Ethiopia( ) (
Ge'ez:
ኢትዮጵያ ), a
landlocked state in
the
Horn of Africa, is one of the
most ancient countries in the world. Officially known as the
Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, it is the
second most populous nation in Africa and the tenth largest by
area.
The
capital is Addis
Ababa
.
Whereas most African states are far less than a century old,
Ethiopia has been an independent country since ancient times. A
monarchial state for most of its history,
the
Ethiopian dynasty traces its
roots to the 10th century BC. When
Africa was divided up by European powers
at the
Berlin Conference, Ethiopia
was one of only two states that retained its
independence. Ethiopia was one of only three
African members of the
League of
Nations, and after a brief period of
Italian occupation, Ethiopia became a
charter member of the
United Nations. Ethiopia has one of the most
powerful militaries in Africa. When other African nations received
their independence following
World War
II, many of them adopted the colors of Ethiopia's
flag, and Addis Ababa became the location of several
international organizations focused on Africa. In 1974, the dynasty
led by
Haile
Selassie was overthrown as civil wars intensified. Since then,
Ethiopia has been a
secular state with
a variety of governmental systems. Today, Addis is still the site
of the headquarters of the
African
Union and UNECA.
Besides being an ancient country, Ethiopia is one of the oldest
sites of human existence known to scientists today—having yielded
some of humanity's oldest traces, it might potentially prove to be
the place where homo sapiens originated. Ethiopia is the only
African country with its own alphabet.
Ethiopia has the
largest number of UNESCO
World Heritage Sites in Africa.
It also has close historical ties to all three of the world's major
Abrahamic religions. Ethiopia
was one of the first
Christian countries
in the world, having officially adopted it as the state religion in
the 4th century. It still has a Christian majority, but a third of
the population is
Muslim. Ethiopia is the
site of the first Hijra in Islamic history and the oldest Muslim
settlement in Africa at Negash. It is also the spiritual homeland
of the
Rastafarian religion.
Until the 1980s, a substantial population of
Ethiopian Jews also resided in Ethiopia. In
addition, there are altogether around 80 different
ethnic groups in Ethiopia today, with the
largest being the
Oromo followed by the
Amhara, both of which speak
Afro-Asiatic languages. The country
is also famous for its Olympic gold medalists, rock-hewn churches
and as the place where the coffee bean originated.
In the period after the overthrow of the monarchy, Ethiopia
devolved into one of the poorest countries on earth. Ethiopia is
the source of over 85 percent of the total Nile waters flow but it
underwent a series of tragic
famines in the 1980s,
resulting in perhaps a million deaths. Slowly, however, the country
has begun to recover, and today the Ethiopian economy is one of the
fastest growing in Africa. Unfortunately, as in many places, this
growth is having negative impacts on the
environment.
Name
It is not very certain how old
Ethiopia is; its earliest
attested use appears in the Bible in Genesis chapter two as the
origins of where Adam and Eve lived. And also in the
Iliad, where it appears twice, and in the
Odyssey, where it appears three
times . The earliest attested use in the region is as a
Christianized name for the
Kingdom of
Aksum in the 4th century, in stone inscriptions of
King Ezana. The
Ge'ez name and its English cognate are
thought by some recent scholars to be derived from the
Greek word
Aithiopia, from
Aithiops ‘an Ethiopian’, derived in turn from Greek words
meaning "of burned face".
However, the Book of Aksum, a Ge'ez chronicle compiled 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
.
Pliny the Elder similarly states the
tradition that the nation took its name from someone named
Aethiops. A third etymology, suggested by the late
Ethiopian scholar and
poet laureate
Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin, traces
the name to the "old black Egyptian" words
Et (Truth or
Peace)
Op (high or upper) and
Bia (land,
country), or "land of higher peace".
In English and generally outside of Ethiopia, the country was also
once
historically known as
Abyssinia, derived from
Habesh, an early
Arabic form of the
Ethiosemitic name "Ḥabaśāt"
(unvocalized "ḤBŚT"), modern
Habesha, the native name for the country's
inhabitants (while the country was called "Ityopp'ya"). In a few
languages, Ethiopia is still referred to by names cognate with
"Abyssinia," e.g., and modern Arabic
Al-Ḥabashah, meaning
land of the Habasha 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. Sometimes, the term is
used to label the nearly 45% of Ethiopian population who used
Semitic languages since ancient times like the Amharic (30.1% of
Ethiopian population), Tigray (6.2%), Gurage (4.3%) and other
smaller Semitic speaking communities like the Harari people in
South east Ethiopia.
