Wollega in the eyes of Amhara university professors who spent two weeks there this month
Exclusive interviews and group discussions,
Heartbreaking and heartwarming insights,
The mind game of the politicians,
The patriotism of the Wollega people
Former Elected Mayor, current Minister of Education
I was freshman at Addis Ababa University in 2005 when Birhanu Nega was leading the election campaigns of the Coalition for Unity and Democracy. He was an elected mayor but that didn’t materialize owing to his imprisonment following the state-sponsored post-election violence. The diaspora-cum-Eritrea-based Ginbot-7 party he founded after his release is what he recently is remembered for. The reform of 2018 in Ethiopia brought him back home to take part in the recent elections with a new party- EthZema. His supporters coveted that he would get the position of minister of foreign affairs when the government formed its cabinet with members of the opposition included. He was made the minister of education, a handout of passivity for an active politician. Unexpectedly, this man happened to fix one of the rifts the country plunged in over the last few years. I compiled this report because I believed the learned man brought about knowledge-based solutions albeit criticism from my home region for unfairness and Amhara-phobia which Berhanu denies. Unexpectedly, this report’s Amharic version which came out last week seemed to me and readers to serve as a publicity campaign for Oromia which hosted Amhara teachers with hospitality, but I couldn’t help it.
Like Ketema Yifru or George Martial?
Ketema Yifru, whose brainchild the Organization of African Unity (OAU) is said to be, was the minister of foreign affairs during Imperial Ethiopia. Unfortunately for him, it is Emperor Haile Selassie who is praised for introducing the OAU. Is the basic literacy campaign Mengistu Hailemariam’s or thinkers in the education sector? When we consider another new initiative elsewhere, the European Recovery Plan that was introduced for the recovery of postwar Europe was George Martial’s. Luckily, he is the one remembered by that than the then U.S. President Truman. Whether it is Professor Berhanu Nega or Doctor Abiy Ahmed who will be remembered for this year’s feat is for time to judge.
The exam was examining the examiner
Before 2008, national exam had gone relatively smoothly until during the Oromo protest the notorious Oromo activist Jewar Mohammed got the exam leaked and released it on social media. His supporters take his act as noble claiming it gave Oromo youth a month-long study-time when the exam was rescheduled because of his deeds. Jewar’s opponents criticize him for opening a Pandora’s Box in the education sector. Since then, exam questions and answers have been released on social media and sitting in exam halls in groups has become commonplace. For teachers who believed exams should be fair, administering exams was becoming harder than sitting for it. Nationally, there is said to be a systemic ethnic partiality to join higher education institutions. For example, the number of Amhara students who joined university last year was record low and the public was questioning the whole process but to no avail. This year Amhara diaspora associations went as far as organizing programs at schools in the region for which they pay school teachers to deliver tutorial service in the summer season to the two batches of students who sat for this exam. This, they say in a Twitter space discussion, is for fear of a generation gap. Students, teachers, parents and everyone involved seemed not to expect such a way of exam delivery as the current one.
From wishes to a tangible reform
Jewar Mohammed’s fruits in the education sector are yet to be seen in a few more years, not mentioning the results of his actions in the other sectors. A number of band-aid solutions were sought to fix the national problem. Delivering the exam with imported tablets was a promise of the former minister of education that not kept. Even shutting down of the Internet connection nationally did not help. This academic year, the ministry set a plan to administer exams in universities. The applicability of this has been doubted by many. Would it succeed? It was like an action movie. Relax and keep watching!
Petitions and confrontations
University professors are those who deliver the examination. They were assigned outside of their regions of work and birth. Samuel Admasu (all names have been changed for the sake of anonymity) remembers this about how he knew his place of assignation “Even if I had no adequate information when I got registered, I knew that it would be outside of my university. Nonetheless, I didn’t expect to be assigned at Wollega, yet I knew there was the possibility.” His way of expression shows you of his feelings then. “I received text at midnight. Before that an officer told me that he saw my name under chiefs’ and supervisors’ whose list came out first. That disturbed me. But I discovered later that was a namesake from Debre Markos University. My family was mad at me for deciding to go to Wollega. Actually, that worrisome condition makes you choose not going and risk losing your job.”
