Inside a tukul

Oy, identity.

I've just finished a very good book by Rebecca Haile, entitled Held at a Distance: My Rediscovery of Ethiopia. Her family was forced to leave Ethiopia after the Derg came to power in the late 1970s; and in her book, she tells of her return to that country, physically and intellectually, nearly thirty years later.

My favorite section of the book gave its title to this post: Inside a tukul. While she was going to an American school in Addis Ababa, growing up, the one hour spent inside a tukul, which had been plopped down in the middle of the modern school's courtyard, was the only class that acknowledged the Ethiopian-ness of the handful of national students. The American kids were exempt from this one lesson a day on Amharic, even though they too were growing up in Addis Ababa. The second tukul she writes of is at the Crown Hotel, where ethnic dance performances are given for turistas. She tells of dancers from each of the main ethnic groups, all happily in the same show... whilst in reality, each of these groups is vying for its own dominance in the breaking Ethiopia.

I do not want to raise our child from Ethiopia inside a tukul, where only one hour is dedicated to the Ethiopian ones and where a false sense of romanticism is displayed. I'd rather have our child held at a distance, but more involved. But, in the end, the author decides that "the tukul will be there as long as the school remains in business, and I can't see why that is such a bad thing" (p160). I, however, believe that she would agree that the tukul could be better used.

But, how do I do this? The instructors and participants inside the tukul are Ethiopian. Am I only a turista? Can I be otherwise? BJL says that "adoption is biologically alien to the unadopted."

I know that our identity must come from God first; but, I don't think that we can/should ignore other aspects of it.

"Igziyabher yakal. Igziyabher ke fekede."