Author: Amlaku Eshetie

By Amlaku Eshetie

As Africa was the land of the pioneers, the origin of humanity, its people travelled and diffused into the rest of the world in two forms of travel or journey. First, voluntarily – a journey in search of better weather, better land, better situations to live and thrive. The second and later journey was forced by the colonizers – Europeans and Americans.

For the latter form of Africans, leaving their native land was so massive and grave. The inhumane, harsh treatment and exploitation was so denigrating for the human race in general. African youth, men and women, were forcefully taken to the cotton and sugar cane plantations in the Americas. Not only did the African labor cultivate and harvest the industrial crops, but they also built the infrastructure of the major American cities over several centuries.

And now, in our time when slavery was left to history, there is a third and new form of exploitation of African youth – immigration! Including myself, many Africans left (and are leaving) Africa immigrating to mainly the United States of America and Europe. In doing so, they are intergenerationally feeding the labor market and are building the economy of the host countries.

This happens because of the level of hegemony or authority on two realms: economic and political! If a nation or a continent is economically strong and powerful, it is also possible to resist the pressure that any kind of politics or supremacy throws onto it. The prerequisite leading to economic, and hence, political power is education. Citizens have to be well educated so that they can create infrastructures and build their respective country’s economy.

Citizens of most African nations were just contained with what nature endowed them with and never aspired for more for two major and obvious reasons: lack of education and lack of conducive and supportive leadership. Even those who have been lucky to go to school and get educated were educated in colonial education systems and could not tap into local wisdom to solve local problems. On the contrary, we left our respective countries by denouncing the incumbent leadership and political system at the time of fleeing.

As a result, the United States of America has been benefiting a lot in exploiting both forced and voluntary immigrants of Africa – historical and modern slavery! Africans made America and now are continuing to sustain the hegemony of America both in economy and politics.

Well, it is not bad to help and be helped! We work for America and the American system houses and supports us to nurture our talents, realize our ambitions, and support a few of our kins back in Africa from the wealth we make here. Some of us even start some forms of investment back home. That’s a great thing to do as well. However, whatever we do individually never get Africa out of the vicious cycle of poverty, insecurity, violence, and emigration. How about all Africans in the United States join hands and minds? How about if these joined hands and minds to create and implement continental projects focusing on peace and security, regional infrastructure, health, and education?

If Africans living in the United States come together and work together in peace and love, will there be any reason that we can’t bring all our people together back at home as well?

Let’s get all Africans in the United States united! Let’s create an ambitious, stretched goal of remaking Africa. It is possible to build both America and Africa and make both our homes. If Africa is equally strong and wealthy, people can freely travel back and forth, invest and live in both continents; Africa will be for all Americans, and America will be for all Africans. Ambassadors of African nations in the USA will be our liaisons and messengers. We will be the brain house and the funding source and the people and administration on the ground will be implementers of our farfetched, elevating projects.

I’ve not researched, and I do not know if there are any similar formations. However, it is possible that those existing could not be more than a regional entity, if at all targeting beyond a single nation. This one is going to be different and all about AFRICA as ONE! This is the spirit of our Pan African forefathers: Du Bois, Kwame Nkrumah, Haile Selassie, Julius Nyerere, and their compatriots!

Imagine all of us, represented from all the 54 states and the African American brothers and sisters, coming together in love and purpose. Imagine when this love and purpose extends back home and creates peace between and among the African sister nations. Imagine when our poor, innocent, strong, and loving African mothers and fathers benefit from our transnational or cross-border projects. Imagine when leaders sit around the same table and talk about cost and benefit-sharing. Imagine all the kids going to school in peace and happiness. Imagine all the youth put their minds and hands to work, not to stones and weapons of destruction. Imagine when our kids raised in the USA go back to their ancestors’ land to share skills and knowledge with their cousins. Imagine…imagine all of that!

Steps for Action

Interested and like-minded Africans and African Americans here in Colorado will meet a few times to brainstorm to develop or expand this idea. When the idea matures, I suggest that we form a non-profit organization. This organization will be registered at a federal level, and it will work to bring all the black race and problacks together across the board. This global organization will have chapters in different countries such as Canada, China, Germany, and Australia.

The first project will be ‘Peace Awareness and Building”, which starts from the networking and relationships of the members who represent their respective African countries. Although our politicians are often in friction, the people at the grassroot level know nothing about it. What they need is peace and security in order to be able to toil hard to win their daily bread.