Yirgalem Alehegn, a lecturer who was assigned at Dembidolo University says, “We went for fear of the ministry’s measures. When I got registered, I had a plan not to go to a place I don’t choose. I wanted the visit and supported the way the exam was organized. Therefore, I signed up. On October 4, we went to Addis Ababa and submitted our petition to the Examination Agency. Some demanded a guarantee to go. Others decided to take part since they willingly signed up. The rest sought a change to another place. We were confused because there was an imminent danger.” They submitted the petition to various ministries including the ministry of education and the Ethiopian Teachers’ Association. There are close to a dozen teachers from Debre Birhan University who didn’t go to Wollega. These weighed the situation and were ready to face any measure.
The scary slow journey
I talked to a scholar who decided not to go from Amhara to Oromia after he was assigned. He really gave up on Amhara scholars. “These are Professors who didn’t dare resist while they are being shoved to death. They could have asked for an extension of the exam or for the teachers in Wollega to deliver it. They forgot that they signed petitions and were adamantly opposing the trip the day before, but they went into the cars. How could these scholars stand for fellow Amharas who are being killed at the same spot they are being taken to?” On the other hand, Samuel, one of those who decided to go remembers the situation sipping coffee back home after he delivered the exam. “We were told to show up at 7:00 AM on October 6. I was half-hearted and planned to decide based on the situation. There were more than 20 buses into which we dared enter. Oromia Special Force was there to escort us. We didn’t expect to see them. We rather expected the Federal Police or the Defense Force instead. We started the 328 kilometer journey at 8:30 AM and arrived there at 7:30 PM in the evening because we kept stopping and waiting for the buses that lagged behind. As we arrived we faced a shortage of bedrooms since our number was more than 600. We were the examiners for three campuses. We spent at hotels and the university. It was Dembidolo examiners who spent at the university campus in Nekemte. Dembidolo is a separate university afar. I spent at Farmland Hotel.” During the trip a teacher who went to the Wollega reported about the situation on Facebook that the trip was scary and they were stopping every now and then.
The talk and the reality
There are two universities in Wollega – Nekemte and Dembidolo. Wolllega has three campuses – Nekemte, Ghibi and Shambu. Samuel told me that he met his namesake who told him that he saw him on television. “Only the staff of NGOs and the residents are among those who get service at hotels. New investment initiatives are non-existent. The cost of life is almost the same as here and it doesn’t seem to be exaggerated for a war zone. This was unexpected for us.”
Yirgalem says, “The order of languages on signposts of organizations is in Oromo first and then in Amharic. There are also Amharic-only ones. We expected a war zone with no Amharic. As the educated part of our society who are part of the problem, we went and saw for ourselves. It was totally unexpected! The teachers who were misleading the population and who gave up for themselves came back with hope. Social media really exaggerates. We heard many Amharic music including of Teddy Afro, Aster and Fikir Addis’ (Misikir - Yemitwoded Neha) at Dembidolo. We saw the public entertain with EBS Television programs.” The above observation touches upon an obvious issue. The current and past governments strived in creating a new spoken and written linguistic landscape and identity in Wollega and Oromia. This makes other Ethiopians don’t know Oromo feel alienated. The observations the teachers made show that there might be a relaxation from the public side with regard to the former belief in language use.
The students
“When we arrived we saw the students go in and we went in on time. We did preparation and exam-room adjustment for three days. The university also did preparation and organization and we took over. During the exams, there was no copying from one another. They are disciplined students. There were students from a private school at Dembidolo who tried to sneak crib notes. They try to copy,” teacher Samuel’s idea and observation flows like a brook.
“In Nekemt town they speak in Afaan Oromo. They understand your Amharic albeit poorly. The students try a little bit of Amharic. Even a few students ask you to tell them in Amharic. Social Science students are poor at Amharic, while the natural ones are better. There are students who were taken outside of their zones to take the exam. The Dembidolo ones came to Nekempt and there are others too. One day I heard the students sing a song outside the classroom and I asked its meaning and they said it is a reflection of their sadness because such a strict national exam delivery started with them. The cafeteria could not accommodate all of them, so that half of them eat outside under tree-shades. They can’t have access to phones. The exam system is a good beginning. Evangelical church students from Dembidolo, most of whom are Amhara and Tigre, are very friendly but they cheat. I heard that before from a roommate and got stricter during the exam in their class. There are students who don’t do anything until even after forty minutes and wait for the smart ones to finish. For this reason, I took away the guys who were working to another side. At Nekemt campus, Kelem is the biggest center and students from there took the exam at the big hall,” said Dr Bekele Minwuyelet. Dr Bekele’s commentary and style of examining on the whole shows his maturity and that could be attributed to his experience and education.
