An Ethiopian Dreamer: the Zone 9ers
A little over a year ago, I befriended an IT expert, writer and activist. His name is Befeqadu Hailu. He is based in Addis Ababa and has a passion for Ethiopian socio-politics, especially pertaining to women’s issues.
Through twitter and his personal blog, he’d post charts and stats of girls’ education, early marriage and FGM (female gentitial mulitaltion) rates in Ethiopia. He also notably categorized by the different regions in Ethiopia the percentages and vulnerability of women emigrating to Gulf states as domestic workers. (He was advocating against the vile abuses and deaths of Ethiopian labourers prior to the social media campaign, #SomeoneTellSaudi.) Anytime I had a question regarding Ethiopia or Amharic literature, he was patient and resourceful.
Then there was that one time I scroll through my twitter timeline to learn of his arrest…Awkward…I read the headline Ethiopia detains bloggers and journalist and was confusingly disheartened. To my knowledge, he was a harmless IT nerd advocating equality for all–his twitter bio headline: “an Ethiopian dreamer.” I then learned of the Zone9 blog–a collective of bloggers protesting human rights violations in the country, stressing freedom of expression. (Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, Freedom House and Committee to Protect Journalists, have all reported Ethiopia to having one of the worst records of suppressing free speech and dissent voices.) Their motto, “we blog because we care.”
I followed updates of their court appearances (mainly to learn of Befeqadu’s whereabouts) on twitter which got exhausting due to delayed trial dates and no official charges announced. Now I’m able to track their trial and court hearings (as the rest of you) here. After several weeks of being detained arbitrarily, arrested zone9ners (and three journalists arrested with them) were charged with “terrorism” under Ethiopia’s ‘Anti-terrorism Proclamation.’ According to Reuters, the Ethiopian ATP law is vague and anyone found guilty publishing information that “incites readers to commit acts of terrorism” can be jailed for 10–20 years.
As for Befeqe, he has reportedly continued to write; he sent his friends and family in Ethiopia postcards from prison (as I read through twitter.) Also, in what I like to refer to as “the Ethiopian version” of MLK’s famous ‘A letter from Birmingham Jail’ he writes in Amharic then translated in English, ‘Dear Hyena no need for excuses just eat me’….I’m honestly weary of his fate but wish for his health and to see him appear in my newsfeeds again. (All his social media accounts as well as his blog have been suspended.) More importantly, I no longer want to read of reports of him being tortured in prison believed to be attempts to force false confessions. (Ill-treatment and torture tactics have also been documented in Ethiopia in reference to Maekelawi Police Station located in Addis Ababa.)
#FreeZone9bloggers is the social media campaign to raise awareness and encourage Befeqe’s and his colleagues release. To find out more ways to get involved, read here.
Lemlem loves to get messy with different traditional media. She’s obsessed with all forms of the arts & innovative creativity (& corny jokes). Follow her on twitter @LemGeek for her quirky updates.