The Untold Story of Ethiopians in Cuba

The Untold Story of Ethiopians in Cuba

Aida Muluneh (Courtesy photo)

Tadias Magazine
By Tadias Staff

Updated: Sunday, August 10, 2008

New York (Tadias) – In 1979, under Lieutenant Colonel Mengistu Haile-Mariam, the Ethiopian government sent thousands of Ethiopian children to Cuba to be educated. Cuba, an ally of Ethiopia in the Ethio-Somali war, offered housing and education for war orphans. The Cuban government accepted 2,400 Ethiopian students, aged seven to fourteen, to study at Escuelas Secundarias Basicas en el Campo (basic rural secondary schools) – on the small island of Isla de la Juventud.

The following is an interview from our archive with photographer Aida Muluneh, who is filming a documentary about their lives in Cuba.

Tadias: How did you become interested in the “Ethio-Cuban” story?

Aida: I went to a group photo exhibit in Havana in 2003 and prior to my trip I had heard about the Ethiopian students in Cuba. After searching for them, I finally met around 30 students who had been in Cuba for over twenty years. It was an amazing experience meeting these fellow Ethiopians. I soon realized that I had to come back. So in 2004, I went back and begun interviewing them to start telling their story and also to help them get out of Cuba.

Tadias: Why haven’t they left Cuba? And why haven’t they returned to Ethiopia?

Aida: They have had the opportunity to leave Cuba and return to Ethiopia; however they have no means of supporting themselves in a country they left twenty years ago. There is no incentive for them to go back to Ethiopia and resettle because life would be just as difficult, if not worse in Ethiopia. As for other countries i.e. Europe or North America, the remaining student just recently qualified for their UN refugee number. This basically means that they can get in line for a chance to immigrate to those countries.

Tadias: This was a coordinated effort between the Cuban and Ethiopian governments. What efforts did Cuba make to help Ethiopian immigrants adjust to Cuba?

Aida: The Cuban government has been extremely supportive within their means from day one. Even prior to the students arriving, Cuba played an instrumental role in helping Ethiopia during the Ethio-Somlia war. Therefore, upon the student’s arrival, the children were given the basic necessities in order to become acquainted with life in Cuba. One thing that needs to be put into perspective is that as a young child, it is difficult to adjust to any place that is foreign, especially when one is so far away from home. The Ethiopians expressed to me that as children they had missed their country more then anything and I believe this yearning to return is what made it extremely difficult for many. The Cubans have gone above and beyond in providing support to the Ethiopians to this day.

Above: Teenage Ethiopian Girls in Cuba

Above: Ethiopian boys in Cuba

Above: Teenagers in Cuba

Tadias: Although The Unhealing Wound focuses on those Ethio-Cubans still in Cuba, we understand there have been a number who have managed to leave Cuba and live elsewhere. When did they leave and where do they live now?

Aida: In addition to providing primary education, the Cubans have also educated University students during this time period. For many of the Ethiopian students who attended universities in Cuba they have managed to return back to Ethiopia and find viable means of supporting themselves. In fact during the Derg period, many of the students that completed their education were given housing and job opportunities upon their return to Ethiopia. However, after the fall of the Derg government, many of the students felt that returning back to Ethiopia would lead to further economic hardship. In 1991, the Soviet Block fell and many of the students begun leaving to countries such as Spain, Greece, Holland, U.S., etc. I am not exactly sure how many returned to Ethiopia and how many went to other destinations. My assumption is that the greatest number of Ethiopian-Cubans are in Spain.

Tadias: Is there a network of Ethio-Cubans abroad that help others still in Cuba to immigrate to other countries?

Aida: As far as I know, there is no organized effort by Ethio-Cubans that continuously assists the Ethiopians to leave Cuba and resettle to a third country. Although it is a tightly knit community in Cuba, once abroad, it’s more so through the efforts of individuals helping new comers than an established network.

Tadias: What kind of relationship do Ethio-Cubans have with Cuba? Do they identify in any way as Cubans?

Aida: From my observation of the Ethio-Cubans, there is a special relationship between the Cubans and these Ethiopians. It is clear that they still identify themselves as Ethiopians but they have fully taken on Cuban mannerisms and cultural habits in the ways they interact with others and express themselves.

Tadias: You mentioned that many Ethio-Cubans faced challenges in adjusting to their new environment when they moved to Cuba. What were some of those challenges?

Aida: The challenges were similar as any immigrant faces when they arrive to a new country, but imagine that through the eyes of a ten year old. The first problem that they had was the climate. The temperature was a big issue. They were moving from the highlands of Ethiopia to a tropical island. The second was the food. The food in Cuba consisted of pork, rice and beans in contrast to eatingInjera their whole life. Then, of course, language and homesickness were major issues.

Tadias: You left Ethiopia as a child as well. Is there a relationship between your interest in the Ethiopian students in Cuba and your own experience?

