The Conversation

Over half of Ethiopia’s 100 million inhabitants are Orthodox Christians and a third practice Islam. Begging, in the form of almsgiving, is supported by the religious teachings of Christianity and Islam and is very common in the capital, Addis Ababa.

My study involved talking to boys and girls on the streets of Addis Ababa to explore what they beg for, how and why.

I found that begging was key to the survival of street children. It supports them and their impoverished families. It’s a transient livelihood, and how long they stay as beggars is based on household income, gender and changing experiences.

As Addis Ababa develops into a modern city, anti-begging rhetoric is on the rise. Beggars are increasingly being treated like public nuisances and criminals, targeted in police street-clearance projects.

Ethiopia has experienced rapid economic development with an average growth rate of 10% since 2004, making it one of the fastest growing economies in Africa. The government has set the ambitious target of becoming a middle-income country by 2025. However, inequality between the rich and poor is widening.

Instead of criminalising beggars, Ethiopia should use social protection programmes and policies to support children who beg. Studies show that banning begging is not the best option as it’s a quick fix that doesn’t actually address children’s needs, or that of their families.

Instead, interventions should be implemented that take the structural causes of poverty and inequality into account. For instance, employment creation, support for disabled parents, housing and social cash transfer schemes.

Why children beg

Poverty is a major reason why children are forced to work on the streets. Family disintegration, abuse and neglect by parents, and the lack of social services are big factors. Other reasons include the failure of rural livelihoods, including displacement due to drought, famine and war; harmful traditional practices (for example, early marriage) or the loss of a parent. The survey revealed that almost half (46%) of the children sampled were living with step-parents because their biological parents had died, divorced or separated.

There are two general categories of children that beg. “Full-time” child beggars who use begging as a source of livelihood and “part-time” child beggars who practice it only intermittently.

Full-time beggars include children that are born to parents with disabilities. Because there is no social support system for these people, they will often depend on their families for survival. In this scenario, begging is a source of livelihood and children learn how to beg when they accompany their disabled parents.

But not all children earn their whole income from begging. Without a steady income, begging can act as a supplement to other activities. For example Genet, a 13-year year old girl, sells lottery tickets and sometimes begs with her blind mother. She said:

We live in rented shack paying 950 birr per month (about USD$20). I have a big interest in education, but the money we earn is so meagre that life is precarious. If we don’t pay house rent on time our landlords expel us, and insult us. Finding money for rent is always a problem.

Then there are children that see begging as a job. It is perceived as an activity which needs skills and the ability to do business. They don’t use the term begging to describe what they do. Instead refer to it as s’ik’alla or simply business. The etymology of s’ik’alla is an Arabic term “shigul”, meaning “work”. They see it as a legitimate and a way of generating money based on effort.

In recent years, however, the income families receive from working informally on the streets, has come under pressure. Activities like street vending or shoe-shining are seen as something that need to be formalised and contribute to the national economy by paying tax. Begging falls outside of both “formal” and “informal” economic activities.

Government policies

The city of Addis Ababa has embarked on new attempts to formalise many informal street vendors through job-creation schemes. But street children and young people aren’t included.

There’s a need to understand why children beg. Begging is not just about a lack of food or shelter. It’s about a number of social deprivations, including a lack of access to housing.

The children pointed out a number of priorities that would support them. They want a good education and skill and capital to startup businesses. They wish for the police to stop beating them. They wish to be supported to get education through flexible schooling. And nearly all street children who beg stated that they would like to be provided with affordable housing.

There are some lesson Ethiopia can draw from Latin American countries that have used cash transfer schemes to support the poor. The government also needs to start focusing on redistribution of wealth rather than just rapid economic growth. Urban housing policies should ensure poor families have access to decent shelter. There should also be social security schemes to assist, especially households whose members are unemployed because of disability.

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International Diplomacy: Yeharerwerk Gashaw – SBS Amharic

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ADDIS ABABA, May 17 (Xinhua) — The African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU) on Thursday kicked off a two-day meeting on infrastructure at the AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

The meeting dubbed Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES) Reference Group on Infrastructure (RGI) deliberates among others on infrastructure cooperation and the way forward.

The two-day meeting also discusses implementation of the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), within a challenging infrastructure context, its progress and way forward.

The participants further dwell upon ways of scaling-up investment for infrastructure in areas such as energy, transport, water, digitalization, as well as the potential for synergies between the European External Investment Plan (EIP) and PIDA.

In his opening remarks, the AU Director for Infrastructure and Energy, Cheikh Bedda, hailed the work done so far by the pan-African bloc on infrastructure development.

He recalled that the meeting is happening in special context as issues of sustainable development are of concerns to Africa’s citizen as well as Europe.

Reiterating the success in the first phase of PIDA, Bedda has noted the support from EU to the programme.

He noted that AU needs to draw lessons learned from the first phase to assist in the implementation of the second phase.

The RGI is mandated to steer the strategic Infrastructure Roadmap in the framework of the Joint Africa-EU Strategy.

During the two-day meeting, the Group will address the 2018-2020 Africa-EU infrastructure agenda across sectors (energy, water, transport, and digitalization).

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The two Christian missionaries that showed up in the ancient northeastern African empire of Axum in the fourth century could not have been more unlikely. Kidnapped while traveling with a relative, the two young brothers were brought as slaves to the royal family’s household. But within a few years, an unexpected chain of events cast religious and political power into their hands. While the region had been familiar with Christianity for decades, the religion was soon to spread across Axum. Indeed, the brothers’ relationship with the kingdom’s future kings and their passion for spreading the gospel would alter the history and religious composition of what is now modern-day Eritrea and Ethiopia.

Today, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church these young men founded more than 15 centuries ago has survived estrangement from Rome, the spread of Islam, and repeated colonialization attempts. In a continent where Western Protestant theology and Catholicism looms large, the history of this institution offers a look at African Christianity that has existed for nearly as long as the church has itself.

A Great Power of the Ancient World

At its height, the Axumite Empire (A.D. 100–940) was one of the four great world powers along with Persia, Rome, and China. Due to its proximity to the Middle East, its strategic location adjacent to the Red Sea, and its open and outward-looking civilization, it played an important role in regional affairs. Between the third and the sixth centuries, the kingdom enjoyed control over large areas encompassing modern-day northern Sudan, southern Egypt, Djibouti, Yemen, and southern Saudi Arabia.

Image: Wiki Media

Axum was a wealthy empire known for its sophisticated irrigation, masonry, and its unique currency. Indeed, archeologists have discovered Axumites coins as far away as India. But the country’s commercial interests went even further—extending as far as China. Axum also drew the respect of the Roman Empire. By the fourth century, the relations between Byzantines and Axum become so significant that Constantine proclaimed equal treatment of Axumites and Romans.

Axum was also known for its writing system. Today, Eritrea and Ethiopia have the distinction of being the only two countries in Africa which use their own indigenous writing system: the Fidel (Geez). In fact, one of the earliest translations of the Bible was in Geez, a Semitic language, which is still used in Eritrean and Ethiopian liturgies. While not part of the biblical canon, the book of Enoch is only wholly extant in the Geez language. In the fourth century, Geez became the first Semitic language to be vocalized, a process where a sound/letter is turned into a vowel. (Much later, Semitic languages Hebrew and Arabic developed their own linguistic conventions to represent vowels.)

Axum was also respected for its justice-oriented political system. The Abyssinians (who we know today as Ethiopians and Eritreans) were known by the Greeks and Arabs as people of justice. Herodotus called them “the most just men.” Centuries later, when the first Muslims faced persecution, the prophet Muhammad instructed his followers to, “go to Abyssinia, for the king will not tolerate injustice and it is a friendly country, until such time as Allah shall relieve you from your distress.” The third caliph, Osman, was among the refugees.

Image: Library of Congress

Abyssinia was also an early home to the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Judaism entered Abyssinia with the Queen of Sheba and later with Jewish exiles and merchants from Yemen and Egypt. (The Jewish community still exists today, although many emigrated to Israel in the 1980s.) One of the earliest Christian baptisms recorded in Scripture was the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 who took his new faith with him to his homeland. Islam came to Axum before it went to its second holiest city, Medina. This migration is known as the First Hijra, when Muhammad’s first followers fled persecution in Mecca.

Christianity Comes to Axum

In A.D. 316, two brothers, Frumentius and Aedesius, were sailing on the Red Sea with their uncle Meropius, a Christian philosopher from Tyre. Earlier that year, the Romans had infringed on a treaty that allowed them to use the port of Adulis. So, when Meropius’s ship came to port, Abyssinian locals massacred the entire crew, only sparing the brothers so they could take them as slaves. The brothers became part of the royal household where they earned King Ella-amida’s trust as gifted teachers and administrators. In time, the king named Aedesius his cupbearer and Frumentius his treasurer and secretary. Ella-amida died shortly after the birth of his sons Ezana and Se’azana, leaving much of their care in the hands of his queen and his two trusted servants, who would introduce the young royals to Christianity.

Image: Library of Congress

While Axum’s royal family was encountering Christianity for the first time, the faith had long existed in the region. There are oral and written traditions that show that early church fathers Mark, Matthew, and Bartholomew preached the gospel in Abyssinia. As noted above, the Book of Acts recounts the story of an Ethiopian eunuch who is baptized by the apostle Philip and returns home to evangelize his countrymen.

Further, the port of Adulis, located on the coast of modern-day Eritrea, was the primary transit harbor between Byzantium and India and, as such, had many interactions with Christian merchants. While the number of Christians that existed in Axum in the fourth century is unknown, one can infer that small pockets had existed, particularly in the urban areas. Before his consecration as the first bishop, as treasurer and advisor to the Queen Regent, Frumentius encouraged these urban Christians to evangelize and practice their faith openly.

In A.D. 328, Frumentius was consecrated as the first bishop of Axum by Athanasius, the 20th Patriarch of the Church of Alexandria. Frumentius’s new role made Axum the second official Christian state in the world, following Armenia’s lead roughly 25 years after the Eastern European country adopted the faith. (Axum also made this decision more than 50 years before Rome.) Frumentius baptized the two brothers he had helped raise, both of whom would become kings of Axum. Under the rule of Ezana, the first brother to become king, Axum also became the first in the world to engrave the sign of the cross on its currency.

Once Christianity was adopted by the royal family, it quickly spread throughout the empire. Frumentius built several churches and traveled throughout the country to evangelize, chronicled in his hagiography, Gedle Abba Selema. Like the story of the beginning of Christianity in other regions, the faith first took root in the urban, commercial, and political centers and then moved outward to the rural areas.

Axumites were already familiar with the idea of monotheism. Christ’s revolutionary and yet conservative teaching in Matthew 5:17—“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them”—might have resonated with Abyssinian Jewry.

American scholar W. L. Hansberry, in his book Pillars in Ethiopian History,quotes Sir Francis B. Head, a British officer, who aptly captured the spread of Christianity in Abyssinia.

“Never did the seed of Christian religion find more genial soil than when it first fell among the rugged mountains of Abyssinia … no war to introduce it, no fanatic priesthood to oppose it, no bloodshed to disgrace it; its only argument was its truth; its only ornament was its simplicity; and around our religion, thus shining in its native luster, men flocked in peaceful humility, and hand in hand, joined cheerfully in doctrines which gave glory to God in the Highest, and announced on earth peace, goodwill toward men.”

The absence of Christian persecution sets Axumite Christianity apart from those in the Greco-Roman world, where the faith was perceived as a threat to the existing order. But in the case of Axum, the kings themselves had been brought up in the faith and consequently did not feel as though Christianity was an outside force thrust upon them.

A Maturing Church

Christianity heralded a new age in Abyssinia—the birth of advanced learning. A new class of people emerged fully devoted to learning and the cause of Christianity. As the first vocalized Semitic language, Geez simplified and improved reading and writing. The biblical translation that started in the fourth century set in motion other literary works in philosophy, history, and medicine. Instead of writing on stones and papyri, scribes turned to leather, a more portable medium that enabled more Axumites to learn to read and write.

In recognition of this transformative era, Frumentius, the first metropolitan bishop of Axum, was fittingly renamed Kesate Birhan (revealer of light) and Aba Selama (father of peace). The two royal brothers, Ezana and Se’azana, became Abreha (one who lit light) and Atsebeha (one who brought the dawn) during their consecration.

As the church grew, it dovetailed its Christian heritage with its unique cultural and social settings, developing an indigenous form of Christianity with strong Judaic overtones and its own cadre of saints. Some of the most prolific were the Nine Saints, a group of missionaries who hailed from such cities as Antioch, Constantinople, Asia Minor, Rome, and Caesarea and arrived in Axum and played an important role in spreading the gospel at the end of the fifth century. Widely referred to as the Second Evangelization, the arrival of these men helped to solidify an indigenous Christian and African identity. Their accomplishments included completing the biblical translation into Geez initiated by Frumentius and writing the historical and philosophical books which became the bedrock of Abyssinian cultural identity.

