The MULTI-NATIONAL STATE.

1 Samuel 8: 19-20

“Nevertheless, the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, “No, but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.”

In 1974, the military in Ethiopia overthrew the Monarchy, then under Emperor Haile Selassie, after which it proceeded to remake Ethiopia as a “Nation-State”, modeled after the then Soviet Union, itself the result of the suppression of the various nations, Tongues, and languages of the former Russian Empire. 

In both instances, they wanted to “be like all the nations” of the European Nation State paradigm, despite the fact and reality that the European Nation State was the product of the independence of the various Languages and Cultures from the Holy Roman Empire, thus their composition was largely Mon-Lingual and Mono-Cultural.

1 Samuel 8: 7-9 “And the LORD said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also. Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.”

The” behavior of the king who will reign over them” is the form of governance to be expected and this was fully stated in 1 Samuel 8: 11-18. The People of Israel forgot about their own history, and they embraced the “behavior of the king”, which eventually culminated in their captivity.

The “behavior of the Nation State”, despite its reality as being largely Mono Lingual and Mono Cultural, centered around suppressing other Cultures and Languages, resulting in her colonization of various Peoples, Tongues and Languages, contrary to her own existential realities.

Since the Soviet Union wanted to “be like all the nations”, it suppressed all other cultures and languages within the Russian Empire with the Communist Party becoming the “State” thus embracing the “behavior of the Nation State”. This was the example followed by the Ethiopian Military regime because it also wanted to “be like all nations”.

Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union was of Georgian Nationality and his first effort at establishing the Nation-State was to neutralize Georgia as a nationality and homogenize it with the Russian, just as Ahmed Abiy of Ethiopia is of Oromo Nationality, upon which he came to power but is now attempting to create an “Ethiopian Nationality”, suppressing the Oromo in the process.

The net effect of both is in the fact that they have denied other Peoples/nationalities of the world a chance to exhibit what God had expected from the people of Israel: an opportunity to avoid the “behavior of the king”; and in this instance, the “behavior of the Nation-State”, especially when the history of the world itself is an expression of transformation from one epoch to the other, each epoch creating forms of governance, that is, a “behavior” arising from their experiences.

Having lost the chance of providing a God-given alternative, the people of Israel became victims of the “divine rights of kings” through their disobedience and the mantle for a challenge fell on other peoples; therefore, rather than establishing a “Nation-State”, revolutionaries in Russia overthrew their own Emperor and instituted the “Council of Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Deputies”(known as the Soviets) in all the cities and villages of the former Russian Empire and upon which the “Multi-National State”, was to be based.

One of the prime movers of the establishment of these Soviets as the new form of governance and therefore a new “behavior”, was a Russian Priest, father Gapon, who led the first revolution in 1905.

Although the 1905 movement was defeated, it sowed the seed for the future, which came to fruition in the second revolution of 1917 and which succeeded in replacing the monarchy and established the Soviets as the form of governance, with a view towards the establishment of a “Multi-National State” as the counter to the “Nation-State”.

Joseph Stalin, a former seminary student, took power, persecuted Christians, and eventually came to personify the suppression of the Soviets and the expectation of a “Multi-National State”, while incorporating the nomenclature into his governance model by decreeing the “Soviet Union” into existence as a “Nation-State”.

The resistance of the various Nationalities and Peoples eventually led to its dissolution and separation into the various Nation-States, thereby preventing another historical epoch for humanity and the absorption of the various Nation-States into the vortex of the existing paradigms with hardly any impact on global developments except in their existence. 

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia is a Pentecostal who not only wants to be like Stalin but also wants to make Ethiopia to “be like all the nations” and in the process reinforcing the “behavior of the Nation State”, to wit: the suppression of the various Peoples of Ethiopia.

2 Chronicles 35: 20-24

“After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Necho king of Egypt came up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates; and Josiah went out against him.  But he sent messengers to him, saying, “What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I have not come against you this day, but against the house with which I have war; for God commanded me to make haste. Refrain from meddling with God, who is with me, lest He destroy you.” Nevertheless, Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself so that he might fight with him and did not heed the words of Necho from the mouth of God. So, he came to fight in the Valley of Megiddo.”

From where the King Josiah’s arrogance can be deduced, seeing himself as the only king capable of hearing from the Lord, the eventual consequence of which was Judah’s captivity.

Abiy Ahmed has precedents to learn from. The deliberate refusal of king Josiah to listen to Pharaoh Necho is a precursor to Abiy Ahmed’s refusal to learn from the experiences of those he was emulating. 

Ethiopia is the only African country that was not colonized, one of the reasons, arguably, being her Christian heritage, having been involved in the spread of the Gospel, right from the time of Philip the evangelist and which ought to inform on the Prime Minister’s consciousness.

The question therefore is this: why is a believer pursuing the neutralization of the Nations when his faith enabled the coming into being of the Nations in Europe in their Mono-Lingual and Mono-Cultural realities because of their historical experiences under the Empire? 

Both King Josiah and Prime Minster Abiy Ahmed failed to situate themselves within their historical experiences; king Josiah’s arrogance, despite his knowledge of the Word of God, clearly showing the origin of his kingship as the result of disobedience to God’s expectation; Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, attempting to deny the emergence of another epoch in human history resulting directly from Africa’s experiences with Europe, where the “behavior of European Nation-States” was exhibited in her forays into Africa and the rest of the world, resulting in the political, cultural and economic subjugation of the Peoples of Africa.

This once again shows the opportunity to reshape human governance away from the debilitating effect of the Nation-State paradigm. 

And Africa is well poised for that task.

(To be continued)

© Wale Odeku, November 26, 2021 

Website: https://solomonoluwabiyi.com  

Email: viewpoint@solomonoluwabiyi.com