Though since Amharic became the official
language of the country, most of the population of the SNNPR and a significant portion of the Oromia
and Benishangul-Gumuz regions use it as a
second language. In contrast, in contemporary Ethiopia, the
word Habesha is often used to describe all Ethiopians and
Eritreans.
Abyssinia can strictly refer to just the
northwestern Ethiopian provinces of Amhara and Tigray
as well as
central Eritrea
, while it
was historically used as another name for Ethiopia.
Ethiopia has also been known to be considered the land of Kush. The
name was originally derived from the Hebrews to refer to the
nations on the eastern coast of the Red Sea. However, the Bible is
clear in stating that the Cush people are actually Ethiopians. When
Moses referred to the people of Cush, it was in reference of a
kindred nation to the Egyptians.
Because of the close political relations
of Egypt
and
Ethiopia, both nations at one point in time were under the term
Cush according to late Hebrew historians. Even though the
original intentions of the word were in reference to both sides of
the Red Sea, evidence has shown that parts of the eastern coast did
belong to the Ethiopians.
History
Prehistory
Ethiopia is considered one of the oldest human settlement areas, if
not the oldest according to some scientific findings.
Lucy, discovered in the Awash Valley
of Ethiopia's
Afar region, is considered the
world’s second oldest, but most complete, and best preserved adult
Australopithecine fossil. Lucy's
species is named
Australopithecus afarensis, which
means 'southern ape of Afar', after the Ethiopian region where the
discovery was made. Lucy is estimated to have lived in Ethiopia 3.2
million years ago. There have been many other notable fossil
findings in the country including recently found oldest human
fossil,
Ardi.
Around the
eighth century BC, a kingdom known as Dʿmt
was established in northern Ethiopia and Eritrea, with its capital
at Yeha
in northern Ethiopia. Most modern historians
consider this civilization to be a native African one, although
Sabaean-influenced because of the latter's
hegemony of the Red Sea, while others view Dʿmt as the result of a
mixture of Sabaeans and indigenous peoples. However,
Ge'ez, the ancient Semitic language of
Ethiopia, is now thought not to have derived from
Sabaean (also South Semitic). There is
evidence of a Semitic-speaking presence in Ethiopia and Eritrea at
least as early as 2000 BC. 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
Dʿmt or some
other proto-Aksumite state.
After the fall of Dʿmt in the fourth 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 Empire, ancestor of medieval and
modern Ethiopia, which was able to reunite the area.
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.
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.
Ethiopian Dynasties
Zagwe dynasty ruled many parts of
modern Ethiopia and Eritrea from approximately 1137 to 1270. The
name of the dynasty comes from the
Cushitic speaking Agaw people of northern Ethiopia. From 1270 AD on for
many centuries, the
Solomonic
dynasty followed.
Restored contact with Europe
In the early fifteenth century Ethiopia sought to make diplomatic
contact with European kingdoms for the first time since Aksumite
times. A letter from King
Henry IV
of England to the Emperor of Abyssinia survives. In 1428, the
Emperor
Yeshaq sent two
emissaries to
Alfonso V of
Aragon, who sent return emissaries who failed to complete the
return trip. 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.
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 assisted
the Ethiopian emperor by sending weapons and four hundred men, who
helped his son
Gelawdewos
defeat Ahmad and re-establish his rule.
This Ethiopian–Adal War was also one
of the first proxy wars in the region as the Ottoman Empire and Portugal
took sides in the conflict. However, when
Emperor
Susenyos converted to
Roman Catholicism in 1624,
years of revolt and civil unrest followed resulting in thousands of
deaths. The
Jesuit missionaries had
offended the Orthodox faith of the local Ethiopians, and on 25 June
1632 Susenyos's son, Emperor
Fasilides, declared the state religion
to again be
Ethiopian
Orthodox Christianity, and expelled the Jesuit missionaries and
other Europeans.
Zemene Mesafint
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 by the
Oromo Yejju
dynasty, which later led to 17th century Oromo rule of Gondar,
changing the language of the court from Amharic to Afaan
Oromo.
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 united 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.
But Tewodros suffered several rebellions inside his empire.
Northern Oromo militias, Tigrayan rebellion and the constant
incursion of Ottoman Empire and Egyptian forces near the Red Sea
brought the weakening and the final downfall of Emperor Tewodros
II, who died after his last battle with a British expeditionary
force. In 1868, Ethiopia and Egypt went to war at Gura. Northern
Ethiopian forces, led by Emperor Yohannes IV, defeated the
Egyptians decisively.
