Gibe III Dam and the New Lords of Tribes

Tsegaye Tegenu

March 10, 2011

In a feudal society a lord was a person of high rank who owned a vast amount of land and controlled vassals. The lord gave land to the vassal in return for military services and collected the produce from the land and the labor of the serfs living on the land. The serf was literally a land slave. He was allowed to work three days of a week on a piece of land to maintain his family and the days of the week the serf was compelled to work on the estate of his lord along with other fellow serfs. Not only they tilled the land of the lord, but serfs were forced to move together whenever the lord changed his estate. Serfs toiled free, cultivating the soil and herding the livestock of the lord. Serfs were held down legally and economically to feed lords. Because of the shortage of agricultural labor, feudal lords fought hard for the existence of serfdom as an institution. In a modern world, we may think that we are free from serfdom. But that is an illusion.

There are agencies such as the International Rivers and Survival International which are acting as lords of tribes.

These two organization claim to protect and defend the lives of tribes and the rivers on which they depend. The use of the term tribe, a racist connotation used in association with animalistic ritual, is not my own invention. You can read it from their websites and writings. These two organizations make their living in the name of tribes, a new untapped niche. Since reading their material makes me feel lost those hours forever, I do not oblige myself to provide evidences that they are the new lords of tribes. Those of us living among and working with some of them, knows them very well who they are and why they “defend tribes and the rivers”. No need to lower to level of squabbles. The International Rivers and Survival International, among others, insult our knowledge by launching a concerted effort to “Stop Gebi 3 Dam”. The new lords of tribes wanted to decide on our fate like their feudal cousins. They went long in their efforts to the extent of hiring free lance Egyptian journalists as vassals. When seeing this situation an ancient Chinese proverb comes to mind. The proverb or curse says “May You Live in Interesting Times”. It reminds two things: first, many things are not always as they seem, and second, one observes events that one never expects.

We Ethiopians should think independently. We should prevent ourselves from falling into the trap of our enemies. We already know that we have electric power shortages and our demands are growing as the country urbanizes. There are more that 928 towns begetting industrialization, shopping centers, television sets, etc. Our per capita electricity consumption is the lowest in the world. The new lords of tribes are doing their level best to make us live in the dark. Gibe III is not only a genius solution to our power shortsge, it is also our pride. Do not let them enserf you.