Shortly after the arrival of the Nine Saints, Axum’s best-known king ascended to the throne. Kaleb secured a name for himself by protecting Nestorian Christians from persecution. The besieged community, which resided in Yemen and Southern Arabia, lay vulnerable after the region’s ruler Yusuf Dhu Nuwas converted to Judaism and sought to avenge Jews who had suffered under successive Christian rulers of the Roman Empire. When the Roman cities fell under his control, he gave the people the chance to convert to Judaism or face extermination. Moved by the plight of other Christians, Kaleb sent his army to rescue these Christians and his men ultimately defeated Dhu Nuwas. His victory earned Kaleb the nickname “Protector of the Faith.”

Axum’s decline

The seventh century marked the beginning of the end for Axum. The disruption of the Red Sea commerce, the Beja invasion which pushed the Axumite frontier further south, and, perhaps most significantly, the rise of Islam contributed to the decline of the empire.

Muhammad had singled out Axum early on as a place that might be amenable to Islam, believing that its monotheistic beliefs would make it easier for Abyssinians to embrace Islam. He sent a letter to the Abyssinian king emphasizing the prophethood of Jesus and the virginity and purity of Mary. While some Christians did convert, most did not. According to Pew Research Center, Muslims currently make up about 37 percent of Eritrea and 35 percent of Ethiopia.

Today, the Tewahdo Church has the most adherents of all the Oriental Orthodox churches and is second only to the Russian Orthodox in size among all Eastern Orthodoxy. (Most of the Oriental churches were eclipsed by the Muslim Crescent and their adherents relegated into minority status.) The Tewahdo Church, however, stayed autonomous despite its centuries-long isolation from the rest of Christendom. The topography of the country, the readiness of its peoples to defend its heritage, and its relatively friendly relations with Islam enabled Abyssinia to maintain its sovereignty.

This isolation may also have contributed to a theological rift between the Tewahdo Church and the rest of Christianity. The Tewahdo Church (whose name means “being made one” in Geez) follows the Coptic Orthodox belief in the complete union of divine and human natures into one perfectly unified nature in Christ. This view, deemed heretical by Western and Eastern churches at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, is maintained today by the Copts, the Tewahdo, and other Oriental Orthodox churches. While this view is condemned by Protestants, Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox Christians, it serves as a doctrinal indicator of the autonomy and independence of this venerable African church.

The Tewahdo church is the oldest and most venerated institution in Eritrea and Ethiopia. Its presence hasn’t only preserved and built up Christianity—it has created a repository of art, music, culture, poetry, and literature. While Christianity is no longer the official religion of these countries, the Tewahdo church continues to guide the moral, spiritual, and intellectual lives of its more than 45 million adherents.

Semere T. Habtemariam is the author of two books: Reflections on the History of the Abyssinian Orthodox Tewahdo Church and Hearts Like Birds. He was born in Eritrea and came to the US as a refugee. He lives in Carrollton, Texas.

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Alemayehu “Al” G. Mariam, professor of political science at Cal State San Bernardino, has been selected as an Alumni of Notable Achievement by the University of Minnesota’s College of Liberal Arts, where he earned his doctorate in 1984.

As an Alumni of Notable Achievement, Mariam is in exclusive company: only one percent of the college’s 157,000 alumni have received this distinction. He will be formally recognized at the CLA Outstanding Alumni Awards induction dinner at the University of Minnesota on June 15.

“CLA is proud of your esteemed career as an attorney, professor of political scientist, and champion of human rights, especially relating to conditions in Ethiopia,” wrote John Coleman, the dean of the college. “You are widely admired for your successful legal work in constitutional law and you have earned accolades in the U.S. and abroad for your humanitarian efforts. We would be pleased to count you among our most honored graduates.”

“I am humbled by the great honor bestowed upon me by my alma mater,” Mariam said. “I have dedicated my life to speaking truth to power and this honor recognizes that effort. I hope others, especially young people, who take notice of this special honor will be inspired to preach truth and the rule of law to power on behalf of the powerless, the defenseless and the voiceless in Ethiopia, in Africa and in America. Let’s all join hands to correct government wrongs with human rights everywhere!”

“There is something special about being recognized by one’s alma mater,” said Brian Janiskee, chair of the CSUSB political science department. “This is a tremendous achievement. We in the political science department are delighted that he has received this honor. It is well-deserved.”

“I couldn’t be happier for our outstanding colleague, Dr. Mariam,” said Rafik Mohamed, dean of CSUSB’s College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. “Beyond the recognition and great honor, this acknowledgement of his body of work affirms that people can achieve great success in life while holding true to their core principles and placing the concerns of others ahead of their own.”

Mariam has taught at CSUSB since 1989, covering a variety of subjects including American government, the Bill of Rights, civil rights, judicial process, constitutional law and African politics, with research interests in American constitutional law, African politics and human rights.

He is the senior editor of the International Journal of Ethiopian Studies and has been a contributing writer for a number of periodicals, including The Hill, The Huffington Post and Salon. He served as an executive assistant to the late President-emeritus Albert K. Karnig.

In addition to his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Minnesota, he has a J.D. (law) from the University of Maryland, which he earned in 1988. In 1998, Mariam argued a landmark case before the California Supreme Court involving the right against self-incrimination (Miranda rights).

For more information on Cal State San Bernardino, contact the university’s Office of Strategic Communication at (909) 537-5007 and visit inside.csusb.edu.

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Liyat Fekade

Addis Ababa, May 18/2018 – After the tragic killing of three staffs of the Dangote Cement Ethiopia office, the government moves to reassure investors both in the country and those eying the country as their next business destination to “provide the level of support and protection required by investors”.

Dr Belachew Mekuria (PhD), Commissioner, Ethiopian Investment Commission, told Addis Standard  that although “we understand that this may create some sense of uneasiness among the foreign investment community in Ethiopia, as it does with all of us,” Belachew said in an interview,  “[but] this unprecedented attack is an isolated incident and the relevant agencies and authorities are working hard to identify those responsible for [the] crime. He added that the government would take “all the necessary measures to prevent such incidents in the future.  “I would, therefore, like to reaffirm the government’s assurances.”

Update: Beakal Alelign was laid to rest Y’day at Abo Church near the French Embassy in #AddisAbeba. She, was a mother of three, the youngest of whom is only one year old. The body of Tsegaye Gidey was sent to his birth place in #Adigrat, northern #Ethiopia. R.I.P from team AS. pic.twitter.com/cB5UYO31Di

— Addis Standard (@addisstandard) May 18, 2018

The killing by unidentified gunmen of Deep Kamra, Dangote Cement Country manager, Beakal Alelign, a secretary,and Tsegaye Gidey, a driver, on Tuesday May 16 afternoon has left the country in shock.  Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said he was “shocked & saddened by the barbaric killing” and promised an investigation to “bring the perpetrators  to justice.” OPDO, the party administering the Oromia regional state, where the cement plant is located at and where the killing happened, strongly condemned the killing; it also said it will do everything to bring perpetrators to justice.

HE PM Dr Abiy Ahmed & the entire gov’t is shocked & saddened by the barbaric killing of Mr Deep Kamara & his 2 Ethiopian colleagues. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families & everyone at Dangote. The gov’t has started investigation & will bring the preparators to justice

— Fitsum Arega (@fitsumaregaa) May 17, 2018

According to Belachew, the  Ethiopian Investment Commission will work closely with relevant federal and regional authorities with a view to enhance the security and safety of investors in all parts of the country. We will also work closely and cooperate with the Dangote Group to help the enterprise cope up with this tragedy and continue to realize its vision of ‘powering Africa’s growth as the largest indigenous industrial conglomerate in sub-Saharan Africa.’”

A member of the Dangote Group, Dangote Cement is “Africa’s leading cement producer with operations in 10 African countries, revenues of US$2 billion in 2016 and nearly 17,000 employees,” according to company information.”

Located in West Shewa Zone of the Oromia regional state, in Ada Berga District, Mugher Town, 85 km west of Addis Abeba, Dangote Cement Ethiopia  started operation in May 2015. It soon became the largest producer of cement in the country.  However, the 2.5Mta plant near a “rich limestone reserves of about 223 million tonnes [and which is] capable of producing high-quality 32.5 and 42.5-grade cements” soon ran in to trouble in the midst of 2016-2017 Oromo protests during which protesters have torched its trucks and machinaries on various occasions. A dispute on labor and raw material supply also forced the factory to threaten to suspend operations. But with the help of regional authorities, local elders and the factory itself a reconciliation took place in September 2017. During the ceremony the local have given Mr. Kamra an Oromo name “Gallata”.

Things have since been “functioning smoothly,” according to a senior official with the regional administration. “We are deeply shocked, but also frustrated that something like this happened at this moment,” he said.

A recovering confidence

During the four years Oromo protests, Ethiopia’s economy took the hardest hit in the last 27 years.  Despite the setbacks, however, “over the past years, the Government of Ethiopia has been working in earnest to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) as we believe in the catalytic role FDI can play for job creation, technology and skills transfer, export competitiveness and economic diversification, thereby contributing to inclusive economic development”, Belachew said. “FDIs are also playing a key role in increasing the country’s foreign exchange supply through inflow of capital in foreign hard currency and export earnings.”

Investors on the ground understand the challenges but also the immense opportunities Ethiopia offers, according to Addis Alemayehou, founder and manager of 251 communications, a leading company in branding, designing and PR works. According to him, these challenges “are well known in that key changes in policy that is more private sector friendly is needed; our doing business rankings reflect the challenges of bureaucracy faced at most levels of Government and lack of financing and forex are some of the key points.” But “I am 100% optimistic about the future of the country especially given our new administration in place, which I feel understands the concerns of the private sector and is willing to be innovative.”

But the killing at this moment of the Dangote staffs is “very unfortunate incident and one that is very rare in our Ethiopia,” Addis said, adding “although it saddens me personally as I knew the people that were targeted personally, I also know full well that this is not the norm in Ethiopia and will never be the norm. What makes Ethiopia secure and safe is the people and culture that we have. I have faith in my people more than anything.”

The EIC and all other government agencies have worked tirelessly to build a national brand and place Ethiopia as a preferred investment destination in the international platform, Belachew maintains.  “In the past five years, FDI inflow to Ethiopia has increased by more than fourfold from around US$1 Billion to over US$4.2 Billion in 2016/17. This has placed Ethiopia as one of the largest recipients of FDI in the African continent.”

Like Belachew, Addis too expressed his confidence in the government to bring “an immediate solution.”  But beyond bringing those responsible of the killing to justice,  Addis said it was important to communicate “what measures [the government] plans to make going forward so investors in Ethiopia as well as those seeking to come and invest understand and feel secure that this will never happen again and will not be tolerated.”

“This tragic incident is unprecedented and is not in keeping with the track record of Ethiopia as a nation of peace, stability and a society very hospitable to foreigners,” Belachew said. But he also stays firm on the positive progresses the country has registered in the recent past . “While we have registered significant successes, we are continually working to alleviate some major challenges around shortage of forex, trade and logistics services, and the provision of utilities for a growing manufacturing sector.” 

AS

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By  Aklog Birara (Dr.)

A change in the narrative of political discourse is always healthy and forward looking. As he reaches an important milestone in public discourse engaging various segments and stakeholders, both domestic and foreign, Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed has begun bold moves peeling off the rotten and debilitating layers of TPLF/EPRDF party, state and government corruption and debilitating repression.

Ethiopia won’t survive let alone thrive under the current system of party, state and government theft, graft, corruption and inhumane treatment of ordinary citizens. By all accounts, citizens have expressed their wishes that they want accountable government and competent officials who are free of tribal tendencies, nepotism, graft and corruption. The worst culprits of these tendencies and practices are party, state and government officials whose productivity is nearly zero; and whose appetite for graft and theft is insatiable. It is mostly the same officials and their allies who are inimical to free press and independent civil society. This is the reason for my hypothesis that the system must be overhauled.

My second hypothesis is this. Ethiopia has enormous untapped natural resources and enormous human capital that is being wasted. No amount of foreign aid or Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) would alleviate abject and structural poverty, food insecurity, unemployment, technological backwardness and environmental degradation. Empowering governance that unleashes the productive potential of the Ethiopian people is fundamental in dealing with both policy and structure. The current malignant system is not suited for empowerment.

Ethiopian society has been “bleeding” or hemorrhaging from theft, graft, nepotism, corruption and illicit outflow of massive financial and human capital for almost three decades.

Decapitalization of intellectual and human capital is corrosive in numerous ways. Among these, it diminishes creativity, innovativeness, competitiveness and Ethiopia’s capacity to solve its policy and structural problems using its own talent pool. This aspect of diminishing returns from social and human capital must be studied much more closely now than ever before.

The primary purpose of this commentary is that peeling off organized theft and systemic corruption and restoring the billions of dollars stolen from the Ethiopian poor is not only just; but is also a matter of national survival. The difficult work of removing the cancer of bribery, theft, graft, nepotism, corruption and illicit outflow of financial capital must start at the top of the pyramid.

