By Libah Leencoo
Beualu Girma's “Oromay"
is the book I always remember and admire. I read it many times, and I still
need to read it. I say this not because
the book's narration is based on the true account of "the Red Star Campaign”
(የቀይ ኮከብ ዘመቻ), neither is it because the author lost his life for it. I have different
reasons to rather. Here, I present only three of them in short.
First, the literal beauty of
the book is incomparable. From the beginning up to the end, the author used short
sentences mostly which make the reader to grasp the theme of the book easily. Besides,
the author’s ability to express complex ideas in a simple manner, his use of
metaphor's and satires along with his symbolic presentations are very
astonishing. The artistic and entertaining flows of the stories made the book very
close to the Persian Sufi poetry and the French and Russian classics of the nineteenth
century. The author had a notable ability of using humor in the drafting of the
main characters of the story. The ever astonishing thing is his ability to
write such a literally beautiful book in less than a year. How could he mastered
all these while he was very busy on his regular position of the vice minister
of information, and when he was a leading TV journalist of that era? Do you
expect such thing from any cabinet members of this time? Bealu Girma was that.
The second is the book’s
theme. Although the book’s aim seems reporting the plan, implementations and
failures of the Red Star Campaign, in my thought, Beualu’s target was showing
us the ugliness of the hybrid system that the military junta was trying to
build in Ethiopia in the name of “Socialism”. For example, in the book, we read
statements like “ሀገራችን ሁልጊዜ የማታቋርጥ ዘመቻ ውስጥ ነው ያለችው። ዘመቻው ሁሉ በአናት በአናቱ ነው የሚመጣብን።
የእርሻ ዘመቻ፣ የጦርነት ዘመቻ፣ የትምህርት ዘመቻ፣ የጤና ዘመቻ…ሁልጊዜ ዘመቻ”. Here, I don’t see that Beaulu
was against doing activities in “zemecha” form; rather, he was showing us his grievance
on those “zemecha’s” being poor-planned, uncoordinated, and undermanaged.
On the other hand, through
the actions and speeches of the main characters of the book, the author had
shown us the hollowness and insanity of the farfetched wishes of the military
junta and the leaders of the time. Further, he clearly expressed that many members
of the leadership themselves (including the author) were not feeling positive about
the motives and activities of the government they were serving. You may take
the case of Daniel Mets’hafe (ዳንኤል መጽሐፈ) who was an economist by profession and
who complained in the book about ill effects of the working conditions of the
time and some unwise events he was seeing in Asmara. For example, on one occasion,
Daniel said to the author “How dare we bring most of the trucks owned by the
country to this province (Eritrea) while it is a harvest time in many of the other
provinces? Is this a wise plan”. On the other hand, in a beautiful language,
Daniel said to the author “እናንተ ጋዜጠኞች የሁልጊዜ ጭንቀታችሁ ስታቲስቲክስ ነው። “የስኳር ምርት በይህን ያህል
አደገ”፣ “ባለፈው ዓመት መቶ ሺህ ቶን ሰሊጥ ወደ ውጪ ተላከ”፤ “ሶስት መቶ ጋሻ መሬት በትራክተር ታረሰ”፣ ይሄው ነው ወሬአችሁ።
ስታቲስቲክስ ብቻውን እድገት ይሆናል እንዴ? ስታቲስቲክሱ እድገት እንዲሆን “ሰው ሰው” መሽተት አለበት። የናንተ ስታቲስቲክስ ግን
እንጨት እንጨት ነው የሚሸተው”። (I couldn’t write here the statements of the author as they
appear in the book because I don’t have “Oromay” in my hand now. I am just
writing them as I remember.)
The third point, for which I
admire the book, is its being all-rounded. In the book, you may enjoy the
romantic love of Fiamita Gilay and Tsegaye Hailu. Solomon Betre Giorgis tells
you the background history of the complex Eritrean problem and the raise of “Jabha”
(ELF) and Shaibia (EPLF). Colonel Tariku Welday teaches you the art of war and
the guerilla warfare. Tsegaye Hailu (the author) beautifully describes the
topography of Naqfa Mountains. Colonel Betru Tessema and his team bring you a
wide knowledge of intelligence science. Si’lay Barakhi and his fellow men give
you a deep insight on how “Shaibi’a” and “Jabha” were governing “Asmara” from
underground. You may learn also the ethnography of Eritrean tribes and nationalities
in short, from Rashida up to the highland Tigrigna speakers. If you are a
linguist, you may get highlights on the speech and vocabulary of the “Asmarino”
(natives of Asmara). The sketch, roads and architecture, and social life of the
city of Asmara are colorfully depicted.
But I am very sorry that the
book’s rich literal beauty and its holistic narrations are still undermined by
many. I feel that the book’s powerfulness is overshadowed by the author’s martyrdom
so that many of its qualities are being neglected unknowingly. There are also some
others who mention “Oromay” only when they want to amplify the madness and cruelty
of the Dergue regime. This latter group even don’t quote a single statement
from “Oromay” in their propaganda warfare. What they say is simply “Dergue
killed Bealu Girma because he wrote Oromay”. Although Bealu’s death in the hand
the Dergue is obvious, I insist that “Oromay” shouldn’t be thrown down to such
a playing ball position of the temporal propaganda game. Dergue has passed, and
we will hardly follow its footsteps in the future. But “Oromay” is for all
time. We need it to teach and learn literature and history. We need it today
and tomorrow.
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