Home: Where identity does not matter
I just came back from two weeks of holiday in Europe . I will try to write some of my experiences from this trip. Most of my experiences have been POSITIVE but there was one particular incident that forced me to reassess how I view my own identity.
As I was leaving Britain for Belgium, custom/immigration officials at the Waterloo train station in London approached me and request that I follow them to a small interrogation room. Since I had a US passport, I was not expecting to run into any immigration related problems. This was one of the reasons that forced me to give up my Ethiopian passport and obtain an American one. My nationality, however, did not prevent British immigration officers from detaining me without any warranted reason. It is not the nationality that my passport proclaims that was important but my place of birth and color. These facts had given them the ‘right’ to take me for a ‘terrorist’ and interrogate me for about two hours.
I and another black African man were the only ones that I noticed were stopped at this check point. Other nationals were neither stopped nor asked many questions while going through the check point. A lone black traveler, however, does not have the same rights as other white travelers. The questions in the interrogation room mainly focused on my cultural and racial identity. Many ridiculous questions such as what my religion was and whether I go to the mosque were posed. Although irritating and embarrassing, I had to answer the questions in a way that would distance me from the stereotypical image of a terrorist (Arab and Muslim). At one point, one of the cops suggested that he remembered arresting me the previous week (a week I was not even in Britain). Not being able to control my anger, I lashed out at the police officers. Although he retreated from this question, I was probed via intentionally constructed misleading questions intended to find out whether I was an Eritrean/Muslim/Somali etc. I believe the fact that two Somali men (still at large) killed a British Police Officer during the previous week and the recent bombing incident that an Ethiopian man was involved in did not help.
Once I left Britain, I emailed the US consulate office a complaint letter. The response I got was to call a number in case I run into the same problem again but that there was nothing more they could do.
It is not that one pays taxes, abides by the laws of the country, and, contributes to the development of the country that makes one an American. It is the color of the skin and how others perceive you to be that determines who you are. I can understand why third generation of Frenchmen and women of North African descent went on a rampage recently. Integration is not as simple as being able speak the local language or live together with the local population. It is about being accepted by the local population as well. Perhaps, people need to look at the way they view immigrant groups before pointing out immigrants’ refusal to integrate with the local culture.
The US has given most of us plenty of opportunities. It is, for sure, much better for immigrants like us than any other country out there. I do have the deepest gratitude as well as love for all the opportunity it has provided me. However, I am not sure if an African like me can ever become an American and accepted as one. It makes you wonder what the future of Ethiopian immigrants in Diaspora is going to be like.
Good experiences will follow!
Read the article below that was refered by a reader. (thank you Londoner)
Victim of terror crackdown blames bombers for robbing him of freedom
Ethiopian refugee beaten and humiliated by police during London raid
Sandra Laville
Thursday August 4, 2005
The Guardian
Held for six days at Paddington Green police station, Mr Belay is a shattered man. Tortured by flashbacks and gripped by fear, he clenches his fists and weeps when he describes what happened. He repeats to himself the words of one detective on his release: "Sorry mate - wrong place, wrong time." But it does not seem to help.
Since the July 7 suicide bombs, anti-terrorist officers have arrested 44 people, 16 of whom remain in police custody. Little is heard of those innocent people caught up in the biggest anti-terrorist operation carried out in Britain.
Mr Belay, 52, an Ethiopian refugee who has lived in London for 12 years, believes he is lucky to be alive. Hours before his arrest at a friend's flat, armed police had mistakenly shot dead Jean Charles de Menezes, less than a mile away at Stockwell tube station. It was the day after the July 21 attacks and tensions were high.
"I was just sitting at the table," Mr Belay told the Guardian. "I heard this shouting, a lot of shouting and the words, 'Get in, get out, get in.'
"There were lots of them. They shouted at me to stand up, then lie on the floor face down. The laser was on me, then I am in the corridor and they tell me to take off my trousers. I said, 'Yes sir, yes sir.'
"Then they told me to take off my jacket and my shoes and then my underpants. I was standing there stripped naked. They told me to walk towards them, then one of them pointed at my genitals - I don't know if it's a crime in England to shave your pubic hair - but they mocked me and humiliated me and said: 'Look he's shaved it clean, look at that'.