We often take the old saying that a “fish rots from the head” rather lightly at our own peril. Theft, graft, nepotism, bribery, corruption and massive illicit outflow are all a consequence of state and economic capture. It is a systemic rather than an individual problem. They emanate from the top and spread like germs throughout the system. It is a systemic and institutional problem that must be tackled frontally and boldly in order for the society to move forward.

Secondly, governments that serve as safe havens for the stolen billions from Ethiopia’s poor and food aid dependent millions have a moral and strategic obligation to cooperate with Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed’s bold initiative. Destinations are as diverse as the culprits who steal and hide the monies. In addition to the normal suspects of Dubai and other Gulf states, faraway places such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Caribbean islands of Bermuda and the Caymans; and Panama as well as Western Europe and North America must be brought into the loop. Those of us in the Diaspora who are committed to Ethiopia’s sustainable and equitable development must, for once, cooperate fully and unreservedly by providing concrete and specific information.

Theft, graft, bribery, corruption and illicit outflow of funds are adversely consequential. Each dollar stolen deprives a child from attending school. Each dollar stolen deprives a pregnant woman from receiving maternal health care. Each dollar stolen deprives a malnourished child from adequate nutrition etc. etc. etc. Anyone with conscience must reflect on these social and human costs; and demand accountability from those who steal and move funds out of the country. There should not be a place to hide!!!

I surmise that Ethiopia cannot justifiably continue to ask for one additional cent of foreign aid, especially grants and soft loans, if it is unable to account for the billions of dollars it has received under the premise of alleviating poverty. The loss of foreign exchange revenue that could have been utilized to generate employment, raise income levels, enable Ethiopia to become food self-sufficient and generate surpluses for export has proven to be detrimental to the entire society. Over the past 27 years, Ethiopia lost billions of dollars in illicit outflow while begging for food aid.

I am not suggesting that donors stop aid entirely. I am suggesting that donors tie their aid to effective monitoring, results-based outcomes, strict adherence to the protection of human rights and the advancement of democratization. The restoration of stolen funds through illicit means back to the Ethiopian poor will go a long way in demonstrating that donors value freedom and rights as much as the fight against terrorism. Food insecurity is a form of terror. The Ethiopian people are capable of defending their country and their society from terrorism. But they are defenseless against party, state and government thieves who also suppress rights.

What is aid for?

The altruistic intent of aid is to help poor people help themselves. It certainly is not intended to enable political elites to repress, steal aid monies and enjoy luxurious lives on the back of the poor. Every single dollar stolen from Ethiopia society is almost a tax and a drain in terms of available resources that would ideally boost productive employment capacity. No aid is worthy of its name if the aid supplement or subsidy continues for ever; and if the monies granted or loaned to boost the capabilities of the poor are, instead, diverted to enrich the privileged few and their families, their cousins and other relatives. During a visit to Ethiopia years ago, former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton told officials, “Our goal is to help countries’ economies grow

over time so that they can meet their own needs.” The EPRDF failed to heed to this guidance; and instead condoned graft, bribery, corruption and illicit outflow unchecked. The system became the problem.

On May 15, 2018, Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed met with members of his “new cabinet” and other senior government officials. He is quoted saying that his government is “investigating foreign bank accounts held by senior government officials.” This is a courageous move that no pervious Prime Minister had the stamina to reveal. Private actors must be included in the mix of bad apples.

I recall that the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had met with businessmen and women and told them that his government knew the locations and owners of billions of dollars of assets in Western banks. Not a single corrupt officials of high value was held accountable. Not a single cent was returned to Ethiopia. This is because, there was no institutional or leadership muscle behind the rhetoric. The thieves had connections in high places. Not only did the late Prime Minister fail to hold any corrupt official accountable; he also possessed no moral authority to ask foreign governments where monies were hidden or invested to cooperate in returning the billions siphoned off from the Ethiopian people back to Ethiopia. The criteria in removing the scourge of theft is for high officials to be free of the practice!

The job of cleansing Ethiopian society of the cancer of theft, graft, bribery, nepotism and corruption resides in Ethiopia. For the cleansing to be effective; it must start with the “big ‘fish” within; and not in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands. That will follow next.

If you do not go after “the big fish” and if you don’t ask, no government is going to cooperate with you. If you ask, the chances are very high that governments would cooperate. In the age of transparency, no single government worthy of its name wishes to be identified with party, state or government thieves or with private money smugglers either. Nigeria succeeded in retrieving billions of dollars. It has a long way in cleansing itself though.

Rise in aid and escalation in theft

In 2010, Ben Rawlence of the Huffington Post wrote a critical piece on aid to Ethiopia and repression and theft. “The World Bank Feeding Repression in Ethiopia,” informed us that

“Overall, between 2004 and 2008, annual aid spending on Ethiopia doubled to $3.3 billion” from a low of $1. 8 billion in 2004. Illicit outflow begins to rise up from there on.

I shall provide illustrative examples to support my thesis that Ethiopian society continues to bleed from theft, graft and illicit outflow. On MAR 3, 2017, David Steinmann of Forbes wrote a

fabulous piece, “Ethiopia’s Cruel Con Game” and documented that Ethiopian party and government officials have stolen billions of aid monies and diverted it out of the country. At the same time, these party and government thieves unashamedly beg for emergency food aid to feed millions of Ethiopians.

“1. The amount of American financial aid received by Ethiopia’s government since it took power: $30 billion.

2. The amount stolen by Ethiopia’s leaders since it took power: $30 billion.” This is a staggering sum. Nothing is left to improve agricultural productivity or to establish small and medium size enterprises or to improve safe drinking water and sanitation or to improve shelter.

Why did USAID continue to give monies if Ethiopia is unable to use aid to improve the economy and the welfare of the population? This is a political and strategic decision; and has nothing to do with productivity or welfare. Imagine what $30 billion would have done if invested in a “green revolution” in Ethiopia?

“Ethiopia’s government believes it has America over a barrel and doesn’t have to be accountable to us or to its own people. Like Mr. Guterres, UN Secretary General, past U.S. presidents have been afraid to confront the regime, which even forced President Barack Obama into a humiliating public defense of its last stolen election. The result has been a vicious cycle of enablement, corruption, famine and terror. Whether the Trump Administration will be willing to play the same game remains to be seen. The answer will serve as a signal to other

foreign leaders who believe America is too craven to defend its money and moral values.”

The unanimous passage of H.R. 128 by the House of Representatives goes further in recognizing the ill effects of embezzlement, famine and corruption. If passed into law this legislation and the passage of S.R. 168 by the Senate will strengthen the anti-corruption and asset recovery campaign initiated by Prime Minister Dr. Abiy.

The amount of precious foreign exchange stolen and taken out of Ethiopia is not limited to the entire

U.S. aid cited by David Steinmann. It is more. The latest extensive study was conducted by a panel of experts chaired Thabo Mbeki, former President of South Africa. His report shows that Ethiopia lost $11 billion over a period of less than 5 years. The panel recommended that African governments can no longer pay lip services to graft, theft and illicit outflow that hurt the poorest of the poor the most.

President Mbeki’s panel recommended the hashtag or slogan “Track it! Stop it! Get it!” This is a clear message to track all illegal transactions; to stop illicit outflow by dealing with the root causes or sources; and by retrieving the stolen funds wherever they are hidden.

“The latter figure is based on the UN’s own 2015 report on Illicit Financial Outflows by a panel chaired by former South African President Thabo Mbeki and another from Global Financial Integrity, an American think tank. These document $2-3 billion—each year, an amount roughly equaling Ethiopia’s annual foreign aid and investment—being drained from the country mostly through over- and under-invoicing of imports and exports.”

This is why I suggest that the private commercial sector must be included in the tracking, stopping and retrieving efforts.

Surveys by UNDP, Global Financial Integrity and U. of Massachusetts show that in 2004-2009 alone Ethiopia lost an astonishing $16 billion dollars, four years’ worth of aid at the average flow per year of $4 billion.

How does this happen?

Illicit outflow operates successfully to the extent that there are enablers and beneficiaries within the system. Ethiopia’s enablers are party, state and government officials who have become super wealthy by stealing from the public purse. Sadly, this is done under the mantra of development; and the enabling developmental one party state.

“Ethiopia’s far-left economy is centrally controlled by a small ruling clique that has grown fantastically wealthy. Only they could be responsible for this enormous crime. In other words, the same Ethiopian leadership that’s begging the world for yet another billion for its hungry people is stealing several times that amount every year.”

Four years before the Mbeki and Forbes reports, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) had conducted a similar study in 2011 that revealed that the “African Nation Lost US$11.7 Billion in Illegal Capital Flight from 2000 through 2009,” 9 years. Illicit financial flows out of the African nation nearly doubled to US$3.26 Billion in 2009 over the previous year, with corruption, kickbacks and bribery accounting for the vast majority of that increase. The report concluded that illicit outflow was on the rise. This annual figure has persisted ever since, practically making impossible for Ethiopia to meet its foreign exchange needs.

It is commonly known that kickbacks in connection with capital construction equipment procurements by the federal government are among the most lucrative means of getting rich quickly in Ethiopia. The lead beneficiaries of this lucrative business include TPLF generals, party and other high government officials. The average illicit outflow of $3.26 billion per year has persisted since then. This alone puts the amount stolen and transferred out of Ethiopia at close to $30 billion.

Here, I would like to underscore the explicit opinion and apt conclusion offered by Economist Sarah Freitas of GFI. “The people of Ethiopia are being bled dry. No matter how hard they try to fight their way out of absolute destitution and poverty, they will be swimming upstream against the current ( I would say, Tsunami) of illicit capital leakage. The global shadow financial system happily absorbs money that corrupt public officials, tax evaders, and abusive multi-national corporations siphon away from the Ethiopian people.”

Freitas (financialtaskforce.org) also noted that “Ethiopia, which has a per-capita GDP of just US$365, lost US$11.7 billion to illicit financial outflows between 2000 and 2009. More worrying is that the study shows Ethiopia’s losses due to illicit capital flows are on the rise. In 2009, illicit money leaving the economy totaled US$3.26 billion, which is double the amount in each of the two previous years.” The increase is attributed to “increased corruption, kickbacks, and bribery while the remainder stems from trade mispricing.”

It goes without saying that Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries on earth. “Plagued by famine, war, and political oppression, 38.9% of Ethiopians live in poverty, and life expectancy in 2009 was just 58 years. In 2008, Ethiopia received US$829 million in official development

assistance (ODA) but this was swamped by the massive illicit outflows. The scope of

Ethiopia’s capital flight is so severe that our conservative US$3.26 billion estimate greatly exceeds the US$2 billion value of Ethiopia’s total exports in 2009.”

This drainage in available capital to invest in productive enterprises that would at the same time offer job opportunities for Ethiopia’s bulging youth population and enable Ethiopia to

meet essential domestic demand is a major push factor that forces thousands of young people to exit Ethiopia. This in itself is a source of shame for the country and its 110 million people.

I commend Prime Minister Dr. Abiy for raising the issue of Ethiopian migrant workers during his visit to Saudi Arabia and for the prospect that hundreds of those in jail will soon be released. The exodus is in part, attributable to lack of meaningful and productive life in Ethiopia.

One can pinpoint the origins, trails and destinations of this massive capital hemorrhage. Those who have amassed enormous wealth and have hidden this ill-gotten wealth abroad are both knowable and traceable. One aspect is to track the origin of the capital inflow and how it was procured; used or misused. Interestingly, there is a correlation between massive government led and ODA financed investments—infrastructure and the like following the aftermath of the 2005 elections on the one hand; and official and private theft and illicit outflow on the other.

How was the contracting for infrastructural projects done? Who won the contracts and how? What was imported and from where? How much was expended? Etc.

The pool of foreign exchange available to siphon off increased dramatically. There was no regulatory or institutional framework to monitor theft and illicit outflow. Contracting is done secretly and based on personal and party relationships. There is no competitive bidding. In fact, the institutions in charge of anti-corruption and illicit outflow are staffed by persons who were either state thieves or partners. Although no one knows with certainty the facts of hidden or black market transfers of funds, the amount of illicit outflow of funds a year before the 2005 election was less than half a billion dollars. Therefore, it did not generate much alarm. By comparison with Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon that were shamelessly corrupt, Ethiopia had fared well.

By 2010, the picture changed dramatically and corrosively. By this time, Ethiopia became a darling of the donor community and received $4 billion in ODA per annum. Additional millions were received in the form of humanitarian aid and via remittances. This is why some experts estimate that the country lost $5.6 billion in illicit outflow in a single year. Export earnings, ODA, remittances, humanitarian and other aid contribute to this enormous sum that the World Bank acknowledged (The World Bank). Forbes opinion that $30 billion of U.S. aid was stolen is therefore credible. This figure matches the earlier figure of total loss in 9 years.

