'Ethiopia' (
Ge'ez: ኢትዮጵያ ''), officially the 'Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia', is a country situated in the
Horn of Africa that has been
landlocked since the independence of its northern neighbor
Eritrea in 1993. Apart from Eritrea to the north, Ethiopia is bordered by
Sudan to the west,
Kenya to the south,
Djibouti to the northeast, and
Somalia to the east.
Ethiopia is one of the oldest nations
[1] in the world and Africa's second-most populous nation
[2][3] in Africa. It has yielded some of the oldest traces of humanity
[4], making it an important area in the process of
human evolution.
Ethiopia was not colonized during the
Scramble for Africa after defeating Italy during the
Battle of Adwa. However it was occupied by
Mussolini's Italy in 1935 before it defeated Italy the second time, with the help of
Britain, in 1941. Having converted during the
fourth century AD, it is also the second-oldest country to become officially
Christian, after
Armenia,
[5] although it has been secular since 1974.
[6]
Historically a relatively isolated mountain empire, Ethiopia has more recently become a crossroads of global
international cooperation. It became a member of the
League of Nations in 1923; signed the
Declaration by United Nations in 1942; was one of the fifty-one original members of the
United Nations (UN); founded the UN headquarters in Africa; and currently hosts the headquarters of the
African Union (formerly the
Organisation of African Unity) of which it was the principal founder.
Name
The
Ge'ez name '', and its English cognate 'Ethiopia', is thought by some to be derived from the Greek word ''Aithiopia,'' from ''Aithiops'' ‘an Ethiopian’, derived from Greek terms meaning "of burnt (
αιθ-) visage ()".
[7] However, this etymology is disputed, since the
Book of Aksum, a
Ge'ez chronicle first composed in the 15th century, states that the name is derived from "'
Ityopp'is", a son (unmentioned in the Bible) of
Cush, son of Ham who according to
legend founded the city of
Axum. It is not certain how old the name ''Ethiopia'' is, but its earliest attested use in the region was as a Christianized name for the
Kingdom of Aksum in the 4th century, in stone inscriptions of
King Ezana.
[8]
In English, Ethiopia was also
historically known as 'Abyssinia', derived from the
Arabic form of the
Ethiosemitic name "ḤBŚT," modern ''
Habesha''. In some countries, Ethiopia is still called by names cognate with "Abyssinia," e.g. Turkish ''HabeÅŸistan'' and Arabic ''Al Habesh'', meaning land of the Habesha people. The term
Habesha, strictly speaking, refers only to the
Amhara and
Tigray-Tigrinya people who have historically dominated the country politically, and which combined comprise about 36% of Ethiopia's population. However, in contemporary Ethiopian politics, the word Habesha is often used to describe all Ethiopans.
Abyssinia can strictly refer to just the North-Western Ethiopian provinces of
Amhara and
Tigray as well as central and
Eritrea, while it was historically used as another name for Ethiopia.
[9]
History
Main articles: History of Ethiopia
Early history
Human settlement in Ethiopia is very ancient. Fossilized remains of the earliest ancestors to the human species, discovered in Ethiopia, have been assigned dates as long ago as 5.9 million years.
[10] Together with
Djibouti and the southeastern part of the
Red Sea coast of Somalia, it is considered the most likely location of the land known to the
ancient Egyptians as
''Punt'' (or "Ta Netjeru," meaning land of the Gods), whose first mention dates to the twenty-fifth century BC.
Aksum and D'mt
The ruin of the temple at
Yeha dates to the 7th or 8th century BC.
Around the eighth century BC, a kingdom known as
DÊ¿mt was established in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, with its capital at
Yeha in northern Ethiopia. Most modern historians consider this civilization to be indigenous, although
Sabaean-influenced due to the latter's hegemony of the
Red Sea,
[11] while others view D`mt as the result of a mixture of "culturally superior" Sabaeans and indigenous peoples.
[12] However,
Ge'ez, the ancient Semitic language of Ethiopia, is now known to not have derived from
Sabaean, and there is evidence of a Semitic speaking presence in Ethiopia and Eritrea at least as early as 2000 BC.
[13][14] Sabaean influence is now thought to have been minor, limited to a few localities, and disappearing after a few decades or a century, perhaps representing a trading or military colony in some sort of symbiosis or military alliance with the Ethiopian civilization of
D`mt or some other proto-Aksumite state.
[15]
After the fall of D`mt in the fifth century BC, the plateau came to be dominated by smaller successor kingdoms, until the rise of one of these kingdoms during the
first century BC, the
Aksumite Kingdom, ancestor of medieval and modern Ethiopia, which was able to reunite the area.
[16] They established bases on the northern highlands of the
Ethiopian Plateau and from there expanded southward. The Persian religious figure
Mani listed Aksum with
Rome,
Persia, and
China as one of the four great powers of his time.