The people, the area and the security
“The people have political maturity. They want visitors to sell food and coffee and above all to live together with other peoples. They stand up and pour water for you to wash your hands. In Amharic they remark ‘Those of you who have not eaten, please go first’”.
“They talk to you in Amharic. Everyone serves you. They identify you in town at first sight. The place, the students … I fell in love.”
We don’t face problems at restaurants. What we used to hear regarding the unavailability of bedrooms if you ask in Amharic is totally false. Rather, the opposite is true. Teddy Afro’s and Dagne Wale’s Amharic music are heard. We were amazed. I think there are Amharas living there. There are those who we suspected of being Amharas.”
“I was welcomed by someone who was my summer student here at Debre Birhan University. I had a discussion with him. I called him prior to my trip. He had informed me that it was in Western Wollega that there were troubles, not in Nekemt. There is telephone and data service. Wi-Fi service is available at hotels. In lower standard hotels there may not be Wi-Fi service. Supervisors got rooms reserved at Senaf Hotel, the best. There are also those who got at Mercimoi.”
“The town is more peaceful that we expected. We were surrounded by Gojjam songs all over the two weeks. They bring you water to wash at restaurants. You can move around freely but you sense that there is a security threat. People cannot walk along government offices. It is forbidden. When we pass by government offices, in Oromo the guards tell us to shift way. We couldn’t understand the language. You see how the security problem affected them.”
“I met someone who attended university with me. I forgot him because he looked older. He recognized me first. The people fear for our safety. The hotel I spent at was owned by a man suspected of being a Shene sympathizer. They opened the closed door and stole my clothes and I informed this to the organizers who urgently moved all of us at that hotel to a safer one. All of them worry about our safety.”
“We saw that the public likes us. Especially the youth and women express freedom. The armed struggle is of the ignorant politicians. It is these people who spoiled the education sector and made the students unable even to spell their names correctly. A supervisor I met told me that he administered exams for twelve years and the exam was organized in a way they permit students to copy from one another by treating the examiners slaughtering rams.” In relation to this, a high school teacher from Debre Birhan told me that he was an invigilator for four consecutive years and he observed unfair things in the exam system. He says that there are students who copy not only the answer but also the name code of best student and this results in all students in the class having one name code. That will make the whole class’s exam invalid. Regionally, there are secret answer centers that distribute answers. When those delay, the schools organize their own makeshift centers where teachers do the exams and make answers ready. The schools treat examiners so that they let the students copy from one another and do from the centrally given answers.
“I was in the town for 17 days. I can’t say a thing about the rural areas. The president of Wollega University is always escorted by armed federal police officers. Likewise, the zonal authorities are escorted by people armed to the teeth. You sense that there is a threat. In Wollega there are things similar to other places in Ethiopia. But I see hope. We saw their funeral ceremony. They wear like us during funerals. They assigned local teachers in place of examiners who didn’t make it from other corners of the nation. Most of the invigilators are from Amhara and Southern Nations. It is well planned. On the other hand, it is image building. After exams coffee ceremonies were organized for us. On Sunday there was coffee at every conspicuous curve. We were treated tasty cultural food called Chimbo – red teff bread with butter and cheese. One of the teachers said he was washed with butter. We were asking for less butter while we are suffering from expensive oil prices here. There is food called nashif and it is served with mutton.
Dr. Bekele Minwuyelet shared with me ideas that show his deep insights and he speaks with a meditative mood. “I never ever thought that I would go to Wollega. I didn’t go to Ambo; I didn’t even go to Holota. I never went past Burayu. I thought that everyone who saw me there would chase me.”
“At Sire, a place immediately before Nekemt, we saw burned houses. On our way back, the special force got out of the buses and trucks and escorted the convoy on foot.”
“There was firing near Dembidolo. They were attempting to get World Food Program’s drivers who were held hostage while they were going to deliver food to the internally displaced. The red bonnets were also entering Dembidolo. I think they were going to get the drivers released. The red bonnets are also there at Nekemt.”
