History of Ethiopia
History of Ethiopia
This page is all about Ethiopia history.
All about Ethiopia history
* Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Sub Saharan Africa. The earliest evidence of Ethiopian history was in around 1000BC when the Queen of Sheba visited King Solomon.
* The first recorded kingdom in Ethiopia grew around Axum during the 3rd century BC. Axum was an offshoot of the Semitic Sabeam kingdoms of southern Arabia, it became the greatest ivory market in the north east.
* Ethiopia influenced the state of Meroe in Sudan. Over the next few centuries, Axum encroached more and more on Meroe until, when Christianity became the state religion in the 4th century AD, Ethiopia conquered the kingdom.
* Christianity was adopted in the country by a Syrian youth named Frumentius who grew up in Axum and converted the King; the youth was later made the first Bishop in 330 AD.
* Axum conquered parts of Yemen and southern Arabia and remained a great power until the death of the Prophet Mohammed.
* Islam was expanding which had the effect of cutting off Ethiopia from its former Mediterranean trading partners and allies, Muslims replaced the Egyptians in the Red Sea ports. Ethiopians were allowed to consecrate their Bishops in Cairo and pilgrims were allowed to travel to Jerusalem.
* Unfortunately, the Ethiopians did not have such a good relationship with the pagan tribes in the south and pressure from these tribes forced the Ethiopian emperors to adopt the life of nomadic military commanders living in makeshift cities. The priests were forced to become monks and hermits. After some time these tribes were pacified and Ethiopia recovered enough to take the provinces of Amhara, Lasta, Gojam and Damot. At a similar time the capital was moved to the south to the Amhara province.
* In the 12th century Muslim expansion began. As independent trading kingdoms grew up along the coast of the Red Sea they expanded down to the Awash Valley. Their wealth was based mainly upon a trade in slaves, gold and ivory.
* During the 13th and 14th centuries the Red Sea Kingdoms became Ethiopian vassal states.
* During the 15th century with the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, Ethiopian fortunes were reversed. The Turks who succeeded the Mamelukes in Egypt supported the Muslim kingdoms providing both firearms and artillery; the only thing that saved the Christian empire from collapse was the Portuguese. In 1542 as a result of this, missionaries from Portugal attempted to persuade the Ethiopians to accept the Pope in Rome as the leader of the Church.
* In the 18th century the empire broke down into constituent provinces, and a hundred years of constant warfare between existing war lords and their successors followed.
* Ras Kassa had himself crowned as the emperor at Axum under a different name, Tewodros. This happened in 1855 when he constructed an army to reunite the provinces of Tigre, Amhara and Shoa.
* Tewodros shot himself because the British, in 1867, blockaded his fortress. He was succeeded by John the 4th who took power by using British arms and was forced to accept a powerful young vassal King of Shoa as his heir, named Menelik. He built up large stores of European arms which he used to defeat the Italians in 1896 at Adowa.
* John the 4th enlarged his empire at the expense of the Afars, the Somalis of Harrar and the Ogadam, and the Gallas.
* In 1916, Haile Selassie, born Prince Ras Tafari Makonnen, led a revolution and became Prince Regent, heir to the throne. He was proclaimed Emperor in 1930.
* Mussolini, from Italy overran the country in 1936. Haile Selassie fled to England where he lived in exile.
He appealed for help, but none was offered although the western nations condemned the action. The Italians remained present in Ethiopia until 1941. Haile Selassie returned as Emperor.
* After World War 2 Ethiopia's course as an independent nation continued although the province of Eritrea remained under British control until 1952 when it was federated with Ethiopia, a result of a plebiscite, organised by the UN. The Muslims were unhappy about the federation and so in 1962 the federation was dissolved and the province was annexed by Haile Selassie. The consequence of this was the outbreak of guerrilla warfare, the Muslims against the Christians.
* The Eritreans regarded the annexation as tantamount to being colonised by another African nation and there were many years of inconclusive fighting which also led to mutiny and made more people aware of the revolutionary current which was sweeping through Ethiopian society. This was one of the principle factors leading to Haile Selassie's downfall.
* Haile Selassie was respected as an African statesman and as a key person in the construction of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
* Wealth went to nobility and the church. Many thousands of people died due to famine and the war in Eritrea.
* In 1974 amid a wave of demonstrations, mutinies and uprisings, Haile Selassie was deposed and held under armed guard in his palace. He died several months later.
* Ethiopia was then plunged into a social revolution and a group of junior army officers imposed a military dictatorship. The leader was Mengistu Haile Miriam. He threw out Americans and then instituted a number of radical reforms. He jailed the opposition; many people were massacred by vigilante groups; opposition arose everywhere; the Eritreans stepped up the guerrilla campaign and the Somalis decided that the time was right to press their claims over the Ogaden desert and invaded in force.
* By 1978 the Somalis had managed to overrun Jijiga which was an important Ethiopian military base and were threatening to take areas through which the vital railway ran.
* The military regime in Addis Ababa was at a point of collapse but then the Russian and Cuban troops intervened with the help from Moscow, Mengistu was able to turn the Somalis back across the border.
* Mengistu's policies included creating 'people's committees' called Kebeles which controlled the everyday lives of the people in great detail. Large numbers of people were forcibly moved around the country in an attempt to counter famine. Conscription into the army eventually called on ever man from 18 to 70 years old.
* Matters went from bad to worse. Mengistu found himself with a discontented population, frequent famine, war in Eritrea, Ogaden and Tigray. Finally, in 1991, when the rebel forces were about to seize Addis, Mengistu hastily left the country for Zimbabwe.
* A new government was led by Meles Zenawi who set out a policy to pursue multi-party democracy. Eritrea became independent led by Isaias Afwerki, a friend of Zenawi.
History
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Ethiopia is the oldest independent country in Africa, with one of the longest recorded histories in the world. It has long been an intersection between the civilizations of North Africa, the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa.
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Earliest History
Ethiopia has seen human habitation for longer than almost anywhere else in the world; perhaps modern homo sapiens evolved there.