[17]
In 316
AD, a Christian philosopher from Tyre,
Meropius, embarked on a voyage of exploration along the coast of Africa. He was accompanied by, among others, two Syro-
Greeks,
Frumentius and his brother
Aedesius. The vessel was stranded on the coast, and the natives killed all the travelers except the two brothers, who were taken to the court and given positions of trust by the monarch. They both practiced the
Christian faith in private, and soon converted the queen and several other members of the royal court. Upon the king's death, Frumentius was appointed regent of the realm by the queen, and instructor of her young son, Prince
Ezana. A few years later, upon Ezana's coming of age, Aedesius and Frumentius left the kingdom, the former returning to Tyre where he was ordained, and the latter journeying to
Alexandria. Here, he consulted
Athanasius, who ordained him and appointed him Bishop of Aksum. He returned to the court and baptized the King Ezana, together with many of his subjects, and in short order Christianity was proclaimed the official state religion again.
[18] For this accomplishment, he received the title "''Abba Selama''" ("Father of peace").
At various times, including a fifty-year period in the sixth century, Aksum controlled most of modern-day
Yemen and some of southern
Saudi Arabia just across the
Red Sea, as well as controlling southern Egypt, northern Sudan, northern Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and northern Somalia.
[19]
The line of rulers descended from the Aksumite kings was broken several times: first by the Jewish (unknown/or pagan)
Queen Gudit around 950
[20] (or possibly around 850, as in Ethiopian histories).
[21] It was then interrupted by the
Zagwe dynasty; it was during this dynasty that the famous rock-hewn churches of
Lalibela were carved under
King Lalibela, allowed by a long period of peace and stability.
[22] Around 1270, the
Solomonic dynasty came to control Ethiopia, claiming descent from the kings of Aksum. They called themselves ''Neguse Negest'' ("King of Kings," or
Emperor), basing their claims on their direct descent from
Solomon and the queen of
Sheba.
[23]
Restored contact with Europe
During the reign of Emperor
Yeshaq, Ethiopia made its first successful diplomatic contact with a European country since Aksumite times, sending two emissaries to
Alfons V of Aragon, who sent return emissaries that failed to complete the trip to Ethiopia.
[24] The first continuous relations with a European country began in 1508 with
Portugal under Emperor
Lebna Dengel, who had just inherited the throne from his father.
[25]
This proved to be an important development, for when the Empire was subjected to the attacks of the
Adal General and
Imam,
Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi (called "''Grañ''", or "the Left-handed"), Portugal responded to Lebna Dengel's plea for help with an army of four hundred men, who helped his son
Gelawdewos defeat Ahmad and re-establish his rule.
[26] However, when Emperor
Susenyos converted to
Roman Catholicism in 1624, years of revolt and civil unrest followed resulting in thousands of deaths.
[27] The
Jesuit missionaries had offended the Orthodox faith of the local Ethiopians, and on
June 25 1632 Susenyos' son, Emperor
Fasilides, declared the state religion to again be
Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, and expelled the Jesuit missionaries and other Europeans.
[28][29]
All of this contributed to Ethiopia's isolation from 1755 to 1855, called the ''
Zemene Mesafint'' or "Age of Princes." The Emperors became figureheads, controlled by warlords like Ras
Mikael Sehul of
Tigray, and later by the
Oromo Yejju dynasty.
[30] Ethiopian isolationism ended following a British mission that concluded an alliance between the two nations; however, it was not until 1855 that Ethiopia was completely reunited and the power in the Emperor restored, beginning with the reign of Emperor
Tewodros II. Upon his ascent, despite still large centrifugal forces, he began modernizing Ethiopia and recentralizing power in the Emperor, and Ethiopia began to take part in world affairs once again.
Yohannes IV, Emperor of Ethiopia and King of Zion, with his son, Ras Araya Selassie Yohannis.
By the 1880s, Sahle Selassie, as king of Shewa, and later as Emperor Menilik II began expanding his kingdom to the South and East, expanding into areas that hadn't been held since the invasion of Ahmed Gragn, and other areas that had never been under Ethiopian rule, resulting in the borders of Ethiopia still existing today.
[31]
European Scramble for Africa
The 1880s were marked by the
Scramble for Africa and modernization in Ethiopia, when the
Italians began to vie with the British for influence in bordering regions.
Asseb, a port near the southern entrance of the Red Sea, was bought in March 1870 from the local
Afar sultan, vassal to the Ethiopian Emperor, by an Italian company, which by 1890 led to the Italian colony of
Eritrea. Conflicts between the two countries resulted in the
Battle of Adowa in 1896, whereby the Ethiopians surprised the world by defeating the colonial power and remaining independent, under the rule of
Menelik II. Italy and Ethiopia signed a
provisional treaty of peace on
October 26 1896.
The early twentieth century was marked by the reign of Emperor
Haile Selassie I, who undertook the rapid modernization of Ethiopia.
The independence of Ethiopia was interrupted only by the brief
Italian occupation (1936–1941).
[32] In those five years Ethiopia was the center of the "Africa Orientale Italiana", as were called the
Italian East Africa colonial possessions in the
Horn of Africa. Modern Ethiopia's infrastructure at large (roads most importantly) was built by the fascist Italian occupation troops (not by
corvee) between 1937 and 1940.
British Empire forces together with patriot Ethiopian fighters liberated Ethiopia in the course of the
East African Campaign (World War II) in 1941, which was followed by
sovereignty on
January 31,
1941 and British recognition of full sovereignty (i.e. without any special British privileges) with the signing of the
Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement in December 1944.