Following this massive loss, the World Bank initiated and financed a study on corruption. But, nothing happened in implementing the recommendations. Findings suggest that during the period 2004 and 2013, Ethiopia lost a staggering $26 billion through illicit outflow. The amount

of money stolen from Ethiopia in 2013 was close to 11 percent of the country’s GDP, one of the highest in Africa.

One Ethiopian expert determined that this was similar to “stealing an average of $300 per Ethiopian citizen” at the time. Another way of putting this is that the amount stolen would have built the equivalent of at least five Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dams (GERDS).

Was any high party, state or government official watching for the public interest while such massive bleeding was taking place? Clearly not. This is because illicit outflow is traceable to public and or government officials as well as to their private sector allies. It is also traceable to commercial entities such as exporters and importers, brokers and their official counterparts. Party, state and government businesses are intertwined with private commercial entities.

Those who steal cannot be expected to monitor themselves.

For too long, the culprits operated with a high level of secrecy, interconnectedness and absolute impunity.

Thieves of party, state and government as well as their accomplices used numerous methods to steal. Import mis-invoicing (accounting for an estimated $20 billion in stolen foreign exchange during the period 2003 to 2013); and export mis-invoicing and underpricing served as tools to steal and to hide monies abroad. These are easier to manage under such a neatly interwoven system where there is no transparency or institutional checks and balance. Thieves do not leave trails. It is personal relations that count most. Thieves protect one another!

A person who steals agrees with a partner that he or she will price the imported good (machinery or other) from country X that costs one million dollars at $2 million, pocketing or sharing the balance of one million etc. An exporter who ships out 3,000 tons of goods to say Dubai shows instead 2,000 tons on the invoice etc. He or she pockets the difference in revenue etc.

Imports of large machinery for infrastructural projects such as telecommunications and dams offer huge opportunities to inflate prices and or to buy low quality goods and report them at inflated prices. This is not where the tragedy stops.

In both every instance, the thieves deposit the money outside the country. Ethiopian society is deprived of capital. This is one way illicit outflow operates.

The black or underground market conducts a thriving business in foreign exchange transactions. This distorts the market and conceals the level of illicit outflow of foreign exchange. For example, members of the Diaspora take dollars or other hard currency and exchange it in the underground market where the rate is significantly higher. This hard currency is either bought by merchants starving for hard currency or by persons or black marketers who collect the currency and smuggle the currency out of the country to the preferred safe haven (destination).

It is not uncommon for members of the Ethiopian diaspora to exchange dollars or other hard currency to Birr where they reside. The Birr is then given to a designated receiver in Ethiopia. This informal system proves to be highly effective and lucrative for both parties; but entails an immense cost to Ethiopian society.

There isn’t credible data on remittances from Ethiopia’s huge diaspora. The unreported exceeds the official statistics.

While I was at the World Bank, experts conducted a study on remittances to Ethiopia and found that the amount of official remittances reported through the National Bank of Ethiopia was much lower than comparable countries. The bulk of remittances is underreported.

In summary, I applaud Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed for taking the initial steps of following the money trail wherever it might lead. The rest of us should do all we can to provide concrete evidence of safe havens and fraudulent investments anywhere in the world.

The global community has a moral and long-term strategic responsibility to cooperate with Ethiopia so that the tens of billions of dollars stolen from the Ethiopian poor are returned and invested in Ethiopia.

May 19, 2017

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• By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A Swedish doctor who had been imprisoned in his native Ethiopia on charges of corruption and terrorism has returned to Sweden.

Fikru Maru says “I didn’t believe in it until I actually sat in the plane and it took off,” according to the Expressen daily after being welcomed by family and friends at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport Friday.

Fikru was released Wednesday. He was arrested in 2013 after a years-long dispute over equipment for his cardiology clinic in Addis Ababa. The terrorism charge came years later when he and others were accused of starting a deadly fire in the prison where they were held.

In January, Ethiopia’s former Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn promised to free members of political parties and others after more than a year of anti-government protests.

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BBC NEWS

Union jacks, tiaras, horse-drawn carriages, and celebrity guests. It’s the royal wedding in pictures…

Union jacks, tiaras, horse-drawn carriages, and celebrity guests. It’s the royal wedding in pictures…

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By Andualem Aragie*

If we went back in time to 150 years ago, we would not be living and thinking any different from our ancestors of the time. I would even think that we would consider the environment and context of the time as an immutable absolute. In this infinite thread of time, only the greats graced to each era by the Creator navigate across times like shooting stars on a dark sky, for all to see.  Ethiopia always had Ethiopian greats that sparkle its accounts, cut across the maze of time to move at pace with living generations. It still does. Yet, from their midst, whom else can we place ahead of the figure we commemorate today, Atse Tewodros II? The famous historian Bahru Zewde in his Society and State in Ethiopian History (2012) calls Atse Tewodros II the “first dreamer” and explains the Emperor’s grand work of lifting the crown out of the catacombs of Zemene Mesafint and restoring the monarchy to its former heights. Bahru also holds that Atse Tewodros II felt great grief at the deep backwardness of the country. His sorrow was such that he lamented the people, himself included, were “blind, ignorant donkeys”. In the end and as Bahru also states, this desire for change that blazed inside Atse Tewodros II spared no one, not even himself. I feel great honour to be here today, at this event, to commemorate Atse Tewodros II martyred 150 years ago without engendering the dream of unity and modernity he conceived despite being himself the child of this deeply backward country, tired by squirmy chieftains and of uneducated, impoverished people.

Although retrospect makes for an unjust judge, we cannot deny that Atse Tewodros committed many acts of cruelty. Allow me nonetheless to state one of the reasons that inspire in me only great respect for Atse Tewodros. In the Bible, we read Moses proclaiming something that I personally find hard to believe. He intercedes for Israelites and says “But now, please forgive their sin–but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.” (Exodus 32:32, New International Version) For a believer, to be “blotted out” of the book of life is the ultimate sacrifice. Atse Tewodros, as accounts have it, was one with in-depth religious schooling. Hence, when, at the last hour, he took the decision to take his own life, he was acutely aware that he would be closing not just the earthly doors on himself but also the heavenly ones. After rampantly slaughtering people, he was not among those who then decide to flee into exile. Nor, like others, was he caught in a ditch attempting to escape death. Instead, perhaps also aided by spiritual guidance, rather than leaving a legacy that would disparage his country, demean his people and shame generations to come, he chose to be thrown into the abyss of hell. It is a sacrifice that put a country and a people’s honour above all else. It is this legacy of sacrifice that Atse Tewodros has bequeathed our generation.

Something baffles me when I think of Atse Tewodros. I wonder where he drew this thirst for modernising Ethiopia and this hunger for greatness. What fuelled its fire? As Bahru puts it, “how did a man who grew up under Zemene Mesafint then become the latter’s downfall?” However, since the topic I was asked to speak on concerns current Ethiopia let me get on with the subject. First, one last point. Although I do not believe that Tewodros’s dream was fully delivered, the dream was conceived again after his death. From Tewodros’s fall at Maqdala, Yonannes IV and Menelik II have both achieved great feats. How can I go without mentioning Adwa? A victory that firmly positioned the consciousness of Ethiopians on a high ground. Still, although burning with a passion for modernizing his country, Atse Tewodros’s dream never took off ground. Similarly, his dream to build a strong and unified nation was realised much later and only to an extent with Atse Haile Sellassie.

From 1935 E.C. onwards, the clash between young Ethiopian public officials educated abroad and angry at the extreme poverty of their country on the one hand and noblemen and traditional leaders on the other was only a continuation of Atse Tewodros’s dream for modernity. Although Atse Haile Sellassie thrived in this tension that allowed him to maintain balance, in the final analysis, its splinters threatened his very own existence.

A hundred years after Maqdala, the brothers in blood and belief that were Mengistu and Girmame Neway conceived this same dream of propelling their country into modernity. Atse Tewodros had told the British in his final days “you gained the upper hand because your people abide by direction”. Yet he set up neither an education system nor a “social contract” that would mitigate this lament of his. Rather, fuming at the inability of his people to dream his vision and to labour his passion, he punished them. However, appalled at his own cruelty, he often prayed for death so “his people would find respite”.

Although not as forbidding as what Tewodros faced, General Mengistu and co faced similar popular resistance. The people did not quite understand the general’s dream. This explains why, at his trial, the general elaborating on his refusal to appeal for pardon from the Emperor famously said “I pity you, I lament for you when the day comes and Ethiopians finally understand my intention.” General Mengistu expressed, in his refusal to appeal the sentence, his hurry to join in death the comrades who sacrificed themselves for his dream. The general longed for death much as Socrates accepted to die for truth.

Today as well, several stress the importance of organising. Girmame Neway as perhaps the pioneer in understanding the importance of organising attempted to set up associations but was discouraged by the curse of fragmentation that is still alive today. Just as a frustrated Tewodros raged against his people, General Mengistu, upon realising that the coup d’état was aborted, took irreversible and unnecessary measures on the revered high officials of the regime.

In a scene that recalls Tewodros’s plea to future generations “to be his judge” in Tsegaye Gebre Medhin’s play, General Mengistu’s own hope hinged on budding students. Indeed the general seemed to be convinced that the yet nascent student protests began just ahead of the attempted coup d’etat, in 1951 E.C. was an expression of his own dream. The leaders of the attempted coup d’etat announced freely that their goal was to establish a Constitutional Monarchy bound by law and to accelerate development and tried to link their struggle to that of the students.

It was not many years after the general and his crew died that the student protests spread like wildfire. The protests that began with the celebration of College Day took larger proportions. Convinced of its power as an instrument of change, Atse Haile Sellassie introduced young Ethiopians from all over the country to education against the advice of some who foresaw that these students will turn on the Emperor himself. The prophecy happened. The student struggle directly targeted the Emperor. For the Emperor, College Day became a day of humiliation and insults.

Nevertheless, the students’ demand is a far cry from a call for democracy. Perhaps, in terms of calling for democracy, Haddis Alemayehu’s letter to the Emperor two years after College Day, can be considered the very first political and democratic document. Instead, the storm of socialism wreaking havoc on the world’s horizons started blowing on the thick clouds of the system that ruled our country for millenniums. The students vacillated between the age-old poverty and stifling governance in their country on the one hand and a socialist ideology gaining traction across the globe. Now their fists were not just directed at the Emperor but at the very history of Ethiopia.

While Atse Tewodros and the Girmame crew respected the existing history and went with it, the students had no esteem for the history of Ethiopia. It is impossible to find a historical event in which at the very least Oromos, Agas and Tigres did not take part. However, the students embalmed the entire history of Ethiopia as feudal and Amhara. The thread of racism/xenophobia that is still shaking the foundation of our country can be traced back to this student movement. In addition, even though a show of force has for years been used to climb to the top of power and to resolve differences, the student movement also introduced the culture of using writing to disparage one another. In particular, as some maintain, the paper by Tilahun Takele on the issue of ethnic groups can be cited as an example. A student protest that began with vilifying one another ended with killing one another.

Calling out the other for “siding against us if not with us”’, destroying one another over trifles even when one has convergent goals and programmes is now part and parcel of our political culture. While we can go on nit-picking several problems from the student movements, their willingness to give themselves wholly for what they believed in should equally stand out as the height of sacrifice. I am awed by the contempt for death they displayed at such a young age for what they believed to be true.

We can cite many other examples that shaped our political culture but this short paper will not do them justice. Perhaps, it is appropriate to mention a few points on the overall picture. In general, this ongoing battle between the people and its rulers is rooted in one thing. The governance desired by the people and the governance that its rulers want to impose is a complete mismatch. This incongruity continues to heighten the dissonance between the governors and the governed and remains the basis for gaining or losing support. Both the governed and the governors want the other’s subservience. Both want to force themselves as sole owner of sovereign power, of the country and of the country’s very own existence. The problems in our politics that remain to this day are all fundamentally down to this. While the people’s sovereignty is not realised the age-old absolute power of the governors has somewhat minimised.

Even though politics is an instrument of compromise of various interests and desires, we could not apply it in practice. Instead, we did not allow politics to be used other than to breed differences and build walls of hatred. It is perhaps why fear and mistrust prevail between the people and the governors. Our politics is not one that encourages the people to demand their rights but one that forcefully bends the people’s back to serve as a stepping-stone for the rulers. From past to present, it remains a relationship where people are subjugated to aggrandize the rulers. This continues to be the reason why we do not see much difference between our yesteryears, our present and our future.

Perhaps it is erroneous to miss the good while focusing on the worst. Hence, our overview now takes us to the repeated attempts by our country’s rulers to bind their relationship with the people on a constitution. It would not hurt to consider this attempt as one positive effort. In the early years of our history, between the 13^th and 20^th century, the Kibra Negest and the Fitha Negest were the main documents attempting to introduce law and order. Much later, during Atse Haile Sellassie’s reign, we see the first constitution purported to have been inspired from the Japanese experience, see the day in 1923 E.C[1]. This constitution made the Emperor sole proprietor of both country and the people and the only right it accorded the people seems to be their nationality. The 1947 E.C constitution on its part proclaimed the source of power to be divine and not popular but, although never applied, provided some civil and political rights to the people.

