About this article
This story from 2013 by itself has its own story which is a story of self-censorship. I am now writing in 2023. Self-censorship could have various forms. Mine is of a different breed. This is reflected in a task I have been doing this week. I have been checking all my hard and soft copy documents from my entire life. I grabbed an old notebook from a 2015 British council and Ministry of Education training. The training concentrated on all the skills of English. I found the draft essays I wrote for the writing part. One of them was of my job-seeking one. The story of that essay I wrote is very appealing. In one of the evenings I wrote it following the steps, revised and proofread it to finally fall in love with it. Afterwards, I printed it the next morning and headed to the training venue. I handed it to my writing trainer who was preparing herself for the day’s session before anyone came in early morning in one of the training halls of Ras Amba Hotel in Addis. I had the courage to give her because she was non-Ethiopian. Could she be a government sympathizer?
Ten years after that, I still remember the feeling that Brit exhibited in her face. She clinched her fists and munched her lower lip. She told me that mine was an excellent one. However, I think afterwards I discarded the paper that I loved. Even if I valued it because it was my own story of being subjected to injustice, I destroyed it for fear of being discovered by the government. And I removed its soft copy from my computer too. This was for fear of being attacked if the government by any means searches my house or computer. I was censoring myself. After I wrote this new note, something struck my mind and I went to my yahoo account and searched using its title. I got it! I couldn’t believe my eyes. I have been looking for it everywhere regretting my decision. I even thought it was time to publish it on my blog when the TPLF government fell five years ago. Now I got it from the sent items list. I couldn’t believe that even I had a friend to send the article to. Could anyone be trusted with this piece which criticized the employment and political system of the government that is no more on power now?
Reading it reminded me of my student days which were not simple ones for financial difficulties. How I was not an easy going guy then! How I had a solitary lifestyle and a rigid mindset! I had a fear deep in my heart what my future would look like. Sixteen years after graduation, there seems to be no significant change if not for a few of my contributions in my field. These include three books published, a private library opened and a few other issues. I invite you to read it below.
Mezemir Girma,
Debre Birhan
Once Pushed Out, Victor At Last!
Mezemir Girma
2013
Addis Ababa
My university days were not as frightening as my job seeking ones because my time at university, though challenging, was productive and rather enjoyable. I graduated with a bachelor’s Degree in English Language and Literature (non-teaching) from Addis Ababa University in August 2007. When I finished I didn’t think that I would face a considerable challenge tougher than getting a degree – securing my bread. Nevertheless, I had to face the challenge of seeking a job which has become even more challenging for most of the graduates now after five years. What was my dream job first of all? I was aspiring to be employed as a journalist, a public relations officer, or an expert in one of the public offices as I studied courses which prepared me for these positions. But all what happened then was that graduates were recruited as early as they were still in their university dormitories, based on a non-academic criterion, which I wouldn’t qualify for. Those classmates of mine who had the least grades were assigned at nice positions. I was not considered even if I had one of the best grade point averages (GPAs).
By the way, I was one of the graduates with the best GPAs whose names had been sent to the Ministry of Education which requested a list be sent to it for Assistant Graduate positions in the 13 newly opened universities in the regions. I and my friends even filled in forms and ranked universities where we wanted to work. But the ministry officials did not post the names of mine and most of my friends in the state Amharic daily newspaper, Addis Zemen (literally meaning New Era). It was all the names of the graduates from the regional universities that they were posting as it was with GPAs that they selected. Normally Addis Ababa University (AAU) graduates had no better grades than their regional universities’ counterparts because of the strict grading trend at AAU.
No option did I have. The vacant posts left for me were in the private organizations in Addis Ababa. Non-Governmental Organizations, which had the most coveted jobs in town, were unthinkable, since they were in most cases said to be employing people based on recommendations and a rich work experience. So, where did I go to apply? It was to private schools, private media and tourist organizations which were all not well paying ones. Do you want to know if I succeeded? If so, okay, please keep reading.
An employee was not to be proud of having a job in the private schools, after all. You know why? Their jobs were not as secure as the public ones since they would fire you based on any pretext including the compliant of a student or a student’s parent since they were their sources of income they didn’t want to lose. They would not pay you salary during the two summer months in which there is no school as if you were not eating and living during that season. In the beginning, if you pass their interviews and get employed amid all the partiality you experience, be it ethnic, religious, or linguistic, you will definitely start your suffering. Is there any happy private school teacher in Addis Ababa? The answer is, NO, in most cases! The employers’ boastful act, the huge work load and the meager salary, the 6, 7 or 8 square meter narrow old rented room he/she is living in paying at least one third of his/her monthly income make life miserable. There is a usual saying among the Addis Ababans- “We the lower class people are not living true life here, but witnessing the rich live it to the brim”. If the rich, in most cases, were better than me academically or if they learnt throughout their ages, my senses wouldn’t boil. I think most of them have not even read at least the classic Ethiopian novel “Fikir Eske Meqabir”, or a book of the Holy Qoran or Bible. They cannot tell you what this week’s newspapers in Addis Ababa wrote about. They would even say that reading is boring after all. However, the money is unfairly made go to them.
What did my job seeking days look like? My daily routine was as follows: In the morning hours I used to go to Arat Kilo square which is some half an hour walk from the room I rented and read vacancies posted on the commercial noticeboards there. With a public phone, I phone to the employers who are advertising a vacancy and check where their offices are found if they have not indicated in their notices. If it is a job that suits me, I go to their offices asking people I meet on the roads where the particular place is. Then I submit a copy of my application letter, curriculum vitae and credentials to the organizations. Then I seek other notices in newspapers. I had to pay 25 cents to read a single newspaper and check if there is a vacancy I need posted. I always ate lunch outside and went home back in the evening tired and hopeless.
It was via the phones of my relatives and friends that employers reached me. Most schools had both written exams and interviews. If you pass the written exams, you will be among those who go for interviews. You then agree or disagree on the salary, workload, working environment or other imposition if you only pass. You don’t know sir! All this up and down you underwent may be for the employers’ mere convenience. It is said that they use the written exam sheets and the copies of credentials of you and of the many applicants as a proof of accountability when government supervisors visit them. So they employ the already known nominee who is their close relation or whatever. In some case, there are good and impartial employers, though. I don’t need to conduct a formal survey to say that most are not good ones as I experienced many unethical school owners and administrators. It is to 47 organizations that I applied in the three months immediately after my graduation, most of them being schools. People consoled me saying that it is a common practice in Europe to apply to not less than 100 companies to get a job. This helped me a lot.
One afternoon in November 2007, two young men and a young woman interviewed me in their school found in southern Addis Ababa, my home being in the northern tip. They were satisfied and hired me. I was elated too. I worked in this English medium elementary school as a grade one and two science and social science teacher. This is the place where I enjoyed working for three and a half months not mentioning another where I worked as an English teacher for two weeks. I used to commute the long distance in the Lion Buses of Addis Ababa. It was in this bus that I heard one day a singer ‘newsreader’ beggar say “Lion Bus- the poor’s shoes”. Not long after I was told that I passed the three month probation period, I got an opportunity to go for a better job outside Addis Ababa as a lecturer in one of the state universities. Look! It is for six months that I was waiting for this seemingly nice job.
There in the universities you would have the chance to study your master’s degree and to grow financially. Recently a year after I was graduated in a Master’s Degree my former non-Ethiopian university friend who is a diplomat of one African State told me that he rather wanted to be a university lecturer than a diplomat. Is it such a coveted work that I am doing? I was once pushed out and now I am in such a work which satisfies me and in which I serve my country happily.