There is some confusion over the usage of the word Ethiopia in ancient times and the modern country. The ancient Greeks used the word (Αιθιοπία) to refer to the peoples living immediately to the south of ancient Egypt, specifically the area now known as Nubia; modern usage has transferred this name further south to the land and peoples known in the late 19th and early 20th century as Abyssinia. As a result, the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica states the connection between Egypt and Ethiopia is at least as early as the Twenty-second dynasty of Egypt was very intimate, and beginning with Piye, a ruler of the Twenty-fifth dynasty, occasionally the two countries were under the same ruler; however, the capital of these two dynasties was in the north of modern Sudan, at Napata. It is now known that in ancient times the name Ethiopia was used to refer to the nation based in the upper Nile valley south of Egypt, also called Cush, which in the 4th century CE was invaded by the Axum from the highlands close to the Red sea. Reference to the Kingdom of Aksum in modern day Ethiopia as Ethiopia dates as far back as the first half of 4th century, however, when an inscription of Ezana in Ge'ez, South Arabian alphabet (in Ge'ez), and Greek translates Habashat (the source for "Abyssinia") as "Aethiopia" in Greek. The first records of Ethiopia proper come from Egyptian traders from about 3000 BC, who refer to lands south of Nubia or Cush as Punt and Yam. The Ancient Egyptians were in possession of myrrh (found in Punt) as early as the First or Second Dynasties (3407-2888 BC), which Richard Pankhurst interprets to indicate trade between the two countries extant from the beginning of Ancient Egypt's beginnings. J.H. Breasted posits that this early trade relationship would have been realized through overland trade down the Nile and its tributaries (i.e. the Blue Nile and Atbara) rather than by sea. The first known voyage to Punt occurred in the 25th century BC under the reign of Pharaoh Sahure (2708-2697 BC). The most famous expedition to Punt, however, comes during the reign of Queen Hatshepsut probably around 1495 BC, as the expedition was recorded in detailed reliefs on the temple of Deir el-Bahri at Thebes. The inscriptions depict a trading group bringing back myrrh trees, sacks of myrrh, elephant tusks, incense, gold, various fragmented wood, and exotic animals. Detailed information about these two nations is sparse, and there are many theories concerning their locations and the ethnic relationship of their peoples. The Egyptians sometimes called Punt land Ta-Netjeru, meaning "Land of the Gods," and considered it their place of origin.[1]
The state of Sheba mentioned in the Old Testament is sometimes believed to have been in Ethiopia, but more often is placed in Yemen. Others believe it covered parts of both the Yemen and present-day Ethiopia. According to the Ethiopian legend, best represented in the Kebra Negest, the Queen of Sheba was tricked by King Solomon into sleeping with him, resulting in a child, named Menelik I. When he was of age, Menelik returned to Israel to see his father, who sent with him the son of Zadok to accompany him with a replica of the ark of the Covenant (Ethiosemitic: tabot). On his return with some of the Israelite priests, however, he found that Zadok's son had stolen the real ark of the covenant. Some believe that the ark is still being preserved today at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion in Axum, Ethiopia.
Around 800 BC, a civilization known by its Arabic name, D’mt, arose in Ethiopia, centering around Yeha (thought to be its capital) in northern Ehiopia. The kingdom seems to have had close relations with the Yemenite Sabaean kingdom. The only known inscriptions of D’mt kings include reference to the contemporaneous ruling king of the Sabaean kingdom at the time. The D’mt kingdom developed irrigation schemes, used plows, grew millet, and even made iron tools and weapons. Remains of a large stone temple dating to about 500 BC still survive at Yeha, near Axum. The transition from D’mt to the Kingdom of Aksum remains unclear.[2]
In Ancient Greece the Ethiopians were viewed as a sacred people that was mostly loved by the Gods. Memnon was regarded as one of the noblest heroes that participated in the Trojan war and as the handsomest man of his time, bested in battle only by Achilles. According to a version of the myth, the Gods admired him so much that after his death from the sword of Achilles they decided to grant him immortality. According to Greek Mythology Ethiopians acquired their dark colour when the sun came once very close to their country. During the Persian expedition against Ethiopia, Herodotus describes Ethiopians as the tallest, handsomest and strongest people of the earth. According to his historical accounts, the Ethiopian King gave his huge bow as a gift to the Persian King and advised him to reorganise an attack against the Ethiopian realm only after he has managed to draw it (Histories - 3.22.1).
The Axumite Kingdom
Main article: Kingdom of Aksum
The first verifiable kingdom of great power to rise in Ethiopia was that of Axum in the first century CE. It was founded by Semitic-speaking immigrants from southern Arabia who landed during the first century BC on the northeastern African coast. They established bases on the northern highlands of the Ethiopian Plateau and from there expanded southward. The Persian religious figure Mani listed Axum with Rome, Persia, and China as one of the four great powers of his time. The origins of the Axumite Kingdom are unclear, although experts have offered their speculations about it. Even whom should be considered the earliest known king is contested: although C. Conti Rossini proposed that Zoskales of Axum, mentioned in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, should be identified with one Za Haqle mentioned in the Ethiopian King Lists (a view embraced by later historians of Ethiopia such as Yuri M. Kobishchanov[3] and Sergew Hable Sellasie), G.W.B. Huntingford argued that Zoskales was only a sub-king whose authority was limited to Adulis, and that Conti Rossini's identification can not be substantiated.[4]
Inscriptions have been found in southern Arabia celebrating victories over one GDRT, described as "nagashi of Habashat [i.e. Abyssinia] and of Axum." Other dated inscriptions are used to determine a floruit for GDRT (interpreted as representing a Ge'ez name such as Gadarat, Gedur, Gadurat or Gedara) around the beginning of the 3rd century. A bronze sceptre or wand has been discovered at Atsbi Dera with in inscription mentioning "GDR of Axum". Coins showing the royal portrait began to be minted under King Endubis toward the end of the Third Century.
Christianity was introduced into the country by Frumentius, who was consecrated first bishop of Ethiopia by Saint Athanasius of Alexandria about 330. Frumentius converted Ezana, who has left several inscriptions detailing his reign both before and after his conversion. One inscription found at Axum, states that he conquered the nation of the Bogos, and returned thanks to his father, the god Mars, for his victory. Later inscriptions show Ezana's growing attachment to Christianity, and Ezana's coins bear this out, shifting from a design with disc and crescent to a design with a cross. Expeditions by Ezana into the Kingdom of Kush at Meroe in Sudan may have brought about its demise, though there is evidence that the kingdom was experiencing a period of decline beforehand. As a result of Ezana's expansions, Aksum bordered the Roman province of Egypt. The degree of Ezana's control over Yemen is uncertain. Though there is little evidence supporting Aksumite control of the region at that time, his title, which includes king of Saba and Salhen, Himyar and Dhu-Raydan (all in modern-day Yemen), along with gold Aksumite coins with the inscriptions, "king of the Habshat" or "Habashite," indicate that Aksum might have retained some legal or actual footing in the area.[5]
From the scanty evidence available it would appear that the new religion at first made little progress. Towards the close of the 5th century a great company of monks known as the Nine Saints are believed to have established themselves in the country. Since that time monasticism has been a power among the people and not without its influence on the course of events.
The Axumite Kingdom is recorded once again as controlling part – if not all – of Yemen in the 6th century. Around 523, the Jewish king Dhu Nuwas came to power in Yemen and, announcing that he would kill all the Christians, attacked an Aksumite garrison at Zafar, burning the city's churches. He then attacked the Christian stronghold of Najran, slaughtering the Christians who would not convert. Emperor Justin I of the Eastern Roman empire requested that his fellow Christian, Kaleb, help fight the Yemenite king, and around 525, Kaleb invaded and defeated Dhu Nuwas, appointing his Christian follower Sumuafa' Ashawa' as his viceroy. This dating is tentative, however, as the basis of the year 525 for the invasion is based on the death of the ruler of Yemen at the time, who very well could have been Kaleb's viceroy. Procopius records that after about five years, Abraha deposed the viceroy and made himself king (Histories 1.20). Despite several attempted invasions across the Red Sea, Kaleb was unable to dislodge Abreha, and acquiesed to the change; this was the last time Ethiopian armies left Africa until the 20th century when several units participated in the Korean War. Eventually Kaleb abdicated in favor of his son Wa'zeb and retired to a monastery where he ended his days. Abraha later made peace with Kaleb's successor and recognized his superiority. Despite this reverse, under Ezana and Kaleb the kingdom was at its height, benefitting from a large trade, which extended as far as India and Ceylon, and were in constant communication with the Byzantine Empire.