Many regret the constitution drafted in Hamle 30, 1966 E.C. at the height of the anger and protests against the government, which they think, if adopted, would have perhaps saved us or at least prevented us from the political, economic and social crisis that we find ourselves still mired in. However, the flames of revolution already raging consumed along with the draft constitution the entire existence of the rulers. The dream for liberal democracy of our dreamers stayed just a dream.

The Derg regime’s constitution recognized that the source of power lies with the people and not with God. It went even further and stated, in its article 3 (1) that the Ethiopian People’s Democratic Republic lies not just with any people but its workers. In the name of the workers though, Derg only waved high the sovereignty of the barrel of the gun. The current EPRDF regime on its part recognized neither God nor the people as the source of power. It rather dug its claws in ethnicity/tribalism. Sovereign power is not given to the people but is rather handed out to each ethnic group separately. As EPRDF itself repeatedly tried to tell us, the constitution was not adopted by popular consent. Dr Negasso [Gidada] who was chairperson of the constitution drafting commission also said that the consultation took place only between EPRDF and a few individuals. Even if that were the case, the draft was never put to popular consultation and referendum. The sovereignty of the government continued to trump the sovereignty of the people.

Even if its word and its action always diverged, EPRDF’s constitution contains a number of rights provisions. However, just like the preceding constitutions, it could not even protect itself from the power mongers of our time much less protect the people. Sovereignty of the people is still not achieved. The rulers have still not, indeed cannot, become harbingers of freedom but of oppression.

While the 13^th and 20^th century, the Kibre Negest, the Fitha Negest, Book of the Synods (?), Hige Serwe Mengist (directives on government administration) served as directives in times of war and of peace, the constitutions’ main purpose was not to uphold the people’s rights but to entrench and prolong the lifespan of the rulers. Since the people’s interests and rights were never protected, the governments were never safe from shaking to their core. As we saw earlier, Atse Tewodros’s main goal was to build a strong and unified nation around a better government wrenched away from warring old men. He could not even fully deliver this dream.

The various rulers came in different shapes but in similar content. The people were subservient but never served. The documents that governed the relationship between the rulers and the people were never instruments of mutual commitment consented by the people but tools of subservience of the people. It does not mean that experiences of democracy do not exist in our country. The Gada system that we have not popularised sufficiently and other community participation based governance systems in the southern parts of our country were all democratic practices. Popular consent or lack thereof has the power to determine the success or failure of administrative and political directives from the rulers. It is the reason why our country has been standing still for so many years. It will be futile to expect results if the people are not allowed to consult on their problems, their interests and their hopes. The issues we raised 60 and 70 years ago are still our issues. We do not have an ideological thread that ties our yesteryears to the present. Our past and present are all jumbled up together. How will our tomorrow be then? Well, if we do not learn from the past and from the present it will be inevitable that our tomorrow will stay the same.

We have to learn from our dreamers and make our tomorrow a better one. As we saw earlier Tewodros’s dream to lift his country out of Zemene Mesafint and build a stable and modern country came out of his yearning for a better tomorrow. Those Ethiopians who have had the exposure to the level of development the world had reached in the early 20^th century also dreamed of a modern Ethiopia. General Mengistu and his crew’s confrontation with the age-old monarchy is also related to the same dream of modernising Ethiopia. The students who protested with slogans of land to the tiller, equality to the ethnic groups, also dreamed, within their own ideological framework, for a better tomorrow for their people.

What would have happened if the circumstances and the times allowed them to succeed? It is a question we cannot answer because it is impossible to judge what did not happen.

A democratic Ethiopia is one of our unborn dreams. If General Mengistu and co had succeeded to bring about a constitutional monarchy, would it have led Ethiopia to democracy? We have no evidence to answer this question affirmatively. If the Hamle 30, 1966 E.C. constitution was adopted would it have made Ethiopia a land of democracy? We can only speculate. Was the call for a “people’s government” a call for a democratic Ethiopia? I find it hard to say. I for one think it is naïve to expect a democratic government and people’s sovereignty from youngsters crazed by a socialist ideology. After all, Marxism is about subjugating people by force for a common goal and not about giving power to the people.

Even though Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), itself a product of the student movement, claims that several were martyred for democracy, what we observe is a continuation of the old governance system with a new narration. What would their comrades in struggle feel if they came today to see what kind of governance their friends have set up? Perhaps we can speculate a few strongmen, like the student movement by a few Derg soldiers, hijacked their cause.

When in 1983 E.C one revolutionary government was replaced by another, also fattened by revolution, it was not clear where, Ethiopia, by then worn out by civil war, was headed. The transitional government, which many hoped would decide the country’s fate in a positive manner, not only was not inclusive of the many first hand stakeholders but having lined up a series of ethnic groups went about setting up a plot of strongmen on democracy itself. The transitional government’s key component the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) walked out. Thus began our flight back to where we started.

When the ensuing government still professed to lead us to a liberal democracy we believed, we waited. Journalists published newspapers. Several hopeful beginnings flourished to the point of suspicions about the intentions of the government. Politicians formed political associations. The international community cosied up to ostensibly positively influence the government with “constructive engagement”. The mills of the governance were heard far and wide but its pipes remained empty and nothing substantive came of it. We hailed Mary for revolutionary democracy to engender liberal democracy but we could not change the law of nature. Revolutionary democracy only multiplied itself.

You do not need me to remind you of the historic 1997 E.C when several midwives hoped to deliver liberal democracy from revolutionary democracy since, even those of you who were away from home still hailed Mary for the country. Democracy has always been a painful pregnancy for Ethiopia but has so far not cost the motherland’s life. Yet, the foetus of democracy, not sown from the right seed, was aborted without seeing light. It remains unborn.

The dawn of democracy, awaited by Ethiopians hungry for it from rural towns to the cities, from the cities to foreign countries, was shot to darkness by the governance that has gone on for years and muted the overflowing feelings of hope into deep frustration and helplessness. Countless Ethiopians were dragged to concentration camps; the lives of budding youths taken by the government. The people’s struggle to become sovereign squashed by the government’s heavy fist. The people’s own child, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy (CUD), became one of the government’s principal victims.

The government’s train of revolutionary democracy now shed all pretence and continued riding its rail of oppression. The train flew backwards. In its journey backwards, it took cowardly pride in hunting, labelling and throwing away in jail the Ethiopians who broke the spell of fear and shunned death. Like hermits who recluse themselves in dark times, we faced isolation from our people, our loved ones and our beloved children. They called it a life sentence. But life is a gift from the Creator and not men. Their judgement did not hold. People’s will and determination decides the length of the struggle, not the arrogance of rulers. It is the reason you find us, here, today.

Today, we see some glimmer of light. I think the rulers have understood that the path it has taken will lead it nowhere. Youngsters and youths have paid the ultimate sacrifice of life for the sovereignty of the people. The trouble is that when the struggle slows pace, the government believes it is strong and respected by the people. If it continues with this belief, it would be making the century’s biggest mistake. It is imperative that the government now submits itself to the sovereignty of the people.

It is a mistake to expect all the solutions to pour down on us from the government. It is wrong to expect one person to be the solution for a country as big as Ethiopia. Everyone should do his or her part. Us the opposition should get acting now. We should bury for the last time the culture of intolerance and divergence that has plagued us since Zemene Mesafint or the student movement. We should be enraged for democracy not raging to destroy each other.

We have not succeeded in bringing about a lasting change for our country. Everything we have done so far was impulsive, unreasoned and unsustainable. The main reason was that the people, without whose participation nothing can be achieved, were not owners of their country’s affairs. The rulers of Ethiopia since Atse Tewodros have not succeeded in establishing a strong government because they were not governments of the people. No amount of weapons, nor gold reserves can make a government strong. Governments should obtain the blessing of the people and be founded on deeply rooted and just institutions. We have witnessed the Atse Haile Sellassie regime come to dust within 6 months. The mighty Derg army feared across Africa went to ashes before our eyes. We have seen the current regime’s labyrinthine weaves of tribalism that form its foundation stripped down to skeleton by the peaceful struggle of the people. Perhaps what differs this last situation is that it quivered with it the very foundation of our country. Thus, for stable and prosperous times to come to Ethiopia the people must become the sovereign source of power.

Even though the hands of the oppressive rulers were heavy, the deep roots of our cultural and historical social contracts and social practices have been our strength to withstand all. It will lead us nowhere to denigrate or malign one another’s ideas. To overcome our defects and to take back our hopes we need to find a common ground on our shared history. If we do not come to terms with our history, we cannot build a country we love. We will continue to cancel out each other’s achievements if our interpretations of the past is conflicting. No country, no people exists that is without faults in its history. The difference is in how they have learnt from their past and built a reliable foundation for their future.

We mark today the 150^th commemoration of the passing of Atse Tewodros II who fell in the battle to build a unifying government at a time when Ethiopians are revolving their universe around their tribe.

Today the entire country is trembling from the tribe based zero sum game the government has played. Our consciousness has tipped sideways. As one side celebrates the ascending to power of their ethnic group another wakes with uncertainty about their tomorrow. We deserve a democratic government that believes in the dignity of all human beings. We cannot sleep on the duty to set up the framework for a country about which everyone is proud and where everyone is heard. To build a shared country with a shared vision we need to make it our agenda to come closer to each other and foster understanding. A congress bringing together all those who feel concerned about Ethiopia’s affairs should be called. Change and in particular positive change advances at a tortoise pace in Ethiopia. But this is not the time for business as usual. We are in fast moving times. The government should rush to facilitate such a forum, while the political forces inside and outside the country should fast adapt to the current political needs.

The culture of and desire for reciprocal retribution should be buried deep. Politics and not law can solve our political problems. It is true that rule of law is the basis for democracy. However, we cannot rely on the law alone to bring about all the solutions. We should cancel each other’s debt with forgiveness. Just as we say “forgiveness dries blood” we need to open our hearts to national reconciliation and brotherhood.

Forgiveness is indispensable for us to build a strong country where the people are sovereign. We have seen countries in worse situations than ours apply reconciliation and forgiveness. This is the time for allowing ourselves to see the contribution of the other. This is not the time for expecting democracy to come from a few individuals but for all of us to do our part without waiting for others. This is not the time for heroism over small victories but the time to give everything to birth the democracy we have been longing for years. We are at the edge of the Red Sea: to part the sea of oppressive governance and head towards a democratic Ethiopia or to get entangled on thin threads of differences and drown. I, myself, have resolved to cross the sea of oppression with forgiveness, love and brotherhood. But I cannot cross it alone. Indeed, I do not want to cross it alone.

Let us now stride, together, without losing hope and without dwelling on the past, the path of unwavering peaceful struggle and cross to our hoped democratic Ethiopia. This is the only way to deliver democracy.

May justice like midday sun, love like a strong current and brotherhood like a wreath of flowers triumph in Ethiopia!

• * Andualem Aragie, Speech at the 150^th Commemoration of the Victory of Maqdala and the passing of Emperor Atse Tewodros II of Ethiopia in Frankfurt, Germany- May 12, 2018
• [1] All dates follow the Ethiopian Calendar unless otherwise indicated (EC).

[1] All dates follow the Ethiopian Calendar unless otherwise indicated (EC).

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Intellectuals and Society: Dr Zelalem Eshete

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By Al (Alemayehu) G. Mariam

Last week, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia met with the top leaders of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (ETOC) and urged them, indeed preached to them, to reconcile with the Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church in Exile in the Diaspora. PM Abiy said:

Differences may have arisen [between Church leaders] for various reasons, but they not differences that cannot be solved. The biggest problem facing Church leaders is if those faith leaders who are regarded as the society’s problems are unable to solve their own problems.  Privately and in official capacity, we are ready to  provide the necessary support [to help bring the two Churches together]. You should all push forward and become role models for the rest of us.

PM Abiy was referring to the politicization of the ETOC which began under the military regime (Derg) in the mid-1970s and its full conversion into a political tool by the regime of the late Meles Zenawi. The EOTC lost its status as the official state church when the military junta declared socialism in 1994. The reigning Patriarch of EOTC was imprisoned by the junta and subsequently executed. The junta appointed its own Patriarch who was rejected by the EOTC synod (Church body which determines doctrine, administration and organization) because his appointment violated canon law and procedure. Only the synod has the authority to remove the Patriarch, and because the junta removed him, his replacement Patriarch was regarded as illegitimate.

Following the overthrow of the junta by the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the junta selected Patriarch was forced into “retirement”. The TPLF arranged for a Patriarch of its own choosing to be installed. The “retired” Patriarch went into exile and announced he had been forced out by the TPLF. A number of bishops followed him into exile and formed a separate synod which gained substantial recognition and following in the Ethiopian Diaspora. There is little question that the Meles regime forced out the reigning Patriarch as the then prime minster later “regretted signing the order that removed the original patriarch creating the bifurcated the church.” (Walle Engedayehu offers a comprehensive discussion of the events leading to the schism and subsequent developments.)

