July 21, 2026
Selfishness, Revenge, and the Paradox of Ethiopian Politics
By Ewunetu Teshale
Ethiopia has lost too many sons and daughters to political conflict. Over generations, people have gone to battlefields, prisons, exile, and graves in the name of freedom, justice, identity, territory, revolution, democracy, religion, or national unity.
Yet the sacrifice Ethiopia needs most remains rare. It is not the physical death of more citizens. It is the death of selfishness, hatred, revenge, greed, arrogance, corruption, and the desire to dominate others.
This is the central paradox of Ethiopian politics: many people say they are ready to die for the country, but few are ready to let the destructive attitudes within them die. We speak of saving Ethiopia while protecting the very habits that continue to wound it.
The decisive question, therefore, is not only, “Who is willing to die for Ethiopia?” It is, “What must die in us so that Ethiopia and Ethiopians may live?”
A Nation Rich in Moral Language
Ethiopia is surrounded by moral and religious symbols. The cross is worn by millions of Christians. Muslims are taught to surrender to God, mercy, justice, humility, discipline, and compassion. Other Ethiopians are guided by conscience, human dignity, civic responsibility, and the common good.
Our country does not lack churches, mosques, elders, community traditions, religious teachings, cultural values, or public speeches about peace and unity. What we often lack is the courage to turn these values into political behaviour.
A cross worn on the chest is beautiful. Submission to God spoken by the lips is honourable. Patriotism declared from a podium may be inspiring. But symbols and speeches cannot heal a nation unless they change how we treat one another.
The moral challenge belongs to every Ethiopian: what must die in us so that another person can live with dignity, safety, and hope?
The Death Ethiopia Needs Is Not Physical
This is not a call for physical death, silence before injustice, surrender to oppression, or the abandonment of truth. Ethiopia has already buried too many of its children. It does not need more graves. It needs the death of the attitudes that keep producing graves.
What must die is the belief that only my group is innocent, only my suffering matters, only my history is true, only my leaders are patriotic, and only my political programme deserves to prevail.
What must die is revenge disguised as justice, propaganda disguised as truth, domination disguised as unity, exclusion disguised as freedom, and corruption disguised as political loyalty.
Had we died to hatred, it would have lost its soldiers. Had we died to envy, division would have lost its fuel. Had we died to revenge, violence would have lost its excuse. Had we died to selfish ambition, the common good would have found room to grow.
The Political Ego That Refuses to Die
Ethiopian politics has repeatedly produced leaders and movements that present themselves as the only guardians of truth. Those in power may see themselves as national saviours and treat opponents as enemies. Opposition groups may also believe that they are morally pure and that removing the rulers is enough to redeem the country.
The names, parties, ideologies, and slogans change, but the pattern survives. Yesterday’s victims can become today’s rulers. Yesterday’s liberators can become tomorrow’s oppressors. Yesterday’s accusers can become tomorrow’s accused.
The tragedy is not only that one group defeats another. It is that each generation inherits the same political ego and gives it a new uniform.
Our politics often ask, “Who should rule?” before asking, “How should power be limited?” It asks, “Which group deserves recognition?” before asking, “How can every citizen live with dignity?” It asks, “Who won history?” before asking, “How can we stop history from destroying the future?”
A nation cannot rise by replacing one uncontrolled ego with another. It cannot heal when every side sees compromise as betrayal, confession as weakness, apology as surrender, and mercy as foolishness.
When Selfish Ambition Enters Politics
The Apostle Paul listed hatred, conflict, jealousy, rage, selfish ambition, division, factionalism, and envy among the destructive works of the flesh. Whether these words are read religiously or morally, they describe many of the forces that poison public life.
Hatred turns neighbours into suspects. Jealousy turns institutions into places of sabotage. Selfish ambition turns public office into private property. Factionalism reduces citizens to political camps. Rage makes cruelty seem normal. Envy makes a rival’s failure appear more desirable than the country’s progress.
These are not only private weaknesses. In the hands of political leaders, armed groups, media figures, intellectuals, activists, religious leaders, and businesspeople, they become national diseases. They influence appointments, justice, security, economic opportunity, and public debate.
When selfish ambition enters politics, nations bleed. When ethnic pride enters justice, citizens lose trust. When revenge enters the government, institutions become weapons. When propaganda enters public debate, truth becomes homeless.
The Myth That Only the Other Side Is Guilty
One of Ethiopia’s deepest political problems is the refusal of almost every side to admit its own contribution to the national crisis. Each camp keeps a long record of the wrongs committed against it, but a much shorter record of the wrongs committed in its name. Every group remembers its martyrs, yet may forget the victims created by its own heroes.
No society can heal while everyone insists that they are completely innocent, completely right, and morally superior. Healing begins when individuals, communities, institutions, and leaders are willing to question the stories that keep them angry and violent.
We must challenge the belief that my group is always righteous, that my suffering justifies every action, that my enemy has no humanity, that power proves truth, that revenge is justice, and that silence is peace.
National renewal requires a courage greater than battlefield bravery: the courage to confess, apologise, correct mistakes, forgive without abandoning justice, and share political space with people with whom we strongly disagree.
