“Ye-Zefen Dar Daru Eskista Neew”, Ethiopian Artists fail to Recognise their
own Proverb!<
http://www.qienit.com/ye-zefen-dar-daru-eskista-neew-ethiopian-artists-fail-to-recognise-their-own-proverb/>
*By QieNit*
Eritrea’s enemies have in the past tried to weaken the Eritrean identity
together with its political identity; they have used a variety of means
that are multi dimensional. Amongst those multi dimensions military being
the biggest, QieNit however will focus on Music and Art that in due course
will be published.
Madote.com an Eritrean website first published an article on What’s
Motivating Ethiopian Singers to Copy Eritrean
Songs?<
http://www.madote.com/2014/04/whats-motivating-ethiopian-singers-to.html>
[image: Ethio Artists]<
http://www.qienit.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Ethio-Artists.png>
The irony is Teddy Afro who sees Haile Selassie the man that annexed
Eritrea and killed thousands of Eritreans as a Hero wants to preach
Eritreans about Love.
In the latest attempt of
winning<
http://www.qienit.com/ye-zefen-dar-daru-eskista-neew-ethiopian-artists-fail-to-recognise-their-own-proverb/#>
the
hearts and minds of Eritreans for ill intentions comes themusic video by
Jacky Gosse. Promoting peace through music as an idea is not bad at all,
but under the cover of promoting peace and love, using music for ulterior
motives however is unprofessional and unacceptable.
As the clip-surfaced majority of Eritreans onsocial media were outraged and
we have received many messages that express dismay, which has triggered us
in to giving our view to the latest attempt of manipulation, hence we have
titled this article the way we did as it has ill intentions.
*“Yezefen Dar Daru Eskista Neew” an Amaharic proverb roughly translates as
“A Songs layer entails a dance” *but is this dance a healthy one?
Amongst the current generations of Ethiopian artists Teddy Afro has in the
past incorporated in to his album the song “Dahlak”, and later “Fiyorina”
and is also known for mentioning Eritrea through out his concerts. In a
direct imitation of Teddy comes Jacky Gosse with “Fiyametta”.
Fiyametta is an Italian name meaning little flame, Fiametta is also a
character in the book Oromai by Bealu Girma was an Eritrean girl associated
in romance with high ranking Ethiopian military official (Colonel Tariku)
as well as the Ethiopian journalist propaganda in chief when the Derg
Ethiopian regime set out its endless offensives one after the other through
out the 1980s in an attempt to ensure Ethiopian colonization over Eritrea
and to quash the EPLF (Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front) and also weaken
the Eritrean identity through psychological
warfare<
http://www.qienit.com/ye-zefen-dar-daru-eskista-neew-ethiopian-artists-fail-to-recognise-their-own-proverb/#>
.
In Ethiopia the character Fiameta Gilay is well known, the author talks
endlessly about her beauty in the context of
events<
http://www.qienit.com/events/>,
location and setting. Hence Ethiopians when speaking about Oromai, Fiameta
springs to their mind. The naming of the song therefore Fiameta might not
be a coincidence, but rather a cleverly thought process that in its propaganda
techniques applies a Stalinist approach from the Ethio – Soviet era and the
same attitude of psychological
warfare<
http://www.qienit.com/ye-zefen-dar-daru-eskista-neew-ethiopian-artists-fail-to-recognise-their-own-proverb/#>
against
Eritreans.
Not only that, but the song itself has been stolen from Fetsum Yohanes that
is a celebratory song of Eritrea’s independence “Merhaba Ilekhi 91”. The
arrogance of these artists has reached its peak, Teddy Afro even boldly
told Eritreans “Kemdelayey” by putting Tekle Tesfazgis song incorporating
it in his “Fiyorina” single.
Now adding to the mix we have the young breed of arrogant artist by the
name of Jacky? taking an Eritrean independence song, edit it to suit an
agenda, give it back to Eritreans in an Amaharic Lyric by totally defacing
the songs content, language and message. This in our view is disrespectful
to the people of Eritrea and goes far beyond what you would attribute as
norm.
To those that look on the surface it could almost look like a love song,
but to those that understand the history of weakening the Eritrean identity
endless questions can arise? The song sounds about love except that it has
hidden motives to it possibly aimed as a stepping-stone thereby attempting
to weaken the Eritrean political identity and when the time is right go for
an even bolder message! If you read between the lines it is clear to anyone
that this is poison well coated with honey.
Why are Eritrean women special? Why not sing for Somali women, Djibouti
women, Sudanese women, and Kenyan women? Makes you wonder why are Eritrean
women so special than the rest of Ethiopia’s neighbors?