In urging healing, reconciliation and reunification of the EOTC church, PM Abiy is merely amplifying on his message of unity and reconciliation between Diaspora Ethiopians and Ethiopians in the country.

I believe PM Abiy’s message to the Church Fathers is part of his core message of Ethiopianwinet and a manifestation of his many public declarations of our unity not only in our Ethiopianity but also divinity.

I believe PM Abiy is saying that a Church divided against itself cannot stand, just as a nation divided cannot stand.

I believe it is part of PM Abiy’s efforts to heal the divisions and conflict inflicted on the country by the regime that preceded him over the past 27 years.

I applaud PM Abiy for his efforts and support of faith leaders to come together and lead the nation on a path of forgiveness, reconciliation and peace.

The situation of the EOTC schism (division) as I understand it

It is my understanding from talking to some Church Fathers that the division in the Church was a deliberate and calculated act by the Meles regime to takeover the Church and make it a mass propaganda tool for political mobilization and support. It is said that the Church leadership was held at a financial gunpoint by the Meles regime and given an ultimatum: Get rid of the Patriarch who was in charge before the Meles regime or lose all financial capacity to run the Church. The Church leaders were faced with the prospect of a bankrupted Church or accepting the forced removal of the Patriarch.

After the Meles regime installed its own preferred Patriarch, the perception developed that a “woyane Patriarchate” is in power. It was commonly believed that the Meles regime had effectively neutralized the independent EOTC and made it a political arm in service of the regime. The Church leaders were perceived as partisan ethnic politicians in religious garb. They were teaching not the Gospel of Christ but the gospel of ethnic division and hate of the Meles regime.

Like the church under apartheid rule in South Africa, the EOTC became polarized between “the church of the oppressor” and “the church of the oppressed.” The EOTC in Exile believed itself to be the Church of the oppressed.

Over the past 27 years, a number of earnest attempts have been made to informally discuss reconciliation and unity between the home and Diaspora EOTC churches. As progress was being made, Meles’ henchmen would always find a way to get involved and destroy its efforts at reunification.

I am informed and believe that there are two obstacles to the reconciliation and reunification of the EOTC. First, the state must completely stay out of religion. The state must let the Church leadership solve its own issues and problems. Second, the Diaspora congregation must be convinced that the reconciliation is not some kind of political game by the regime. The EOTC leadership in Exile will not make any decisions without input and approval of its congregation.

Simply stated, healing in the EOTC is intimately related to fixing the political system riven by ethnic division.

EOTC faithful in Exile want proof and assurances the regime will maintain a wall of separation between state and religion. They do not want the invisible hand of government meddling in Church affairs. I subscribe to the directive, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” The Caesars of Ethiopia should mind their own business and leave the spiritual domain to the faith leaders and their congregation.

If these two conditions occur, I do not believe it will take much time at all for the two Churches to resolve their differences and deliver what PM Abiy wants: A strong, unified Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

What I personally find deeply distressing is the fact that the EOTC leadership in Ethiopia maintained its silence as the regime massacred, jailed and tortured millions of citizens. I find it tragically ironic that the silence of those who should have stood for the poor and oppressed gave voice to the likes of Eskinder Nega, Andualem Aragie, Bekele Gerba,  Abubaker Ahmed and so many others.

I would like the younger generation to know that we once had church leaders who would rather die than watch their people suffer.

Abuna Petros, a contemporary of Mahatma Gandhi, and Great Soul in his own right was the supreme practitioner of nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience. He was executed for no other reason but preaching mass civil disobedience and non-cooperation with the fascist Italian army that had occupied and terrorized Ethiopia in the 1930s.

When the Italians demanded Abuna Petros  to stop preaching resistance to their rule or risk their wrath, he had a simple answer for them: “The cry of my countrymen who died from the poison gas [you rained on them] and your terror machinery will never allow my conscience to accept your ultimatum. How can I face my God if I give a blind eye to such a crime?”

Before his execution in 1936, Abuna Petros exhorted his countrymen to resist the fascists by engaging in the tactic of non-cooperation, and counseled them “never to accept the bandit soldiers who come from far away and violently occupy a weak and peaceful country: our Ethiopia.” His last words were, “May God give the people of Ethiopia the strength to resist and never bow down to the Fascist army and its violence.”

But for the past 27 years, the EOTC leadership in Ethiopia turned a blind eye to the unspeakable crimes against humanity committed by the Meles regime. Today, the people of Ethiopia have the strength to resist and never bow down before an Agazi armyand its violence.

Today, the people of Ethiopia are tired of the hate ideology of the pre-PM Abiy regime. They yearn for love, unity, peace and reconciliation. It is the solemn duty of faith leaders to show the people the path of love, unity, peace and reconciliation.

Peaceful religious coexistence in Ethiopia

Religion is one of the great pillars of society and perhaps more so in Ethiopia than most other places. Ethiopia is home to Christianity and Islam.

The ancient Axumite Empire (3^rd-6^th century A.D.) is the political foundation of present day Ethiopia and the home of the legendary Queen Sheba. King Ezana of Axum  made Christianity a state religion in the 4th Century. Today, tens of millions of Ethiopian Christians believe Axum is the “Second Jerusalem”, their holiest place because the Ark of the Covenant is believed to be housed at the cathedral of Tsion Maryam (Mary of Zion).

When the followers of the Prophet Muhammad were facing persecution, he instructed them “to leave Makkah and to seek sanctuary in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) which was then ruled by a Christian king, well-known for being a just and God-fearing man.” The Axumite king and the Habeshas (Ethiopians) welcomed the persecuted Muslims as early as 615 A.D. with great hospitality, gave them protection and assistance and refused to return them when requested to do so by their enemies.

My defense of religious liberty and tolerance and opposition to politicization of religion in Ethiopia

Ethiopians and Muslims have lived in peace for millennia. But over the past quarter of a century, religion has been weaponized by the pre-PM Abiy regime as a political strategy of divide and rule in much the same way that regime has used ethnicity. The current division in the ETOC is a reflection of the politicization of religion by those seeking to consolidate and cling to power.

H.I.M. Haile Selassie, Ethiopia’s last king, said, “Religion is a personal choice; country is a collective responsibility”.” He also understood and disapproved of the misuse and politicization of religion. “Due to human imperfection religion has become corrupt, political, divisive and a tool for power struggle.”

I have taken strong positions in favor of maximum religious liberty and against politicization of religion, state interference in the free exercise of religious beliefs and use of terrorism rhetoric and “laws” to demonize and persecute segments of the Ethiopian population.

In December 2011, I countered the late Meles Zenawi’s outrageous broadside attack and fear mongering against Ethiopian Muslims when he authorized the broadcasting of a trash documentary (docutrash) called “Alekdama”. In that docutrash, the Meles regime sought to  graft the crimes against humanity committed by international terrorists in the name of Islam on Ethiopian opposition groups and create rabid public hysteria against Muslims in Ethiopia to justify his bloody crackdown. It did not work.

In June 2012, I fought back against the late Meles Zenawi’s attempts to foment religious strife between Christians and Muslims under the bogus pretext of “homegrown Muslim terrorists” in Ethiopia in my commentary entitled, “Ethiopia: Unity in Divinity!”. I praised Muslim and Christian religious leaders for reaching out to each other to build bridges of unity in the struggle against EVIL.

I fully endorsed the interfaith message of solidarity of Christian and Muslim leaders in Toronto who joined hands to show their unity in defending the ancient monastery of Waldeba in northern Ethiopia from destruction by foreign investors.

The message of the faith leaders was heartwarming and proof of the long history of peaceful coexistence of Christians and Muslims in Ethiopia. Le’ke Kahenat Mesale Engeda, a prominent exiled prelate of the EOTC  in Toronto, reaffirmed Christian Muslim unity:

… Our brothers and sisters who are followers of Islam have always served to protect our country. Recorded history shows many Muslim fathers fought for and suffered in defense of our country. Muslims and Christians have lived in Ethiopia peacefully [throughout history]. When trouble rises to face the [Orthodox] Church, Muslims have risen up with us to face them. Today a Muslim leader from Toronto is standing with us. As you know, at this time in Ethiopia our Muslim brothers and sisters are facing extreme hardship… But we are all standing together…

Hajj Mohamed Seid, a prominent Ethiopian Muslim leader in exile in Toronto, urged strong commitment to Ethiopian unity and underscored, “If there is no country, there is no religion.”

… As you know Ethiopia is a country that has different religions. Ethiopia is a country where Muslims and followers of the Orthodox faith have lived and loved each other throughout recorded history.  Even in our lifetimes — 50 to 60 years — we have not seen Ethiopia in so much suffering and tribulation. Religion is a private choice, but country is a collective responsibility. If there is no country, there is no religion. It is only when we have a country that we find everything. Today, Ethiopia, which has been strong in its religious faiths, has been broken up into pieces. They are trying to get Muslims and Christians to fight. They campaigned for that for a long time. But it did not work. They tried to get the Oromo to fight with the Amhara. But that did not work…. We know of only one type of Muslim in history — one who honors his word. [The saying is that] when a Muslim does not stand by his word and the rain does not fall, that spells doom for the country. They have brought a new religion and are creating chaos in Ethiopia…

…. Is there an Ethiopian generation left now? The students who enrolled in the universities are demoralized; their minds are afflicted chewing khat (a mild drug) and smoking cigarettes. They [the ruling regime] have destroyed a generation. Truly, I have never read of the history of a government or administration that commits such atrocities on its people [as the one currently in Ethiopia]. If each one of us is given a full day to tell about the suffering and tribulation of the people, it would not be enough.

In my February 2013 commentary, “Ethiopia: The Politics of Fear and Smear”, I countered another propaganda attack on Ethiopian Muslims by the Meles regime. The “Jihadawi Harakat” docutrash targeted  Ethiopian Muslims for persecution and vilification. The message of the docutrash was that Ethiopian Muslims who asked the Meles regime for  nothing more than respect for their basic human rights and non-government interference in their religious affairs are merely local chapters of  blood thirsty terrorist groups such Boko Haram (Nigeria), Ansar al Din (Mali),  Al Qaeda, Al Shabaab, Hamas.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent body constituted by the U.S. Congress and the President of the United States to monitor religious freedom worldwide, affirmed the legitimate demands of Ethiopian Muslims:

Since July 2011, the Ethiopian government has sought to impose the al-Ahbash Islamic sect on the country’s Muslim community, a community that traditionally has practiced the Sufi form of Islam. The government also has manipulated the election of the new leaders of the Ethiopia Islamic Affairs Supreme Council (EIASC).  Previously viewed as an independent body, EIASC is now viewed as a government-controlled institution.  The arrests, terrorism charges and takeover of EIASC signify a troubling escalation in the government’s attempts to control Ethiopia’s Muslim community and provide further evidence of a decline in religious freedom in Ethiopia. Muslims throughout Ethiopia have been arrested during peaceful protests: On October 29, the Ethiopia government charged 29 protestors with terrorism and attempting to establish an Islamic state.

Spiritual healing and reconciliation and the importance of faith leaders in the process

H.I.M. Haile Selassie was right in his observation that “Religion is a private choice, but country is a collective responsibility.” In fact, the centuries long peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Christians is based on this very principle.

In practicing this principle today, it is a civic duty and moral obligation of citizens to condemn and oppose religious and other forms of extremism by any group. It is also the moral obligation of faith leaders, civic society organizations and human rights advocates to stand up for the poor and oppressed.

Religious leaders in Ethiopia enjoy great trust and command the respect of the people. Where entrenched political interests promote religious antagonism, it is up to the religious leaders to preach and teach tolerance.  Ethiopia’s problems do not originate from differences in theology. Ethiopia’s problems originate from those who want to weaponize and politicize religion and ethnicity.

Religious leaders exert extraordinary power over the faithful throughout the world. As spiritual guides, they command the attention and respect of all segments of society. They often play a critical role in civil peace and civil war. Religious wars throughout history have been a source of much suffering and misery.

Despite the failings of religious institutions and teachings, many faith leaders in our time have contributed to the struggle for equality and justice. For instance, Dr. Martin Luther King transformed America and the world with his message of love, peace and reconciliation. Bishop Desmond Tutu led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa.  When they speak out, their voices are heard and their messages resonate among the people.

Faith leaders have the inherent ability to bridge divides of race, class and nationality. They can shape personal social values raise awareness and influence attitudes, behaviors and practices. They are heard and respected by community members and political leaders.

I believe a nation needs moral purpose to succeed not only in ending conflict and attaining reconciliation, but also in task of economic development and nation building. In my view, the peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy in South Africa was achieved because faith leaders from diverse backgrounds worked together to prevent violence and bring about reconciliation. Faith leaders were able to create solidarity and community, places of worship, gave voice to the oppressed and provided humanitarian relief.