In 1889 and the early 1890s, Sahle Selassie, as king of Shewa, and
later as Emperor
Menelik II, with the
help of
Ras Gobena's Shewan Oromo
militia, began expanding his kingdom to the south and east,
expanding into areas that had not been held since the invasion of
Ahmed Gragn, and other areas that had never been under his rule,
resulting in the borders of Ethiopia of today. The
Ethiopian Great famine that afflicted
Ethiopia from 1888 to 1892 cost it roughly one-third of its
population.
European Scramble for Africa
See Also: Ethiopian National Defense
Force
The 1880s were marked by the
Berlin
Conference 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 Adwa
in 1896, whereby the Ethiopians defeated Italy and
remained independent, under the rule of Menelik II. Italy and Ethiopia
signed a provisional
treaty
of peace on 26 October 1896.
Selassie years
79 KB
The early twentieth century was marked by the reign of Emperor
Haile Selassie I, who
came to power after
Iyasu V was
deposed. It was he who undertook the modernization of Ethiopia,
from 1916, when he was made a Ras and Regent (Inderase) for
Zewditu I and became the
de facto ruler of the Ethiopian Empire. Following
Zewditu's death he was made Emperor on 2 November 1930.
Being born from parents of the three main Ethiopian ethnicities of
Oromo,
Amhara and
Gurage, and
after having played a leading role in the formation of the
Organisation of African Unity,
Haile Selassie was known as a uniting figure both inside Ethiopia
and around Africa.
The independence of Ethiopia was interrupted by the
Second Italo-Abyssinian War and
Italian occupation (1936–1941). During this time of attack, Haile
Selassie appealed to the
League of
Nations in 1935, delivering an address that made him a
worldwide figure, and the 1935
Time magazine Man of the Year.
Following the entry of Italy into World War II, the
British Empire forces together with patriot
Ethiopian fighters liberated Ethiopia in the course of the
East African Campaign
in 1941, which was followed by
sovereignty on 31 January 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. During 1942 and 1943 there was an
Italian guerrilla war in
Ethiopia. On 26 August 1942
Haile Selassie I issued a
proclamation outlawing
slavery.
In 1952 Haile Selassie 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 hero, opinion within
Ethiopia turned against him owing to the worldwide oil crisis of
1973, food shortages, uncertainty regarding the succession, border
wars, and discontent in the middle class created through
modernization.
Haile Selassie's reign came to an end in 1974, when a Soviet-backed
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 huge
refugee
problem.
In 1977, there was the Ogaden War, when Somalia captured the whole of
the Ogaden region, but Ethiopia was able to recapture the Ogaden
after serious problems, thanks to 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 as a result of the
red terror, forced deportations, or
from the use of hunger as a weapon under Mengistu's rule. The Red
Terror was carried out in response to what the government termed
"White Terror", supposedly a chain of violent events,
assassinations and killings carried by the opposition. In 2006,
after a long trial, Mengistu was found guilty of
genocide.
In the beginning of 1980s, a
series of famines hit
Ethiopia that affected around 8 million people, leaving 1 million
dead. Insurrections against Communist rule sprang up 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). Concurrently
the Soviet Union began to retreat from building World Communism
under
Mikhail Gorbachev's
glasnost and
perestroika
policies, marking a dramatic reduction in aid to Ethiopia from
Socialist bloc countries. This resulted in even more economic
hardship and the collapse of the military in the face of determined
onslaughts by
guerrilla forces in the
north. The Collapse of Communism in general, and in Eastern Europe
during the
Revolutions of 1989,
coincided with the Soviet Union stopping aid to Ethiopia altogether
in 1990. The strategic outlook for Mengistu quickly
deteriorated.
In May 1991, EPRDF forces advanced on Addis Ababa and the Soviet
Union did not intervene to save the government side. Mengistu fled
the country to asylum in Zimbabwe, where he still resides. The
Transitional Government of Ethiopia, composed of an 87-member
Council of Representatives and guided by a national charter that
functioned as a transitional constitution, was set up. In June
1992, the
Oromo Liberation
Front 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. Though
it is widely suspected that Meles Zenawi rigged the election. This
suspicion is supported by Zenawi's very low approval rating in
Ethiopia.
Recent
In 1993 a referendum was held and 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 15
May 2005, Ethiopia held
another multiparty
election, which was a highly disputed one with some opposition
groups claiming fraud. Though the
Carter
Center approved the preelection conditions, it has expressed
its dissatisfaction with postelection matters. 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." In general, the
opposition parties gained more than 200 parliamentary seats
compared to the just 12 in the 2000 elections. Despite most
opposition representatives joining the parliament, some leaders of
the CUD party were wrongly imprisoned following the post-election
violence. Amnesty International considered them "
prisoners of conscience" and they
were subsequently released.
