. . . watch the African Union raise the flag that you designed?

My wife and children beside me, I stood directly behind Libyan President Moammar el-Qaddafi. He hoisted the new flag that took me four months to create. To watch it wave, I felt vindication, reconciliation, and pride.

When I was 2, my father and older brother were killed in our Ethiopian home by a brutal socialist government. Throughout childhood, I witnessed my mother’s grief. It eventually killed her. Now the African nations flew my flag, symbolizing a new day for more than 1 billion of my fellow Africans. It flew for unity, hope, and human rights. I knew then my family died for something meaningful. Though they were not there to celebrate with me, I felt their satisfaction.