The HIV/AIDS Issue

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HIV/ AIDS in Mother Africa, in Mother Ethiopia

By: Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin

The names of Africa and Ethiopia are both Mother-symbols or Matriarchal names. Derived from the ancient Egyptian Kushitic word Afa-Ra-Ka, the original name of Afrika is an Ethiopic noun, as in the name of the pre-Axumite civilization of Yeka (YeHa/ 2600 B.C.), or the modern name of Yeka Mikael meaning God’s Angel Michael. Also the depiction of the Afrika name, as in the Amharic word Afer means Earth and soil, or as in the Oromifa word Afa, means Earth and all the plants that grow on it, and as in the Afar name in the Afar language means Sun King of Earth. Fa-Ra-An (Pharoan, Fereon) means "I am the Sun King of Earth." Fa-Ra-Ka-An (Farakan) means, "I am the Sun King and God of Earth," etc. In the original black Egyptian Kushitic term, Afa is the Planet Earth. Ra is the Sun King, and Ka is the name of God; therefore Afa-Ra-Ka means the "Earth of Sun King and God." Ra is depicted as the male figure: Afa is depicted as the female figure, the Mother Earth. Thus in anthropological terms, both Africa and Ethiopia are very ancient, Matriarchal and Fertility Earth Mothers.

To the sad list of humiliating, subjugating and unfortunate events destroying the history of Mother Africa, such as colonialism, the slave trade, wars of tribalistic genocides, nepotic leadership of her new politicians and exploitation of her resources by Western powers, is now added the new weapon of biological annihilation called HIV/AIDS.

Today, according to world statisticians, there are three million carriers, terminally infected or dead Ethiopians from the HIV/AIDS disease. Ethiopia has the third largest HIV/AIDS infected population in the world. Here is a short poem written in the context of the above paragraphs, where a young Ethiopian boy, a victim of HIV/AIDS, a few hours before he departs to his grave asks his mother the question: "Who is responsible for my birth, for my despicable suffering, and for my earthly death?" "Mother " in this sense could therefore be three-dimensional: his own maternal (biological) mother, Mother Africa or Mother Ethiopia (Adbar).

last request

my village (mender) given name is "AidseNaw" or Mr. HIV/AIDS
as i depart for my own hole in the ground,
"Mother," i ask, "who is responsible
for my abominable suffering on earth
which i call the life of a young plant (chigiN)
carelessly cut down here in hell?"
answer my question please!
it’s the last request of a dying Lij
the dollar is the religion of the powerful
whereas my religion remains the "Fear of God,"
the God that takes care of his own,
please answer my question before i depart!
i am the uglified, scarified mask of death
with a plastic bag put over my head,
my arms and fingers are dead,
i cannot take the mask away
since i swallowed the death called HIV/AIDS
(the little virgin (dingil) girl who, with her tender heart, touched me
for the first time ever and for the last time too
is banished to the sacred water dungeon of Gordoma gorge
where her father put on her the curse of the ancestors
and the iron hand and foot chains as well
on top of her abominable suffering,
so that she will not be able to escape and visit me
before we both depart to our separate grave holes.)
now in the presence of my dearest mother
who most loves and most despises me at the same time
i am excommunicated by our family’s soul father (nefs Abat),
carelessly condemned into the next hell
while i am still burning in this hell on earth
and the soul father’s holy water (Tebel) is wasted on me.
while i am half dead and not at all alive
the heart wrenching whispers of my sisters and brothers
silently curse me for the shame i brought upon the family
and their weeping eyes that used to really care for me
are now tearing and silently degrading my spirit into nothingness
and my apparition on which is now my real face
hurts, shutters and scares them away from me,
as my family and soul father exchange confused glances
my mother, my idol, my most beloved
cautiously shrink-wraps my presence into a dead silence
and my existence, she carelessly tarnishes into the cold dust hole.
my village (mender) given name is "AidseNaw" or Mr. HIV/AIDS
as i depart for my own hole in the ground,
"Mother," i ask, "who is responsible
for my abominable suffering on earth
which i call the life of a young plant (chigiN)
carelessly cut down here in hell?"
answer my question please!
it’s the last request of a dying Lij

Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin, HPL

New York, November 10, 2001