Ethiopia

Fast Facts

Location: East Africa

Capital: Addis Ababa

Population: 118 million (2021)

Government Type: Federal Republic

Language: Amharic, local dialects and languages

Climate: High variation (equatorial rainforest, alpine mountains, and arid desert conditions)

GDP: USD $111 billion (2021)

Human Development Index Ranking: 0.485 (Low)

Overview

Ethiopia is perhaps one of the most culturally unique, and socio-politically unique, countries in Africa. Located on the continent’s eastern Horn, it is one of the only two countries to have never been completely colonised by Europeans (the other being Liberia, which was founded by freed American slaves). It is home to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, one of the oldest Christian denominations in the world, and is the site where one of the oldest prehistoric human remains (aged approximately 3.2 million years old) have been discovered - awarding Ethiopia the title “Cradle of Humankind” by archaeologists. But claims to fame are not enough to grant Ethiopia stability and success: armed conflict has recently arisen within the country’s north, and food insecurity remains a perennial issue. Needless to say, Ethiopia’s future - and even its present - remains fairly uncertain.

History

Credit: Yohannes Minas

Ethiopia is perhaps one of the oldest civilisations in human history. Although skeletal remains aged millions of years old have been discovered there, its identity as we know it more or less stretches back to 980 BCE. The rise of agriculture led to the establishment of the Kingdom of Da’amat, which specialised in trade to southern Arabian groups. Da’amat came to be displaced and overtaken by the Kingdom of Aksum, which established itself as a major trading empire and link between the Roman Empire, the Middle East, and India. By as early as the 4th century, Christianity had become the official state religion of Ethiopia, though Aksum had been destroyed by Queen Gudit - thus establishing the Zagwe Dynasty, of which a fairly low amount of definitive information (such as the name of the last king, or how many kings there were) is known. By the 16th century, Ethiopia had been conquered by a Muslim general named Ahmad Gran (though, upon his death at the hands of a Portuguese soldier, many Ethiopians converted back to Orthodox Christianity). There are, however, few kings as revered in Ethiopia as Menelik II, who successfully defended Ethiopia from the industrialised invading Italian force in the late 19th century. The Battle of Adwa is still celebrated in Ethiopia to this day.

Menelik was, however, the penultimate emperor of Ethiopia. Haile Selassie, his successor, was a pivotal figure in both Ethiopian and international politics, having attempted to modernise the nation, and speaking many times at the UN’s predecessor, the League of Nations. But towards the end of his reign, Ethiopians were faced with famine, war, and the (eventual) loss of Eritrea as a province. The Derg, a Marxist force led by Mengistu Haile Mariam, overthrew Emperor Selassie in the 1970s, attempting to establish communist reforms nationwide. The collectivisation of agriculture led to further famine, and civil war, forcing Mengistu to flee to Zimbabwe.

Eritrea’s war of independence, however, would turn into a much longer-term issue than expected. The town of Badme - a small market town with seemingly minimal value to either Ethiopia or Eritrea - found itself claimed by both countries, a dispute which swiftly flared into armed conflict, to remain unresolved until mid-2018.

Economy

Despite a large population and a lack of colonial institutions and setbacks, Ethiopia’s economy faces great difficulty. Climate change is altering rainfall patterns and creating food insecurities nationwide, and the state’s planned economy is stunting growth. The country’s main exports include agricultural and commodity goods, such as coffee, leather, and gold, primarily to the USA, Europe, and Gulf States. Major imports, however, include much more expensive fuel and aviation equipment - mostly from China, the USA, India, and the Gulf States. Political polarisation, particularly in the country’s northern provinces, further causes issues with economic output and growth. Finally, the financial burden of an extremely young and rapidly growing population will continue to cost more of the country’s money than it generates.

But Ethiopia’s economic history and projections seem to lean positively. The country’s GDP has risen almost nonstop each year since 1994, the average life expectancy has risen by 20 years since the mid-1990’s, and the government has a firmly defined Plan for Accelerated and Sustained Development to End Poverty (PASDEP). This plan has shown strong progress in reducing extreme poverty nationwide - with the number of people living on less than USD $1.90 per day falling from 71% in 1990 to 30% in 2015. Lastly, major infrastructure developments have taken place over the past few decades. Ethiopia Airlines has become a major regional carrier, the national road network has greatly expanded, and access to sufficient sanitation has become guaranteed for a growing number of people.

The Tigrayans: Who They Are, and What They Want

Federal troops in Oromo patrol New Year celebrations. Credit: Hudson Institute

In the mid-1970s, during the leadership of Mengistu Haile Mariam, the TPLF (Tigrayan Peoples’ Liberation Front) formed to combat the Marxist junta that ruled the country. After the fall of the Mariam regime, the TPLF became an ethnic identity-based political party that held the most sway in politics - despite being populated by the Tigrayan ethnic minority (accounting for approximately 7% of the overall population). The coalition government created by the TPLF gave regional autonomy, but maintained tight control over the central government - often oppressively so.

But the 2018 national election, placing Abiy Ahmed in power as Prime Minister, signaled a shift away from the TPLF’s ruling coalition for the first time in decades. Ahmed’s goal was to reform Ethiopia across the board by reducing authoritarianism, re-centralising the government, and improving relations with neighbours - particularly Eritrea. Such practices angered the Tigrayans, who perceived themselves as rapidly losing influence and political power to a member of the Ethiopian ethnic majority. By September of 2020, parliamentary elections were held in Tigray, despite Ahmed’s federal government postponing them due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and dismissing them as invalid. The TPLF, in response, assaulted a nearby federal military base, triggering the extremely bloody civil war - which is currently considered ongoing, but currently far less violent.

Trivia

-Ethiopia has the most UNESCO World Heritage sites of any country in Africa, boasting 9 of such locations.

-Ethiopia has over 80 spoken languages, with 5 of them being recognised as “working” languages. English is the most common foreign language.

-Dallol, in Ethiopia’s Danakil Depression, is both the lowest point in Africa, and the hottest place on Earth (with an average temperature of 34.4 degrees Celsius).

-Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila was the first Black African to win an Olympic gold medal. In 1960, Bikila only made the team due to another athlete breaking his foot. He would go on to run the marathon barefoot, outrunning an opponent by a full 25 seconds.