In my view, Lemma Megerssa spoke for Ethiopia in a manner of our Faith Fathers:

 … In Ethiopia today, we need love. We need love. We cannot bring love through slogans, blowing horns or propaganda. Love comes when we feel for each other, when we care [and are concerned] for each other. When we care for each other, love is created; it is built. When we have love, we will have a strong Ethiopia. When there is love, there will be strong Ethipiawinet. And beyond any other time today, to bring love, to build love today, it is extremely necessary to care and be considerate to each other. This is obligatory. Otherwise, all we will do is prolong our problems and we will not get too far.

Recalling my call for interfaith councils as the key to national reconciliation

I wholeheartedly support PM Abiy’s call for healing and reconciliation between EOTC members in the country and in the Diaspora. I fully agree that the Church must lead the way on the path to reconciliation and peace.

I do not doubt that PM Abiy will call for an interfaith council int he foreseeable future in light of his exhortations for national reconciliation  since he took office. But in line with his request for support from the Diaspora for ideas and contributions, I am going to share my views on the need for an interfaith council so that Ethiopia will have strong Christian, Muslim and other religious institutions serving its diverse population.

I believe Ethiopia needs spiritual healing before political, economic and social healing. Dr. King said we should wage our struggle for justice in the spirit of love. He talked about it in his 1954 sermon entitled, “God’s Love” at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.

I should like to supplement PM Abiy’s call for healing within the EOTC with my own call for interfaith councils in Ethiopia and in the Diaspora to heal the nation spiritually.

In my June 2012 commentary, “Ethiopia: Unity in Divinity”, I argued for the establishment of interfaith councils:

In the U.S., and quite possibly in other countries, communities of faith organize ‘interfaith councils’. These councils bring diverse faith communities to work together to foster greater understanding and respect among people of different faiths and to address basic needs in the community. Many such councils go beyond dialogue and reflection to cooperative work in social services and implementing projects to meet community needs. They stand together to  protect religious freedom by opposing discrimination and condemning debasement of religious institutions and faiths. There is no reason why Ethiopians could not establish interfaith councils of their own.

In my July 2012 commentary “Unity in Divinity”, I argued that a threat to the religious liberty of Muslims is a threat to the religious freedom of Christians. I urged Ethiopian “Christian and Muslim religious leaders [to] play a critical role in preventing conflict and in building bridges of understanding, mutual respect and collaborative working relations…” I suggested the establishment of “interfaith councils” patterned after those in the U.S. “These [interfaith] councils bring diverse faith communities to work together to foster greater understanding and respect among people of different faiths and to address basic needs in the community. Many such councils go beyond dialogue and reflection to cooperative work in social services and implementing projects to meet community needs. They stand together to protect religious freedom by opposing discrimination and condemning debasement of religious institutions and faiths. There is no reason why Ethiopians could not establish interfaith councils of their own.”

In my March 2013 commentary, “The Moral Equivalent of an Anti-Apartheid Movement in Ethiopia?”, I argued that interfaith councils are necessary for national reconciliation and peace. Ethiopian Americans who believe in religious freedom in Ethiopia should take is to establish an interfaith council to work on broader issues of religious freedom in Ethiopia.

I reiterate my call for interfaith councils to bring together members of the two faith communities in the United States, and possibly elsewhere,  for collective action. Religious freedom in Ethiopia is not an issue that concerns only Muslims. It is of equal concern and importance for Christian Ethiopians who have undergone similar egregious interference in the selection of their religious leadership just recently.

What is needed is sincere and open dialogue and interaction between Ethiopian Americans who are Christians and Muslims to advance the cause of religious liberty and equality for all in unity. Members of these two faith communities must come together in a historic meeting and develop a joint agenda to guarantee and safeguard their religious freedom, overcome any traces of sectarianism and reaffirm their  long coexistence, diversity and harmony in a unified country based on the rule of law. They must jointly develop principles of cooperation and coordination. They must develop solidarity which can withstand narrow sectarian interests and the whims and personalities of those in leadership positions. They must relate with each other in the spirit of mutual respect, trust and co-operation and find ways to deepen and strengthen their relations.

Perhaps such dialogue may not come so easily in the absence of existing institutions. It may be necessary for leaders of both faiths to join together and establish a task force to study the issues and make recommendations for the broadest possible dialogue between Ethiopian American Muslims and Christians in America. Christian and Islamic spiritual authorities and laymen should be encouraged to work together not only to defend each other on matters of religious liberty but also to propose long term solutions to reduce the dangers of sectarianism, fanaticism, conflict and misunderstanding and institute a permanent dialogue between members of both faiths. There is no reason why an interfaith council  cannot organize joint conferences, meetings, workshops, seminars, press conferences and informational campaigns in the media in both faith communities. The Ethiopia of tomorrow can be built on a strong foundation of dialogue of Muslims and Christians today. Dialogue is a precursor to national reconciliation.

An interfaith council could do many things to transition Ethiopia into reconciliation and make possible the establishment of fair and just society.

I can imagine an interfaith leadership playing a key role in protecting and promoting human rights in Ethiopia. Such a leadership can play an educational role promoting tolerance and equality among all Ethiopians by propagating a message of divinity in our humanity. Interfaith leaders could play a pivotal role in reducing ethnic tensions and increasing social harmony and social cohesion. They can prevent sectarian violence. They can build networks and strengthen community bonds. Above all, they can engage and support the youth which represent 75 percent of the Ethiopian population today.

Abiy, we are with you. The spirit of Mandela is with you. Ethiopia is with you. The Force of the Light Side is with you.

In my April 2015 Memorandum No. 1 to PM Abiy, I wrote:

Abiy has the distinct privilege and good fortune to become a true Ethiopian hero by following in Mandela’s footsteps. Better yet, an African hero. But walking in Mandela’s footsteps  will not be easy. Walk he must. He has a long walk on the road to peace, democracy and freedom. The only question is, “Will he will walk those roads alone, with Ethiopia’s Cheetahs and the spirit of Mandela, the exiled Ethiopians in the Diaspora, the tired, the poor and the wretched huddled masses of Ethiopia yearning to breathe free or…?

On May 20, I answer my own question. Abiy, you are not alone. We — one hundred million Ethiopia-strong — are walking with you. The spirit of Mandela is walking with you. The Force of the Light Side is round about you.

ETHIOPIAWINET TODAY

ETHIOPIAWINET TOMORROW

ETHIOPIAWINET FOREVER!

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F British Woods Business Center
2201 Murfreesboro Pike,
Suite A-109
Nashville, TN 37217, USA

 
May 17, 2018
The UN Security Council
United Nations
405 East 42^nd Street
New York, N.Y. 10017.

Your Excellencies:

We, the undersigned, are aware that the responsibility of the Security Council among other things is maintenance of international peace and security. This function of the Council is fulfilled inter alia through prosecution of genocide, crime against humanity, torture, etc. which are presumed to endanger international peace and security.

Between 1976 and 1978 the Marxist Government of Ethiopia under Mengistu Hailemariam’s direction killed as many as 500,000.00 Ethiopians and launched widespread and systematic attack against civilian population for no reason other than their political belief.

It is regrettable that insofar as Mengistu’s crimes are concerned, impunity has reigned supreme. Mengistu indeed was tried in absentia in Ethiopia among other crimes, for genocide, crime against humanity and was found to be guilty and sentenced to death by the Ethiopian High Court. He never served the sentence and now lives undisturbed in a relative comfort in Zimbabwe. The process was so flawed that it could not be called a real trial which afforded due process of law neither to the accused nor to the surviving victims and their relatives.  Having been tried in absentia Mengistu could not confront witnesses against him nor could his victims and their relatives face him in court, a process which would give them some solace from their grief. No international warrant has been issued with the intent to arrest him.

We, participants in FitihLeEthiopia (Justice for Ethiopia) who lost members of our families or ourselves have been victims to the atrocities appeal, to the United Nations Security Council to establish an ad hoc court with jurisdiction to try Mengistu for genocide, crime against humanity, torture, murder etc. in any venue where justice can be achieved.

We take our cues from similar cases such as the trial of Hissen Habre of Chad in Senegal for international crimes he committed in Chad when he was the President of the country. Other examples of international prosecutions abound where the UN established or assisted to establish ad hoc courts or hybrid courts in East Timor, Kosovo, Lebanon and others to prosecute those authorities suspected of committing international crimes. These crimes committed in some of these countries pale when compared to the crimes committed by Mengistu.

With our highest compliments,

Kidane Alemayehu
Chairman
H.E. Dr. Abiy Ahmed

Prime Minister of Ethiopia
P.O.Box 1031
Addis Ababa
Ethiopia

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Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed Speech to Gambella’s People. Gambella

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Remittance for Change Dr Shiferaw Adilu SBS Amharic

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By Mulugeta B. Teferi

The Origin

For an Ethiopian-Nationalist Ethnic Politics or the politics of nationalities is a curse sowed by the mass-produced first generation of ‘Educated Ethiopians’, who were the product of both Menelek’s and Haile-Silassie’s effort of ‘Modernizing Ethiopia’ through western education. As something introduced by a generation which is now fading away not only from Politico-economic life of the nation, but in the face of the earth because of natural factors some may expect the ‘curse’ to dwindle with the passing of a generation which introduced and gave root to it.

That seems sensible expectation only seeing the change of inhabitation, but there are things which have got transgenerational existence. Therefore it’s important to see if the architect has created any mechanism that dictates the persistence of ethnic politics. That can be achieved by institutionalizing the ideology or through influencing the public’s framework of thinking. What if it has managed to influence part of the public which is relatively young and passionate to carry out its ideology? That is possible, and the youth could be more refined and forceful in terms of creating effect. Some historical accounts affirms such a thing, a young generation which carries out an ideology of the old is likely to be more effective and organized to change the course of history.

The first generation mentioned above turned rocks and pushed mountains in their effort to solve a deep rooted problem of a society which they call ‘SAYMAR YASTEMARE’ (An Amharic expression which describes a society with no revelation to modern education, but paid high cost to educate its descendants). They sought for socio-economic and political remedies to change the life an agrarian society, which were trapped both in tradition and authoritative rules. As a generation which got its only reliable power (education) from outside world, it also looked for solution from outside. The first few (educated in Europe) were more engaged in advising the then Kingdom and its Kings for evolution than revolution. When Universities and High Schools in Ethiopia started to produce in mass, the same approach of looking a medicine outside for inside problem continued, but this time evolution was abandoned and revolution was espoused.

As a result, a kingdom which claims a continuity of centuries had collapsed, to be replaced by new systems and new ideology. In the rest of the world, the first half of the 20th century was encouraging for most of the African and Latin American states to look for alternative idea rather than taking the default capitalist & liberal ideology which failed them for long. Ethiopians were not different; they looked outside as usual and found a thing called Communism. This communism thing was effective in creating an amazing mob and vibration around the second and third world. But, it was never easy to introduce it to Ethiopia in establishing the New System; no industrial economy, no similar landownership right across the country. That means there was no class in the form of the original text of communism, there was nothing like ideal ‘Proletariat’ and ‘Bourgeoisie’ class. The generation faced a problem in a society which is not segmented as Communist Textbook description of Classes. They looked for solution and started to study and debate on different versions of communism; Russia under Stalin, China under Ma’o, and Albania under Enver Hoxha were among the favoured.

Then Ethiopia was an agrarian economy with very few Manufacturing Plants owned by foreign investors. The land ownership and use right was not implemented in the way it creates two classes across the country; there was difference in South and North. If there are things which effectively create a kind of ‘grouping’ in Ethiopia are Ethnicity and Religion. The people of Ethiopia are more ‘defined’ and ‘interrelated’ by their ethnicity and religion than their class. Communism, as an ideology which always fought against religion, were not able to use it as a base in redefining class in Ethiopia and a mobilizing factor for the anticipated revolution. The only way communism could take shape in Ethiopia was to redefine class by considering the three different bases. The economic factor to define classes were not effective, both in land factory ownership. During that time ethnicity define/link an Ethiopian more than being a labourer in a manufacturing plant defines/links a Russian in the beginning of the 20th century.

Through their discussion they were able to define and redefine Ethiopian class in different forms and identify chronic problems in society. Even though there could be many undocumented discussions about using ethnicity as a base of identifying classes in Ethiopia, there is only one documented article, which incited the formal discussion of the topic. Through the Marxist perspective that generation identified ‘Ethiopian’ culture and economy being dominated by Amhara-Tigray partnership.

