Thursday, February 13, 2014

Living in a nation as a Minority

As I have indicated before, the number of Yem people living in Ethiopia are so few that it is less than one percent of the whole population . Is this an advantage or disadvantage to the Yem people? I wish we were the majority and speak our language Yemsa, and listen our language on TV, Radio, Newspapers and so on. Unfortunately, this is not so. We do not have that advantage of living as a majority. This chance is given to our brothers like the Oromos, Amharas and others in Ethiopia. They have all the benefits of being the dominant in that environment. We use their language, we celebrate their holidays, we worship the same gods as theirs and most importantly our culture is shaped by them. 
However, I am thinking is there any benefit to a community living in a nation as a Minority. Believe or not we cannot change this situation in a short term and even it may not be changed forever. What we can do is accepting our minority status and maximize the best benefits out of it.
I believe the Yem people have the opportunity to create a strong personal bond among each other. In other words, we can know each family and individual as a member of the community and help each other.This is not possible in other majority communities. We have a great advantage of connecting to each other to the good of Yem people.
In addition, we can create several projects that would help our community easily. Job creating , self advancement, educational, and health related projects can easily be implemented and evaluated.
Third, it is great to be unique. It gives you a different perspective to life. I have my own ancestor which is different from the guy who stands next to me. I have a music that is different. I have a different weeding, funeral and festival ceremonies different from any other group in Ethiopia. Is not that great? I like to be different.
Thus, i am always happy to be a minority in Ethiopia. I tap all the advantages of living as a minority. I will do all my best and pledge to keep my heritage , language, music, culture and dignity. God bless YEM, God bless Ethiopia.
Yemni Nano