[33] During 1942 and 1943 there was an
Italian guerrilla war in Ethiopia. On August 26, 1942
Haile Selassie I issued a proclamation outlawing
slavery.
[34][35]
Selassie years
Haile Selassie I came to power after Menelik. In 1952 he orchestrated the federation with Eritrea which he dissolved in 1962. This annexation sparked the
Eritrean War of Independence. Although Haile Selassie was seen as a national and African hero, opinion turned against him due to the worldwide oil crisis of 1973, food shortages, uncertainty regarding the succession, border wars, and discontent in the middle class created through modernization.
[36]
Haile Selassie's reign came to an end in 1974, when a pro-
Soviet Marxist-Leninist military
junta, the "
Derg" led by
Mengistu Haile Mariam, deposed him, and established a one-party
communist state.
Communism
The ensuing regime suffered several
coups, uprisings, wide-scale
drought, and a massive
refugee problem. In 1977, there was the
Ogaden War, but Ethiopia quickly defeated Somalia with a massive influx of Soviet military hardware and a Cuban military presence coupled with East Germany and South Yemen the following year.
Hundreds of thousands were killed due to the
red terror, forced deportations, or from using hunger as a weapon.
[37] In 2006, after a long trial, Mengistu was found guilty of genocide.
[38]
Recent
In 1993 a referendum was held & supervised by the UN mission UNOVER, with universal suffrage and conducted both in and outside Eritrea (among Eritrean communities in the diaspora), on whether Eritreans wanted independence or unity with Ethiopia. Over 99% of the Eritrean people voted for independence which was declared on
May 24,
1993. In 1994, a constitution was adopted that led to Ethiopia's first multi-party elections in the following year. In May 1998, a border dispute with Eritrea led to the
Eritrean-Ethiopian War that lasted until June 2000. This has hurt the nation's economy, but strengthened the ruling coalition. On
May 15,
2005, Ethiopia held
another multiparty election, which was a highly disputed one with some opposition groups claiming fraud. While the American observer
Carter Center concluded it was a "fair and free" election, the 2005
EU election observers continued to accuse the ruling party of vote rigging. Many from the international community are divided about the issue with Irish officials accusing the 2005 EU election observers of corruption for the "inaccurate leaks from the 2005 EU election monitoring body which led the opposition to wrongly believe they had been cheated of victory."
[39] In general, the opposition parties gained more than 200 parliament seats compared to the just 12 in the 2000 elections. Despite most opposition representatives joining the parliament, some leaders of the CUD party are in jail following the post-election violence. Amnesty International considers them "
prisoners of conscience".
September 12, 2007 on the
Gregorian calendar will mark the beginning of the year 2000 on the
Ethiopian calendar.
Politics
Main articles: Politics of Ethiopia
'Politics of Ethiopia' takes place in a framework of a
federal parliamentary republic, whereby the
Prime Minister is the
head of government.
Executive power is exercised by the government. Federal
legislative power is vested in both the
government and the two chambers of parliament. The
Judiciary is more or less independent of the executive and the legislature.
The election of Ethiopia's 547-member constituent assembly was held in June 1994. This assembly adopted the constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia in December 1994. The elections for Ethiopia's first popularly-chosen national parliament and regional legislatures were held in May and June 1995 . Most opposition parties chose to boycott these elections. There was a landslide victory for the
Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). International and non-governmental observers concluded that opposition parties would have been able to participate had they chosen to do so.
The Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia was installed in August 1995. The first President was
Negasso Gidada. The EPRDF-led government of Prime Minister
Meles Zenawi has promoted a policy of ethnic federalism, devolving significant powers to regional, ethnically-based authorities. Ethiopia today has nine semi-autonomous administrative regions that have the power to raise and spend their own revenues. Under the present government, some fundamental freedoms, including
freedom of the press, are, in practice, somewhat circumscribed. Citizens have access to one television station, which is owned and operated by the government [28].
Zenawi's government was elected in 2000 in Ethiopia's first ever multi-party elections. Meles's party was re-elected in a highly contested 2005 elections and the incumbent President is
Girma Wolde-Giorgis.
Ethiopian police are said to have massacred 193 protesters, mostly in the capital
Addis Ababa, in the violence following the May 2005 elections in the
Ethiopian police massacre.
[40]
Geography
Map of Ethiopia.
At 435,071 square miles (1,127,127
km² [41]), Ethiopia is the world's 27th-largest country (after
Colombia). It is comparable in size to
Bolivia, and is about two-thirds as large as the US state of
Alaska.
The major portion of Ethiopia lies on the
Horn of Africa, which is the eastern-most part of the African landmass. Bordering Ethiopia is
Sudan to the west,
Djibouti and
Eritrea to the north,
Somalia to the east, and
Kenya to the south. Within Ethiopia is a massive highland complex of mountains and dissected plateaus divided by the
Great Rift Valley, which runs generally southwest to northeast and is surrounded by lowlands,
steppes, or semi-desert. The great diversity of
terrain determines wide variations in climate, soils, natural vegetation, and settlement patterns.
