come together and respect each other. I said Ethiopia is a sleeping giant because it has tremendous agricultural potentials, especially. We have mineral potential’s too. Oil is very important because people need it to feed their car. But human beings don’t eat oil. They eat food. So, we can produce and sell fruits and feed all Europe in the wintertime. European cars need oil. But European people need food. So, we can become the breadbasket.
Egypt becomes wealthy from historical, archaeological sites, tourism, Kenya is very rich from animal, nature tourism. We have both. We have historical sites. We have flora and fauna. We would be Egypt and Kenya put together. So my hope for Ethiopia is to become a very prosperous land where its people live in peace together.
Let me also add one foot note here. One of the resources of Ethiopia is actually its people. When I say its people, I am not talking about those of us who have been spoilt. We who are educated abroad are spoiled. We have our heads above. But ordinary Ethiopian people are very humble. They respect each other. They listen to each other. Their ears are bigger than their mouths. Those of us who studied, abroad, our mouths are bigger than our ears. The Ethiopian people are very patient, very polite, very respectful and these are important human characteristics. And, therefore if we can combine, these human qualities with technological development, learning the best from the West, retaining the best from our culture, then we can become a very important nation. We already are the capital of Africa . But that is not enough. But we have to become what the African people want. They want Ethiopia to become a symbol of black strength and freedom. Black Americans wish like that too. My great wish for Ethiopia is great prosperity, a great life for our people, respectful co-existence and leadership in showing other Africans and even the rest of the world that we can become an example.
Last month, I was here and I gave a talk to group of judges. I said “in our history, there were no really established prisons. When the Millennium comes, let us go back to our old traditions, and let’s make all the prisons museums, turn them into libraries, turn them into schools and then try to live in peace and show other people in the world that human beings can live together respecting each other, supporting each other and having a joyous, happy life. So, let this Millennium be a happy Millennium, Hiddase ze Ethiopia , Ethiopian Renaissance.
by Melese Telahoun
The Ethiopian Herald, December 03, 2006 |