“A few hundreds of meters away from main roads, the local militia keep patrolling, whereas our escort patrol near the roads we pass by. At the end, we handed the special force members a gift. We also wanted to contribute from our per diem to give them money but they rather asked us to recommend them for a recognition from their commanders and they got that. The commanders thanked us too. At the farewell on the last day the speech was in Amharic that the students screamed because they knew nothing of it. It was not really necessary to make it in Amharic. We wouldn’t care. Dembidolo University awarded us coffee beans to be taken home. The threat we thought existed when we went was not there. The opposite was true. We were elated. We are proud!”
The fever
We teachers who didn’t go kept welcoming those who went. When we meet those who came back from Wollega, we showed them care and our greeting was quite hearty as we considered them victors. I considerd the teachers like the Rwandese woman whose memoir I translated. In my mother’s words that Rwandese Holocaust survivor resurrected from the grave. We followed the situation of the teachers with confusion and most of us thought that they went either for the payment or fear of the ministry’s carrot and stick measures. At the group discussion at Debre Birhan University’s lounge, teachers encircle and listen to the Wollega returnees. They remembered that the prime minister said in a speech he gave on the issue that teachers who took part in this exam were undertaking a task almost equal to the national army’s. We considered the Wollega returnees as commandos that we listened to what they say attentively. Other than asking them questions sparingly we were quiet. They told their own stories!
Dembidolo
“Yoseph, a former Debre Birhan University lecturer is the current vice president of Dembidolo University. We had his contact details and met him. He served us with hospitality. Even if they had a great hospitality, their preparation was relatively poor.”
“There are teachers who saw Jal Mero’s poster at one of the university buildings.” Yirgalem
“The designation of buildings is after famous personalities from the area.”
“At Ambo, I saw hotels named after Balambaras and other Imperial Ethiopia titles,” Samuel.
“There are people who are sentenced recently in relation to the Amhara students from Dembidolo University,” said one of the teachers and this reminded me of what I heard on my trip to Seladingay a few weeks ago. A monk who sat next to me in the bus to Seladingay in Shewa gave me his phone to listen to an audio message he said he received from his Amhara relatives in Dembidolo. A Shene member called the Amhara relative of the monk and told him that the girls are forced to be the wives of Shene rebel members. The mayor is the one who raped one of the virgin girls. I couldn’t get tangible information form the teachers.
“Wollega university administrators created the university the way they like. Theirs is better than Dembidolo in organization and beautification.”
Whether one calls it a political fever or acute illness, no one seems to know the end to the country’s problems. My interviewees and discussants agreed that the way the exam was delivered had a significance to the quality of education. They liked the swapping of teachers form one region to the other for the people-to-people cultural interaction. They wished there was such an interaction in all sectors. They said that they came to believe that extremist groups won’t dismantle the nation. There were people who showed them direction when they were lost. The meticulous care the special force gave them when the teachers went into the university compounds has been praised. There are those among the teachers who suspect that the special force members could be told by the authorities not to attack the teachers themselves. As for Shenes, it is believed that they were not ready as the exam program and invigilators ’placement was done in secret and within two days. The teachers believe that the Shene forces couldn’t defeat the government army. Theirs is guerrilla warfare. “Outside of cities, the security forces force passersby to turn their faces to another direction than the roads so that they don’t report the nature of the convoy to the Shenes.
“Dembidolo is 307 kilometres from Nekemt. There is a jungle. The security is tight. There are places where only Amhara live. Amhara and non-Oromo communities live there. There are those who are displaced and there are closed houses too.”
“We arrived and saw that the people are cooperative. First they talk in Oromo and revert to Amharic if you can’t – at bedrooms and banks and everywhere. But you fear. The students’ discipline is amazing. They do not know Amharic and English. Many of them don’t know the English question “Is there a problem?” We ask a few students who know who told us such phrases as “rakko jiraa? t’umure?” When they address you they use the Amharic title “Astemari,” Yirgalem Alehegn.
When the residents of the town meet you they say, “Please don’t bother our kids.” “We feel happy if they take the exam properly and pass,” they add. We met only one person who has a problem. When we were asking for toothpicks at a hotel after we ate, he addressed us badly. He was a customer. My friend told him that the way he addressed us was not fair. I bought a dictionary. Even before I bought, I wrote one hundred Oromo words.
“A few people heard that the Oromo teachers who went to Amhara were attacked and they felt bad. There are those who told us this in a good Amharic. They say that we bothered their children. By children they meant the Oromo teachers working in Amhara as invigilators.”
