WHAT IS WRONG WITH FILM MAKER HAILE GERIMA

OF DEMONS, CHARLATANS AND RREVISIONISTS

WHAT IS WRONG WITH CINEASTE HAILE GERIMA?

By KASSAHUN

First of all, let me get rid off the notion that the artist/the intellectual in a given society is/can be apolitical, uninvolved, non partisan. To quote an authority (as this seems to please certain quarters) let me cite the late and very committed intellectual, Edward Said, who wrote: (in Representation of the Intellectual, page 110)

"Every intellectual whose métier is articulating and representing specific views, ideas, ideologies, logically aspires to making them work in a society. The intellectual who claims to write only for him or herself, or for the sake of pure learning, or abstract science is not to be, and must not be, believed. As the great Twentieth century writer Jean Genet once said, the moment you publish essays (or make and distribute films--K) in a society you have entered political life; so if you want not to be political do not write essays or speak out" (or make films--K).

Famous Ethiopian film maker, Haile Gerima, often claims to be "beyond or outside" of politics. He is royally mistaken if he is talking honestly. For, the film maker dabbles in politics big time though he does so in a bad or wrong way. A renowned film maker, his most famous film (Samoa) deals with the slave trade and racism and in many interviews he has made it clear the issue of racism affects him deeply. So be it. His latest film, Teza (which has won some international awards) deals with Ethiopia and again with the question of racism, displacement and alienation. Haile Gerima says he knows little or nothing about the Red Terror but both in Teza and previously in another film chronicling his return to Ethiopia after the fall of the Derg regime he had to deal with it in his own way, with prejudice and a practical disservice to the martyrs and those still bearing the scars.

And here is where some of us have been forced to come in, to raise our voices in defense of our own history, to safeguard the memory of the martyrs, to honor our brave and steadfast comrades who sacrificed their dear lives or endured atrocities for the sake of their country and people. And in the process to commit lese majesty as some of these elements consider it a crime to utter even a mild word of criticism against them (of course having been out in the rain so often I am not that scared of such admonitions). It must be admitted that there is presently a fierce revisionist campaign being waged by a variety of forces to denigrate that generation that struggled against the imperial and the totalitarian military regimes for the sake of democratic change. The campaign is on but the commanders have different motives--some are covering up their criminal roles, others shamed by their cowardice and betrayal in those trying times and dishonorably attacking those who dared to fight, the present power holders who took part in the Red Terror and who have never ceased campaigning against the organization (EPRP) that was targeted by the bloody repression, the nostalgic of the old regime who hold that generation responsible for the demise of their paradise. Haile Gerima can situate himself in one of these categories that I refer to as demons, charlatans and revisionists for he has not ceased, by film and words, from attacking the generation that fought for change, a fight in which he did not take part in any direct and meaningful way.

Haile Gerima told the Addis Abeba based FOCUS magazine (no 7, Jan-Feb 2009) "I don't even know what the Red Terror was all about". Admitting ignorance could have been one first useful step towards enlightenment but alas, no. Teza carries scenes that depict the Red Terror time but in a non factual way much as that Ethio-Canadian writer whose alleged memoir read as bad fiction and who lied that the EPRP would approach to recruit you and if you declined they just shot you point blanc. Haile recently told a New York Times interviewer the following: "I am from a generation that genuinely wanted a better society and to do something for poor and oppressed people, but which got blinded and lost and turned against its own humanity to become the opposite of what we wanted to be.” Haile says he is 64 years old and he sure is (age wise) from that generation but that does not mean he is of that generation that struggled for change. He stayed for more than 40 years in America and his involvement in the struggle of that generation, if any, was only peripheral, especially if we consider the period of the Red Terror and what followed. Haile told the same Focus interviewer " Oh ya, (I hate politics) because politics is an art of deception; all politicians are liars". As the Edward Said quote aptly explains if Haile makes film and thus makes politics and thereby his claim to hate politics is empty talk. I hate politics is by itself a political position/stand. Secondly, Haile claimed in the same FOCUS interview that he had not done "any Red Terror movie" (I actually think he has touched upon it at least in two films) because, in his own words, "First, I don't know the Red Terror and (second) I have not done it because it is not my experience." (Of course Haile says right after this he would like to make films about Lij Eyasu, Zerai Deres, love story of Menelik and Taytu--experiences he lived through perhaps!)

That generation genuinely wanted a better society and laid its own life for the emancipation of the poor and the oppressed. The commitment was not verbal, nor was it from afar. As Walelign and Tsegaye Gebre Medhin (aka Debteraw) wrote in the early seventies that generation knew that "the enemy of the Ethiopian people cannot come to Madison Garden for a fifteen rounds bout" and so the generation did not flee but confronted the beast in its own lair, i.e. in Ethiopia. An experience that was not lived through in any way by the film maker. But that generation did not get blinded and lost and did not at any point in time turn against its humanity. That each generation gets its own share of monsters and sycophants is almost a natural law but the generation that fought for change in Ethiopia did not lose its humanity or commitment to the cause of the people. It did not shrink from the sacrifice that the struggle called for, did not hide on an Amba or in foreign refuge claiming I hate politics. It was there with and amidst the people, living their fear and dying their death and dreaming their dreams and hopes. It just did not want "something" for the poor and the oppressed--it wanted their total liberation, their sovereignty. There were those who betrayed their vows but they never represented a generation and Haile's generalization not only errs but does injustice to a generation that history emulates. Such false premises and mistaken conclusions tar his films, especially the last one Teza.

The ongoing revision of History has targeted that generation that consciously and genuinely fought for change, defaming it in one way or another and trying to depict it as non Ethiopian. It is as if that generation turned against its culture and history while in actual fact that generation championed the history of resistance and fierce love for the country. What the revisionists actually chafe at is the fact that generation rose firmly against the injustice and oppression, the blind worship of temporal and absolute power, harmful traditions, oppression of women, bowing to the ferenji or the colonizer and in this way launched an upheaval, a revolution as it were, to end the feudal system and the autocracy. And, consequently also, to end the brutal military rule under whose boots many intellectual worms sought false refuge and comfort. Hence, the attack against that generation, the chorus against the vision and ideology of change, the championing of conservatism and conformism under the guise of being modern, aware, "siltun", the proliferation of scribes of modern Darkness at Noon stories, and of eulogies for capitalism and new breed oppressors, and in the final instance the recourse to reaction under the cover of rediscovering oneself, one's "true" identity, history and culture. One relives the Zemene Mesafint through Article 39, the ugly past is embraced wholly and as was, and the fiery Maoist becomes a hard line Copt, a weeping Pente or a bearded Wahabist, or even a monarchist to boot. We have seen it all but then again all this has nothing to do with that generation and much to do with those who rile and fume against the generation that genuinely struggled for meaningful change and got short-circuited by despots and tyrants.

Judgment without knowledge ends up as garbage. If Ato Haile Gerima has turned against his humanity then he has himself to blame in the first place. That generation was not blinded, was not lost, did know where it was going, was fully aware of its goals (not just "something for the poor"!) and more importantly was clear on the sacrifice needed to achieve it. And it did pay the ultimate sacrifice. So, a little bit of respect please. Ato Haile should follow his own advice and talk of things he knows about and make films on subjects he is not ignorant of. Otherwise, so long as we continue to breathe and exist we shall raise our pens and voices to defend the memory of the generation that cried "Away with all Pests" and bravely assaulted the fortresses of cowardice, philistinism, tyranny and oppression.