Climate, ecology and landforms
Elevation and geographic location produce three climatic zones: the cool zone above 2,400
meters (7,900 ft) where temperatures range from near freezing to 16 °
C (32 °–61 °
F); the temperate zone at elevations of 1,500 to 2,400 meters (4,900–7,900 ft) with temperatures from 16 to 30 °C (61–86 °
F); and the hot zone below 1,500 meters (4,900 ft) with both tropical and arid conditions and daytime temperatures ranging from 27 to 50 °C (81–122 °
F). The topography of Ethiopia ranges from several very high mountain ranges (the
Semien Mountains and the
Bale Mountains), to one of the lowest areas of land in Africa, the
Danakil depression.
The normal rainy season is from mid-June to mid-September (longer in the southern highlands) preceded by intermittent showers from February or March; the remainder of the year is generally dry.
Ethiopia is an ecologically diverse country, ranging from the deserts along the eastern border to the tropical forests in the south to extensive
Afromontane in the northern and southeastern parts.
Lake Tana in the north is the source of the
Blue Nile. It also has a large number of
endemic species, notably the
Gelada Baboon, the
Walia Ibex and the
Ethiopian wolf (or
Simien fox). The wide range of altitude has given the country a variety of ecologically distinct areas, this has helped to encourage the evolution of endemic species in ecological isolation.
Deforestation
Main articles: Environmental issues in Ethiopia
Deforestation is a major concern for Ethiopia as studies suggest loss of forest contributes to soil erosion, loss of nutrients in the soil, loss of animal habitats and reduction in biodiversity. At the beginning of the Twentieth century around 420000 km² or 35% of Ethiopia’s land was covered by trees but recent research indicates that forest cover is now approximately 11.9% of the area.
[42] Ethiopia is one of the seven fundamental and independent centers of origin of cultivated plants of the world.
Ethiopia loses an estimated 1,410 km² of natural forests each year. Between 1990 and 2005 the country lost approximately 21,000 km².
Current government programs to control deforestation consist of education, promoting reforestation programs and providing alternate raw material to timber. In rural areas the government also provides non-timber fuel sources and access to non-forested land to promote agriculture without destroying forest habitat.
Organizations such as SOS and Farm Africa are working with the federal government and local governments to create a system of forest management.
[43] Working with a grant of approximately 2.3 million Euros the Ethiopian government recently began training people on reducing erosion and using proper irrigation techniques that do not contribute to deforestation. This project is assisting more than 80 communities.
Regions, zones, and districts
Main articles: Regions of Ethiopia,
Zones of Ethiopia
Before 1996, Ethiopia was divided into 13
provinces, many derived from historical regions. Ethiopia now has a tiered government system consisting of a
federal government overseeing ethnically-based regional states,
zones,
districts (''
woredas''), and
neighborhoods (''
kebele'').
Ethiopia is divided into nine ethnically-based administrative states (''kililoch'', sing. ''kilil'') and subdivided into sixty-eight zones and two chartered cities (''astedader akababiwoch'', sing. ''astedader akababi''):
Addis Ababa and
Dire Dawa (subdivisions 1 and 5 in the map, respectively). It is further subdivided into 550 ''woredas'' and six ''special woredas''.
The constitution assigns extensive power to regional states that can establish their own government and democracy according to the federal government's constitution. Each region has its appex regional council where members are directly elected to represent the districts and the council has legislative and excutive power to direct internal affairs of the regions. Article 39 of the Ethiopian Constitution further gives every regional state the right to secede from Ethiopia. There is debate, however, as to how much of the power guaranteed in the constitution is actually given to the states.
The councils implement their mandate through an executive committee and regional sectoral bureaus. Such elaborate structure of council, executive, and sectoral public institutions is replicated to the next level (woreda).
The regions and chartered cities of Ethiopia, numbered alphabetically
The nine regions and two chartered cities are:
Economy
Coffee farmer filling cups with coffee in Ethiopia
In 1972 and 1973, more than 200,000 people died in the Wallo famine. The Emperor Haile Selassie tried to hide the famine but university students revealed the drought to the world.
[44] After the 1974 revolution, the economy of Ethiopia was run as
Command economy. Stronger state controls were implemented, and a large part of the economy was transferred to the public sector, including all agricultural land and urban rental property, and all financial institutions. The bad weather also continued to harm the agriculture sector. However since Mengistu Haile Mariam's relationship with the west was poor, the government hid the famine in the Tigray and Wallo regions causing the death of more than 250,000 Ethiopians. When the government finally allowed UN workers to witness the condition, one of the worst humanitarian crises of the decade was revealed. Together with a flawed relocation project and the Red Terror around 1,500,000 Ethiopians were killed under Mengistu Haile Mariam.
[45] Also six million people were affected by further famine before the EPRDF-led government overthrew the Derg regime.
[46] Since then, many economic reforms were carried out. From mid-1991 onwards, the economy has evolved toward a decentralized,
market-oriented economy, emphasizing individual initiative, which was intended to reverse a decade of economic decline. In 1993 , gradual privatization of business, industry, banking, agriculture, trade, and commerce was underway.
Nevertheless, Ethiopia is still only partially privatized. Many government owned properties during the previous regime have now been transferred to pro-government enterprises in the name of privatization. Furthermore, the Ethiopian
constitution defines the right to own land as belonging only to "the state and the people," but citizens may only lease land (up to 99 years), and are unable to mortgage, sell, or own it.
