Preface by Prof. Bereket Habte Selassie:
Thomas Paine (Some prefer to call him Tom Paine) is a man for all seasons, and for all continents—in short, for all humanity. These qualities appear manifestly in his historic Pamphlet, Common Sense, which was published in Philadelphia in 1776, at the same time as The American Declaration of Independence came out, penned by Thomas Jefferson. The same year also saw the publication of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations. 1776 may thus be called the Year of Miracles.
It was also a period suffused with the Enlightenment spirit and marked by active movement, throughout Europe, from the feudal (monarchical) era to the democratic epoch. The English Revolution of 1688 had seen the shift of power from the King to Parliament, some eight decades earlier; and the French Revolution would break out some twelve years later in 1789 establishing a popular republic, on the ruins of the ancien regime. Tom Paine, who had also participated in the French Revolution, for which Lafayette gave him the key to the Bastille prison as a memento for his services, was a child of the revolutionary ferment of the Age, a matter that is present in his historic booklet, Common Sense.
Indeed, it was as if he had been destined to provide the raw materials for the drafters of the American Constitution when they met in Philadelphia to debate its articles in the summer of 1787. If Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence is marked by soaring eloquence, Tom Paine’s Common Sense is densely packed with intellectual insights and practical suggestions about governance that the American Constitution makers must have found extremely helpful.
Jefferson’s Declaration may rightly be considered as the preface of what would follow eleven years later in 1787. The Declaration had proclaimed:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal: that they are endowed by their Creator ith certain inalienable rights: that among these rights are the right to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness…”
And the Constitution of the United States and its several Amendments fleshed out in details the rights and liberties of the people as well as the powers and responsibilities of the government
To illustrate the universality of Thomas Paine, and his idea about the promise of America, I will cite one example. He has written in Common Sense as follows:
“The cause of America is, in a great measure, the cause of Mankind. Many circumstances have, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all lovers of Mankind are affected and in the event of which , their affections are interested. The laying of a country desolate with fire and sword, declaring war against the natural right of all Mankind, and extirpating the Defenders thereof from the face of the Earth is the concern of every Man to whom Nature hath given the Power of feeling, of which Class, regardless of Party censure it.”
(Common Sense, page 2.)
One hundred and ninety years later, Martin Luther King also uttered a similar word of wisdom in his letter from the Birmingham Jail: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,”
The Significance of Thomas Paine and His work
Tsegu Fessahaie’s translation of Common Sense is an outstanding piece of work worthy of special attention and thus worth publishing. Common Sense in Tigrigna will be a very useful introduction of the history of ideas like democracy and for us Eritreans a relevant topic to engage in our on-going self-reckoning. Being the product of the Age of Reason (The Enlightenment), it provides insightful lessons in our discussion on democracy and sovereignty
Including the sovereign statehood of Eritrea, which is under attack by internal enemy who are supposed to defend it, but who are engaged in a treasonous attempt at undermining it.
Being also the product of another era, it contains some questionable assertions about religion favoring the then dominant Christian religion.
On the whole, however, it is a brilliant piece of work ably translated into Tigrigna. I highly recommend its speedy publication.
