ETHIOPIA

Area: 435,184 square miles

Population: 74,777,981 (2006 estimate)

Capital: Addis Ababa

Ethnic Groups: Oromo (40%), Amhara and Tigrean (32%), Sidamo (9%),

Shankella (6%), Somali (6%), Afar (4%), Gurage (2%), other (1%)

Languages: Amharic (official), Orominga, Tigrinya, Guaragigna, Somali, Arabic, English, over 70 others

Religions: Islam (45%-50%), Ethiopian Orthodox Christian (35%-40%), traditional (12%), other (3%-8%)

Literacy: 43% (2003 estimate)

Industry: Petroleum products, food processing, textiles

Export Crops: Coffee, hides and skins, livestock

Food Crops: Corn, sorghum, wheat, barley, millet

Some of our oldest known human ancestors lived in the land now known as Ethiopia. The famous partial skeleton called “Dinqinesh” or “Lucy,” a specimen of Australopithecus afarensis, dates from between 3 million - 3.6 million years ago. Discoveries of even older hominid remains have been made since “Lucy,” Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba, between 5.2 - 5.8 million years old, and Australopithecus anamensis, 4.2 million years old.

Ethiopia’s ancient history spans many thousands of years. The land of Punt (Pwene), in the northern borderlands, was known to the ancient Egyptians as a source of luxuries, especially incense, for the courts of the pharaohs. Originally called Abyssinia, the country took the name Ethiopia from a Greek expression meaning “burnt faces.” Between 100 to 800 C.E., the kingdom of Axum (also spelled Aksum) rose to prominence in the northern Ethiopian Highlands. Axum was one of the world powers at the time along with Egypt, Babylon, and Rome. It was known for its sophisticated urban centers; its own form of writing in Ge'ez; its coinage in gold, silver, and bronze; its distinctive architecture; and its extensive trading contacts within and outside Africa. Axum was one of the first states to accept Christianity, thus making Ethiopia the longest-lived independent Christian kingdom in the world.

Around 800 C.E. Axum declined in power and influence as neighboring Muslim states took control of the Red Sea from them. Axumite Christians retreated to the central highlands of Ethiopia, where Christianity survived in isolation. At Lalibela, a remote monastic settlement, churches carved out of the rocks as single monolithic blocks and formed into intricate stone sculptures were built in the 12th and 13th centuries. They are unique in the world and are among the most remarkable phenomena of Ethiopia.

Ethiopia has the further distinction of having avoided European colonialism. During the European Scramble for Africa, Italy managed to occupy a part of Eritrea in 1883 as well as the eastern coast of Somalia in 1886. However, Italy’s attempt to occupy Ethiopia in 1896 ended in ignominious defeat at the Battle of Adwa at the hands of the Ethiopian army under Emperor Menelik II.

As the last indigenous independent state in black Africa, Ethiopia served as a beacon of hope to colonized Africans everywhere. When Fascist Italy under Benito Mussolini invaded and occupied Ethiopia from 1935 to 1941, that symbol of hope was lost. The occupation so enraged and mobilized African nationalists on the continent and in the Diaspora that some historians today mark 1935 as the real beginning of the African independence movement rather than the later date of 1945, the end of World War II.

With the help of the British, Ethiopia regained control of their country in 1941, and the exiled emperor Haile Selassie I returned to the throne. His autocratic rule after 1941 created the economic and political turmoil that led to his fall in 1974. He was imprisoned and died the following year. A socialist/Marxist military government replaced the monarchy.

The group known as the Derg (Amharic for “committee” or “council”), a body of mid-level military men, ruled Ethiopia for the next 17 years. Out of this group Mengistu Haile Mariam rose to power, and in 1977 he was chosen as the Derg chairman. Several groups opposed the military rule of the Derg and agitated for a broad-based democratic government run by civilians. In February 1977 one of these groups, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP), initiated terrorist attacks – known as the White Terror – against Derg members and their supporters. The Derg counteracted in a reign of violence known as the Red Terror that lasted until late 1978. They systematically hunted down, killed, and imprisoned thousands of suspected EPRP members and their supporters, especially students.

For 30 years the Ethiopian government (first under Haile Selassie and later under Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam) waged war against the secessionist movement of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF), which desired independence for Eritrea, a province located in the north on the border of the Red Sea. Tigrean rebels, based in the western province of Tigre, joined in the fighting, not for secession but for the removal of the Marxist regime. The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) also fought against the Mengistu government for 17 years. Under heavy siege from a coalition of these rebel groups, the military dictatorship of Colonel Mengistu collapsed in May 1991. With Eritrean independence recognized by all parties, the EPLF agreed to delay a referendum for two years to give Ethiopia's new rulers (leaders of the EPRDF) a chance to stabilize their position. Two years later in May 1993, Eritrea became an independent country with Issaias Afwerki its newly elected president. Eritrea granted Ethiopia access to the sea, and the two nations established close ties.

In 1995 Meles Zenawi was elected Prime Minister of Ethiopia. Relations with Eritrea became strained in 1997 when Eritrea introduced its own currency over Ethiopia’s objection. The two countries also never formally drew their 600-mile border. In May 1998 a border dispute erupted when Eritrean troops occupied the Badme region, roughly 250 square miles. Fighting along the border between the two countries resulted in over 80,000 deaths and destroyed both countries’ ailing economies. In December 2005 an international Court of Arbitration ruled that Eritrea had violated international law in attacking Ethiopia in 1998.

Ethiopia's economy is based almost entirely on agricultural and animal husbandry although only 2% of the land is arable. Approximately 90 percent of the 59 million Ethiopians are subsistence farmers. Coffee, believed to have originated here, is the main cash crop, accounting for 60% of all export earnings. Drought, soil erosion, deforestation, and civil war have contributed to the poor economy and periodic famines. In 2003, the government initiated the largest relocation program in African history to relocate 2 million farmers from the parched highlands to areas in western Ethiopia with more fertile soil. Unfortunately, the majority of those resettled are still unable to support themselves by farming. Furthermore, they face severe problems with malaria in this region of the country.

In June 2006, an Islamist militia in neighboring Somalia seized control of the capital Mogadishu and much of the country’s southern region. Believing the Somali Islamists a threat to regional security, Ethiopia threw its support behind Somalia’s weak transitional government, led by President Abdullah, sending Ethiopian troops in to reinforce the Somali soldiers on the ground and launching air strikes against the Islamists. Within a week the Islamists were forced to flee the country. Ethiopia pledged to keep their troops in Somalia until a functional central government and stability have been restored.

SOURCES:

Connah, Graham. African Civilizations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.

“Ethiopia,” Library of Congress: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ettoc.html, 2000.

“Ethiopia,” Lycos Worldwide: www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107505.html, 2007.

“Ethiopia,” Microsoft Encarta Africana: Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Black History and Culture, edited by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Microsoft Corporation, 1999.

"Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia," Culturgram. David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies, Brigham Young University, 1998.

Fisher, Ian.“Behind Eritrea-Ethiopia War, A ‘Knack for Stubbornness,’” The New York Times, February 14, 1999.

Perlez, Jane. "A New Chance for a Fractured Land." The New York Times Magazine, September 22, 1991, 49-72.

Compiled by Mary Holmström and updated in February 2007.

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