Ethiopia (ኢትዮጵያ)

Ethiopia (980 BC- ), or ኢትዮጵያ (ʾĪtyōṗṗyā), is one of the oldest countries in the world, and one of the few in Africa that fought off a long period of European rule. The Italians ruled it but only briefly, from 1936 to 1941. It is also one of the oldest Christian countries, becoming Christian in the 300s.

It is somewhat bigger than Egypt in land and people. It is very poor, a land broken and torn by war, genocide, famine and disease. It has only one television station and fewer than 1% get the Internet. Most people are herdsmen or small-time farmers with about a hectare of land (less than 3 acres). Most cannot read.

Many depend on food coming from the West, partly because of the lack of rain, partly because of failed government policies in the past. The government is trying to move two million to better land.

Over a million people are HIV-positive and at least 120,000 have died of Aids.

The government is a democracy, they say, but the same party always wins at election time. The press is not free and the leaders of other parties often get thrown into prison. Judges are not independent. Ethiopia has had the same prime minister, Meles Zenawi, for over 13 years.

Ethiopia was an empire created by the Amhara, the Abyssinians. It is made up of five main countries: Amhara itself, Tigray, Oromia, Afar and Ogaden (called Somali on some maps).

Amhara is in the north and Tigray in the far north. Both are Christian (Orthodox) and both speak Semitic languages that come from Ge’ez, the ancient tongue of Ethiopia, a cousin of Arabic.

Afar is in the east, Oromia in the south and Ogaden in the south-east. They speak Cushitic languages, like most people in the Horn of Africa. The people in Ogaden are Somali. In fact in 1978 Somalia sent its army into Ogaden, but was fought off with the help of Russian arms and Cuban troops. Afar and Ogaden are Muslim while Oromia is half Muslim and half Christian.

In the south-west are the tribes of the Omo valley. Some women there wear lip plates.

About 250,000 have died in genocides since the 1940s, particularly the Oromo.

Religion: Overall a third of Ethiopians are Muslim, a few follow native religions while most are Christians (60%). Most Christians are Orthodox, but some in the west are Protestants. There were about 200,000 Ethiopian Jews, but most left for Israel in 1984 and 1991.

Marxists called the Derg overthrew the emperor, Haile Selassie, in 1974. The Red Terror followed where Mengistu killed thousands of his enemies. His lack of wisdom along with a lack of rain meant that a million died for want of food in the 1980s. Both Eritrea and Tigray fought against him. In 1991 Eritrea broke away and Tigray overthrew the government.

In the late 1990s Ethiopia fought a war  it could ill afford against Eritrea over a land dispute, which still is not settled. In 2006 it sent troops into Somalia to overthrow Islamists who promised a holy war against Ethiopia. It did not completely pull out its troops till 2009.

See also:

• more about Ethiopia itself:
  • Life in Ethiopia
  • Ethiopia: a brief history
  • Oromia
  • Battle of Adowa
• neighbouring countries:
  • Somalia
  • Sudan
• genocide
• Christianity
  • Orthodox
  • Protestant
• Islam
• Marx
• the West
• natural country
• Kola Boof – she is from neighbouring Sudan, but her mother was a blue-black Oromo.