Details of the Axumite Kingdom, never abundant, become even more scarce after this point. The last king known to mint coins is Armah, whose coinage refers to the Persian conquest of Jerusalem in 614. An early Muslim tradition is that the negus Ashama ibn Abjar offered asylum to a group of Muslims fleeing persecution during Muhammad's life (615), but Stuart Munro-Hay believes that Axum had been abandoned as the capital by then[6] – although Kobishchanov states that Ethiopian raiders plagued the Red Sea, preying on Arabian ports at least as late as 702.[7]
The end of the Axumite Kingdom is as much of a mystery as its beginning. Lacking a detailed history, the kingdom's fall has been attributed to a persistent drought, overgrazing, deforestation, plague, a shift in trade routes that reduced the importance of the Red Sea -- or a combination of these factors. Munro-Hay cites the Arab historian Abu Ja'far al-Khuwarizani (who wrote before 833) as stating that the capital of "the kingdom of Habash" was Jarma. Unless Jarma is a nickname for Axum (hypothetically from Ge'ez girma, "remarkable, revered"), the capital had moved from Axum to a new site, yet undiscovered.[8]
The Ethiopian Dark Ages
About 1000 (presumably c 960), a non-Christian princess, Yodit ("Gudit", a play on Yodit meaning evil), conceived the design of murdering all the members of the royal family, and of establishing herself in their stead. According to legends, during the execution of the royals, an infant heir of the Axumite monarch was carted off by some faithful adherents, and conveyed to Shewa, where his authority was acknowledged, while Yodit reigned for forty years over the rest of the kingdom, and transmitted the crown to her descendants.
At one point in the next century, the last of Yodit's successors were overthrown by an Agaw lord named Mara Takla Haymanot, who founded the Zagwe dynasty and married a female descendant of Axumite monarchs ("son-in-law") or previous ruler. One of the highlights of this dynasty was the reign of Gebra Maskal Lalibela, in whose reign the stone churches of Lalibela were carved.
In about 1270, a new dynasty established the Abyssinian highlands as their realm in person of Yekuno Amlak who deposed the last of the Zagwe kings and married one of their daughters. According to legends the new dynasty were male-line descendants of Axumite monarchs, now recognized as the continuing Solomonic dynasty (the kingdom being thus restored to the biblical royal house).
Portuguese Influence
Under the Solomonic dynasty, the chief provinces became Tigray (northern), Amhara (central) and Shewa (southern). The seat of government, or rather of overlordship, has usually been in Amhara or Shewa, the ruler of which, calling himself nəgusä nägäst (king of kings, or emperor), has exacted tribute, when he could, from the other provinces. The title of Nəgusä nägäst has been to a considerable extent based on their direct descent from Solomon and the queen of Sheba; but it is needless to say that in many, if not in most, cases their success has been due more to the force of their arms than to the purity of their lineage.
Towards the close of the 15th century the Portuguese missions into Ethiopia began. A belief had long prevailed in Europe of the existence of a Christian kingdom in the far east, whose monarch was known as Prester John, and various expeditions had been sent in quest of it. Among others engaged in this search was Pero da Covilhã, who arrived in Ethiopia in 1490, and, believing that he had at length reached the far-famed kingdom, presented to the nəgusä nägäst of the country, a letter from his master the king of Portugal, addressed to Prester John.
Pero da Covilhã remained in the country, but in 1507 an Armenian named Matthew was sent by the Emperor to the king of Portugal to request his aid against the Muslims. In 1520 a Portuguese fleet, with Matthew on board, entered the Red Sea in compliance with this request, and an embassy from the fleet visited the Emperor, Lebna Dengel, and remained in Ethiopia for about six years. One of this embassy was Father Francisco Alvarez, who wrote one of the earliest and not the least interesting account of the country.
Between 1528 and 1540 armies of Muslims, under the Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi, entered Ethiopia from the low country to the south-east, and overran the kingdom, obliging the emperor to take refuge in the mountain fastnesses. In this extremity recourse was again had to the Portuguese. John Bermudez, a subordinate member of the mission of 1520, who had remained in the country after the departure of the embassy, was, according to his own statement (which is untrustworthy), ordained successor to the Abuna (archbishop), and sent to Lisbon. Bermudez certainly came to Europe, but with what credentials is not known.
In response to Bermudez's message, a Portuguese fleet under the command of Estêvão da Gama, was sent from India and arrived at Massawa in February 1541. Here he received an ambassador from the Emperor beseeching him to send help against the Moslems, and in the July following a force of 400 musketeers, under the command of Christovão da Gama, younger brother of the admiral, marched into the interior, and being joined by native troops were at first successful against the enemy; but they were subsequently defeated at the Battle of Wofla (28 August 1542), and their commander captured and executed. On February 21, 1543, however, Ahmad was shot and killed in the Battle of Wayna Daga and his forces totally routed. After this, quarrels arose between the Emperor and Bermudez, who had returned to Ethiopia with da Gama and now urged the emperor to publicly profess his obedience to Rome. This the Emperor refused to do, and at length Bermudez was obliged to make his way out of the country.
The Jesuits who had accompanied or followed the da Gama expedition into Ethiopia, and fixed their headquarters at Fremona (near Adwa), were oppressed and neglected, but not actually expelled. In the beginning of the 17th century Father Pedro Páez arrived at Fremona, a man of great tact and judgment, who soon rose into high favour at court, and gained over the emperor to his faith. He directed the erection of churches, palaces and bridges in different parts of the country, and carried out many useful works. His successor Alfonso Mendez was less tactful, and excited the feelings of the people against the him and his fellow Europeans, until upon the death of Emperor Susenyos and the accession of his son Fasilides in 1633, the Jesuits were expelled.
The Period of the Princes
This era was, on one hand, a religious conlict between settling Muslims and traditional Christians, between nationalities they represented, and on the other hand between feudal lords on power over the central government.
Some historians date the murder of Iyasu I, and the resultant decline in the prestige of the dynasty, as the beginning of the Ethiopian Zemene Mesafint ("Era of the Princes",) a time of disorder when the power of the monarchy was eclipsed by the power of local warlords.
Nobles came to abuse their positions by making emperors, and enroached upon the succession of the dynasty, by candidates among the nobility itself: e.g on the death of Emperor Tewoflos, the chief nobles of Ethiopia feared that the cycle of vengeance that had characterized the reigns of Tewoflos and Tekle Haymanot I would continue if a member of the Solomonic dynasty were picked for the throne, so they selected one of their own, Yostos to be negusa nagast - however his tenure was brief.
Iyasu II asecended the throne as a child. His mother, Empress Mentewab played a major role in Iyasu's reign, as well as in that of her grandson Iyoas too. Mentewab had herself crowned as co-ruler, becoming the first woman to be crowned in this manner in Ethiopian history.
Empress Mentewab was crowned co-ruler upon the succession of her son (a first for a woman in Ethiopia) in 1730, and held unprecedented power over government during his reign. Her attempt to continue in this role following the death of her son 1755 led her into conflict with Wubit (Welete Bersabe), his widow, who believed that it was her turn to preside at the court of her own son Iyoas. The conflict between these two queens led to Mentewab summoning her Kwaran relatives and their forces to Gondar to support her. Wubit responded by summoning her own Oromo relatives and their considerable forces from Yejju.
