*Professor Amdetsion was among those highly educated Eritreans of the
post-war period. He was a Professor of Statistics at Howard University,
one of the historic institutions that cultivated outstanding
African-Americans like Ambassador Andrew Young including some Africans
who were a driving forces in inspiring and liberating their people from
colonial rule.*
*
Professor Amdetsion as I knew him then, was an ardent, humble and
prolific scholar. He was a frequent contributor in Dehai forum and other
Eritrean websites. As a decent man-of-letters, he reviewed my book:
“Antigone” by Sophocles both in English and Tigrigna languages. I am
very grateful to him for encouraging me to keep writing in this
fast-moving society we live in. For all this, I didn’t see him in
person, but we had occasional conversations on the phone.*
*
Professor Amdetsion was the author of two books one being “Tragedy and
Sorrow” pertaining to the event of September 11. The slim book covers a
very painful and memorable poems written by the families and friends of
those innocent Americans who lost their precious lives in man-made
inferno. The other book is in Tigrigna “**እኹል****መለበሚ**” explaining the
impact of succeeding foreign domination on a typical Eritrean woman who
ended up in exile with her entire family.*
*
Of course, a cessation of life is a common denominator that we, mortals
could not have a dominion over its divine entity. But his literary opus,
and contributions in the Eritrean mass organization during the struggle
years would endure for ever.*
**
*May he rest in peace.*
*Following is one of the poems composed by Professor Amdetsionin a
memoirof those poor souls who lost their lives in the aftermath ofuntold
human crime:-*
*
*
*“Why Does Man Inflict Hurt?”*
**
**
*The question “why”*
*Has lingered in my mind,*
*Why since time immemorial*
*Man has been unkind to a fellow man*
*As Cain was to his brother Abel?*
*Philosophers of the world*
*Enlighten me*
*With convincing explanation*
*Why man concocts evil act*
*On a fellow being so senselessly*
*As happened so recently.*
*The questions are still lingering in my mind*
*Tormenting me inside searching for an answer*
*Why man kills his fellow being?*
*And inflict sorrow on the bereaved?*
*By robbing him/her of earthly possessions?*
*And leaving him/her great hardship*
*I know for sure*
*Killing will not help him live longer*
*As the years he dispossessed others do not belong to him*
*Robbing other will not make him richer either*
*And smearing a fellow being’s personality*
*Will not add to his dignity?*
*Wise men of the world,*
*Greeks, Romans, Chinese and Hindus,*
*And of other nationalities wherever you may be*
*Explain to me with convincing philosophy*
*Why man hates, deprives and kills*
*Denying the right of his fellow being to live*
*Enlighten me with your proven wisdom*
*Why evil triumphs and becomes the norm.*
**
**
*Source:- Kidane, Amdetsion (2002). Tragedy and Sorrow. Page 22-23.*
**
**
*Haile Bokure*
Received on Mon May 09 2016 - 20:34:19 EDT