“To anybody who has got a nodding acquaintance with Marxism, culture is nothing more than the super-structure of an economic basis. So cultural domination always presupposes economic subjugation. A clear example of economic subjugation would be the Amhara and to a certain extent Tigrai Neftegna system in the South and the Amhara-Tigre Coalition in the urban areas.” (Wallelign 1969)

Still the debate didn’t totally ignored the issue of Land Right which created a visible class difference in part of Ethiopia, but it was answered by a Military Regime which snatched away the ideology of the Student Movement to maintain power and get the attention of the mob. After the one basic class difference is eliminated through Land to Tiller Proclamation and few manufacturing nationalised, the only powerful mobilizing force left was ethnicity. By then some had already established ethnic based party and started the struggle, while the dominant party in Ethiopian Students Movement, Ethiopian People Revolutionary Party (EPRP) claims to solve the question of nationalities through Ethiopian National Struggle.

Ethnic-Politics as the Rule of the Land
The end of a Communist Military Regime transferred power to ethnically organized guerrilla fighters with Marxism–Leninism orientation. The time was critical not only to Ethiopia but also to world political history; a Unipolar Wold order was in creation with the collapse of East-West divide, this complicated everything. The process of National System Creation in Ethiopia by itself was complicated; the dominant party which lead the formation of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) put the Question of Nations and Nationalities above National Existence. The irony lays on the fact that the people which the Tigrian People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) claims to represent, were not among the ‘Oppressed’ ethnic group at least according to Wallelign’s above mentioned article, even though it had invited other ethnically organized groups to join the Peace Conference in 1991. In Wallelign’s article he identified ‘Tigrai’ as a junior partner of Amhara in the oppression against the rest of the Nationalities in Ethiopia.

“The economic and cultural subjugation by the Amharas and their junior partners the Tigres is a historical accident. Amharas are not dominant because of inherent imperialist tendencies. The Oromos could have done it, the Wolaytas could have done it and history proves they tried to do so.”(Ibid)

If it was based on the communist revolution and re-establishing a system, where the oppressed mass dominates the political life or at least create equitable system for all, the ‘oppressed’ nationalities must have been the one who led the war against any operation and installed the FDRE. In that way FDRE could have been the ‘National State’ Wallelign dream of “where every nationality is given equal opportunity to preserve and develop its language, its music and its history. It is a state where Amharas, Tigres, Oromos, Aderes [Harari], Somalis, Wolaytas, Gurages, etc. are treated equally. It is a state where no nation dominates another nation be it economically or culturally”.

In a way that seem to blew the above suspicion on the geniuses of the system, a constitutional federation which gave high emphasise to Nationalities was introduced as a rule of the land in 1995. The supreme of all powers in contemporary National and International legal regime, the Sovereign Power, was bestowed on Nations, Nationalities & Peoples of Ethiopia (FDRE 1995). As the main intention of the system creation is to produce a democratic system where nation & nationalities will have equal power do determine their destiny and exercise full right through democratic means, anyone who would like to operate in the FDRE must aspire to get hold of the sovereign power and the institution though which the sovereign exercise its power.

If the Nation & Nationalities are the supreme power holders in the current Ethiopian political system; through which institution does this sovereignty is exercised? Do they vote as a nation or as individuals in sending their representatives to these institutions? These are critical questions to consider while aspiring for any political power under FRDE. The constitutions states their sovereignty shall be expressed through their representatives elected in accordance with this Constitution and through their direct democratic participation (Art 8(3). The House of People’s Representative (HPR) is an institution to consider here, because it’s a representative and also a place where indirect democracy is exercised. Does the house exclusively represent any interest of nationalities? HPR is composed of individuals who are elected in electoral districts; an elected member of HPR is a representative of roughly 180 thousand people. The election for the house doesn’t consider ethnic representation. When we come to the upper house, House of Federation (HoF), it considers ethnic representation. A member is assigned to a ‘recognised’ ethnic group and another for every one million additional population in that specific nationality. The members of HoF are not chosen directly by the public; rather by the Regional Councils which itself is a representative of the people in that specific region.

The nature of regional administration, being ethnic based, seems to give legitimacy in representing a member to HoF to exercise the Supreme Power, but most regions has got more than one ethnic group and there may be conflict of interest. With all the vacuums, if we assume that the HoF is the institution which represents the Sovereignty of Nationalities, and if one voting citizen in FDRE tries to hold of the supreme power, it needs to get back to its region and consider not only ideology but its own ethnic group interest before it elects someone to the Regional Council. The appropriate and considerate Regional Council members can then re-elect representative for Nationalities in that specific region to be represented in HoF.

Apart from the above fact, regional administrations in the current federal structure are the Power House of all because of their inviolate existence. The constitution gives the Nationalities the right of self-determination up to secession. The federal structure cannot sanction any regional state to do something against its interest, if the region is composed of one ethnic group or at least the majority is from one ethnic group, given that the regional council is full of ‘legitimate’ representatives of the nationality in the region. The inviolate existence of regions over the federal structure is guaranteed by the constitution, as the federal arrangement is created by the voluntary association of regional states, it is also good to remind ourselves that the right of self-determination does exist even during State of Emergency.

The Fruits
The recent demands by the Ethiopian public for greater freedom, democracy, and participation in all aspects are natural. Coupled with the advancement of technology and easiness for information access people are likely to be more politically active and engaged to defend their interest. In the context of Ethiopia political participation and success in achieving political goals can only be realized through powerful structures and institutions. The powerful structures under FDRE necessitate someone to think and act contextualizing everything to ethnicity.

The nature of democracy exercised in the past twenty seven years and the orientation of the youth grew through the system is another point worth noting. As I tried to point out above, TPLF’s ideological attachment to Marxism–Leninism and the fact that it is ethnic based didn’t vanished with the emergence of unipolar world in 1991. Both its ideological background and ethnic orientation has rooted characters to FDRE and the leading party. TPLF established a front, the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Party (EPRDF) with the composition of ethnic based constituency parties. EPRDF then announced an alien ideology called ‘Revolutionary Democracy’ as a maxim of everything. This concept is very confusing to know exactly what it is, but going back to the beginning of all throws light. Recall how the Students Movement borrowed Marxist-Leninist categorization of society and managed to analyse Ethiopia on the bases of its ethnic groups between ‘The Oppressor’ & ‘The Oppressed’. Therefore the kind of democracy introduced by a party which fought to liberate the ‘Oppressed’ nationalities must be ‘Revolutionary’ in the way it could create a domination of the ‘Oppressed’; as communism creates the dictatorship of the proletariat. That is the comprehension we get after reading some writings by former TPLF leaders. Revolutionary democracy is rather a deviant kind of democracy which guaranties full right for oppressed, while it bands the same rights for others considered oppressor (Gebru 2014).

It is repeatedly stated by EPRDF that the rest of Ethiopian ethnic groups belong to the Oppressed (Including the People of Tigray, diverts from Wallelign’s analysis), but the Amhara. Some EPRDF disciplinarians say it is to refer to ‘Amhara Rulers’ as a class. As an ideology which used ethnicity in the place of economic base for it analysis, there is nothing like ‘Amhara Rulers’, ethnicity was point of reference for their classification of class not economic base. If it were to refer to the ruling class who controlled the land it could have use ‘Feudal’, or if it was to refer to the factory owners it could have said ‘Capitalists’.

After twenty seven years rule under Revolutionary Democracy, now we have new Amhara Nationalism in Ethiopia. Most young people who identify themselves as Amhara will tell you that Amhara is being oppressed in this system. This doesn’t seem something unforeseen to the Revolutionary Democrats. The system is designed to work effectively in ‘disciplining’ the so-called oppressor. Repeated displacement, attack, harassment and being side-lined in the national politics named ‘Chauvinist’ led to the feeling of oppressed and subjugated. Among the goals of the rising Amhara Nationalists one is ‘A change in the federal narrative that blames the Amhara for everything that went wrong in the country’s historical trajectory seems to be a dominant theme. Most Amhara nationalists believe this narrative has justified and legitimized attacks and injustices perpetuated against the Amhara since 1991.” (Amanuel 2018).

Now the only group which is considered as the ‘Oppressor’ is felling opposed, and tries to change the status quo. It is also important to note that prior to this period most Amharas were Ethiopian-Nationalist, and they don’t want to organize based on their ethnicity. Amhara was the only ethnic group which was not represented by an ethnic party during the Peace Conference in 1991, and late in the Constitutional Assembly. There is also growing youth population which only knew the country in its current ethic based federal structure ready to measure everything in terms of ethic interest.

Currently, for most Ethiopians it is ok to be identified in their ethnic belonging than it was thirty years ago. ‘Ethnic comes First, and Ethiopia Second’ doesn’t only end up serving as the foundation of the current system, it produced a young generation who accepted it full-heartedly. Ethiopia is a federation of Nation & Nationalities, than it is composed of citizens/Ethiopians. Generally, in the past several years citizens found it hard to assert their individual right, than a nationality claim its right. For a citizen to claim its right under FDRE it easy to do so through an administration organized for its ethnic group (a Tigraway in Tigray, an Amhara in Amhara, and an Oromo in Oromia, a Gurage in Gurage Zone; than a Tigraway in Amhara… etc.). Others who belong to an ethnic group which doesn’t have a separate ethnic based Administration (Woreda, Zone, Region) feels unprivileged and demand for it more than anything. Anyone whose ethnicity doesn’t include him to a designated administration where he is living is likely to be to be displaced or side-lined in administrations (i.e Amhara & Oromo in Benishangul Gumuz).

The only way to claim right and maintain strong political power in the current Ethiopia is through ethnic based representations, and institutions. Political parties, entities, institutions, and gatherings which are not only represented by ethnic groups, but also which claims to represent ethnic groups are powerful more than anything in the current day of Ethiopia. After all politics is all about power. Today in Ethiopian politics, any form of ideology doesn’t bind and motivate the youth as ethnicity does.

Works Cited

• Amanuel, Tesfaye. “The Birth of Amhara Nationalism: Causes, Aspirations, and Potential Impacts.” Addis Standard, 4 May 2018.
• FDRE. “Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.” Addis Ababa: Birhanena Selam, 1995.
• Gebru, Asrat. ሉዓላዊነት እና ዲሞክራሲ በኢትዮጵያ (Amharic); Sovereignty and Democracy in Ethiopia. Addis Ababa: Signature Book, 2014.
• Wallelign, Mekonnen Kassa. “On the Question of Nationalities in Ethiopia.” HSIU Art VI (Nov 1969).

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REUTERS

Saudi Arabia will soon release Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi, an Ethiopian-born Saudi billionaire arrested in November 2017 during a crackdown on corruption, Ethiopia’s prime minister said.

Abiy Ahmed made the remarks late on Saturday after arriving from the Gulf kingdom, where he met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a two-day visit.

Al Amoudi, a son of a Saudi father and an Ethiopian mother who has invested heavily in construction, agriculture and mining in the Horn of Africa country, was among 11 princes, four current ministers and top businessmen detained during the swoop by a new anti-corruption body.

The incarceration of one Ethiopian is the incarceration of all Ethiopians. Sheikh Al Amoudi’s arrest is top in the agenda for all Ethiopians.

“The incarceration of one Ethiopian is the incarceration of all Ethiopians. Sheikh Al Amoudi’s arrest is top in the agenda for all Ethiopians,” Abiy said in the capital Addis Ababa.

“We have made the request – we are sure that he will be released very soon,” he added in a townhall-style gathering.

Saudi authorities have dismissed claims that they mishandled the anti-corruption campaign, which included the three-month detention of billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal – one of the country’s top international investors.

Officials in Riyadh say most detainees have been released, after settlements that they say secured more than $100 billion from members of the elite.

On Friday, Ethiopia also announced that Saudi Arabia had agreed to release 1,000 Ethiopian nationals who have been in prison in the Gulf state for a variety of offences.

Officials in Riyadh are in the process of deporting more than 500,000 illegal Ethiopian migrants. So far, 160,000 have arrived back in the Horn of Africa country.

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Abdur Rahman Alfa Shaban

The Ethiopian government says all its nationals being held in jails in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are due to be released soon.

This follows a meeting between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed in Abu Dhabi over the weekend. Addis Ababa said they were now waiting for numbers and subsequent action.

Abiy crossed to UAE after what government said was a successful visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – his first trip outside of the continent.

In Dubai as in Riyadh, the two leaders discussed issues of mutual interest and looked at ways to better strengthen bilateral relations.

Whiles in Saudi, PM Abiy also secured the release of 1000 Ethiopian prisoners – comprising 900 men and 100 women. Close to 700 of that contingent have since been flown back to Addis Ababa.

The Premier also visited the family of a young Ethiopian who became victim to a botched surgery in a Riyadh hospital.

His Chief of Staff, Fitsum Arega, late Sunday disclosed that Saudi Arabia had agreed to fully compensate the parents of Mohammed and to facilitate his return home to continue with treatment.

View image on Twitter

Fitsum Arega@fitsumaregaa

HE PM Dr Abiy Ahmed visited Mohammed today at the Hospital. Mohammed is a resilient fighter, and despite the nightmare that he has to endure, he is in a strong spirit. What a brave young man!

5:15 PM – May 18, 2018

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Voice of Amara Radio – 21 May 2018

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