The next projects may focus on standardization and liberation of financial transactions – could be to the extent of aspiring for one currency for all Africans (which appears to be a bit too early but it should be on the table), supporting a Pan African University so that it can open campuses in every African capital city, designing or supporting inter-regional railway and bus transportation projects, learning our history and using our respective native language to learn/teach, so and so on.

This is just an aspiration or wish project of a dreamer African, me – Amlaku. Is it your aspiration too? Let’s add your thoughts and aspirations! Let’s come together and realize our wishes for Africa. You don’t agree with this aspiration? Do you call it a fantasy – too good to be implemented? No worries, what alternative and practical vision or wishes do you have for Africa and beyond? Bring them forward and let’s all support you if your ideas are more practical or workable than this one! Let’s come together to be a lot stronger!

Every language is complete on its own. All languages help their users to fully express themselves, interact with others and communicate daily. They can represent the social and political; historical and religious; traditional and cultural, etc. constructs of their respective speakers. In this regard, all languages are equal and complete. However, when we consider the linguistic features, the scientific/technological advancement, the semantic, syntactic, and phonological richness, etc. of the languages, some languages can be richer, more advanced, and more complex than others.

English language for example, has amassed so many words and semantics from the rest of the world’s languages. It has been a language of politics (as British used to be the colonizer of many parts of the world), and it has also been used as a language of international trade/business and education. For these reasons, English has proven itself as the most advanced, the most complex and the most widely used language of all other world languages.

English: A Crazy Language?

Yet, English is often referred to as the crazy language by most, including the native speakers because it is full of exceptions and contradicting rules. Above all, it is phonologically so limited. Sounds are made from the single and/or combined use of only the 26 alphabet letters. As a result, there are so many sounds that are foreign to English speakers.

Amharic, a major Ethiopian language, in contrast, has most of (if not all of) the possible sounds that we humans can make. It has only 34 base letters and each one of them has six variants (seven including themselves) which will make the total number of the alphabet letters 238. Each of these 238 letters are distinct and complete sound units or phonemes. In English there are only 44 phonemes or sounds.

Compare how Amharic is richer and English is so limited! This limitation makes learning other/foreign languages difficult for the (English) native speakers. For Amharic speakers, however, no sound or pronunciation will be difficult to produce, except the English “th” pronounced in two different ways as /ð/ and /θ/. Even these sounds are so close to our “ዘ” and “ዝ”.

That means, Amharic is easier than other languages (it’s not to generalize but I am writing this article by having the other languages I learned at school – English and French, as reference), and conversely Amharic speakers are advantageous for learning other/foreign languages. Because Amharic is a phonemic language, pronunciation and spelling are not problematic. Learners or users can read what they see written and can write as exactly as they hear or say. Spelling and pronunciation in English and most other languages (for instance in English and French – the languages I know) are too complex and unpredictable!

Capitalization is another language feature which is irrelevant in Amharic. So, for people who find the Amharic alphabet letters as too many, let them add the upper case and lower-case English letters. They are 52 English letters. Using them appropriately is another hurdle for learners of English.

Critically speaking, shapes of the letters have nothing to do with the meaning creation or semantic process in the words they are used. It rather is just a form which adds to the complication of the language for users and learners.

Pluralization in English is another intricate feature. In Amharic, it is so straightforward. In English, it could be fine if it were only adding ‘-s’, ‘-es’ or ‘-ies’ to singular nouns but there is also another set of nouns collectively known as irregular nouns which are pluralized in a lot of different ways.

In Amharic, you add “-ዎች/-woch/och”, “-ች/-ch/och”, or “-ያን/ናን/-ian/nan” depending on the type of the ending sound of the noun and by making a modification to the final letter/sound.

Amharic the Semitic Language

Amharic is a Semitic language written from left to right, unlike its sister Semitic languages – Arabic, and Hebrew which are written right to left. Its history as a written language goes back as far as the 14th century or earlier. Since then, it has accumulated rich written knowledge and literature.

Its writing system is so unique to itself. Only a few Ethiopian languages (Geez – probably its mother language, Tigrigna/Tigre, Guragigna, and other Ethiopian languages) share its alphabet or writing system.

Its speakers are mainly about 50/60% of Ethiopians (as both first and second language speakers) in Ethiopia and abroad. And the world hasn’t known much about this language with these and potentially other world class linguistic features – and above all learner-friendly features!

*You can contact Amlaku Eshetie via LinkedIn at amharicethiopiakhaabamlaku and Twitter @amlakube