Ethiopia feels like the archetypal forgotten land. ~ Philip Briggs
Ethiopia (Afar:Itiyoppiya,Amharic:ኢትዮጵያ,Oromo language:Itiyoophiyaa,Somali:Itoobiya,Tigrinya:ኢትዮጵያ) is a state in the Horn peninsula of Africa, and officially known as theFederal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, it is the second most populous nation inAfrica. Its head of state is PresidentSahle-Work Zewde and its head of government is Prime MinisterAbiy Ahmed.
Ethiopia confounds everyexpectation. ~ Philip Briggs Take care not to spoil thegoodname of Ethiopia by acts which are worthy of the enemy. ~Haile SelassieI knew that the English regarded themselves ascivilised, but it seemed to me that in many ways Ethiopia was a far more civilised place. ~ Dr.Catherine HamlinEthiopia has always held a special place in my ownimagination and the prospect of visiting attracted me more strongly than a trip toFrance,England andAmerica combined. ~Nelson Mandela
Allow me to break down the facts ofhunger as they stand right now. 811 million people are chronically hungry. 283 million are in hunger crises — they are marching towardstarvation. And within that, 45 million in 43 countries across the globe are in hunger emergencies — in other words, famine is knocking on their door. Places likeAfghanistan.Madagascar.Myanmar.Guatemala. Ethiopia.Sudan.South Sudan.Mozambique.Niger.Syria,Mali,Burkina Faso,Somalia,Haiti and on and on and on. The world has often experienced famine. But when has it ever been so widespread, in so many places, at the same time? Why? Three reasons. First, man-made conflict. Dozens of civil wars and regional conflicts are raging, and hunger has been weaponized to achieve military and political objectives. Second,climate shocks /climate change.Floods,droughts,locusts and rapidly changingweather patterns have created severecrop failures around the world. Third,COVID-19. Theviral pandemic has created a secondary hunger pandemic, which is far worse than the first.Shutdowns destroyed livelihoods. Shutdownsstopped the movement of food. Shutdownsinflatedprices. The net result is the poor of the world are priced out of survival. The ripple effect of COVID has been devastating on theglobal economy. During the pandemic, $3.7 trillion inincomes — mostly among thepoor — have been wiped out, whilefood prices are spiking. The cost of shipping food, for example, has increased 3 – 400%. But in places of conflict andlow-income countries, it is even worse. For example, inAleppo, Syria — a war zone, where I just returned from — food is now seven times more expensive than it was 2 years ago. The combined effect of these three — conflict, climate and COVID — has created an unprecedented perfect storm.
Contrary to westernmyth, the elevated central plateau which covers half of Ethiopia 's surface area that supports the large majority population is quite possibly the most extensive contiguous area of fertile land in the eastern side ofAfrica.
Obscured by the media-refracted glare of the surrounding deserts, Ethiopia feels like the archetypal forgotten land. Ethiopia confounds everyexpectation. You arrive expecting a vast featureless desert and instead find yourself overwhelmed by majestic landscapes and climatic abundance. You expect a land which has been ravaged to the point of ruin by years of civilwar, and instead you find close to the best civil amenities in Africa and almost no obvious signs that a war ever took place. You arrive expecting to see human degradation and abject poverty, and instead find yourself immersed in a culture besotted which itself and itshistory, and marked by a sense of unforcedpride that is positively infectious. Ethiopia is a truerevelation. It is the most welcoming, enjoyable and uplifting country I have ever visited.
Philip Briggs, inEthiopa (2006), p. xii
The war of conquest conducted byfascistItaly in Ethiopia started in October 1935 and ended in May 1936 (Del Boca 1969). The origins of the conflict are diverse and can be traced back to the late19th century, but the immediate political reasons lie inBenito Mussolini’s interest in renewing theRoman Empire. Ethiopia, the only uncolonized country inAfrica and surrounded by Italian colonies (Eritrea andSomalia), was the obvious target for the expansionist policies of the fascist state. Ethiopia was also the only country that had been able to obtain a lasting victory over a colonial power during the scramble for Africa. The Ethiopian victory at Adwa (1896) was a thorn in Italy’s imperial pride. The 1935-36 war was short but very costly in human lives, especially on the Ethiopian side. Ethiopia suffered almost 300,000 battlefield deaths (Del Boca 2010: 252), over 30 times more than Italy. Despite the modernizing efforts of the Ethiopian Army in the 1920s and 1930s, the massive firepower of the Italians and their systematic use of airplanes, tanks and poison gas gave no chance to the Ethiopians in the field of conventional war. Typical of a colonial conflict, the treatment of prisoners and civilians was ruthless: thousands were led into concentration camps where they died of disease or starvation (Del Boca 1969: 240-241).