Politics
The 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.
On the basis of Article 78 of the 1994 Ethiopian Constitution, the
Judiciary is completely independent of the
executive and the legislature. The current realities of this
provision are questioned in a report prepared by
Freedom House (see discussion page for
link).
According to
The Economist in
its
Democracy Index, Ethiopia is a
"hybrid regime" situated between a "flawed democracy" and an
"authoritarian regime". It ranks 105 out of 167 countries (with the
larger number being less democratic).
Georgia
ranks as more democratic at 104, and Burundi
as less democratic at 106, than
Ethiopia.
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 current government of Ethiopia was installed in August 1995.
The first President was
Negasso
Gidada. The EPRDF-led government of Prime Minister
Meles Zenawi 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
circumscribed. Citizens have little access to media other than the
state-owned networks, and most private newspapers struggle to
remain open and suffer periodic harassment from the government. At
least 18 journalists who had written articles critical of the
government were arrested following the 2005 elections on genocide
and treason charges. The government uses press laws governing libel
to intimidate journalists who are critical of its policies.
Zenawi's government was elected in 2000 in Ethiopia's first ever
multiparty elections; however, the results were heavily criticized
by international observers and denounced by the opposition as
fraudulent. The EPRDF also won the 2005 election returning Zenawi
to power. Although the opposition vote increased in the election,
both the opposition and observers from the
European Union and elsewhere stated that the
vote did not meet international standards for fair and free
elections.
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. The government initiated a crackdown in the
provinces as well; in Oromia state the authorities used concerns
over insurgency and terrorism to use torture, imprisonment, and
other repressive methods to silence critics following the election,
particularly people sympathetic to the registered opposition party
Oromo National Congress
(ONC).
The government has been engaged in a
conflict with rebels in the Ogaden
region since
2007. The biggest opposition party in 2005 was the
Coalition for Unity and
Democracy (CUD). After various internal divisions, most of the
CUD party leaders have established the new
Unity for Democracy and
Justice party led by Judge
Birtukan
Mideksa. A member of the country's
Oromo ethnic group, Ms. Birtukan Mideksa is the
first woman to lead a political party in Ethiopia.
As of 2008, the top four opposition parties are the
Unity for Democracy and
Justice led by Judge
Birtukan
Mideksa,
United
Ethiopian Democratic Forces led by Dr.
Beyene Petros,
Oromo Federalist Democratic
Movement led by Dr.
Bulcha
Demeksa,
Oromo People's
Congress led by Dr. Merera Gudina, and
United Ethiopian
Democratic Party-Medhin Party led by
Lidetu Ayalew.
Regions, zones, and districts
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 several
special woredas.
The constitution assigns extensive power to regional states that
can establish their own government and democracy according to
theouncils 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:
Languages
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 (ግዕዝ), and
calendar.
Geography
Map of Ethiopia.
At ,
Ethiopia is the world's 27th-largest country (after Colombia
). It is comparable in size to Bolivia
.
The major portion of Ethiopia lies on the
Horn of Africa, which is the easternmost 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 vast 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 landforms
The predominant climate type is tropical monsoon, with wide
topographic-induced variation. As a highland country, Ethiopia has
a climate which is generally considerably cooler than other regions
at similar proximity to the Equator. Most of the country's major
cities are located at elevations of around 2000-2500 metres
(6600-8200 ft)above sea level, including historic capitals such as
Gondar and Axum.
The modern capital Addis Ababa is situated on the foothills of
Mount Entoto at an elevation of around 2400 metres (8000 ft), and
experiences a healthy and pleasant climate year round. With fairly
uniform year round temperatures, the seasons in Addis Ababa are
largely defined by rainfall, with a dry season from
October-February, a light rainy season from March-May, and a heavy
rainy season from June-September. The average annual rainfall is
around 1200mm (47in). There are on average 7 hours of sunshine per
day, meaning it is sunny for around 60% of the available time. The
dry season is the sunniest time of the year, though even at the
height of the rainy season in July and August there are still
usually several hours per day of bright sunshine.
The average annual temperature in Addis Ababa is 16°C (61°F), with
daily maximum temperatures averaging 20-25°C (68-77°F) throughout
the year, and overnight lows averaging 5-10°C (41-50°F). A light
jacket is recommended for the evenings, though many Ethiopians
prefer to dress conservatively and will wear a light jacket even
during the day.