The treaure of the Empire being attestedly penniless on the death of Iyasu, it suffered further from ethnic conflict between nationalities that been part of the Empire for hundreds of years -- the Agaw, Amharans, Showans, and Tigreans -- and the Oromo newcomers. Mentewab's attempt to strengthen ties between the monarchy and the Oromo by arranging the marriage of her son to the daughter of an Oromo chieftain backfired in the long run. Iyasu II gave precedence to his mother and allowed her every prerogative as a crowned co-ruler, while his wife Wubit suffered in obscurity. Wubit waited for the accession of her own son to make a bid for the power wielded for so long by Mentewab and her relatives from Qwara. When Iyoas assumed the throne upon his father's sudden death, the aristocrats of Gondar were stunned to find that he more readily spoke in the Oromo language rather than in Amharic, and tended to favor his mother's Yejju relatives over the Qwarans of his grandmothers family. Iyoas further increased the favor given to the Oromo when adult. On the death of the Ras of Amhara, he attempted to promote his uncle Lubo governor of that province, but the outcry led his advisor Walda Nul to convince him to change his mind.
It is believed that the power struggle between the Qwarans led by the Empress Mentewab, and the Yejju Oromos led by the Emperor's mother Wubit was about to erupt into an armed conflict. Ras Mikael Sehul was summoned to mediate between the two camps. He arrived and shrewdly maneuvered to sideline the two queens and their supporters making a bid for power for himself. Mikael settled soon as the leader of Amharic-Tigrean (Christian) camp of the struggle.
The reign of Iyaos' reign becomes a narrative of the struggle between the powerful Ras Mikael Sehul and the Oromo relatives of Iyoas. As Iyoas increasingly favored Oromo leaders like Fasil, his relations with Mikael Sehul deteriorated. Eventually Mikael Sehul deposed the Emperor Iyoas (7 May 1769). One week later, Mikael Sehul had him killed; although the details of his death are contradictory, the result was clear: for the first time an Emperor had lost his throne in a means other than his own natural death, death in battle, or voluntary abdication.
Mikael Sehul had compromised the power of the Emperor, and from this point forward it lay ever more openly in the hands of the great nobles and military commanders. This point of time has been regarded as one start of the Era of the Princes.
An aged and infirm imperial uncle prince was enthroned as Emperor Yohannes II. Ras Mikael soon had him murdered, and underage Tekle Haymanot II was elevated to the throne.
This bitter religious conflict contributed to hostility toward foreign Christians and Europeans, which persisted into the 20th century and was a factor in Ethiopia's isolation until the mid-19th century, when the first British mission, sent in 1805 to conclude an alliance with Ethiopia and obtain a port on the Red Sea in case France conquered Egypt. The success of this mission opened Ethiopia to many more travellers, missionaries and merchants of all countries, and the stream of Europeans continued until well into Tewodros's reign.
This isolation was pierced by very few European travellers. One was the French physician C.J. Poncet, who went there in 1698, via Sennar and the Blue Nile. After him James Bruce entered the country in 1769, with the object of discovering the sources of the Nile, which he was convinced lay in Ethiopia. Accordingly, leaving Massawa in September 1769, he travelled via Axum to Gondar, where he was well received by Emperor Tekle Haymanot II. He accompanied the king on a warlike expedition round Lake Tana, moving South round the eastern shore, crossing the Blue Nile (Abay) close to its point of issue from the lake and returning via the western shore. Bruce subsequently returned to Egypt at the end of 1772 by way of the upper Atbara, through the kingdom of Sennar, the Nile, and the Korosko desert. During the 18th century the most prominent rulers were the emperor Dawit III of Gondar (died May 18, 1721), Amha Iyasus of Shewa (1744-1775), who consolidated his kingdom and founded Ankober, and Tekle Giyorgis of Amhara (1779-1799) - the last-mentioned is famous of having been elevated to the throne altogether six times and also deposed six times. The first years of the 19th century were disturbed by fierce campaigns between Ras Gugsa of Begemder, and Ras Wolde Selassie of Tigray, who fought over control of the figurehaed Emperor Egwale Seyon. Wolde Selassie was eventually the victor, and practically ruled the whole country till his death in 1816 at the age of eighty.
Dejazmach Sabagadis of Agame succeeded Wolde Selassie in 1817, through force of arms, to become warlord of Tigre.
Leaving the Medieval World
Under the Emperors Tewodros II (1855 - 1868), Yohannes IV (1872 - 1889), and Menelek II (1889 - 1913), the kingdom began to emerge from its medieval isolation.
Emperor Tewodros (or Theodore) II was born Lij Kassa in Qwara, a small district of Western Amhara, in 1818. His father was a small local chief, and his relative (possible uncle) Dejazmach Kinfu was governor of the provinces of Dembiya, Qwara and Chelga between Lake Tana and the northwestern frontier. Kassa lost his inheritance upon the death of Kinfu while he was still a young boy. After receiving a traditional education in a local monastery, he went off to lead a band of bandits that roved the country in a Robin Hood-like existence. His exploits became widely known, and his band of followers grew steadily until he led a formidible army. He came to the notice of the ruling Regent, Ras Ali, and his mother Empress Menen Liben Amede (wife of the puppet Emperor Yohannes III). In order to bind him to them, Ras Ali and the Empress arranged for Kassa to marry Ali's daughter, and upon the death of his uncle Kinfu, he was made chief of Kwara and all Dembea with the title of Dejazmatch. He turned his attention to conquering the remaining chief divisions of the country, Gojjam, Tigray and Shewa, which still remained unsubdued. His relations with his father-in-law and grandmother-in-law deteriorated however, and he soon took up arms against them and their vassals, and was successful.
On February 11, 1855, Kassa deposed the last of the Gondarine puppet Emperors, and was crowned negusa nagast of Ethiopia under the name of Tewodros II. He soon after advanced against Shewa with a large army. Chief of the notables opposing him was its king Haile Melekot, a descendant of Meridazmach Asfa Wossen. Dissensions broke out among the Shewans, and after a desperate and futile attack on Tewodros at Dabra Berhan, Haile Melekot died of illness, nominating with his last breath his eleven-year-old son as successor (November 1855) under the name Negus Sahle Maryam (the future emperor Menelek II). Darge, Haile Melekot's brother, and Ato Bezabih, a Shewan noble, took charge of the young prince, but after a hard fight with Angeda, the Shewans were obliged to capitulate. Sahle Maryam was handed over to the Emperor, taken to Gondar, and there trained in Tewodros's service, and then placed in comfortable detention at the fortress of Magdala. Tewodoros afterwards devoted himself to modernizing and centralizing the legal and administrative structure of his kingdom, against the resistance of his governors. Sahle Maryam of Shewa was married to Tewodros II's daughter Alitash.
In 1865, Sahle Maryam escaped from Maqdala, abandoning his wife, and arrived in Shewa, and was there acclaimed as Negus. During Tewodros's reign, the alliance he forged between Britain and Ethiopia was ended in 1868 when the Emperor, angered by Queen Victoria's failure to reply to his diplomatic overtures, imprisoned several British subjects. The British sent an army to free the subjects which defeated the Ethiopians and, in turn, led Tweodros to fall from power and commit suicide on April 13, 1868. On the death of Tewodros, many Shewans, including Ras Darge, were released, and the young Negus of Shewa began to feel himself strong enough, after a few preliminary minor campaigns, to undertake offensive operations against the northern princes. But these projects were of little avail, for Ras Kassai of Tigray, had by this time (1872) risen to supreme power in the north. Proclaiming himself negusa nagast under the name of Yohannes (or John) IV, he forced Sahle Maryam to acknowledge his overlordship.