We understand that our Eritrean women are beautiful, but the fear is that
other beautiful women across the horn of Africa, and even Ethiopian women
from other ethnic nationalities other than the Amharas don’t get too
jealous in to thinking that these songs that are being sung are for the
real glorification of Eritrean women. One says Fiyorina, Dahlak the other
says Fiameta, we would like to assure them that this is only manipulation
of winning<
http://www.qienit.com/ye-zefen-dar-daru-eskista-neew-ethiopian-artists-fail-to-recognise-their-own-proverb/#>
the
hearts and minds of Eritreans and playing with emotions in to making us say
“ooohh they like us, look they are even singing for us”. The reality is
Ethiopia has got a large military pointed at Eritrea and is occupying
sovereign Eritrean territories in defiance of international law with the
clear support and appeasement of the west.
In this instance we would like to remind those artists that the political
maturity of the Eritrean people is never to be underestimated, and it would
actually be beneficial if these artists focus on spreading that Ethiopia
and Eritrea are separate nations but can live in peace. Nonetheless these
sorts of efforts only serve in creating further distrust amongst the
Eritrean population.
If these artists thought they got away with the unsuspecting means of
psychological warfare<
http://www.qienit.com/ye-zefen-dar-daru-eskista-neew-ethiopian-artists-fail-to-recognise-their-own-proverb/#>
we
would like to remind them another of their own Amaharic proverb that goes;
*“Ye-Begu Latt Yewedkal Belo, Kebero Ye-Begun Kitt Siketel Wale” *which
roughly translates as*“Thinking that the fatty tail of the sheep will fall
down, the fox followed the Sheep all day!”*
Once again advocating coexistence is not a bad idea too, but in our view
Ethiopian artists if they have good intentions we suggest that they use
their artistic efforts are better directed to the Ethiopian wider
population educating and thereby nullifying entrenched anti Eritrean
sentiments to those still that advocate war against Eritrea and those that
have the wish of reversing Eritrean independence who still dream of Mama
Ethiopia with Eritrea inside it.
There is no need to put the cart before the horse, perhaps if they have run
out of ideas a good place to start would be the illegal occupation of
Ethiopian occupation of sovereign Eritrean territories.
This sorts of manipulation however does not simply mushroom the Ethiopian
regime itself while occupying sovereign Eritrean territories plays the
victim.
In a recent interview conducted with President Isaias Afeworki, when asked
about rumors of peace and mediation between Ethiopia and Eritrea the
president noted that “this is only a PR stunt designed to manipulate
opinions and to make Eritrea look like the Devil and give the image of an
Angel to Ethiopia.”
The president also went on to elaborate, that “the aim of disseminating
these sort of rumors and manipulative statements is to get the upper hand
of PR, and is nothing but a kids game that goes in circles, and our ears
are deafened by this old record.” President Isaias further noted that “they
might have been good in manipulating us in the past, but now because we
have gained too much from it we can never be mistaken by it, and the PR
game that they are playing will not benefit them.”
He also expressed that he sometimes feels sorry for them, the President
went to ask, “who are they trying to fool? Why are they wasting their time?
What kind of benefit are they going to get from it? There is no one who
doesn’t know them even if they try to disguise as much as they can, these
sort of efforts will only help waste their time, otherwise for us it can
not trap us or derail us from the path we are following.”
In conclusion Ethiopian artists taking Eritrean music and
art<
http://www.tesfanews.net/talentless-tigrayans-copying-eritrean-art/>
is a clear testament giving
credit<
http://www.qienit.com/ye-zefen-dar-daru-eskista-neew-ethiopian-artists-fail-to-recognise-their-own-proverb/#>
to
Eritrean artists that they have the upper hand, and the shining quality of
their work has the pioneering and dominating effect to it.
It also shows the tone of Ethiopian artists as well is not that of their
forefathers that spelled force and violence against Eritreans. This might
possibly give a hint in to some lessons being learnt of futile Ethiopia’s
military adventures, and as some might interpret it as a confession of past
and current crime that is being committed against Eritreans by successive
Ethiopian regimes.
Whatever its intentions it has also got an undeniable commercial twist to
it, designed to attract Eritrean revelers to boost their
income<
http://www.qienit.com/ye-zefen-dar-daru-eskista-neew-ethiopian-artists-fail-to-recognise-their-own-proverb/#>
through
concert and CD sales. Nonetheless since this has become a trend nothing new
can come out of it, as it is a repeat that lacks creativity with no
original content or idea. Therefore there is nothing to say that our ears
have been deafened with this tired old record, and say please don’t waste
your time.
Finally our message is that peace and love both require prerequisites such
as respect to ones cultural values, identity, sovereign territorial
integrity, and good intention free from ulterior motives. When these
prerequisites are fulfilled not only can the two countries enjoy music
collaborations, but also everyone can expect and enjoy enhanced cooperation
and good relations between people and government.
Stealing Eritrean talent goes back decades and in due course QieNit will
publish a research on the history of Eritrean music and artists.
Received on Wed Apr 23 2014 - 12:45:41 EDT