Most major cities and tourist sites in Ethiopia lie at a similar
elevation to Addis Ababa and have a comparable climate, though in
less elevated regions, particularly the lower lying regions in the
east of the country, the climate can be significantly hotter and
drier. The town of Dallol, in the Danakil Depression in this
eastern zone, has the world's highest average annual temperature of
34°C.
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 southwestern 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.
Environment
Endangered species
Historically, throughout the African
continent,
wildlife
populations have been rapidly declining owing to logging, civil
wars, hunting, pollution, poaching and other human interference. A
17-year-long civil war along with severe drought, negatively
impacted Ethiopia's environmental conditions leading to even
greater habitat degradation. Habitat destruction is a factor that
leads to endangerment. When changes to a habitat occur rapidly, it
does not allow animals time to adjust. Human impact threatens many
species, with greater threats expected as a result of climate
change induced by greenhouse gas emissions.
Ethiopia has a large number of species listed as critically
endangered, endangered and vulnerable to global extinction. To
assess the current situation in Ethiopia, it is critical that the
endangered species in this region are identified. The endangered
species in Ethiopia can be broken down into three categories;
Critically endangered, Endangered, and Vulnerable.
There are 31 endemic species, meaning that a species occurs
naturally only in a certain area, in this case Ethiopia. The Arican
Wild Dog prehistorically had widespread distribution in Ethiopia;
however, with last sightings at
Fincha, this
canid is thought to be potentially extirpated within Ethiopia. The
Ethiopian Wolf is perhaps the most researched of all the endangered
species within Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian Wolf
Ethiopian wolves are decreasing rapidly in population. Fewer than
500 remain today owing to the increased pressure from agriculture,
high altitude grazing, hybridization with domestic dogs, direct
persecution, and diseases such as rabies. The EWCP (Ethiopian Wolf
Conservation Project) actively works on protecting this
conservation reliant species.
Scientists working with this project have found that this species
has some resistance to the effects of small population sizes and
some resilience to fragmentation. A 2003 study on the Ethiopian
wolf resulted in the conclusion that the key to its survival
resides in securing its habitat and isolating its population from
the impact of people, livestock and domestic dogs. The interaction
between humans and Ethiopian wolves has become increasingly
threatening to their conservation as these negative interactions
increase as human density increases. Human interactions include
poisoning, persecution in reprisal for livestock losses, and road
kills. Mountainous areas are critical for Ethiopian wolves survival
to provide a healthy habitat. Protecting this unique creature
entails securing protected status for conservation areas where
ecological processes are preserved in an ecosystem, and addressing
and counteracting direct threats to survival (human persecution,
fragmented populations and coexistence with domestic dogs.)
Biologists also recommend the goal of preserving a minimum of 90%
of the existing genetic diversity of the species for 100 years,
which may require establishing a Nucleus I captive breeding
population (preferably in Ethiopia). These aspirations are being
pursued by a group called the Ethiopian Wolf Recovery Programme
(EWRP).
Outreach
Several conservation programs are in effect to help endangered
species in Ethiopia. A group was created in 1966 called The
Ethiopian Wildlife and Natural History Society, which focuses on
studying and promoting the natural environments of Ethiopia along
with spreading the knowledge they acquire, and supporting
legislation to protect environmental resources.
There are multiple conservation organizations one can access
online, one of which connects directly to the Ethiopian Wolf.
Funding supports the World Wildlife Fund’s global conservation
efforts. The majority of the funds received (83%) goes towards
conservation activities, while only 6% goes towards finance and
administration. The remaining 11% of funds are allocated for
fundraising, which is much needed. The WWF Chairman of the Board,
Bruce Babbitt holds this organization accountable for the best
practices in accountability, governance and transparency throughout
all tiers within the organization.
A critical way to help threatened animals survive would be to
protect their habitat permanently through national parks,
wilderness areas and nature reserves. By protecting the places
where animals live, human interference is limited. Protecting
farms, and any place along roadsides that harbor animals helps
encourage protection.
Deforestation
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 420 000 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.
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. 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.
Economy
Ethiopia has one of the fastest growing economies in the world,
according to
The Economist. Ethiopia has shown a
fast-growing annual GDP and it was the fastest-growing
non-oil-dependent African nation in 2007 and 2008. Since 1991,
there have been attempts to improve the economy; however, there has
been some political opposition to the policies as well as a 2008
drought which slowed progress. The effectiveness of these policies
is reflected in the ten-percent yearly economic growth from
2003-2008. Despite these economic improvements, urban and rural
poverty remains an issue in the country.