[2] Various groups and political parties have sought for full privatization of land. While other opposition parties are against privatization and favor communal ownership.
Agriculture accounts for almost 41 percent of the
gross domestic product (GDP), 80 percent of exports, and 80 percent of the labour force. Many other economic activities depend on agriculture, including marketing, processing, and export of agricultural products. Production is overwhelmingly of a subsistence nature, and a large part of commodity exports are provided by the small agricultural cash-crop sector. Principal crops include
coffee,
pulses (''e.g.,'' beans),
oilseeds,
cereals, potatoes,
sugarcane, and vegetables. Exports are almost entirely agricultural commodities, and coffee is the largest foreign exchange earner. Ethiopia's
livestock population is believed to be the largest in Africa, and as of 1987 accounted for about 15 percent of the GDP. Despite recent improvements; with the equally exploding population, Ethiopia remains one of the poorest nations in the world.
Exports
Ethiopia was the original source of the coffee bean, and coffee beans are the country's largest export commodity.
[47]
Ethiopia is also the 10th largest producer of livestock in the world. Other main export commodities are
khat, gold, leather products and oilseeds. Recent development of the floriculture sector is believed to make Ethiopia one of the top exporters in the world in the coming years.
[48]
With the private sector growing slowly, designer leather products like bags are becoming a big export business making them the first luxury designer label in the country.
[49] Additional small scale export products include cereals, pulses, cotton, sugarcane, potatoes and hides. With the construction of various new dams and growing hydroelectric power projects around the country, it has also begun exporting electric power to its neighbors.
[50][51][52] However, coffee remains its most important export product and with new trademark deals around the world, including recent deals with
Starbucks, the country plans to increase its revenue from coffee.
[53] Most regard Ethiopia's large water resources and potential as its "white oil" and its coffee resources as "black gold" inspired by the movie of the same name produced in 2006.
[54][55][56]
The country also has large mineral resources and oil potential in some the less inhabited regions; however, political instability in those regions has harmed progress.
Demographics
Schoolboys in western
Oromia, Ethiopia.
Ethiopia's population has grown dramatically in the last several decades, from 33.5 million in 1983 to 75.1 million in 2006.
[57] The country's population is highly diverse. Most of its people speak a
Semitic or
Cushitic language. The
Oromo,
Amhara, and
Tigray and Somali make up more than three-quarters of the population, but there are more than 80 different ethnic groups within Ethiopia. Some of these have as few as 10,000 members.
Ethiopians and Eritreans, especially Semitic-speaking ones, collectively refer to themselves as ''
Habesha'' or ''Abesha'', though others reject these names on the basis that they refer only to certain ethnicities.
[58] The
Arabic form of this term (Al-Habesh) is the etymological basis of "Abyssinia," the former name of Ethiopia in English and other European languages.
[59]
According to the Ethiopian national census of 1994, the
Oromo are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia at 32.1%. The
Amhara represent 30.2%, while the
Tigray people are 6.2% of the population. Other ethnic groups are as follows:
Somali 6.0%,
Gurage 4.3%,
Sidama 3.4%,
Wolayta 2%,
Afar 2%,
Hadiya 2%,
Gamo 1%.
[60][61]
Languages
Main articles: Languages of Ethiopia
Ethiopia has eighty-four indigenous languages. Some of these are:
English is the most widely spoken foreign language and is the medium of instruction in secondary schools.
Amharic was the language of primary school instruction, but has been replaced in many areas by local languages such as
Oromifa and
Tigrinya. Ethiopia has its own alphabet, called
Ge'ez or Ethiopic (áŒá‹•á‹), and
calendar.
Religion
According to the most recent 1994 National Census,
Christians make up 61% of the country's population, Muslims 33%, and practitioners of traditional faiths 5%. This contrastsh the updated CIA World Factbook, Christianity is the most widely practiced religion in Ethiopia.
[62], but the US State department has contradictory figures, putting Islam as being a about equal or a slight majority, so a need for review of the figures might be needed (Sunnis Islam=45%-50%, Orthodoxy= 40%, Protestant 5% and the rest traditional).
[63] Orthodox Christianity has a dominant presence in central and northern Ethiopia, while both Orthodox & Protestant Christianity has large representations in the South and Western Ethiopia. A small ancient group of
Jews, the
Beta Israel, live in northwestern Ethiopia, though most have emigrated to
Israel in the last decades of the twentieth century as part of the rescue missions undertaken by the Israeli government,
Operation Moses and
Operation Solomon.
[5] Some Israeli and Jewish scholars consider these Ethiopian Jews as the historical "
Lost Tribe of Israel."
Sometimes Christianity in Africa is thought of as a European import that arrived with colonialism, but this is not the case with Ethiopia. The
Kingdom of Aksum was one of the first nations to officially adopt
Christianity, when St.