Interactions with European Colonial Powers
Ethiopia stands with Liberia as one of the two places in Africa which were never colonized by European powers (if one excludes the brief Italian invasion and occupation between 1936 and 1941). However, several colonial powers had interests and designs on Ethiopia in the context of the "Scramble for Africa."
When Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom, in 1867 failed to answer a letter King Tewodros sent her, he took it as an insult and imprisoned several British residents, including the consul. An army of 12,000 was sent from Bombay to Ethiopia to rescue the captured nationals, under the command of Sir Robert Napier. The Ethiopians were defeated, and the British stormed the fortress of Magdala (now known as Amba Mariam) on April 13, 1868. When the Emperor heard that the gate had fallen, he fired a pistol into his mouth and killed himself. Sir Robert Napier was raised to the peerage, and given the title of Lord Napier of Magdala.
The Italians now came on the scene. Assab, a port near the southern entrance of the Red Sea, had been bought from the local sultan in March 1870 by an Italian company, which, after acquiring more land in 1879 and 1880, was bought out by the Italian government in 1882. In this year Count Pietro Antonelli was dispatched to Shewa in order to improve the prospects of the colony by treaties with Menelik and the sultan of Aussa.
In April 1888 the Italian forces, numbering over 20,000 men, came contact with the Ethiopian army, but negotiations took the place of fighting, with the result that both forces retired, the Italians only leaving some 5000 troops in Eritrea, later to become an Italian colony.
Meanwhile the Emperor Yohannes had been engaged with the dervishes, who had in the meantime become masters of the Egyptian Sudan, and in 1887 a great battle ensued at Gallabat, in which the dervishes, under Zeki Tumal, were beaten. But a stray bullet struck the king, and the Ethiopians decided to retire. The king died during the night, and his body fell into the hands of the enemy (March 9, 1889). When the news of Yohannes's death reached Sahle Maryam of Shewa, he proclaimed himself emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia, and received the submission of Begemder, Gojjam, the Yejju Oromo, and Tigray.
On May 2 of that same year, Emperor Menelik signed the Treaty of Wuchale with the Italians, granting them a portion of Northern Ethiopia, the area that would later be Eritrea and part of the province of Tigray in return for the promise of 30,000 rifles, ammunition, and cannons.[9] The Italians notified the European powers that this treaty gave them a protectorate over all of Ethiopia. Menelik protested, showing that the Amharic version of the treaty said no such thing, but his protests were ignored.
The conflict with the Italians was resolved by their defeat at the Battle of Adowa on March 1, 1896. A provisional treaty of peace was concluded at Addis Ababa on October 26, 1896, which acknowledged the independence of Ethiopia.
Regarding the question of railways, the first concession for a railway from the coast at Djibouti (French Somaliland) to the interior was granted by Menelik, to a French company in 1894. The railway was completed to Dire Dawa, 28 miles from Harrar, by the last day of 1902.
When Menelik II died, his grandson, Lij Iyassu, succeeded to the throne but soon lost support because of his Muslim ties. He was deposed in 1916 by the Christian nobility, and Menelik's daughter, Zauditu, was made empress. Her cousin, Ras Tafari Makonnen, was made regent and successor to the throne.
Modern History
Upon the death of the empress Zauditu, Ras Tafari Makonnen, adopting the throne name Haile Selassie, was crowned emperor. His reign was interrupted in 1936 when Italian forces invaded and occupied Ethiopia. They invaded Ethiopian territory on October 2, 1935, occupied the capital Addis Ababa on May 5 and formally annexed Ethiopia on May 9. The emperor was forced into exile in England despite his plea to the League of Nations for intervention. Five years later, the Italians were defeated by British and Ethiopian forces, and the emperor returned to the throne.
Over the following decades, Emperor Haile Selassie exerted numerous efforts to promote the modernization of his nation. The country's first important school of higher education, University College of Addis Ababa, was founded in 1950. The Constitution of 1931 was replaced with a new one in 1955, which expanded the powers of the Parliament. While improving diplomatic ties with the United States, he also sought to improve the nations' relationship with other African nations in helping to found the Organisation of African Unity in 1963.
Despite these efforts, by the early 1970s the advanced age of Emperor Haile Selassie was becoming a major problem for the future of his nation. As Paul B. Henze explains, "most Ethiopians thought in terms of personalities, not ideology, and out of long habit still looked to Haile Selassie as the initiator of change, the source of status and privilege, and the arbiter of demands for resources and attention among competing groups."[10] Ethiopians worried for their future following his impending death, and whether his successors would continue his campaigns for modernization and economic development.
After a period of civil unrest which began in February 1974, the aging Haile Selassie I was deposed on September 12, 1974, and a provisional administrative council of soldiers, known as the Derg ("committee") seized power from the emperor and installed a government which was socialist in name and military in style. The Derg summarily executed 59 members of the former government, including two former Prime Ministers and Crown Councilors, Court officials, ministers, and generals; Emperor Haile Selassie died on August 22, 1975, allegedly strangled in the basement of his palace.
Lt. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam assumed power as head of state and Derg chairman, after having his two predecessors killed, as well as tens of thousands of other suspected opponents. The new Marxist government undertook socialist reforms, including nationalisation of landlords' and church's property. Before the coup, Ethiopian peasants' way of life was thouroughly influenced by the church teachings; 280 days a year are religious feasts or days of rest. Mengistu's years in office were marked by a totalitarian-style government and the country's massive militarization, financed by the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, and assisted by Cuba. In December 1976, an Ethiopian delegation in Moscow signed a military assistance agreement with the Soviet Union. The following April, Ethiopia abrogated its military assistance agreement with the United States and expelled the American military missions.
In July 1977, sensing the disarray in Ethiopia, Somalia attacked across the Ogaden in pursuit of its irredentist claims to the ethnic Somali areas of Ethiopia (see Ogaden War). They were assisted in this invasion by the armed Western Somali Liberation Front. Ethiopian forces were driven back far inside their own frontiers but, with the assistance of a massive Soviet airlift of arms and Cuban combat forces, they stemmed the attack. The last major Somali regular units left the Ogaden March 15, 1978. Twenty years later, the Somali region of Ethiopia remains under-developed and insecure.
From 1977 through early 1978, thousands of suspected enemies of the Derg were tortured and/or killed in a purge called the "red terror." Communism was officially adopted during the late 1970s and early 1980s; in 1984, the Workers' Party of Ethiopia (WPE) was established, and on February 1, 1987, a new Soviet-style civilian constitution was submitted to a popular referendum. It was officially endorsed by 81% of voters, and in accordance with this new constitution, the country was renamed the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia on September 10, 1987, and Mengistu became president.
The regime's collapse was hastened by droughts and famine, which affected around 8 million people, leaving 1 million dead, as well as by insurrections, particularly in the northern regions of Tigray and Eritrea. In 1989, the Tigrayan Peoples' Liberation Front (TPLF) merged with other ethnically-based opposition movements to form the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). In May 1991, EPRDF forces advanced on Addis Ababa. Mengistu fled the country to asylum in Zimbabwe, where he still resides.
