On Affirmative Action

So I came by bus yesterday. It was a 15-hour drive. But I am not here to talk about that. I am here to talk about Afar. Because we came through there. It was nothing short of breathtaking. Especially their homes!

I've always wanted to visit Afar. In fact, there was a time when I considered going to Semera University. Though my interactions with the Afar have been few, they were always memorable. In seventh grade, I had two classmates from Afar: Ahmed and Eri.

Ahmed was my favorite classmate because he was simply amazing. He was the son of an official and he spoke good Tigrinya (in fact many can somehow, although they tend to address men as አንቺ and women as አንተ 😁) and came to class everyday. Eri, on the other hand, barely came. She was slightly older than us. We thought maybe she worked at home or was married. She came to class once or twice a month. When we asked Ahmed why, he told us she fights in the tribal wars. We were shocked.

In tenth grade, my classmate told me she was going to Afar. She told me she was getting an Afar residence ID and take the matric exam there. Apparently the passing mark was significantly lower because Afar was one of the "አናሳ ክልሎች."

During the war, many Afars came to Mekelle to get Medical attention, to a LITERAL WAR ZONE, not that Afar wasn't one.

At some point, we stopped along the way, and I asked a guy where we were out of curiosity. He told me, "አትፍራ ሰላም ነው."

And yesterday, I saw Afar women, no girl, Sheperds. Apparently they're called sheperdesses. They were stunning, wearing their traditional Afar braids, hair uncovered, and their traditional clothes. Coincidentally, I was reading "Dear Ijeawele," as part of our book club where my friends and I study feminist literature. She writes,

"... People will selectively use “tradition” to justify anything. Tell her that a double-income family is actually the true Igbo tradition because not only did mothers farm and trade before British colonialism, trading was exclusively done by women in some parts of Igboland. She would know this if reading books were not such an alien enterprise to her."

It was exactly how I felt. We're told in our tradition "women should stay at home and are good for nothing but cooking." But here they were, looking after goats "like a man" and fighting tribal wars, carrying guns, "like a man." Building huts, "like a man."

This was truly an eye opening experience. First, it reaffirmed my belief that Affirmative Action is nothing but a sham. There is nothing አናሳ about Afar. As I always say, it is an easy way out for governments not to do their jobs properly. Why build infrastructure when you can give people Affirmative Action. Second, we should question the narratives we grew up hearing. Reading and observing in person sbould not be an alien enterprise to us. Finally, it's time to turn our attention to the countless overlooked communities in Ethiopia, to recognize and celebrate their unique lives.