Yirgalem said one of the wollega teachers who learned from him that there were teachers who didn’t go to Wollega after they were assigned said whether they thought Wollega people were scary. There are people who don’t understand the situation.”
“During the farewell, the university president asked a teacher he scolded for bringing a phone to the exam room for an apology. The exam rule required teachers who brought phones to put them at one location. The three-wheeler transportation at Dembidolo town stopped for security reasons. The red bonnets stand at the university gate. We heard that there were Shenes in town wearing civilian costumes. The security follow each of our movement.”
“A teacher said that the greenery of Wollega resembled that of Gojjam. The green Ethiopia songs must be for Dembidolo.”
I raised one question. “What if there was a problem?” They said that would be a reason to raise political questions. Teachers even would ask why we went. It would be a news issue for some time. There would be political elements that would use it, but finally it would be forgotten.
Even if my focus is on Wollega I asked other teachers who came back from invigilating at other universities. At Jigjiga, a teacher said that the students started throwing stones. They stopped it immediately. The security officers punished them physically. It was fixed. Jigjiga examiners went to Togochale, Somaliland and visited.
“Borena is good. It is not as we feared. It is the place of Abush Zeleke and Taye Bogale. The Shenes are said to have a relative acceptance at Bule Hora, not there. We went to Yabelo for a visit. We also went to Kenya. We saw how contraband trade works. It is like a movie.”
“The students at Meda Walabu University acted as if they didn’t know Amharic and talked only in Oromo. A student who said he is also a special force member told me that they did that for the examiner not to know their attempts to copy,” said a teacher.
“At the end of the exam one student asked me if I really was Amhara. I told her that I was. But she couldn’t believe me saying that all this kindness couldn’t come from the Amhara she heard about,” a teacher who worked as an invigilator at one of the universities in Oromia told me amazed.
“At Haromaya University, there were students who came from more than 500 kilometres distance.”
Another teacher said that he was amazed to experience culture shock at Wollega. He said the students wore wig and they feared no one when they embrace and show affection in front of teachers. He recommends something be done about keeping the youth within our cultural boundaries. To him, the lack of adherence to the Orthodox Christian fasting shows the alienation of Wollega from the rest. As to the people he said they are really kindly!
“The issue of the exam problems in the Amhara region was unexpectedly shameful.”
On the whole, the marking, the students’ assignation, the ethnic composition of the students who join universities are questions in the public mind now. But that is to be seen through time. The way the exam was delivered per se shows how far we can accomplish if we cooperate and use knowledge.
I heard a little observation and suspicion. “The politicians seem to watch the Fano movement with care. They may watch the Amhara teacher in Oromia with careful eyes. The items we lost from our bedrooms could be taken by security officials. They may think that we have items to distribute. They might want to know what we were reading.”
An Oromo teacher who teaches at Debre Birhan University told me that she met her Amhara colleague who was assigned at Oromia on her way to the university. She asked her to pray for her but the asked her to bring her coffee beans instead. She brought her the coffee not from the market but as a gift from the university. She told her that the Oromo teachers accompanied her to the buses carrying her bag. “We have not quarreled. The politicians are the root causes of the problem,” this Oromo teacher remarked. Every time problems arise in our town there are insecurities in universities. As usual, when I speak to this teacher in my broken Oromo as “Fayyumaa, gifti? Jirenyaa akkam si godhe?” she responds “You will get me killed speaking in Oromo!” We are looking to see a good day both in Debre Birhan and throughout the nation.
An Oromo teacher who was assigned at Debark University in Amhara spoke about the situation in the dearest of terms. North Gondar communication reported on the issue of the visit of university professors to Semen National Park. “Teacher Abdi said that he was worried about being assigned to Debark. The efforts I made to change were not successful. I am happy that it didn’t succeed. Among the issues I succeeded at the foremost one is visiting Semen”
‘“You had a bad reputation. I repeat that,” Teacher Abdi perceived Amhara region as a place where Oromo music was not listened to, religious equality was not known, a person who spoke Oromo was threatened.” “All is false. Debark is a place of smart people. Gondar is a people of hospitality. Amhara people believe in equality. Galatomaa,” he said in his language.”
Mezemir Girma
October 25, 2022
Debre Birhan
The writer can be reached at mezemirgirma@gmail.com
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