I mean the Greco-Romano-Christiano-centric approach that minimizes the World History into a misinterpreted annex of European Studies. In this direction I go in parallel with the pertinent researches undertaken by Prof. Martin Bernal, the illustrious author of Black Athena.



On the other hand, focusing on the collapse of the Islamic Wisdom, Knowledge and Science, and studying the role played by the colonial powers, France and England, in diffusing among other nationalisms the Pan-Arabic nationalistic falsehood, and in inciting the obscurantism of uneducated sheikhs to drive them to even more unrealistic, extremist and self-damaging positions, I came to place several groundbreaking conclusions of Edouard Said within a larger, not simply literary and scholarly context, and to identify finally the basic problems that worsen the entire situation in the Middle East and Africa, endangering the life and the future of many peoples. As you understand, I preferred a time of reflection to an average academic career. The conformism and the conventionalism of the majority of present day scholars mean nothing to me. I am totally indifferent to such a perspective.





Professor Megalommatis



VF: You must have seen diverse worlds: Christian, Muslim, historian and political activist. Did you find these experiences as advantages or challenges?



Prof: I found them absolutely normal and average! They are the result of my elitist philosophical approach and of my universalistic culture that encapsulate everything in any Utopia – that of Tommaso Campanella, that of Thomas Moore, that of Voltaire, that of Cabet or that of the author of the Ancient Egyptian Narration of the Shipwrecked. When you study the division, you have the privilege to see the union, to perceive the entirety, and to be consequently lifted above and far from the level of division and partiality. But modesty is always an excellent advisor; I was never in Mandalay, I did not live in India, China and Tibet, I have not seen the Walls of the Great Zimbabwe, and la Puerta del Sol nearby the lake Titicaca in the Incas soil of Bolivia has escaped from my eyes…



VF: Your name became popular among some Ethiopian internet forum participants lately because of your writings on the history of the Horn of Africa and the Middle East regions. Many participants in the forum have tried to characterize you with different groups such as Islamic fundamentalism, member of Egyptian intelligence, member of Al Qa’eda, enemy of Ethiopia, hired by the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). How do you define yourself as far as what you stand for goes?



Prof: I have no contact with all these numerous groups that are in conflict with one another! I expressed – not very much until now but enough I think – a resolute rejection of the Islamic fundamentalism and extremism. I consider this movement’s various branches have long been manipulated by colonial powers, France and England. I do not consider anyone belonging or accepting such groups, ideas, and strategies as a real Muslim. They are miserable victims that help in professionally and irreversibly denigrating Islam; you can call them anything from puppets to Satanists. Hatred, you know, is particular to Satan, according to all the religions of the world! If we go back to Ancient Egypt, we learn that the anger, the extremely negative expression, the hysteria in the discourse are all indications that the person in question has been ‘invaded’, possessed if you like, by Seth, the ancient Egyptian ‘Satan’. Now, when I hear some ‘sheikhs’ in delirium during their supposed ‘khutbah’, the Friday prayer sermon, my mind goes to Seth! I do not have anything in common with them!



Member of the Egyptian intelligence? This is a funny reproach, since I have always criticized strongly the present state of Egypt; what I have repeatedly published about Pan-Arabism, denouncing this falsehood as colonial tool of infiltration and destruction, contravenes the basic interests of present day Egypt! How can I work for a country the policies of which I strongly refute?



Enemy of Abyssinia? I was never! And why should I be? Enemy of the Ethiopia of the Ancient Greeks and Romans, i.e. the area of present day Northern and Eastern Sudan? Why? I loved, studied, and explored the area, as much as I loved Axumite Abyssinia. I passed exams on Gueze texts at Sorbonne with Maxime Rodinson. Why hate? Simply, I specified what is correct as a term for the national name of the country that has its capital in a city that they do not call after its original and true name, Finfinne, but they name ‘Addis Ababa’. The real name for that country is Abyssinia. Period.



Hired by the OLF? Well, this is also funny! First of all, there should not be an Oromo Liberation Front; the Oromo people have their own right to self-determination. As the majority in the existing country, Oromos must form the bulk of the army officers, the admi

Keep up the good work.

Yes, more History about the ancient and ever-living and indestructable Oromo people is always welcome.