Rode Molla

In 1896 Ethiopians defeated the Italian military and defended their border. That made Ethiopia the only black nation that defended its border in the era of colonization. 1 However, protecting their land/border was not enough for Ethiopians to be a free nation. Their bodies and souls became abused and colonized by the Western discourses. In his book, Black Skin, White Masks, Frantz Fanon employs the psychoanalytical method to show the colonized mentality of the black man in which he becomes alienated from his cultural and social identity. Fanon wants to address both the inferiority complex of the black man and the superiority complex of the white man. The inferiority complex of the black man comes from the superiority complex of the white man that wants to create only the world of white men. Fanon writes, The black man wants to be white. The white man is desperately trying to achieve the rank of man. This essay will attempt to understand the Black-White relationship. The white man is locked in his whiteness. The black man in his blackness. 2 Fanon exposes this created identity through his psychoanalytical method. If the white man eliminates the world of a black man, the only destiny that the black man has is whiteness. 3 The 1896 Adwa victory, however, shows that the black man has the power to defend his culture, identity, and language. Fanon's psychological analysis cannot address the ideological, discourse, and image colonization of Ethiopians. Fanon cannot describe this kind of colonization Ethiopians because he is describing the people who are struggling due to land and cultural colonization. However, Ethiopians' colonization is not only psychological but also metaphorical and ideological.

In 1896 Ethiopians defeated the Italian military and defended their border. That made Ethiopia the only black nation that defended its border in the era of colonization. 1 However, protecting their land/border was not enough for Ethiopians to be a free nation. Their bodies and souls became abused and colonized by the Western discourses. In his book, Black Skin, White Masks, Frantz Fanon employs the psychoanalytical method to show the colonized mentality of the black man in which he becomes alienated from his cultural and social identity. Fanon wants to address both the inferiority complex of the black man and the superiority complex of the white man. The inferiority complex of the black man comes from the superiority complex of the white man that wants to create only the world of white men. Fanon writes, The black man wants to be white. The white man is desperately trying to achieve the rank of man. This essay will attempt to understand the Black-White relationship. The white man is locked in his whiteness. The black man in his blackness. 2 Fanon exposes this created identity through his psychoanalytical method. If the white man eliminates the world of a black man, the only destiny that the black man has is whiteness. 3 The 1896 Adwa victory, however, shows that the black man has the power to defend his culture, identity, and language. Fanon's psychological analysis cannot address the ideological, discourse, and image colonization of Ethiopians. Fanon cannot describe this kind of colonization Ethiopians because he is describing the people who are struggling due to land and cultural colonization. However, Ethiopians' colonization is not only psychological but also metaphorical and ideological.

The author argues that identity politics eliminates Ethiopians' in-between spaces and identities and defines in-between spaces as political, social, religious, and geographical spaces that enable Ethiopians to co-exist with equity, solidarity, and justice. The elimination of in-between spaces and in-between identities creates either-or class, religious, ethnic, and gender categories. Therefore, the author proposes an in-between theology that invites Ethiopians to a new hybrid way of being to resist fragmented and hegemonic identities. The author claims that postcolonial discourse and praxis of in-between pastoral care disrupts and interrogates hegemonic definitions of culture, home, subjectivity, and identity. On the other hand, in-between pastoral care uses embodiment, belonging, subjectivity, and hybridity as features of care and praxis to create intercultural and intersubjective identities that can co-construct and co-create in-between spaces. In the in-between spaces, Ethiopians can relate with the Other with intercultural competencies to live their difference, similarity, hybridity, and complexity.

In this book, I argue that identity politics eliminates Ethiopians' in-between spaces and identities and defines in-between spaces as political, social, religious, and geographical spaces that enable Ethiopians to co-exist with equity, solidarity, and justice. The elimination of in-between spaces and in-between identities creates either-or class, religious, ethnic, and gender categories. Therefore, the author proposes an in-between theology that invites Ethiopians to a new hybrid way of being to resist fragmented and hegemonic identities. The author claims that postcolonial discourse and praxis of in-between pastoral care disrupts and interrogates hegemonic definitions of culture, home, subjectivity, and identity. On the other hand, in-between pastoral care uses embodiment, belonging, subjectivity, and hybridity as features of care and praxis to create intercultural and intersubjective identities that can co-construct and co-create in-between spaces. In the in-between spaces, Ethiopians can relate with the Other with intercultural competencies to live their difference, similarity, hybridity, and complexity.