Peoples from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and even the three States of Somalia have identified themselves as Abyssinian or Habesha. It is said that Abyssinian and Habesha mean mixed, but I find no evidence regarding the original meaning of this term convincing. Every category of identity is contentious, because identity is itself contentious, and diverse peoples and individuals want to work out their own identity with the utmost care.
The categories of Abyssinian and Habesha are no less contentious. We are witnesses to the contentiousness of identity in Raven Simone’s (from The Cosby Show and That’s So Raven) recent declaration of her ethnic and sexual identities before Oprah and the quick-to-indict denizens of social media whom are legion. Simone distances herself from the categories of black and gay, so that she can work out her own identity. It doesn’t make sense to say you have no identity, but I err on the side of giving her time and space to figure out where she thinks she belongs. The abuse she received is uncalled for. Settle down.
Ethiopia is a Hellenistic word that means burnt face, and Eritrea is a Hellenistic word that means red (for the Red Sea that it is adjacent to). A desire to be the people of the Book and colonial history respectively explains why these two African nation-States have European names. If you believe in the power of re-appropriating words, then you should approve of the pride with which Ethiopians and Eritreans wear these labels that have evidently derogatory origins. If you think re-appropriation is impossible, or unsavory, study the words queer and nigga closely and see if you hold your belief steadfastly.
The peoples, who have identified as Abyssinian and Habesha, across the eons, have spoken languages in the large branch of linguistics called Afro-Asiatic in the academic nomenclature. Semitic and Cushitic are sub-categories of Afro-Asiatic. Gih-ihz (Ethiopic), Tihgre, Tihgreennya (one of the official languages of Eritrea), Amharic (official language of Ethiopia) and the Guragay languages are Semitic. Afan Oromo (there are more native speakers of this language than Amharic), Afar and Somali are Cushitic.
In the Slate study of the most commonly spoken African languages in the U.S. (derived from U.S. Census statistics which I helped gather in 2010) Amharic is the number one tongue of 8 states of the union. Woohoo. They include California, Washington, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, South Dakota, West Virginia and Virginia. Amharic is the second most spoken Semitic tongue after Arabic. Notably, number three is Tihgreennya, and then finally is Hebrew. Now you tell me what it means to be anti-Semitic? Is it anti-Semitic to ignore the three groups of Semitic language speakers that are superlatively greater in number than the Hebrew speakers? To ask the question is to answer it.
7 states: Oregon, Minnesota, Alaska, Iowa, Kentucky, Tennessee and Maine tickle the sternum of my fancy in this study. For those of you wondering, that is not a pleasant feeling. The supposed most frequently spoken African language in these states is Cushitic. Cushitic is not a language. Now you see it. Cushitic is a branch of at least eight languages with over 55 million speakers. It disturbs my conscience that I have to say this in the 21st century – Africa is not a country and Cushitic is not a language.
Ben Blatt posted the picture, but he is not to blame. The Census Bureau is a creature of the U.S. federal government (not to be conflated with the murk and mystery of the Black Lagoon), and this image is from their research. The U.S. federal government, the most overt enemy of diversity that the planet Earth has ever hosted, does not care enough about blacks to understand the nuances of their linguistic and ethnic diversity. As a Census employee (in 2010) I was mandated by the U.S. Federal Government to ask, “are you a Negro?” at each house visit that I made, and it was pretty much my sole task to make house visits.
I am thankful that this map is informative, but it should be more responsive to the communities it tracks. Note that the Scandinavian map lists languages and not branches of languages. There are roughly twenty million Scandinavian (North Germanic branch) speakers. That’s less than the amount of Afan Oromo speakers let alone Cushitic speakers as a whole. But, hey, how much is a black life worth?
Post Scriptum:
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