In our opinion, it is important to ‘unearth fascism’, for several reasons. First, because material remains are so important in shaping the collective memory of fascism in Ethiopia. Archaeological vestiges are not innocent: they are part of a prevalent remembrance of the Italian occupation, one that has privileged monumental works over much less visible traces of abuse and conflict. Norindr (1996: 158) points out that inIndochina, the focus of neocolonial imagination is onFrench ‘ornate beaux-arts buildings’. In Ethiopia, the mythologies of the Italian occupation rest upon modernist houses, roads and bridges. Significantly, during our fieldwork in the region of Gambela (western Ethiopia) most buildings attributed to the Italians were (wrongly) identified as schools, in keeping with the idea propagated by the colonizers themselves that they were spreading civilization. This clearly goes against historical facts: the Italian policy in the Horn of Africa was, even before the advent of fascism, guided by the maxim: ‘no schooling for Africans’ (Barrera 2003: 90).
Ibid, pp. 15-16.
I,Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia, am here today to claim that justice which is due to my people, and the assistance promised to it eight months ago, when fifty nations asserted that aggression had been committed in violation of international treaties. There is no precedent for a Head of State himself speaking in this assembly. But there is also no precedent for a people being victim of such injustice and being at present threatened by abandonment to its aggressor.
Take care not to spoil thegoodname ofEthiopia by acts which are worthy of the enemy. We shall see that our enemies are disarmed and sent out the same way they came. AsSaint George who killed thedragon is the Patron Saint of our army as well as of our allies, let us unite with our allies in everlastingfriendship and amity in order to be able to stand against the godless and cruel dragon which has newly risen and which is oppressingmankind.
Haile Selassie, in a victory address in Addis Ababa (5 May 1941), as translated inMy Life and Ethiopia's Progress, Vol. 2, (1999), p. 165
May it be taken asDivine significance, that, as We mark the passing of theNazi Reich, inAmerica atSan Francisco, delegates from allUnited Nations, among whose numberEthiopia stands, are now met together for their long-planned conference to lay foundations for an international pact to banishwar and to maintainWorld Peace. Our Churches pray for the successful triumph of this conference. Without success in this, theVictory, We celebrate today, the suffering that We have all endured will be of no avail.
I knew that the English regarded themselves ascivilised, but it seemed to me that in many ways Ethiopia was a far more civilised place.
Dr.Catherine Hamlin, inThe Hospital by the River : A Story Of Hope (2001)
If there is one people in history to have been shaped in its own self-consciousness by theBible, it is the Ethiopian, with their extraordinary early medieval myth of origin, recorded in theKebra Nagast, that the MosaicArk of the Covenant was carried from Jerusalem to Ethiopia, byMenelik I, son ofSolomon, to constitute their nation as the newIsrael. It is a myth which probably goes back at least to the sixth century. In consequence the whole Hebraic model of land, people, monarchy and religion could here be reproduced.
Adrian Hastings,The Construction of Nationhood: Ethnicity, Religion and Nationalism (1997), p. 150
Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?
Ye wholisten with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms ofhope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow; attend to thehistory of Rasselas, Prince ofAbyssinia.
Ethiopia has always held a special place in my ownimagination and the prospect of visiting attracted me more strongly than a trip toFrance,England andAmerica combined. I felt I would be visiting my own genesis, unearthing the roots of what made me an African. Meetingthe emperor himself would be like shaking hands with history.
Nelson Mandela, on a 1961 conference held in Ethiopia, as quoted inRivonia Unmasked (1965) by Strydom Lautz, p. 108; also inRolihlahla Dalibhunga Nelson Mandela : An Ecological Study (2002), by J. C. Buthelezi, p. 172
In this country, some aristocratic families automatically categorize persons with dark skin, thick lips, and kinky hair as "Barias" [Amharic for slave]... let it be clear to everybody that I shall soon make these ignoramuses stoop and grind corn!
Mengistu Haile Mariam, as quoted in Dr. Paulos Milkia's "Mengistu Haile Mariam: The Profile of a Dictator", reprinted in theEthiopian Review (February 1994)
The importance ofthe queen, theArk of the Covenant and theKebra Nagast in Ethiopian history cannot be overstated. Through their reading of the Kebra Nagast, Ethiopians see their country as God's chosen country, the final resting place that he chose for the Ark - and Sheba and her son were the means by which it came there. Thus, Sheba is the mother of their nation, and the kings of the land have divine right to rule because they are directly descended from her. EmperorHaile Selassie even had that fact enshrined in theEthiopian Constitution of 1955.
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