Frumentius of
Tyre, called Fremnatos or Abba Selama ("Father of Peace") in Ethiopia, converted King
Ezana during the
fourth century AD. Many believe that the Gospel had entered Ethiopia even earlier, with the royal official described as being baptised by
Philip the Evangelist in chapter nine of the
Acts of the Apostles. Today, the
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, part of
Oriental Orthodoxy, is by far the largest denomination, though a number of
Protestant (
Pentay) churches and the
Ethiopian Orthodox Tehadeso Church have recently gained ground. Since the
eighteenth century there has existed a relatively small
Uniate Ethiopian Catholic Church in
full communion with
Rome, with adherents making up less than 1% of the total population.
The name "Ethiopia" (Hebrew ''Kush'') is mentioned in the Bible numerous times (thirty-seven times in the
King James version). Abyssinia is also mentioned in the
Qu'ran and
Hadith. While many Ethiopians claim that the Bible references of Kush apply to their own ancient civilization, pointing out that the
Gihon river, a name for the
Nile, is said to flow through the land, most non-Ethiopian scholars believe that the use of the term referred to the
Kingdom of Kush in particular or Africa outside of Egypt in general. Some have argued that biblical
Kush was a large part of land that included Northern Ethiopia,
Eritrea and most of present day
Sudan. The capital cities of biblical Kush were in Northern Sudan.
A traditional Ethiopian depiction of Jesus and Mary with distinctively "Ethiopian" features.
dates back to the founding of the religion; in 615, when a group of Muslims were counseled by Muhammad to escape persecution in
Mecca and
travel to Ethiopia, which was ruled by
Ashama ibn Abjar, a pious Christian king. Moreover,
Bilal, the first
muezzin, the person chosen to call the faithful to prayer, and one of the foremost companions of Muhammad, was from Ethiopia.
There are numerous indigenous
African religions in Ethiopia, mainly located in the far southwest and western borderlands. In general, most of the (largely members of the
non-Chalcedonian Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church)
Christians generally live in the highlands, while
Muslims and adherents of traditional African religions tend to inhabit more lowland regions in the east and south of the country.
Ethiopia is also the spiritual homeland of the
Rastafari movement, whose adherents believe Ethiopia is
Zion. The Rastafari view
Emperor Haile Selassie I as
Jesus, the human incarnation of God, a view apparently not shared by Haile Selassie I himself, who was staunchly Ethiopian Orthodox Christian. The concept of Zion is also prevalent among Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, though it represents a separate and complex concept, referring figuratively to St.
Mary, but also to Ethiopia as a bastion of Christianity surrounded by Muslims and other religions, much like
Mount Zion in the Bible. It is also used to refer to
Axum, the ancient capital and religious centre of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, or to its primary church, called
Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion.
[64] The
Baha'i Faith has been established in Ethiopia since the 1950s, and today is concentrated primarily in Addis Ababa, but also in the suburbs of Yeka, Kirkos and Nefas Silk Lafto.
[65]
Health
According to the head of the
World Bank's
Global HIV/AIDS Program, Ethiopia has only 1 medical doctor per 100,000 people.
[66]
However, the
World Health Organization in its
2006 World Health Report gives a figure of 1936 physicians (for 2003), which comes to about 2.6 per 100,000. Globalization is said to affect the country, with many educated professionals leaving Ethiopia for a better economic opportunity in the
West. Despite the Ethiopian government making recent salary increases to professionals nationwide, a general
family doctor can get at least 85 times more annual salary working in the United States than working in Ethiopia. As of 2006, there are more Ethiopia-trained doctors living in the city of
Chicago than those staying in Ethiopia.
[67]
Education
Main articles: Education in Ethiopia
Education in Ethiopia has been dominated by the Orthodox Church for many centuries until secular education was adopted in the early 1900s. The elites, mostly Christians and central ethnic Amhara population, had the most privilege until 1974 when the government tried to reach the rural areas. The current system follows very similar school expansion schemes to the rural areas as the previous 1980s system with an addition of deeper regionalisation giving rural education in their own
languages starting at the elementary level and with more budget allocated to the Education Sector. The sequence of general education in Ethiopia is six years of primary school, four years of lower secondary school and two years of higher secondary school.
[68]
Culture
Main articles: Culture of Ethiopia
Cuisine
Main articles: Ethiopian cuisine
Typical Ethiopian cuisine: ''
Injera'' (pancake-like bread) and several kinds of ''wat'' (stew).
The best known
Ethiopian cuisine consists of various
vegetable or
meat side dishes and entrees, usually a ''
wat'', or thick
stew, served atop
injera, a large
sourdough flatbread. One does not eat with utensils, but instead uses injera to scoop up the entrees and side dishes. Traditional Ethiopian cuisine employs no
pork or
shellfish of any kind, as it is forbidden in the
Islamic,
Jewish, and
Ethiopian Orthodox Christian faiths. It is also very common to eat from the same big dish in the center of the table with a group of people.
Music
Main articles: Music of Ethiopia
The
Music of Ethiopia is extremely diverse, with each of the
country's 80 ethnic groups being associated with unique sounds.
Ethiopian music uses a unique
modal system that is
pentatonic, with characteristically long intervals between some
notes. Influences include ancient Christian elements and
Muslim and
folk music from elsewhere in the
Horn of Africa, especially
Sudan and
Somalia. Popular musicians include
Tilahun
Gessesse,
Aster Aweke,
Tewodros Tadesse,
Ephrem
Tamiru,
Muluken Melesse,
Bizunesh Bekele,
Mahmoud Ahmed,
Tadesse Alemu,
Alemayehu Eshete,
Neway Debebe,
Asnaketch Worku,
Ali
Birra,
Teddy Afro,
Gigi, and
Mulatu
Astatke.