In July 1991, the EPRDF, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), and others established the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE) which was comprised of an 87-member Council of Representatives and guided by a national charter that functioned as a transitional constitution. In June 1992, the OLF withdrew from the government; in March 1993, members of the Southern Ethiopia Peoples' Democratic Coalition also left the government.
In 1994, a new constitution was written that formed a bicameral legislature and a judicial system. The first free and democratic election took place in May 1995 in which Meles Zenawi was elected the Prime Minister and Negasso Gidada was elected President. Also at this time, the members of the Parliament were elected. Ethiopia's second multiparty election was held in May of 2000. Prime Minister Meles was one again elected as Prime Minister in October of 2000. In October 2001, Lieutenant Girma Wolde-Giorgis was elected president.
A border war with Eritrea (which separated from Ethiopia following the fall of the Derg in 1991) erupted in May 1998, and continued into June 2000. While this has hurt the nation's economy, it has also strengthened the ruling coalition
More history
The ancient Aksum (Axum) Kingdom, ancestor of modern Ethiopia, was founded by Semitic-speaking immigrants from southern Arabia who landed during the first century BC on the northeastern African coast. They established bases on the northern highlands of the Ethiopian Plateau and from there expanded southward. The Persian religious figure Mani listed Axum with Rome, Persia, and China as one of the four great powers of his time.[2] It was in the early 4th century AD that a Syro-Greek castaway, Frumentius, was taken to the court and eventually converted king Ezana to Christianity, thereby making it the official state religion.[3] For this accomplishment, he received the title "Abba Selama" ("Father of peace"). At various times, including a period in the 6th century, Axum controlled most of modern-day Yemen and some of southern Saudi Arabia just across the Red Sea, as well as controlling northern Sudan, northern Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and northern Somalia.[4]
The line of rulers descended from the Axumite kings was broken several times: first by the Jewish or pagan Queen Gudit around 950[5] or 850.[6] 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.[7] Around 1270, the Solomonid dynasty came to control Ethiopia, claiming descent from the kings of Axum. They called themselves Neguse Negest ("King of Kings," or Emperor), basing their claims on their direct descent from Solomon and the queen of Sheba.[8]
During the reign of Emperor Yeshaq, Ethiopia made its first successful diplomatic contact with a European country since Aksumite times, sending two emmisaries to Alfons V of Aragon, who sent return emissaries that failed to complete the trip to Ethiopia.[9] 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.[10] 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 400 men, who helped his son Gelawdewos defeat Ahmad and re-establish his rule.[11]. However, when Emperor Susenyos converted to Roman Catholicism in 1624, years of revolt and civil unrest followed resulting in thousands of deaths.[12] 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. [13][14]
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.[15] Ethiopian isolationism ended following a British mission that concluded an alliance between the two nations; however, it was not until the reign of Emperor Tewodros II, who began modernizing Ethiopia and recentralizing power in the Emperor, that Ethiopia began to take part in world affairs once again.
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. Assab, a port near the southern entrance of the Red Sea, was bought from the local Afar sultan, vassal to the Ethiopian Emperor, in March 1870 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 20th century was marked by the reign of Emperor Haile Selassie I, who undertook the rapid modernization of Ethiopia — interrupted only by the brief Italian occupation (1936–1941).[16] British and patriot Ethiopian troops liberated the Ethiopian homeland 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.[17]
Haile Selassie's reign came to an end in 1974, when a pro-Soviet Marxist-Leninist military junta, the "Derg", deposed him and established a one-party communist state. The ensuing regime suffered several bloody coups, uprisings, wide-scale drought, and a massive refugee problem. In 1977 Somalia attacked Ethiopia in the Ogaden War, but Ethiopia quickly defeated them with a massive influx of Soviet military hardware, direct Cuban military presence, coupled with East German and South Yemeni military assistance the following year. In spite of accruing one of the largest armies in Africa due to benevolent military assistance from Socialist Bloc countries, an unending insurgency in the then provinces of Eritrea and Tigray, a major drought in 1985 and regime changes in the former Socialist Bloc culminated in the Derg regime being defeated in 1991 by the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) in the far north, and elsewhere by the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a loose coalition of rebel forces mainly dominated by the Tigrean People's Liberation Front. In 1993, the province of Eritrea became independent from Ethiopia, following a referendum, ending more than 20 years of armed conflict, one of the longest in Africa. In 1994, a constitution was adopted, that led to Ethiopia's first multiparty elections in the following year. In May 1998, a dispute over the undemarcated border 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, and resulted in the EPRDF's disputed return to power. In early June and again in November, police under the command of the EPRDF shot and killed demonstrators who were protesting the alleged election fraud.
- See also: Rulers and Heads of State of Ethiopia
Politics
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 9 semi-autonomous administrative regions that have the power to raise and spend their own revenues. Under the present government, Ethiopians enjoy greater political participation and freer debate than ever before in their history, although some fundamental freedoms, including freedom of the press, are, in practice, somewhat circumscribed.
Zenawi's government was re-elected in 2000 in Ethiopia's first multi-party elections. The incumbent President is Girma Wolde-Giorgis.
Since 1991, Ethiopia has established warm relations with the United States and western Europe and has sought substantial economic aid from Western countries and World Bank. In 2004, the government began a drive to move more than two million people away from the arid highlands of the east, proposing that these resettlements would reduce food shortages [18].
Ethiopia held another general election in May 2005, which drew a record number of voters, with 90% of the electorate turning out to cast their vote. While the election was deemed by the European Union election observer team to fall short of international standards for fair and free elections, other teams drew different conclusions. The African Union report on September 14 commended "the Ethiopian people's display of genuine commitment to democratic ideals", and on September 15 the US Carter Center concluded that "the majority of the constituency results based on the May 15 polling and tabulation are credible and reflect competitive conditions". The US Department of State said on September 16, "these elections stand out as a milestone in creating a new, more competitive multi-party political system in one of Africa's largest and most important countries." Even the EU preliminary statement of 2005 also said "...the polling processes were generally positive. The overall assessment of the process has been rated as good in 64% of the cases, and very good in 24%".
The opposition complained that the ruling EPRDF engaged in widespread vote rigging and intimidation, alleging fraud in 299 constituencies. All allegations were investigated by the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia in cooperation with election monitors, a process which delayed the release of the final results. In June 2005, with the results of the election still unclear, a group of university students protested these alleged discrepancies, encouraged by supporters of the Coalition for Unity opposition party, despite a ban on protests imposed by the government. On June 8, 26 people were killed in Addis Ababa as a result of rioting, which led to the arrest of hundreds of protesters. On September 5, 2005, the National Elections Board of Ethiopia released the final election results in which confirmed that the ruling Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front retained its control of the government, but showed that opposition parties had increased their share of parliamentary seats, from 12 to 176. The Coalition for Unity and Democracy won all the seats in Addis Ababa, both for the Parliament and the City Council.
Street protests broke out again, when the opposition called for a general strike and boycotted the new Parliament, refusing to accept the results of the election. The police forces once again attempted to contain the protests and this time 42 people were killed in Addis Ababa, including seven policemen, and another of whom later died because of fatal injuries caused by a hand grenade detonation. Thousands were arrested, and were taken to various detention centers across the country. By February 2006, six hundred remained in custody, facing trial in March.
