When I saw the following piece of news, datelined October 21, Dar es Salaam from AFP's report of Mailumu's state funeral under the headline "World pays tribute to Nyerere at state funeral," my immediate reaction was one of concern that it might trigger an undesired crisis in the complexed psyche of the Weyane elite. The part of the news that got me concerned is this one:

The guests of honour were: Princess Anne, representing Great Britain, Prince Aga Khan, Presidents Daniel arap Moi of Kenya, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Joachim Chissano of Mozambique, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Jerry Rawlings of Ghana, Martti Ahtisaari of Finland representing the European Union, Frederick Chiluba of Zambia, Sam Nujoma of Namibia, Bakili Muluzi of Malawi, Pasteur Bizimungu of Rwanda, ISSAIAS AFEWORKI [sic] OF ERITREA, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Pierre Buyoya of Burundi and Colonel Assoumani Azali of the Comoros.

Ethiopia, which has been at war with its neighbour Eritrea since May 1998, was represented by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, WHO WALEKED DIRECTLY BEHIND AFEWORKI [sic] IN THE PROCESSION. [emphasis added]

Reading the part about Meles Zenawi "walk[ing] directly behind Afeworki," I cringed at the Tanzanian officials inadvertent gaffe in their arrangement of the viewing procession of heads of state and government. To a severely inferiority-complexed mind like that of the Weyane elite, nothing can be more offensive and graver insult than to be lined up behind Eritrea. To add further insult to this injury, it also doesn't help that Meles Zenawi is a vertically challenged midget compared to the tall Isaias Afewerki, who would be towering all over him. I wish the Tanzanian officials had been more perceptive about the Weyane psychological debilitation and put Meles Zenawi ahead of Isaias Afewerki in this solemn procession. Perhaps with such an arrangement and the spirit of Pan-African fraternal solidarity, which Mwalimu advocated throughout his life, the Weyane's severe case of inferiority complex would have then been eased to make them more amenable to peace.

As Dr. Asgede Hagos highlighted in his recent Open Letter to Ayte Sebhat Negga (the founder and father figure of the Weyane) under the title "TPLF's Politics of Hate and its "Rwandazation" of the Horn" Tigrai's minority elite is now playing with the dangerous fire of ethno-nationalism in the form of "ethnic baiting," which "once set in motion, has a life of its own" and may end up in tragic consequences which will definitely take generations to heal. Another perceptive analysis elucidating Weyane's psychological malady is a recent article by Dr. Tekie Fessehatzion titled "Meanness Without A Name." It is my opinion that the Weyane not only suffers from inferiority complex but also from another psychological disorder called Oedipus Complex. This disease of the mind generates in the unconscious of the afflicted son a desire to kill his father in order to possess his mother. The Weyane Oedipal elite view the EPLF (and in particular President Isaias Afewerki) as the dominating father figure and Eritrea as the woman/mother to be possessed by slaying the father figure. How else can one explain their extreme hysterical obsession with President Isaias and with "teaching Eritrea a lesson it can't forget"? How else can such "meanness without a name" be rationalized as the news of today's (Oct. 22) deportation of 1,300 Eritrean by the minority regime in Ethiopia through the dangerous war zone of the Bure front?

Eighteen months into Weyane's senseless and needles war against Eritrea, I have come to the conclusion that virulent Tigrayan ethno-nationalism as espoused by the Weyane, has grown out of severe inferiority complex, bred by comparison with Eritrean nationalism and also with the Amhara/Abyssinian nationalism in the Ethiopian empire. In the eyes of the Weyane, Tigray has always been backward and degraded by these two peoples, and there are two ways to remedy what the likes of Sibhat Negga, Gebru Asrat, Abay Tsehaye of the Weyane perceive as "Tigra's historical humiliation." First, Tigrayan nationalism must be built on the restoration ancient glory of the Axumite Empire (in this they conveniently forget that Ancient Axum belongs as much to Tigray as it would to Eritrea). But more importantly GREATER TIGRAI of the times of Mikael Sihul, Wubie, Kahsai Mrcha (later Yohaness IV) and Alula "The Plunderer", must be restored for Tigrayans so they can to feel as complete human beings and as equals of, if not superior to, say, the Eritreans. This is the kind of etno- (racial) nationalism that bred murderous regimes like that of Hitler's Nazis and the Boers' Apartheid regime of South Africa. The only way that such ethno-nationalists can feel vindicated is by inflicting reverse humiliation and defeat on those they wish to replace as "superior race" or "superior ethnic group." Thus the Weyane's extreme hatred of the Amharas up to the time it instigated the current war against Eritrea.

A prominent Weyane official once on his visit to Eritrea told a friend of mine that the Weyane's mandate in Ethiopia above everything else is to crush once and for all the Amhara's Chauvinism. Mind you, he didn't say their mandate was the democratization or development of Ethiopia, or the advancement or industrialization of previously neglected, under-developed and oppressed regions like Tigrai, but THE CRUSHING ONCE AND FOR ALL OF AMHARA CHAUVINISTS! In a farcical reverse of irony, less than a yea later, the Weyane's favorite bogeyman, the Amharas, were conveniently replace by Eritrea and we are witnessing meanness and hatred towards Eritreans of such extremity that it makes you wonder at the degree of debilitating inferiority complex that the Weyane elite suffers from.

It is this severe case of inferiority complex, above considerations of power politics and survival, that renders the Weyane rejection of peace and preparation of war an inevitable consequence. And it is also what makes the task of OAU's and Lake's team of mediators all the more difficult. They must not only be astute diplomats and politicians, but also well endowed in the art of psychotherapy, psychoanalysis and ego massaging.

Weyane inferiority complex or not, however, this ordeal will pass, Eritrea will prevail and the special fraternal bond between the Eritrean and Tigrean people will once again be restored.

Elias Amare Gebrezgheir
zebhier_iertra@hotmail.com