Ethiopia is often ironically referred to as the "water tower" of
Eastern Africa because of the many (14 major) rivers that pour off
the high tableland. It also has the greatest water reserves in
Africa, but few irrigation systems in place to use it. Just 1% is
used for power production and 1.5% for irrigation.
Historically, Ethiopia's feudal and communist economic structure
has always kept it one rainless season away from devastating
droughts. But Ethiopia has a big potential and it is one of the
most fertile countries. According to the New York Times, Ethiopia
"could easily become the breadbasket for much of Europe if her
agriculture were better organized."
Provision of telecommunications services is left to a state-owned
monopoly. It is the view of the current government that maintaining
state ownership in this vital sector is essential to ensure that
telecommunication infrastructures and services are extended to
rural Ethiopia, which would not be attractive to private
enterprises.
Coffee farmer filling cups with
coffee
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 or sell. Renting of land for a maximum of twenty years
is allowed and this is expected to ensure that land goes to the
most productive user.
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 by small-scale farmers and enterprises and a large
part of commodity exports are provided by the small agricultural
cash-crop sector. Principal crops include
coffee,
pulse
(
e.g., beans),
oilseeds,
cereals, potatoes,
sugarcane, and vegetables. Recently, Ethiopia has
had a fast-growing annual GDP and it was the fastest-growing
non-oil-dependent African nation in 2007. Exports are almost
entirely agricultural commodities, and coffee is the largest
foreign exchange earner. Ethiopia is Africa's second biggest maize
producer. Ethiopia's
livestock population
is believed to be the largest in Africa, and as of 1987 accounted
for about 15 percent of the GDP. According to a recent UN report
the GNP per capita of Ethiopia has reached $1541 (2009). The same
report indicated that the life expectancy had improved
substantially in recent years. The life expectancy of men is
reported to be 52 years and for women 54 years.
Exports
Ethiopia was the original source of the coffee bean, and coffee
beans are the country's largest export commodity.
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 means Ethiopia is
poised to become one of the top flower and plant exporters in the
world.
With the private sector growing slowly, designer leather products
like bags are becoming a big export business, with Taytu becoming
the first luxury designer label in the country. 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,
Ethiopia has also begun exporting electric power to its neighbors.
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. Most regard Ethiopia's large water
resources and potential as its "white oil" and its coffee resources
as "black gold".
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. Ethiopian geologists were
implicated in a major gold swindle in 2008. Four chemists and
geologists from the Ethiopian Geological Survey were arrested in
connection with a fake gold scandal, following complaints from
buyers in South Africa. Gold bars from the National Bank of
Ethiopia were found to be gilded metal by police, costing the state
around US$17 million, according to the Science and Development
Network website.
Transport
Ethiopia has 681 km of railway that mainly consists of the
Addis Ababa – Djibouti
Railway, with a
narrow gauge. At
present the railway is under joint control of Djibouti and
Ethiopia, but negotiations are underway to
privatize this transport utility.
As the first part of a 10-year Road Sector Development Program,
between 1997 and 2002 the Ethiopian government began a sustained
effort to improve its infrastructure of roads. As a result, as of
2002 Ethiopia has a total (Federal and Regional)
33 297 km of roads, both paved and gravel.
Urbanization
Population growth, migration, and urbanization are all straining
both governments' and ecosystems' capacity to provide people with
basic services. Urbanization has steadily been increasing in
Ethiopia, with two periods of significantly rapid growth. First, in
1936–1941 during the Italian occupation of Mussolini’s fascist
regime, and from 1967 to 1975 when the populations of urban centers
tripled. In 1936, Italy annexed Ethiopia, building infrastructure
to connect major cities, and a dam providing power and water. This
along with the influx of Italians and laborers was the major cause
of rapid growth during this period. The second period of growth was
from 1967 to 1975 when rural populations migrated to urban centers
seeking work and better living conditions. This pattern slowed
after to the 1975 Land Reform program instituted by the government
provided incentives for people to stay in rural areas. As people
moved from rural areas to the cities, there were fewer people to
grow food for the population. The Land Reform Act was meant to
increase agriculture since food production was not keeping up with
population growth over the period of 1970–1983. This program
proliferated the formation of peasant associations, large villages
based on agriculture. The act did lead to an increase in food
production, although there is debate over the cause; it may be
related to weather conditions more than the reform act. Urban
populations have continued to grow with an 8.1% increase from 1975
to 2000.
