Of Beauty and Character

Of Beauty and Character  

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(Tariku Abas Etenesh

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 “What is beauty and what is character?” this was the question I asked myself when I read an African saying that goes: “Your beauty will take you there, but your character will bring you back.” What of beauty is agent of reaching one’s destination and what of character the agent of return? I know discussing such concepts might turn into volumes of metaphysical discourses and still not be conclusive enough to address the manifestations and implications of the concepts in various cultures and circumstances.

I read the saying a couple of years ago but it was not until I heard a story last month that I found a context in which I could clearly understand its implications to Africans like myself. The story that gave me a big aha moment was a story of nomadic tribes in Ethiopia.

These nomadic tribes, by virtue of their way of life, move from place to place in search of pasture and water following seasonal changes. Such is a given about any nomadic tribe, but what took me by surprise was what I heard they always do when some critical happening like draught threaten the tribe’s existence.

During such moments of eminent danger, the tribe elders council together and evaluate if the water and food they have is enough to take them to the next source of water and food.  And if they deem it necessary for the tribe to secure more food and water for its survival, right at that moment, they enact an age old tradition that dictates choosing the young, the strong, and the able from among the tribe members for a mission.

The mission starts by handing over the remaining of the food and water the tribe has to the selected few and instructing them to go as far as they could and fetch food and water for the tribe as quick as they could. “What!” I interjected and asked “why does the whole tribe risk its existence by giving all its means of survival to the youth? What if the young didn’t return?” The person, who told me the story, had lived and studies the tribe to tell me with complete certainty, “Why wouldn’t they? They are raised strong to be of purpose for moments of this nature; besides, it is the greatest honor for them to live up to this expectation. They DO RETURN; it is in their blood.”

Well back to the saying I mentioned at the beginning, what is beauty and what is character? In the context of the tribe’s story, allow me to say this: what is beauty if it is not the greatest value that a person and group or community hold up high; and what is character if it is not the translation of values that a person or community holds up high in to action?

If in the story the young members of the tribe were out on a mission, it is because they represent the value, and in a sense the beauty, of their community. And when they go out, accomplish their mission and come back, that is a manifestation of their character.

  

Most appropriately, the day I heard that story from the anthropologist, I was with an Indian friend of mine who is one of the thousands around the world making themselves providers in the field of IT. Prompted by the story, we were discussing the moral of that story and its implications.  We agreed that the moral of that story should be that when one choose to identity oneself with a community, a group or a family, by implication one is buying into the moral and psychological fibers of that groups to dictate your way of life and thus responsible to it, for which my Indian friend was a perfect example.

I say he is a good example because he is a graduate of one of the respected universities in India specializing in Information Technology and currently representing an international company based in Washington DC. This single fact is to some extent attributable to how the moral of that African story has worked for Indians. If you ask why, here is how I see it:  I couple of decades ago India use to send its best minds to the West so that they could fetch what the country is thirsty about: technology and knowledge to transform itself. And so the best minds now have, like in the tribal story, comeback and changed the face of India and its place in the world, especially with regards to Information Technology. Technology and knowledge transfer has made this great transformation happen.

In the context of that story, we chatted that the case of Japan, who until just a couple of months ago use to be the second biggest economy of the world, and the new silver medalist of world economy, china, are good examples of how that code of the tribal story has manifested itself to their great advantage. Technology and knowledge transfer to a great extent has helped both India and china in their bid to take on the world in different front, that now the direction of transfer is changing from China and India to the West.

Talking about how the East, specially India and China are taking on the world in various fronts especially in the economy brought us to the big question: how about Ethiopia and Africa?

That was when the heated discussion started to weigh on me and asked, why not for Ethiopia and for Africa too? 

I am not history expert but I fell that this is one of those historical moments that Africa should wake up, be strong and selectively claim a place in the future world. And Ethiopia as one of the oldest nations of the continent with millions of Diaspora who could make a real comeback, like in the case of china and India, has a grand get the country going on a new and vigorous, confident lane of nationhood.

Talking of Ethiopian Diaspora, couldn’t give us the room for copycat analysis for the Chinese or India’s experience. The nature of the Ethiopian Diaspora is not uniform as the cause for being among one are not the same.  Fleeing political persecutions, economic migrations, and education could constitute among many of the reasons why we have millions of Ethiopians around the world. And not all have the same view of what the ‘beauty’ their country believes with in them, that took them where they are is and the understanding they have on the ‘character’ that could induce their comeback.    

But there is one single fact, it is impossible to think of part of the world where there is not Ethiopian these days and given the best of circumstances to come back and make impact on the development of the country. The USD 780 million remitted by Ethiopians in the Diaspora in the past ten months, according to latest report from the National Bank of Ethiopia, one indication to the connection the Diaspora maintains.

Remittance is one way of a comeback but more is expected and is possible to be done by the Diaspora in technology and knowledge, transfer. Great many Ethiopian intellectuals around the world working in world famous universities, many working in world renowned research institutes, and many successfully running businesses, should be given the mechanism that help them contribute their share in shaping the future of Ethiopia.

This would remain a single handed effort if the initiatives of the Diaspora to contribute in knowledge transfer, is not couples with the necessary policy and committed framework on the government part. As in the tribal story, the country has given what it has to her citizens. In the eyes of the recipient though, all might not be all good or all bad; yet, what ever the reason might be the reason for departure  the country is yearning for the comeback of the great Ethiopian spirit to lift her up to the greatness she aspire to reach.

From those who left the country to save their lives from the persecution of political powers, she expects a comeback in the form of political solutions and alternatives; from those who left for educational reason, she expects a comeback of knowledge transfer; from those who left on economic grounds, she expects a comeback of investments to change the reality of the past.     

The current government should also recognize that it has to be part of the comeback by facilitating the atmosphere by recognizing the legitimate yearning of the country for return of her sons and daughters and their rights to take part in the process without political imperatives and prejudice clouding the efforts.

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TAE