The Return of Zera Yacob
Centuries ago, a man sought truth in a cave by the Takkaze River in Ethiopia. His name was Zera Yacob, and he believed light could be found within, not imposed from without. If his spirit walked among us now, he might not speak of faith or empire, but of clarity. Let us imagine he walks among us now:
If I were to speak to Ethiopia today, I would first ask: what happened to the inner light? We traded it for megaphones. Everyone wants to shout for their people, their side, their God — and no one listens for the quiet truth that binds us.
When I was alive, priests and foreigners fought to own our souls. Now it’s corporations and superpowers fighting to own our debts.
The missionaries have only changed their flags. They still come preaching salvation, only now it’s in the language of development loans and security partnerships.
Tribe against tribe, religion against religion: this is the same fever that drove me into the cave. I learned there that truth is not the property of any camp. The man who loves his people more than justice will soon spill his brother’s blood in their name.
Independence is not about armies or borders. It is the courage to think with your own head while still feeling the pulse of humanity in your chest. To depend on the West for direction is to repeat the error of the past; to look outward for what was always within.
Reason, to me, was not cold calculation. It was the bridge between heart and cosmos. It demands discipline, doubt, and humility — three things politics rarely tolerate. Yet without them, the nation becomes a quarrel with a flag.
If I could advise my descendants, I would tell them: build the state on conscience, not creed. Question all masters, foreign or local. Let no man’s tribe or theology speak louder than his sense of right and wrong.
For if we forget the inner light, no constitution will save us. The empire may change its shape, but the chains will stay the same.