Tamagn Beyene: The Artist as Critic exposes the interiors of hate inside the crucible of TPLF.
By Teodros Kiros (PhD)

Art has always been the foreshadower of change, and the relentless stimulant of the Artistic imaginary and the Aesthetic impulse. Great Artists are not merely producers of mechanical art, but thinkers extraordinaire, fearless speakers, or what the ancient Greeks called (Parhessia).

Tamagn was that fearless speaker in full command of his ego and a lover of the Ethiopia, the world historical civilization founded by a great people aware of their historicality and proud of their africanity.

Tamagn Beyene, in a recent event fund raising event in Boston (August 14, 2010) gave a masterful presentation of ESAT to a gathering of Ethiopians. At this event, through a blend of biting humor, arresting humility and elegance, he exposed the interiors of hate and ethnicity by the ruling Ethiopian Regime.

In a shocking presentation of the distribution of power in Ethiopia, the artist gave a compelling picture of the dominance of Tigreans in all the major posts of the � woyanne machine�. The names of the political personalities and their positions were carefully presented to a very vigilant public.

What emerges in the end is a frightening picture of the Ethiopian nation profoundly fractured by ethnic prism through which modern Ethiopia is being divided and ruled to the detriment of a future that will leave a legacy of hate, mistrust and revenge.

Contrary to the regimes outside appearance, this regime does not believe in the Ehtiopianity of Ethiopia, but rather in a dangerous attempt at Tigrenaizing Ethiopia under the tutelage of ethnic lords, who believe in Great Tigre, at the expense of the Great Ethiopia, and its classical Ethiopian emperors of Tigrean
origin. These Emperors were always Ethiopians first and tigreans second. The
Ethnic machine of Woyanne is actively rewriting this history and promoting it through force as power.

The artist heroically advised the audience to fight this vision through a counter vision of a genuine Ethiopianity, which ought to be promoted through the new media of Esat, the harbinger of change, unity and brotherhood of Ethiopians of the new generation.

His vision of a new Ethiopia can be presented through the powerful medium o ESAT that he is generously presenting the Ethiopian people, through a contagious passion and commitment, and we Ethiopians are grateful to him, and so willing to herald his name and bless his project.


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Teodros Kiros
Professor of Philosophy and English (Liberal Arts) Berklee College of Music