Sports
Ethiopia has some of the best athletes in the world, most notably in
middle-distance and
long-distance runners.
Kenya and
Morocco are often its opponents in
World Championships and
Olympic middle and long-distance events. As of March 2006, two Ethiopians dominate the long-distance running scene, mainly:
Haile Gebreselassie (World champion and Olympic champion) who has set over twenty new
world records and currently holds the 20 km,
half-marathon and 25 km world record, and young
Kenenisa Bekele (World champion, World cross country champion, and Olympic champion), who holds the 5,000 m and 10,000 m world records. Ethiopia has also had various successful sweeps by taking all three medals in various world races including during the Olympics. The last few years Ethiopian women runners have joined the men in dominating athletics, particularly the multi-gold medalists Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba.
[69][70][71] Ethiopia has added more events to the list of its preeminence in athletics, including the steeplechase which Legese Lamiso recently took the top honors.
[72]
Ethiopian distance-runners include
Derartu Tulu,
Abebe Bikila,
Mamo Wolde and
Miruts Yifter. Derartu Tulu was the first woman from Africa to win an Olympic gold medal, doing so over 10,000 metres at Barcelona. Abebe Bikila, the first Olympic champion representing an African nation, won the Olympic marathon in 1960 and 1964, setting world records both times. He is well-known to this day for winning the 1960 marathon in Rome while running barefoot. Miruts Yifter, the first in a tradition of Ethiopians known for their brilliant finishing speed, won gold at 5,000 and 10,000 metres at the Moscow Olympics. He is the last man to achieve this feat.
Archaeology
Ethiopia offers a greater richness in archaeological finds and historical buildings than any other country in Sub-Saharan Africa (including Sudan). In April 2005 , the
Axum obelisk, one of Ethiopia's religious and historical treasures, was returned to Ethiopia by
Italy.
[73] Under the orders of dictator
Benito Mussolini, Italian troops seized the obelisk in 1937 and took it to
Rome. Italy agreed to return the obelisk in 1947 in a
UN agreement, and it was finally returned in 2005 . As of January 2007 the obelisk has not been erected in Ethiopia. The monument was returned to Ethiopia in three or four large segments to facilitate easier transport. The pieces are so large that the Ethiopian government has been unable to erect it or even devise a way it could feasibly be done. The original site of the obelisk is an unexcavated area that would be damaged by heavy machinery, if that were determined to be an appropriate method of erection.
There have been plenty of significant discoveries including the oldest known, complete fossilized human skeleton,
Lucy. Other discoveries are still being made.
[74]
Recently, archeologists uncovered the ruins of the legendary ancient
Islamic kingdom of
Shoa, that included evidence of a large urban settlement as well as a large mosque.
[75]
See also
★
Communications in Ethiopia
★
Ethiopia Scout Association
★
List of Ethiopia-related topics
★
List of Ethiopian companies
★
Military of Ethiopia
★
Monarchies of Ethiopia
★
National parks in Ethiopia
★
Transport in Ethiopia
★
Universities and colleges in Ethiopia
★
Water supply and sanitation in Ethiopia
References
1. Britannica, "Ethiopia." Accessed June 24, 2007.
2. http://www.et.undp.org/ethiopia/index.htm
3. Allafrica, Ethiopia: Rapidly Growing Ethiopia Plans Third Ever Census, May 8, 2007, provided by The Daily Monitor (Addis Ababa)
4. Nature, Ethiopia is top choice for cradle of Homo sapiens
5. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/africa/july-dec03/ethiopia_7-3.html
6. Nationalism and Internationalism in the Post-Cold War Era, , Kjell, Goldmann, Routledge, 2000,
7. Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'' (s. v.); ''Αιθιοπηες'' Il. 1.423, properly, ''Burnt-face'', i.e. ''Ethiopian, negro''
8. Munro Hay 1991
9. http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Abyssinia
10. "Earliest Human Ancestors Discovered In Ethiopia; Discovery Of Bones And Teeth Date Fossils Back More Than 5.2 Million Years" ScienceDaily.com article references a report in the July 12, 2001 issue of Nature
11. Stuart Munro-Hay, ''Aksum: An African Civilization of Late Antiquity''. Edinburgh: University Press, 1991, pp.57.
12. Taddesse Tamrat, ''Church and State in Ethiopia: 1270–1527'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972), pp. 5–13.
13. ''ibid''.
14. Herausgegeben von Uhlig, Siegbert. ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica'', "Ge'ez". Wiesbaden:Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005, pp. 732.