Street scene of buses on Bole Road in
Addis Abeba
Rural vs. urban life
Migration to urban areas is usually motivated by the hope of better
living conditions. In peasant associations daily life is a struggle
to survive. About 16% of the population in Ethiopia are living on
less than 1 dollar per day (2008). Only 65% of rural households in
Ethiopia consume the World Health Organization's minimum standard
of food per day (2,200 kilocalories), with 42% of children under 5
years old being underweight. Most poor families (75%) share their
sleeping quarters with livestock, and 40% of children sleep on the
floor, where nighttime temperatures average 5 degrees Celsius in
the cold season. The average family size is six or seven, living in
a 30-square-meter mud and thatch hut, with less than two hectares
of land to cultivate. These living conditions are deplorable, but
are the daily lives of peasant associations.
The peasant associations face a cycle of poverty. Since the
landholdings are so small, farmers cannot allow the land to lie
fallow, which reduces soil fertility. This land degradation reduces
the production of fodder for livestock, which causes low milk
yields. Since the community burns livestock manure as fuel, rather
than plowing the nutrients back into the land, the crop production
is reduced. The low productivity of agriculture leads to inadequate
incomes for farmers, hunger, malnutrition and disease. These
unhealthy farmers have a hard time working the land and the
productivity drops further.
Although conditions are drastically better in cities, all of
Ethiopia suffers from poverty, and poor sanitation. In the capital
city of Addis Ababa, 55% of the population lives in slums. Although
there are some wealthy neighborhoods with mansions, most people
make their houses using whatever materials are available, with
walls made of mud or wood. Only 12% of homes have cement tiles or
floors. Sanitation is the most pressing need in the city, with most
of the population lacking access to waste treatment facilities.
This contributes to the spread of illness through unhealthy
water.
Despite the living conditions in the cities, the people of Addis
Ababa are much better off than people living in the peasant
associations owing to their educational opportunities. Unlike rural
children, 69% of urban children are enrolled in primary school, and
35% of those eligible for secondary school attend. Addis Ababa has
its own
university as well as
many other secondary schools. The literacy rate is 82%.
Health is also much greater in the cities. Birth rates, infant
mortality rates, and death rates are lower in the city than in
rural areas owing to better access to education and hospitals. Life
expectancy is higher at 53, compared to 48 in rural areas. Despite
sanitation being a problem, use of improved water sources is also
greater; 81% in cities compared to 11% in rural areas. This
encourages more people to migrate to the cities in hopes of better
living conditions.
Many NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) are working to solve
this problem; however, most are far apart, uncoordinated, and
working in isolation. The Sub-Saharan Africa NGO Consortium is
attempting to coordinate efforts among NGOs in Uganda, Kenya,
Tanzania, Zambia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Sudan,
Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Ivory Coast,
Mali, Ghana, and Nigeria.
Demographics
Ethiopia's population has grown from 33.5 million in 1983 to 75.1
million in 2006. The 2007 Population and Housing Census results
show that the population of Ethiopia grew at an average annual rate
of 2.6% between 1994 and 2007, off 0.2% from a 2.8% growth during
the period 1983–1994. The country's population is highly diverse.
Most of its people speak an
Afro-Asiatic language, mainly of the
Semitic (~ 40–5%) or the
Cushitic (~ 40–5%) branches. The
Oromo,
Amhara,
Tigray and
Somali make up 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. The
Arabic form
of this term (Al-Habasha) is the etymological basis of "Abyssinia,"
the former name of Ethiopia in English and other European
languages.
According to the Ethiopian national census of 2007, the
Oromo are the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia
at 34.49%. The
Amhara represent
26.89%, while the
Tigray
people are 6.07% of the population. Other ethnic groups are as
follows:
Somali 6.20%,
Sidama 4.01%,
Gurage 2.53%,
Wolayta 2.31%,
Afar 1.73%,
Hadiya 1.74%,
Gamo 1.50%, Kefficho 1.18% and others 11%.
The most
recent census in the United States
recorded 72,000 Ethiopians in the country.
Despite this some other sources put it at a much higher figure, 1.2
million Ethiopians in the US being one of these.
There are also large
number of in the United
Kingdom
, Italy
, Canada
, Sweden
and
Australia.
In 2007, Ethiopia hosted a population of refugees and asylum
seekers numbering approximately 201,700.
The majority of this
population came from Somalia (approximately 111,600 persons), Sudan (55,400) and
Eritrea
(23,900). The Ethiopian government required nearly all
refugees to live in refugee camps.