On 14 November, the Ethiopian Parliament passed a resolution to establish a neutral commission to investigate the incidents of June 8 and November 1 and 2. In February 2006, UK Prime Minister Blair, acknowledging that the EPRDF has won the election, said he wanted to see Ethiopia resolve its internal problems and continue on a democratic path [19].
Geography
Ethiopia is 1,127,127 square kilometres (435,071 sq. mi) in size, and is the major portion of 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 and ecology
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°C 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°C to 50°C (81°–122°F). 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. 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).
Administrative Divisions
Before 1996 Ethiopia was divided into 13 (14 before Eritrea's independence in 1993) provinces, many of which historical bases. Ethiopia now has a tiered government system consisting of a federal government, ethnically-based regional states, zones, districts (woredas), and neighborhoods (kebeles).
Ethiopia is divided into 9 ethnically-based administrative regions (kililoch, sing. kilil), and subdivided into 68 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 subdivisions of Ethiopia are:
- Addis Ababa (chartered city)
- Afar
- Amhara
- Benishangul-Gumaz
- Dire Dawa (chartered city)
- Gambela
- Harari
- Oromia
- Somali
- Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region
- Tigray
Economy
Main article: Economy of Ethiopia
Ethiopia remains one of Africa's poorest nations; many Ethiopians rely on food aid from abroad.
After the 1974 revolution, the economy of Ethiopia was run as a socialist economy: strong state controls were implemented, and a large part of the economy was transferred to the public sector, including most modern industry and large-scale commercial agriculture, all agricultural land and urban rental property, and all financial institutions. Since mid-1991, the economy has evolved toward a decentralized, market-oriented economy, emphasizing individual initiative, designed to reverse a decade of economic decline. In 1993, gradual privatization of business, industry, banking, agriculture, trade, and commerce was underway.
Nevertheless, Ethiopia is not fully privatized. The ruling EPRDF controls more than fifty large business enterprises in Ethiopia, following the Chinese model. Some of the enterprises are Ambasel, Guna, Tikur Abay, Dinsho, Mega, etc. Many government owned properties during the previous regime have now been transferred to these EPRDF owned 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), unable to mortgage, sell, or own it.[1]
Agriculture accounts for almost 41 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), 80 percent of exports, and 80 percent of the labor 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.
Demographics
Ethiopia's population is highly diverse. Most of its people speak a Semitic or Cushitic language. The Oromo, Amhara, and Tigrayans make up more than three-fourths of the population, but there are more than 80 different ethnic groups within Ethiopia. Some of these have as few as 10,000 members.
Semitic-speaking Ethiopians and Eritreans collectively refer to themselves as Habesha or Abesha, though others reject these names on the basis that they refer only to certain ethnicities [20]. The Arabic form of this term is the etymological basis of "Abyssinia," the former name of Ethiopia in English and other European languages.[21].
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%.[22][23]
Languages
Ethiopia has 84 indigenous languages. Some of these are:
English is the most widely spoken foreign language and is taught in all 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.
Religion
According to the 1994 national census[22], Christians make up 61.6% of the country's population, Muslims 32.8%, and adherents of traditional faiths 5.6%.
The Axumite Kingdom was one of the first nations to officially adopt Christianity, when St. Frumentius of Tyre converted Ezana of Axum during the fourth century AD. Today, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, part of Oriental Orthodoxy, is by far the largest denomination, though a number of Protestant churches have recently gained ground. Since the 18th century there has existed a relatively small Uniate Ethiopian Catholic Church which is in full communion with Rome which covers a few percents of the total population of the country.
Islam in Ethiopia dates back almost to the founding of the religion; in 616, a band of Muslims was counseled by the Prophet Muhammad to escape persecution in Mecca and travel to Abyssinia, which was ruled by, in the Prophet Muhammad's estimation, a pious Christian king. Moreover, Islamic tradition states that Bilal, one of the foremost companions of the Prophet Muhammad, was from present-day Ethiopia.
There are numerous indigenous African religions in Ethiopia. In general, most of the (largely members of the non-Chalcedonian Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church) Christians live in the highlands, while Muslims and adherents of traditional African religions tend to inhabit lowland regions. A small ancient group of Jews, the Beta Israel, live in Ethiopia in the Northwest, though most have emigrated to Israel in the last decades of the 20th century as part of the rescue missions undertaken by the Israeli government, Operation Moses and Operation Solomon.[2]
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 Pagans, much like Mount Zion in the bible. It is also used to refer to Axum, the ancient capital and religious center of Orthodox Christians, or to its primary church, called Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion.
- See also: Islam in Ethiopia, Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, and P'ent'ay
Culture
Main article: Culture of Ethiopia
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 of any kind, as both Muslims and Ethiopian Orthodox Christians are prohibited from eating pork.
- Further information: Ethiopian cuisine
The Music of Ethiopia is extremely diverse, with each of the country's 80 tribes 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 Somalia. Popular musicians included Mahmoud Ahmed, Tilahun Gessesse, Asnaketch Worku, and Mulatu Astatke.
- Further information: Music of Ethiopia
Ethiopia offers a greater richness in archaeological findings and historical buildings than any other country in Sub-Saharan Africa. In April 2005, the Axum obelisk, one of Ethiopia's religious and historical treasures, was returned to Ethiopia by Italy [24]. Italian troops seized the obelisk in 1937 and took it to Rome. Italy agreed to return the obelisk in 1947 in a UN agreement.
Sports
Ethiopia produces some of the finest athletes of the world, most notably 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 broken more than 10 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.
Other notable Ethiopian distance-runners include Derartu Tulu, Abebe Bikila and Muruse Yefter. Tulu was the first black woman from Africa to win an Olympic gold medal, doing so over 10,000 metres at Barcelona. Bikila 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. 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.
Ethiopians date the coming of Christianity to Ethiopia to the fourth century AD, when a Christian philosopher from Tyre named Meropius was shipwrecked on his way to India. Meropius died but his two wards, Frumentius and Aedesius were washed ashore and taken to the royal palace. Eventually they became king Ella Amida’s private secretary and royal cupbearer respectively. They served the king well, and Frumentius became regent for the infant prince Ezana when Ella Amida died. Frumentius and Aedesius were also permitted to prosyletize the new religion in Aksum (as modern Ethiopia was then known). After some time, Frumentius and Aedesius returned to the Mediterranean, travelling down the Nile through Egypt to do so. When they reached Egypt, Frumentius contacted bishop Athanasius of Alexandria and begged him to send missionaries back to Aksum, since the people there had proved so ready to receive the gospel.
Athanasius agreed that the need was urgent, and immediately appointed Frumentius to the task, which needed someone fluent in the language and sensitive to the customs of Aksum. He ordained Frumentius the first abuna or bishop of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Frumentius has since come to be known as the Abuna Salama or bishop of peace. His mission was successful and, with the support of king Ezana, Ethiopia became a Christian nation.
The link between the Ethiopian church and the Patriarch of Alexandria was not broken until the 20th century, since the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria has sent Ethiopia each of its suceeding Abunas. This has meant that the Ethiopian church has been ruled by Egyptians for sixteen centuries.
Nine Monks from the East
Towards the end of the 5th century nine monks arrived, probably from Syria, though perhaps from Egypt, and introduced monasticism into Ethiopia. Monasticism has remained a dominant feature of the Ethiopian church to this day.
