Infertile Pain

Pain for me is suffering; loosing what you are entitled or it can be losing freedom, health and loved ones. However, I want to talk about not pain itself but the birth of art that comes out of pain, which is a bittersweet one. In a nation like Ethiopia, balance of pain weighs more than pleasure because of poverty, oppression and deprivation. We are not the only nation to be in such kind of situation but others also made and are still making this journey. Nevertheless, what makes them different from us was that they are not painting themselves with deceiving image rather they prefer to write, talk, paint, play, act and sing about their pain. That is why they gave birth for long lasting arts like blues, hip-hop, jazz and reggae, which is why they raised millions of dollars, respect and undying love not only from their own people but also from you and me. On the contrary, we live in a nation where pain is giving birth to death, migration, silence and incarceration but not to art.
Our musical art can be taken as an example which is becoming so boring to listen and not creative. Why do you think teddy afro tap out of the entire artist that lives in this nation? Is it because he is the best vocalist, entertainer, and lyricist of all .even though the above lists score their own points for his popularity they are not quite significant as his burning pain and love for Abesha people real life style. In many of his songs teddy preach about love, democracy, unity, redemption and tolerance. However, for so long our artwork, creativity and thoughts have been censored and dictated by all those who were in power. Many decade influences and oppression of our incumbents makes our pain to become infertile of art that left us only with one artist that has been six years since he lets us to taste our pain with his golden sounds. Time after time, our identity is being deprived with frustration but no one seems to notice what is going on. Which is why we as a people lost a connection with art that narrates our identity; we are retreating from our responsibility as a citizen to fix a system that is broken and not strong enough to support and hold our unity as before.