I just came across the speech of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, dated April 21, 2013, which he delivered at the second TANA HIGH LEVEL FORUM BOARD.  Despite that the press release could have used some competent editing (Like catching the President’s name in lower case) the message conveyed is crystal clear.

To those unsuspecting presidential handlers, the symbolic importance of Tana Lake as the venue of the conference must have eluded them.  Alas, Tana Lake is the symbol of the defiant and triumphant Christian Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa. .  To showcase the epicenter of Christianity in the Horn of Africa to the President of Somalia is not only a cultural but also political statement.

Cultural Symbolism of Tana Lake

To the Ethiopian host of the conference, Prime Minister Haile Mariam Desalegn, the symbolism of organizing this annual gathering for friends of Ethiopia has both local and regional symbolism.

Tana Lake (Tana Hayq in Amharic) is to Ethiopia what the city of Mecca is to Muslims.  As much as Mecca houses the most relished shrines and religious relics of Islam, Tana Lake equally houses key religious symbols of Ethiopia’s pervasive Orthodox Church.

Tana Lake is and has always been within the core region of Christian Ethiopia.  Whereas Aksum has been the Tigrray region’s focal point, Tana Lake has been the single most important religious center of the Amhara civilization. As such, through a ferry system that traverses the Lake, it is connected to Bahir Dahar, the admnistrative seat of the Amhara regional government.  The Lake itself houses as many as 35 islands and numerous monasteries.

Some of the most revered monasteries in Ethiopia’s Orthodox Church, like the tomb of King Zara Ya Qob, 1399–1468 or the Church of Madhana Alam, are both located in one or another of the many Islands in the Lake.   King Zara Ya Qob is the most intelligent and well admired King in Ethiopian history, while Madhana Alam is most celebrated and perhaps most popular saint.

Prior to being moved to an Aksum located monastery, the Ark of Covenant was once housed here in Tana Lake. According to Graham Hancock, the author of “The Sign and the Seal,” the location of the Ark of Covenant is so secretive (only known by one priest at any given time) that the Israel Mosad, whose desire is to house the relic in a Jewish synagogue, has after many decades of searching it finally gave it up.

Another equally important symbolic message that the Somali President must have subliminally digested in is that the Tana Lake area represents a history where the struggle of Imam Ahmed Alkhzali (Ahmed Guray as known by Somalis) was decisively defeated.  In the Ethiopian view point, Tana Lake is the crescendo of the Orthodox Church in the Horn of Africa.

Political Symbolism

Tana Lake is the most important source of the Nile.  Because of the dark and fertile soil Ethiopian tributaries emanating from Tana Lake and elsewhere contribute to the Nile, that portion of the Nile inside Ethiopia is called Blue Nile – as in Blue Nile that is rich in alluvial soil.  Experts of the Ethio-Egyptian politics main that Egypt’s agriculture would have heavily suffered had it not been the sediments carried and transported by the Blue Nile from Tana Lake and elsewhere in Ethiopia.

The Tana Lake conference, attended a couple of leader who are historically admirers of Ethiopia since the establishment of the Organization for African Unity (OAU), came only days after Eritria’s dictator, Mr. Essayas Afwerke, accorded his unwavering support for Egypt in its long entanglement with Ethiopia over the Nile water. In exchange, the Eritrean Ministry of Information   reported that “the Egyptian Prime Minister welcomed fostering collaboration with Eritrea. In this respect, he stressed the need for Eritrea to maintain full membership in the organization of the Nile River Littoral States so that it may play effective role.”

In light of President Hassan’s religious roots (Dum-Aljadid sect) and the alleged charge that his election was bankrolled by about $2 million dollars that was quickly delivered by Arab countries to his election effort in August of 2012, one is faced with this question: Is President Hassan Sheikh a friend of Egypt’s government run by the victorious Muslim Brotherhood or that of his neighbor?  Was it so crucial for him to attend this conference? Was he being hosted or hoaxed at Tana Lake, the symbol of Ethiopia’s Orthodox Church?

Either way, it is obvious that the President was not briefed beyond his travel itinerary, perhaps the busiest travel schedule of any President; He may not have been educated  on the cultural and political symbolism of him being hosted, to some hoaxed, at the TANA conference.

One surmises that part of the objective why Ethiopia’s Prime Minister decided to bring President Hassan last minute to Tana could be to have the later pay tribute and homage to Ethiopia’s supremacy in the region.  This hypothesis is plausible especially when one looks at what Ethiopian feudal lords for century called the practice of ‘dhaji tinad,” or paying tribute to the Lord. In this concept, peasants must show deference to the lord in accepting an invitation by the lord, and then remain gracious to wait until received.

If nothing else, the President’s visit to Tana Lake, the seat of Christianity in the Horn of Africa, was the ultimate “dhaji tinad” the Somali President delivered, and Ethiopian leaders could not have been happier.

The Crux of the President’s Speech

President’s Hassan’s speech at the TANA HIGH LEVEL FORUM (press release dated April 21, 2013) could be read as the first official bowing down of the President of Somalia to the lords of the Horn of Africa (Ethiopian leaders).  That sentiment is aptly captured by the endearing words of “dhaji tinaad,” or homage to the lords:

“I am delighted to pay my tribute and great admiration to the champion and the biggest advocate to peace and stability in Africa in general and in this region in particular, the late Prime Minister of Ethiopia, H.E. Meles Zenewi.”

Paying this significant tribute to the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi comes at an opportune time when the 9 regional administrations of Ethiopia are all building their own version of a memorial monument epitomizing the “great leadership” of the late PM Meles Zenawi.  President Hassan verbally echoed what has so far been confined only to Ethiopians.  A monument for PM Meles in Mogadishu for his “championing peace in the region” could possibly earn the late Meles Zenawi a “peace statue” in the breeze beach side of Mogadishu’s Cambo Amxaro (traditional Ethiopian neighborhood in pre-civil war Mogadishu).

To the current Prime Minister, who publicly humiliated President Hassan in his previous trips the later paid to Addis Ababa, the tribute was equally noticeable:

“I am particularly indebted to Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn who offered (italics is my emphasis) me to participate for the first time in this Forum.”

It irks many Somalis to see their President using a language normally expected from a Junior High School student who is expressing unbounded gratitude to being invited to a youth club.  A seasoned presidential speech writer could have re-written the above phrase something akin to the following: “We are graced to be amongst you and make our contribution to this conference………”

The most hypocritical portion of the President’s speech was captured by this sentence: “Africa must have the courage to say Crime is a Crime whatever elements it involves, it has no justification, and we have to combat it once and for all both intellectually and militarily in a unified manner.”

The President is not in sync with his previous dismissive attitude towards those Somalis who feel wronged in the 1991 civil war in favor of criminals.  In one of his speeches, the President triumphantly said: “One’s moryan” (criminal/looter and killer) “is another’s liberator,” implying that those who committed crimes against humanity in the 1991 Mogadishu civil war are not criminals but liberator of Mogadishu.

The unfiltered visit of President Hassan to Tana Lake is an indication of three things: (1) He finally comes around to bow down to the lords of the Horn of Africa, (2) His handlers are mostly uninitiated in diplomacy and served him poorly, and (3) the President seems not to have a vision but makes his policy decisions by the fly.  Unfortunately, that is not the path to reconstructing Somalia’s failed state.

Faisal A. Roble
Email: faisalroble19@gmail.com
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