These monks may have been driven out of Syria after the Council of Chalcedon for being Monophysite (my page) Christians. Monophysites (mono=one, phusis = nature) believe that the divine and human natures of Christ were fused into a single nature at his birth. The Ecumentical Council of Chalcedon, on the other hand distinguished between the divine nature of Christ and his human nature, declaring that Jesus had two distinct natures, and in the process declaring the the Monophysites heretical. At any rate, whether or not it was due to the Nine Saints, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, along with the Coptic Church of Egypt, and smaller churches in Syria,Turkey and Arminia, have remained non-Chalcedonian.. These non-Chalcedonian churches have formed a distinctively Southern branch of the worldwide church.
The nine monks also encouraged the translation of the Bible into Ge’ez, which was the language of the people at the time. The Ethiopian church continues to use Ge’ez as its liturgical language, though it is no longer a living language.
Ethiopia and Islam
During the seventh century, the Muslim conquests cut the Ethiopians off from the rest of the Christian world, except for the Ethiopian monastary in Jerusalem, which continued to be a pilgrimage site for pious Ethiopian monks, and the continuing thread of contact with Egypt maintained because the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria supplied the Ethiopian Church with its Abuna. Initially relations between the Ethiopians and the Muslims were cordial, with mutual trade and mutual religious toleration, some of which grew out of real religious similarities. The prophet Mohammed also instructed his followers to be kind to the Ethiopians, since they had been kind to several of Mohammed’s companions who had fled there
Eventually, however, relations deteriorated and Ethiopia slid into its dark ages, retreating into the securitity of the mountains to defend themselves against the Muslims. They did, however, maintain their independence, their culture, their identity and their faith.
Lalibela & the Rock Churches
In the 12th century Ethiopia emerged from the dark ages under the leadership of a new Zagwe (Zague) dynasty. The Zagwes were from central Ethiopia and of dubious background. Later ecclesiastical texts accuse them of not being of the pure Solomonid lineage -- that is not being descended from Menelik, the son of the biblical king Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, who supposedly founded the royal house of Ethiopia. In part to establish their religious credentials, in part to stake a claim to God’s favor, in part to create a focus for religious devotion inside Ethiopia and particularly at the Zagwe capital, in part to re-direct the energies of pilgrims from Jerusalem, and in part out of genuine religous devotion. King Lalibela had a set of ten churches built in his capital of Roha, which has since be renamed Lalibela. These churches, carved out of the living rock, deserve to be one of the wonders of the world and are a remarkable monument to the skill and craftsmanship of the 13th century Ethiopians.
The Modern Church & Contact with the West
In the sixteenth century Ethiopia was nearly overrun by the armies of the Muslim general Ahmed Gran who waged jihad on Ethiopia with great success. He took control of the country, but when he was killed by a Portuguese musket in an Ethiopian counter-attack in 1543 the incipient Muslim state in Ethiopia simply fell apart for lack of leadership. Portguese military support was critical to the success of the counter-attack, though it had not been enough to prevent Ahmed Gran from overrunning Ethiopia in the first place.
John Bermudez, a Portuguese who had been visiting Ethiopia during Ahmed Gran’s conquest, and who had slipped through to appeal for Portuguese aid, took advantage of the death of the abuna to claim that the dying patriarch had appointed him successor, and that the pope has appointed him Archbishop of Ethiopia when John Bermudez had been in Europe. There is no evidence that either claim was true, but the Portuguese in Ethiopia believed him and pressured king Galawdewos to adopt the Latin Roman Catholic Liturgy. A mission of Jesuits was sent out to further pressure the Ethiopian court, which resisted any thought of joining the Roman Catholic Church
The following century, king Suseynos (1607-32) became Catholic in the hope of an advantgeous militry alliance with the west, but his successor drove the Catholic missionaires out of Ethiopia again when they tried to assert full-blown Catholicism. Alphonsus Mendes, who was sent out as patriarch of Ethiopia, demanded that all Ethiopian Christians be re-baptized, and the priests re-ordained, though he permitted the married priests to remain married. He prohibited the Ethiopian custom of circumcision, and insisted that Saturday be turned from the Sabbath as observed by the Ethiopians to a fast day as observed by Ethiopian Christians.
Orthodox Christianity lost considerable ground in ninetheenth century Ethiopia, in part due to the expansion of the pagan or Muslim Galla, especially in the southern regions of Ethiopia, which had been a Christian stronghold. Many of the monastaries survived, because they were so inaccessable, but as pockets within a greater Muslim or pagan whole. Ethiopian Orthodoxy, which had very little by way of evangelistic impetus, had little appeal to the newcomers, who found Orthodox fasts odd an onerous and who no more understood the Ge’ez of the liturgy than their Christian neighbours did. The Church also suffered from the lack of leadership and ordiantions for much of the nineteenth century, since the Coptic Patriarch of Alexandria, himself in deep difficulties, did not provide the Ethiopian church with its abuna, and when he did the abuna found himself powerless in the face of the distintegration of the Ethiopian state. Without a strong king to hold it together and direct the abuna, the church was essentially rudderless.
The fortunes of the church turned in the latter half of the century, when Egypt provided a new abuna, and when Ethiopia was once again centralized by a succession of kings who were genuinely devout and looked after the interests of the church. The most important of these kings was Menelik II, who succeeded in holding off and defeating the Italian attempts to colonize Ethiopia. His efforts and skills meant that Ethiopia was the only African state whose full sovereignty continued to be recognized by the European powers throughout the Scramble for Africa.
In the 20th century Ethiopia has seen the influx of Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries and the foundation of a number of Protestant churches. Internally, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church won the right to appoint their own Abuna, rather than have the Abuna always be an Egyptian Copt appointed by the Patriarch of Alexandria.
Worship & Practice:
Ethiopia is a land of churches. Most village churches are round or octagonal, with a conical grass roof. Monastic churches and older churches are larger and typically rectangular. This reflects the fact that Ethiopian local church architecture adapted itself to the African hut form, though at the same time, it also reflects the fact that the Ethiopian church liturgy, with its emphasis on the holy mysteries in the center of the church, the Tabot (or the ark) also in the center, and with the participation of multiple priests and lay clerks chanting and drumming, simply works better in a round church.
Ethiopian Orthodox Churches typically consist of three concentric rings: the innermost ring, called the sanctuary, holds the ark, typically a small wooden coffer. Priests and the emperor take the Eucharist, which is a part of every service [check] in the sanctuary. The second ring is the "holy place" where the congregation receives the sacrament, while the outer ring is called the "choir, " where the priests chant the scriptures in Ge’ez, sometimes without understanding the meaning of the words they are singing to the people who do not understand Ge’ez at all.
The Ethiopian Church has maintained many more Jewish practices than most other Christian Churches, every Ethiopian Christian male is circumcised, devout Ethiopian Christians keep Sabbath (as well as Sunday), an ark is an essential part of every church, and is carried out of the church for festivals , and priests will sacrifice a goat or a lamb for the sick.
Ethiopian Christians claim a long Jewish heritage before the coming of Christianity. They trace the royal line back to Menelik(my page)the son of the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, though that claim cannot be independently verified. They also claim that the true Ark of the Covenant (my page) still exists and is kept safe in an Ethiopian monastary.