"I was completely naked, and then one guy, I will never forget him, he was not in uniform, he started punching me. I was held against the wall; I was naked, I kept asking, 'Why is he hitting me?' and he said 'shut up' and punched me again. He punched and kicked me like he was a boxer training on his bag. Then someone intervened and the punching stopped.
"They asked my name, they asked my religion. I told them I was a Christian but I have stopped believing. They put my hands and feet in plastic bags and put me in a white suit. They put me in the back of a car. I was angry and that's when the tears started."
At Paddington Green he was fingerprinted, DNA samples were taken from under his fingernails and he was given a prison suit - navy blue tracksuit bottoms, a white sweatshirt and a pair of black pumps, before being led to one of the 16 cells.
Each day at breakfast he was taken out for exercise. "I walked into this yard, and I felt like a bear or a lion. It was frightening; I was surrounded by dogs and guns."
Interrogated at least twice, he had his picture taken, was questioned about his life and asked which newspaper he read. After six days in custody Mr Belay was released. Two days ago police returned his bank card. They still have his mobile phone.
Mr Belay understands police are doing a difficult job, but he wants a personal apology from the officer who beat him.
A qualified marine engineer, he has demonstrated many times outside Downing Street against Tony Blair's association with the Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi. When the July 7 bombs went off he was on his way to Gleneagles to protest against the invitation of Mr Zenawi one month after his security forces shot dead 36 people in Addis Ababa.
"Now that is no more, I am in fear; I don't want to go out," he said. "I hate those bastard terrorists as much as anyone in this country. They have ruined it for me here.
"I was tasting the sweetness of freedom in this country but those bastards acted in such a way all that sweetness and freedom was destroyed for people like me."
Alone in his flat four days ago, struggling to cope with flashbacks, Mr Belay tied a noose in a length of nylon rope and contemplated suicide.
"It keeps coming back to me suddenly in waves; it's a nightmare," he said. "I used to love this country as much as you English do. I would have given my life for it because it has done a lot for me but now that is tainted.
"I have nothing left in my life now, I have no one to turn to, there is no one helping me."
Well, enquan dehna metu, aquamad! If any black person wants to be respected the only way to do that is to respect another person of his kind. Did not you see how we respect each other in Ethiopia/Addis? Then, how do we expect to be respected by others:white or any other colour? If we become economically self sufficient, technologically equal or better(better? Yes, because our struggle wil be not only to be better in many aspects, but we have to do better to change the ingrained attitude of others who look blacks as the lowest form of human kind) I see this almost always at my work place. I live in one of the so called best Countries - Canada. These things happen even here and Canada is really one of the best, because I have been in many other Places, including Waterloo (UK).
Brother, such articulate people like you belong to where they belong=Mother Ethiopia, but with this mind of yours and Meles''s Democracy? It will not take him to put you with Dr. B. Nega and Prof. Mesfin. So, swallow your pride and face the music.
I can''t blame anyone for our misery except ourselves. Didn''t suprise you? even here how do we tolerate to each other? Undeniable human rights abuses are happening back home, but what kind of solution are the diaspora suggesting after we all deserted Ethiopia? It is good to expose Meles &co.to the outside world, but what is our alternative? Shouting is easy, but what''s the real solution? Meles? He''s finished, we know that he is in his final days. I wish it wasn''t that way. Anyway, he would have been charged one way or another, therefore he has nothing to loose, because of his treasonous acts committed. what worries me most now is, when are we going to learn to respect each other so that we all can go back where we belong? Still we don''t talk to each other.
Amara/Oromo/Tigre etc. Does it matter who is who? Does the white man care whether one of us is A/O/T? All the white man (that''s the police man who stopped you I mean) see is our black face.
Dear Aqumada, your blog is great, I love it. Keep the excellent job you are doing until the dawn of the day when all black pepople are treated as human (when aqumadaw simola), for sure not in the next 100 years.
Selam Ke''rswo gar t''hun!
Tadesse
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