For those who were excluded and marginalised under his rule, Zenawi is the symbolic personification of a tyrannical system that violently quashed their desire for freedom and justice.
Still for others, he is a complex figure that condenses within himself the qualities of a political genius and a seasoned dictator. Two years on, the spectre of Zenawi hangs over the Ethiopian state. His name, his policies, and his visions still provide the cement that keeps together the ideological edifices of the Ethiopian state. His successors elevate him to a pure symbol, take pride in and identify with his legacies. The constant invocation of Zenawi by regime officials gives the impression that the entire social and political order of the state is predicated on the image and imagery of a single man.
Zenawi now belongs to the archives. In archives, we see the random elements and the minute details of our identity. Archives are not just about remembering and understanding the past. In fact, at stake in every recounting of the past is not the past as such; it is the future. The archive: if we want to know what that will have meant, we will only know in times to come.
But archives are contested spaces: They not only conserve but also produce and reproduce. Far from being neutral voids in which facts and events are placed, archives are active agents that participate in the production and reproduction of meaning. For every archive, there are counter-archives. For every narrative, there are counter-narratives. The most notable eulogy was delivered by then US Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, who depicted a rather erudite and progressive image of Zenawi.
Meles Zenawi, the cerebral ruler of Ethiopia for the last 21 years, is a man with many reputations. Celebrated by donors as a visionary philosopher-king who has brought development to his impoverished country of 75 million people, his domestic critics have condemned him as an iron-fisted dictator.
Meles, now 57, came to power in after his Tigray People's Liberation Front waged a successful war, alongside the Eritrean People's Liberation Front, that toppled the dictatorship of the Soviet-backed Mengistu Haile Mariam. The new leader strongly supported Eritrea's independence in , but within five years the former allies were fighting a bloody conflict that lasted between and and resulted in nearly , deaths.
Matters were not all peaceful at home either. In , when the opposition won all 23 seats in Addis Ababa in parliamentary elections, the regime reacted harshly, killing protesters and locking up 30, opponents. Some were later tried for treason. Five years later, continued repression — including a clampdown on the media and foreign-funded NGOs, as well as a draconian anti-terrorism bill — combined with a divided opposition to ensure that his ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front won More opposition arrests followed these polls.
In fact, at stake in every recounting of the past is not the past as such; it is the future. The archive: if we want to know what that will have meant, we will only know in times to come. But archives are contested spaces: They not only conserve but also produce and reproduce. Far from being neutral voids in which facts and events are placed, archives are active agents that participate in the production and reproduction of meaning.
For every archive, there are counter-archives. For every narrative, there are counter-narratives. The most notable eulogy was delivered by then US Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, who depicted a rather erudite and progressive image of Zenawi. He was uncommonly wise. For the last two decades, Ethiopia consistently ranked as one of the most repressive states in the world.
Rice exploits the grandeur of US power and its enunciating force to rework the history of repression and torture. However, history cannot remain reworked.
There is a secret agreement between past generations and the present one. Our coming was expected on earth.
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