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Four: Having the Last Word
- University of Washington Press
- Chapter
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97 n My opinion, honestly, i think we are all the same people,” Dawit nerayo confides as we discuss the differences that cause conflict among the peoples of the Horn and lead to tensions among their communities in the Pacific northwest. You see, if you take the whole area from egypt across to sudan before the europeans divided it up, it was all one place. Just look at the people! a lot of sudan’s people look very much like ethiopians. and if you go by looks alone, there is also practically no difference among eritreans, Tigrayans, and Harar people. Obviously, if you go very southwest in ethiopia, you run into much darker skins, and if you go southeast, into very light skins. But . . . whatever they call themselves, in the end, they all look the same. Dawit is ethiopian, but his father is eritrean. i look at his face and wonder if anything about his looks identify him as such. sitting there in his shirtsleeves, he could be any other young american, although a certain We didn’t come to america to focus on our past and create even bigger problems for ourselves. —mehret mehanZel, seattle, 2004 H aVi n g TH e l as T W OR D 98 cHaPTEr foUr graciousness plus a lack of cynicism mark him as different. “Obviously not many people share my opinion about looking the same,” he smiles. “Just look at eritrea, which wants to be a separate people.” Whether they look the same or not, the members of the three communities nurture their own sense of who they are. identity means everything, and nationhood sometimes provides the linchpin on which one hangs one’s status in the United states. identity and nationhood, however, can be tricky subjects in a part of the world that has seen colonizers come and go. in fact, all three peoples at one time or another have been at the receiving end of challenges about their status as nations. somalia experienced nationhood only for a relatively short period of time during the rule of siyad Barre (1969–91), while eritrea became an independent country only in 1993 and still feels insecure in its status. also, talk of ethnicities too often segues into talk of nations, as it sometimes does with ethiopians, and while specific ethnic groups may have lived in those lands for centuries, cooperation between unified nations of these ethnicities and other functioning entities signifies something different. nationhood is thus a slippery subject and, with identity, complicates the issues that rankle the three groups. a legacy of ill feeling related to boundary perspectives, relocation, and resettlement intertwines with them, and most interviewees had something to say about these matters even if they refused to be quoted. ethiopians, eritreans, and somalis are not the first refugee or immigrant groups to struggle with historical resentment when settled among erstwhile enemies in their host country. in the various ethnic ghettos of the United states, immigrant Jews have lived back-to-back with Polish Catholics, serbs with Croats, Chinese with Japanese, indians with Pakistanis, greeks with Turks, and Turks with armenians. The greater challenge for africans from the Horn, however, lies in the global reach of the internet, which enables anyone with access to a server to take control of the word and manipulate it to his or her group’s advantage. at the same time, online talk works to the advantage of all groups. ethiopians, eritreans, and somalis all can tell their stories, selectively framing them for meaning while omitting anything that interferes. They also all can bad-mouth their enemies. many of the people i interviewed have been offended and intimidated by the vitriol of much that appears on Horn [3.16.81.94] Project MUSE (2024-04-17 01:36 GMT) HaVinG THE LasT WorD 99 sites. nevertheless, they try to hold their own on that unstable pathway between freedom of speech and ethnic criticism. “at least here, i can respond equally,” ezra points out. “if you go back to ethiopia, it is only government that can speak; it’s a one-way communication. if i tried to say something against that, i’d end up in jail!” leaning too far in the direction of freedom of speech, however, may lead to accusations of political incorrectness, which, in seattle and Portland, can be harmful to a community’s image. “if you push too hard, you may poke out somebody’s eye,” ezra adds descriptively. He has lived in...