Religion
According to the 2007 National Census, Christians make up 62.8% of
the country's population (43.5% Ethiopian Orthodox, 19.3% other
denominations), Muslims 33.9%, practitioners of traditional faiths
2.6%, and other religions 0.6% This is in agreement with the
updated CIA World Factbook, which states that Christianity is the
most widely practiced religion in Ethiopia. Orthodox Christianity
has a long history in Ethiopia dating back to the first century,
and a dominant presence in central and northern Ethiopia. Both
Orthodox and Protestant Christianity have large representations in
the South and Western Ethiopia.
A small ancient group of Jews, the Beta Israel, live
in northwestern Ethiopia, though most 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. Some Israeli and
Jewish scholars consider these Ethiopian Jews as a historical
Lost Tribe of
Israel.
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 eight
of the
Acts of the Apostles.
(Acts 8:26–39) 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.
A traditional Ethiopian depiction of
Jesus and Mary.
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
Qur'an 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.
Islam in Ethiopia 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 via modern day
Eritrea, 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
Abyssinia (Eritrea, Ethiopia etc.). Also, the largest single ethnic
group of
non-Arab
Companions of Muhammad was that of the Ethiopian's.
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 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
. The
Bahá'í Faith is concentrated
primarily in Addis Ababa, but also in the suburbs of Yeka, Kirkos
and Nefas Silk Lafto.
Ethiopian calendar
Ethiopia has its own calendar, which is based on the
Coptic calendar, and is roughly eight years
behind the
Gregorian
calendar.
Health
According to the head of the
World Bank's
Global HIV/AIDS Program,
Ethiopia has only 1 medical doctor per 100,000 people.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.
Ethiopia's main health problems are said to be communicable
diseases caused by poor sanitation and malnutrition. These problems
are exacerbated by the shortage of trained manpower and health
facilities.
There are 119 hospitals (12 in Addis Ababa alone) and 412 health
centers in Ethiopia.Ethiopia has a relatively low average life
expectancy of 45 years. Infant mortality rates are relatively very
high, as over 8% of infants die during or shortly after
childbirth,(although this is a dramatic decrease from 16% in 1965)
while birth-related complications such as
obstetric fistula affect many of the
nation's women.
HIV is
also prevalent in the country.
Ethiopian traditional medicine
The low availability of health care professionals with modern
medical training, together with lack of funds for medical services,
leads to the preponderancy of less reliable traditional healers
that use home-based therapies to heal common ailments.
One medical practice that is commonly practiced irrespective of
religion or economic status is
female genital mutilation, a
procedure by which some of the woman's genital areas are cut or
burned away in order to preserve her chastity. Sometimes, most of
the tissue covering the vagina may be removed. This procedure is
often carried out without anesthesia and crude instruments such as
broken glass, scissors or knives may be used on the woman. This
procedure is carried out when the girl is usually a small child. .
As of 1965, close to four out of five Ethiopian women were
circumcised.
Education
Education in Ethiopia had 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. in 2004 school
enrollment was below that of many other african countries. Half the
population of Ethiopia are
illiterate.
Cuisine
The best known
Ethiopian cuisine
consists of various
vegetable or
meat side dishes and entrées, usually a
wat, or thick
stew,
served atop
injera, a large
sourdough flatbread made
of
teff flour. One does not eat with utensils,
but instead uses injera to scoop up the entrées and side dishes.
Tihlo prepared from roasted barley flour is very popular in Amhara,
Agame, and Awlaelo (Tigrai). Traditional Ethiopian cuisine employs
no
pork or
shellfish
of any kind, as they are forbidden in the
Islamic,
Jewish, and
Ethiopian Orthodox
Christian faiths. It is also very common to eat from the same
dish in the center of the table with a group of people.
Music
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 old and young musicians include
Teddy Afro (Tewodros Kasahune),
Tilahun Gessesse,
Aster Aweke, Hamelmal Abate, Tewodros Tadesse,
Kemer Yusuf, Ephrem Tamiru,
Muluken
Melesse, Bizunesh Bekele, Hirut Bekele,
Mahmoud Ahmed,
Tadesse Alemu,
Alemayehu Eshete, Neway Debebe,
Asnaketch Worku,
Ali
Birra,
Gigi, Dawit (Messay)
Mellesse,
Mulatu Astatke and
Gossaye Tesfaye.
Sport
The main sports in Ethiopia are
soccer and
running. Ethiopian athletes have won many Olympic gold medals in
track and field but the national football team was not
successful.Some notable Ethiopian athletes are
Abebe Bikila,
Mamo
Wolde,
Miruts Yifter,
Haile Gebrselassie,
Derartu Tulu,
Kenenisa Bekele,
Tirunesh Dibaba,
Meseret Defarand gelte
burka.
Archaeology
People and languages
Nations, nationalities and peoples
See also
References
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