Aida: There was definitely a relationship to my life. I went to boarding school at a young age in Cyprus away from my family. One of the things that attracted me to the whole story and enabled me to empathize with them was the struggle I faced as a child who felt alone in a foreign land.

Tadias: Does the Ethio-Cuban story fit into the themes that you address in your photography work?

Aida: My beginning as an artist is in photojournalism and this story at first was supposed to be a series of photographs about these Ethiopians. However, I decided that their story was too compelling to be told solely in still photography. The Unhealing Wound is an exploration of themes that captivate me as a photographer and a filmmaker. It all comes down to capturing life and in this case it is capturing our past history and also documenting the history as it is happening. I hope that thirty years from now, anyone can look back at this film and have a better understanding of our struggles, triumphs and sacrifices as Ethiopians in the landscape of the immigrant life.

Above: Aredo. Photo by Aida Muluneh

Above: Motbaynor. Photo by Aida Muluneh

Above: Teddy. Photo by Aida Muluneh

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Find out more about the film at pastforwardfilms.com.

Prisoners of conscience in Ethiopia: [By Birtukan Mideksa]

Source: Al Jazeera

Birtukan Mideksa is a fellow at Harvard University’s WEB Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research and a former prisoner of conscience in Ethiopia.

Although Ethiopia has its first new prime minister in 17 years – so far, the government has failed to right a long history of wrongs. With prisoners of conscience still languishing in its prisons, Ethiopia must receive the clear message – especially from allies like the United States – that continued human rights violations will not be tolerated.

My journey to become a political prisoner in Ethiopia began as a federal judge fighting to uphold the rule of law. Despite institutional challenges and even death threats, I hoped to use constitutional principles to ensure respect for basic rights.

But, having witnessed firsthand the government disregard for fundamental constitutional rules, I joined the opposition and became the first woman to hold a high-level position in an Ethiopian political party.

Our party – the Coalition for Unity and Democracy – contested the 2005 elections with a multiethnic platform based on economic liberalism and respect for individual rights. As momentum gathered, many hoped change had finally arrived in Ethiopia.

But after early reports showed our party ahead in the polls, the government dashed our optimism by throwing me and my colleagues behind bars and declaring a victory for the ruling party.

When I emerged after 21 months in prison, our party was outlawed and the political landscape had grown increasingly repressive. But we forged ahead, forming the new Unity for Democracy and Justice Party and continuing to advocate for dialogue and non-violent political reform in Ethiopia.

Authorities arrested me again in 2008, claiming that I had mischaracterised the circumstances of my release. But peaceful political activities are not the only way to become a prisoner of conscience in Ethiopia.

Independent journalists face the very real threat of imprisonment in response to their work. Authorities have detained my friend Eskinder Nega eight times over his 20-year career as a journalist and publisher.

After the 2005 elections, Eskinder and his wife – Serkalem Fasil – spent 17 months in prison. Pregnant at the time, Serkalem gave birth to a son despite her confinement and almost no pre-natal care.

Banned from publishing after his release in 2007, Eskinder continued to write online. In early 2011, he began focusing particularly on the protest movements then sweeping North Africa and the Middle East.

Eskinder, who does not belong to any political party because of a commitment to maintain his independence, offered a unique and incisive take on what those movements meant for the future of Ethiopia.

Committed to the principle of non-violence, Eskinder repeatedly emphasised that any similar movements in Ethiopia would have to remain peaceful. Despite this, police briefly detained him and warned him that his writings had crossed the line and he could face prosecution.

Then in September 2011, the government made good on that threat. Authorities arrested Eskinder just days after he publicly criticised the use of anti-terror laws to stifle dissent. They held him without charge or access to an attorney for nearly two months.

The government eventually charged Eskinder with terrorism and treason, sentencing him to 18 years in prison after a political trial. Unfortunately, Eskinder is not alone; independent journalists Woubshet Taye and Reeyot Alemu also face long prison terms on terrorism charges.

The legal advocacy organisation Freedom Now, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention – a five-person panel of experts from around the world that consider individual cases – found Eskinder’s continued detention illegal under international law and called for his immediate release.

The UN specifically found that the government prosecuted Eskinder using overly broad terrorism charges because he exercised his internationally protected right to freedom of expression. It also held that procedural violations, such as denying Eskinder access to an attorney for nearly two months, violated his due process rights.

With this unequivocal finding by the UN, the international community can, and must, do more to help Eskinder and his imprisoned colleagues. In particular, the US, which has a close relationship with government in Addis Ababa, must speak out at every opportunity for those who cannot speak out for themselves from behind the prison walls.

Birtukan Mideksa is a fellow at Harvard University’s WEB Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research and a former prisoner of conscience in Ethiopia.

Follow her on Twitter: @Birtukanmideksa