15. Munro-Hay, ''Aksum'', pp. 57.
16. Pankhurst, Richard K.P. ''Addis Tribune'', "Let's Look Across the Red Sea I", January 17, 2003.
17. Stuart Munro-Hay, ''Aksum: A Civilization of Late Antiquity'' (Edinburgh: University Press, 1991), pp. 13.
18. Taddesse, ''Church and State'', pp. 22–3.
19. Munro-Hay, ''Aksum'', pp. 36
20. Taddesse, ''Church and State'', pp. 38-41.
21. Tekeste Negash,
22. Tekeste, "Zagwe period-reinterpreted."
23. Taddesse, ''Church and State'', pp. 64–8.
24. Girma Beshah and Merid Wolde Aregay, ''The Question of the Union of the Churches in Luso-Ethiopian Relations (1500–1632)'' (Lisbon: Junta de Investigações do Ultramar and Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos, 1964), pp. 13–4.
25. Girma and Merid, ''Question of the Union of the Churches'', pp. 25.
26. Girma and Merid, ''Question of the Union of the Churches'', pp. 45–52.
27. Girma and Merid, ''Question of the Union of the Churches'', pp. 91, 97–104.
28. Girma and Merid, ''Question of the Union of the Churches,'' p. 105.
29. van Donzel, Emeri, "Fasilädäs" in Siegbert von Uhlig, ed., ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: D-Ha'' (Wiesbaden:Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005), p. 500.
30. Pankhurst, Richard, ''The Ethiopian Royal Chronicles'', (London:Oxford University Press, 1967), pp. 139–43.
31. ''Great Britain and Ethiopia 1897-1910: Competition for Empire'' Edward C. Keefer, International Journal of African Studies'' Vol. 6 No. 3 (1973) page 470''
32. Clapham, Christopher, "Ḫaylä Śəllase" in Siegbert von Uhlig, ed., ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: D-Ha'' (Wiesbaden:Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005), pp. 1062–3.
33. Clapham, "Ḫaylä Śəllase", ''Encyclopaedia Aethiopica'', p. 1063.
34. Ethiopia
35. Chronology of slavery
36. Black Book of Communism p. 687>
37. Black Book of Communism p. 687-695
38. Mengistu found guilty of genocide
39. Corruption in EU monitoring group sited
40. Ethiopian probe team criticises judge over report.
41. [1]
42. Mongabay .com Ethiopia statistics. (n.d).Retrieved November 18, 2006, from http://rainforests.mongabay.com/deforestation/2000/Ethiopia.htm.
43. Parry, J (2003). Tree choppers become tree planters. Appropriate Technology, 30(4), 38-39. Retrieved November 22, 2006, from ABI/INFORM Global database. (Document ID: 538367341).
44. Wallo Famine during Haile Sellasie reign
45. Genocide of 1,500,000 Ethiopians during the DERG regime
46. Six million people in famine under Mengistu
47. Starbucks in Ethiopia coffee vow
48. Ethiopia's flower trade in full bloom
49. Ethiopia's designs on leather trade
50. water resource revenue potentials being tackled in ethiopia
51. largest hydro electric power plant goes smoothly
52. Hydroelectric Power Plant built
53. new coffee deal with Starbucks
54. Ethiopia's black gold
55. Ethiopia water resources referred as "White oil"
56. Ethiopia hopes to power neighbours with dams
57. ''Diercke Landerlexicon'', 1983
58. Abesha.com — About us
59. Time Europe — Abyssinia: Ethiopian Protest 9 August 1926
60. Berhanu Abegaz, (accessed 6 April 2006)
61. Embassy of Ethiopia, Washington, DC (accessed 6 April 2006)
62. [3]
63. [4]
64. Taddesse Tamrat, ''Church and State''.
65. [6]
66. BBC, The World Today, 24 July, 2007
67. More Ethiopian doctors living in Chicago than in those living in Ethiopia
68. # Damtew Teferra and Philip. G. Altbach, eds., ''African Higher Education: An International Reference Handbook'' Indiana University Press, 2003), pp. 316-325
69. Tirunesh Dibaba
70. Ethiopian legend Meseret Defar
71. Meseret Defar takes gold at the all africa games
72. Legese Lamiso takes over steeplechase
73. Obelisk arrives back in Ethiopia BBC 19 April 2005
74. [7] Discovery Fossil Sheds Light on Ape-Man Species 21 September 2006
75. Hailu , Tesfaye. (2000). ''History and Culture of the Argobba: Recent Investigations'', In: Annale D'Éthiopie, 16, pp. 195–206, ISBN 2-86877-154-8
Bibliography
★ Henze, P.B., (2004), ''Layers of Time: A History of Ethiopia'', Shama Books, ISBN 1-931253-28-5
★ Pankhurst, Dr. Richard.
History of Northern Ethiopia — and the Establishment of the Italian Colony or Eritrea
★ Stand for Silenced Ethiopians: Support the Ethiopian Struggle for Democracy, Peace and Unity
External links
'Overview'
★
Rural poverty in Ethiopia (
IFAD)
★
Fighting Hunger and poverty in Ethiopia (
Peter Middlebrook)
'Tourism'
★
★
Ethiopian Airlines
★
Ethiopian Tourism Commission
★
Meet Ethiopia
★
Ethiopian photogallery
'Government'
★
Walta Information Center
★
Aiga Forum
'Independent Ethiopian Web sites'
★
EthioStartPage
★
CyberEthiopia
★
Ethioindex
★
Nazret
العربية
ä¸å›½
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिनà¥à¤¦à¥€
Italiano
日本語
Português
РуÑÑкий
Español