While visiting our country for the Let’s Travel! International Tourism Forum, General Secretary of the African Tourism Board Hiwotie Assefa was so kind as to give an exclusive interview to New Eastern Outlook.
– Dearest Ms Assefa! You are the General Secretary of the African Tourism Board (ATB) and participated in the Let’s Travel! International Tourism Forum. What were your expectations for this forum?
– Thank you very much for your question. My visit shows that we, Russia and Africa, have so much in common. Our two nations have to work together because we are alike, we have traditions, wealth, we need to find common interests and cooperate for the future.
But the path of this cooperation has unfortunately not yet begun. For example, our visit to Russia made us realise that your country serves as a good example to us in many ways. Let us take today’s visit to the Victory Museum at the Poklonnaya Gora. We were deeply impressed, and we would like to transfer this positive experience.
We, Africans, also have our own history, our victories, but we unfortunately cannot showcase it as beautifully and touchingly as it was done in this museum. Exactly this is the starting point of our cooperation: Russia may transfer us experience, beginning from the Victory Museum.
I shall take my country, Ethiopia, which has more than 3,000 years’ worth of history, as an example. All of this history is not showcased like you do it, but it stored away somewhere. For this reason, it is necessary to work on this, to exchange experience on how to properly present one’s history.
Therefore, I shall answer your question about our expectations by saying that we found much more than we could have imagined. We were immediately inspired to get to work, first and foremost, as I have already said, in terms of transferring technology from Russia to us, Africans. Here we must work together.
– Is the creation of a joint Russian-African tourist organisation being discussed?
– Yes, this idea has been articulated previously, talks have been ongoing for almost two years. However, for now, they are just that – talks. Now the time has come for talks to become action. However, this will only happen when we stop listening to each other and start hearing and understanding one another. For that, we must unite into a single organisation, where each person will speak and think in one direction. Most importantly: we must understand each other. Creating such an organisation will be the beginning of real actions.
A Russia-Africa tourism council will be the gateway of opportunity and will be an example for everyone of how to work together. This organisation will be a kind of guide, showing an example of how to work together. The common vision and mission of this organisation should align with the vision of Russian-African relations and create stable progress and sustainable development in Russia-Africa relations.
This organisation will cover many spheres. One of them, which is quite important, in my opinion, should be uniting young people. Youth is our future, and it has to build this very future by itself. Together. But to do this, they must first understand each other and speak the same business language. Therefore, one of the tasks is to create platforms for young people to communicate so that they can together generate ideas for the future.
The main idea of this organisation and how it will look are the 3 Ps: public, private, partnership. Along with the private sector, government and public organisations will be represented in this organisation. It is important for us to join forces now. Joining forces within this organisation will provide an opportunity for the private sector to prove itself, not just government entities. This is one of the main goals that we must achieve, to develop a synchronous mechanism between the public and private sectors.
We will be like a bridge between these two nations, these different cultures, Russia and Africa, to unite them. This is our main idea, the idea of the organisation that we want to create.
– Do you mean that this is true not only in relation to Russia and Ethiopia, but also for Russia and all the other African countries?
– Of course, I mean the African Union. I do not represent just one country. When I say ‘our nation’ I mean the African nation. I speak on behalf of all 54 African countries, on behalf of the African Union because the African Tourism Council is considered part of the African Union as a whole.
– Since we are in the Victory Museum, I would like to ask the following question. Ethiopia took part in the Second World War, and was the first to be dealt a blow in 1935-1937. This year is our anniversary year, we are celebrating the 80th Anniversary of Victory in the Second World War. How important do you think it is to preserve historical memory in our modern world?
– Ethiopia is a country that has always fought on the African continent, not only for its own liberation, but also for the liberation of other African countries. We want peace everywhere. Ethiopia always supports peace in all senses in its region and in general among all African countries.
In Ethiopia, in Addis Ababa, we have a modern and very beautiful National Museum dedicated to the victory of the Ethiopian army over the Italian colonialists at Adwa. But we do not have enough of your experience and knowledge to properly showcase our history.
The combatants in that war did not have modern weapons; they used antique rifles, bows and spears. But, just like in your country, we, or rather, they, were real patriots! Women, children, everyone participated in this war.
You and I are unified by another factor, and that is religion. When Emperor Menelik started the war, he was at a sermon in St. George’s Church. He uttered these words there: “My eldest is St. George. He will be with me. I will fight, and I will be able to win”. And he won!
People later said that the man on the white horse was with them at the front, fought with them and killed many Italian soldiers, they say that St. George was with them at war. That is why they defeated the Italians with their modern weapons. It was the Orthodox faith that helped to win this war. This is another point that we share, the church, and the Orthodox faith.
Ethiopia is the only country in Africa that has never been a colony. Of course, there is also Liberia, but it was artificially created; people were brought there from America. The Italians wanted to conquer Ethiopia in 1935-1937, and we were the first to take the blow of fascism.
– In conclusion, the traditional question of our magazine, which we ask all our interviewees. What do you like most about Russia and what has made the deepest impression on you? What is the most beautiful thing you have seen in Russia?
– The most important thing I saw was the great hospitality, which overwhelmed us. The second thing is patriotism, how much Russians love their country. It also shocked us. These are things that you cannot see or touch. You can only feel it. And this time I felt how much people love their country, I saw that real patriots live here.
– Dear Ms. Assefa, thank you for an interesting talk and for taking the time out of your busy schedule. We hope that we will be lucky enough to have a conversation again on your next visit to our country.
Interview by Yulia NOVITSKAYA, writer, journalist, correspondent for New Eastern Outlook