Justice Must Live; Revenge Must Die
Ethiopia cannot heal by hiding the truth. Reconciliation does not mean forgetting massacres, silencing victims, protecting offenders, or asking wounded communities to act as though nothing happened. Truth must be told. Crimes must be investigated. Victims must be recognised. Justice must be pursued.
But justice and revenge are not the same. Justice seeks accountability and the restoration of moral order. Revenge seeks the suffering of the other side and often creates new victims. Justice can have limits; revenge usually has no end.
Other societies have tried, imperfectly, to face violent histories. South Africa created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission after apartheid. Rwanda used community-based gacaca courts after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, although the process remained controversial. Germany invested in remembrance, education, institutional reform, and public responsibility after Nazism and the Second World War.
Ethiopia cannot simply copy these experiences. Our history, cultures, religions, and political realities are different. But the lesson is clear: a nation cannot move forward by burying the truth, and it cannot survive by making revenge its permanent language.
Government and Opposition Must Both Change
Those who control the state carry the greatest responsibility because they command public institutions, laws, resources, security forces, and systems of justice. A government that asks citizens to reject hatred must make sure its own institutions do not practise exclusion. A government that calls for dialogue must make disagreement safe. A government that speaks of unity must not confuse unity with obedience.
Opposition groups also face a moral test. Opposing injustice does not automatically make every strategy just. A movement may begin with real grievances and still become trapped by revenge, misinformation, ethnic hostility, or disregard for civilian life. A good cause does not make every method good.
Both government and opposition must abandon the belief that Ethiopia can be saved only through their complete victory. The country will not be renewed when one side becomes strong enough to silence everyone else. It will be renewed when institutions become strong enough to protect everyone, including critics and dissenters.
The Responsibility Belongs to All of Us
Political leaders are not the only people responsible for Ethiopia’s condition. Religious leaders can encourage peace or justify hostility. Intellectuals can clarify truth or create clever excuses for prejudice. Media institutions can inform people or profit from anger. Businesspeople can strengthen society or finance divisions. Citizens can resist manipulation or reward it.
A religious leader who carries a cross but spreads hatred has not understood the cross. A believer who speaks of surrender to God but humiliates another community has not understood surrender. An intellectual who uses education to defend cruelty has betrayed knowledge. A journalist who knowingly spreads inflammatory lies has turned speech into a weapon.
Ordinary citizens also have responsibilities. We must examine the messages we share, the rumours we accept, the insults we normalise, and the leaders we excuse. A nation is not destroyed only by rulers. It can also be destroyed by millions of small permissions given to hatred, corruption, dishonesty, and dehumanization.
What Must Live
If selfishness must die, what must live in its place? Truth must live. Justice must live. Mercy must live. Humility must live. Self-control must live. The dignity of every Ethiopian must live.
Institutions must become stronger than personalities. Laws must take precedence over party interests. The national conscience must become stronger than propaganda. Political leaders must learn to leave office without destroying the country. Opposition figures must learn to lose elections without rejecting the state. Citizens must learn to defend their communities without denying others’ humanity.
We need a political culture in which apologies are not humiliation, compromise is not treason, and forgiveness is not the abandonment of accountability. We must distinguish criticism from hatred, federalism from fragmentation, unity from domination, and patriotism from blind political conformity.
A Different Kind of Heroism
Ethiopia has long honoured people who died in battle. Many gave their lives courageously for causes greater than themselves, and their sacrifices should not be treated lightly. But the country now needs another kind of heroism: people willing to live for peace by allowing pride, hatred, greed, and revenge to die within them.
The leader who limits his or her own power is heroic. The opposition figure who rejects ethnic incitement is heroic. The victim who seeks justice without demanding collective revenge is heroic. The religious leader who confronts hatred inside his own community is heroic. The intellectual who tells uncomfortable truths to his own side is heroic. The citizen who refuses to forward a lie is heroic.
These actions may not produce statues, patriotic songs, or dramatic headlines. Yet they are the quiet foundations of a country that can survive and prosper.
What Must Die for Ethiopia to Live?
Ethiopia does not need more people prepared to kill or be killed for political pride. It needs people prepared to surrender the selfishness that turns difference into war.
For Christians, the cross teaches that new life begins with the death of the old self. For Muslims, surrender to God calls believers away from arrogance, injustice, and uncontrolled desire. For citizens of every conviction, conscience demands restraint in the use of power, respect for human dignity, and commitment to the common good.
The language may differ, but the national need is the same: something destructive in us must die so that Ethiopia may live.
If leaders die due to ego, citizens can breathe. If citizens die of hatred, communities can heal. If religious people die from hypocrisy, faith can regain credibility. If businesspeople die of greed, the economy can serve society. If political movements die in revenge, justice can become possible. If every group dies to the belief that it alone is innocent, truth can become national rather than partisan.
What must die for Ethiopia to live? Hatred must die. Arrogance must die. Revenge must die. Corruption must die. Selfish ambition must die. The political ego that must always win, always be praised, always be obeyed, and always be declared innocent must die.
The road to Ethiopia’s renewal is not the physical death of more Ethiopians. It is the moral death of selfishness that has repeatedly sent Ethiopians to their graves.
Only then can Ethiopia begin to rise.
Editor’s Note: Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com
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