Answers: The importance of Ethiopia

Even as the long drawn-out U.S. presidential election dominated news media, November 4, 2020 saw the Ethiopian government launch a military operation targeting the Tigray region’s leadership. This conflict has wide-ranging global implications, especially drawing in neighbours Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia as well as the African Union, which is headquartered in Addis Ababa.

Ethiopia is Africa’s second-most populous country, with 115 million people from 80 ethnic groups speaking about 100 languages, and was one of the earliest regions in the world to adopt Christianity. Ethiopia was an inspiring symbol across Africa and for African Americans for being the rare holdout in the colonial era (except for the brief period of Italian occupation). Since then, it’s seen two violent regime changes, two major famines, Eritrea breaking away in 1991 and with it losing direct access to the sea. Two decades of relative stability followed despite a border war with Eritrea. The rise of Abiy Ahmed in 2018 has been accompanied by dizzying changes, including a Nobel Prize winning peace deal with Eritrea and a flurry of mediations in regional conflicts. But the changes have also worsened ethnic tensions, paving the way for the current conflict.

Ethiopia is still one of the poorest countries in the world and a major source and recipient of refugees, with implications for Europe and the Middle East. It’s a key security ally of the U.S. and a major economic partner of China. It’s building Africa’s largest dam, operates the continent’s leading airline and is a long-distance running powerhouse in sport.

Answers

1) Mass protests over an urban expansion plan that would have swallowed up surrounding towns and fields dominated by a particular community began in 2014. The plan was dropped but rising ethnic tensions and concerns about marginalisation led to the resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and his replacement by Abiy Ahmed. What was the urban expansion plan and name the community that pushed back.

The plan aimed to expand the boundaries of the capital Addis Ababa, taking in surrounding fields and towns dominated by the Oromo community, the single largest ethnic group in the country (Tigrayans, who dominated the leadership and military from 1991 until 2018 make up only 6%). A wave of protests by the Oromo and Amhara (second-largest ethnic group) focusing on their relative lack of representation in the power structure followed. On the international stage at the Rio Olympics in 2016, marathon silver medallist Feyisa Lilesa crossed his arms evoking an Oromo protest gesture as he finished the race.

The protests led to the unprecedented resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn and his replacement by Abiy Ahmed, an Oromo. More on an emboldened Oromo community here and here. Just months into Abiy’s presidency Feyisa Lilesa returned home.

2) The communist dictatorship of the 1980s allowed this rebel group from a neighbouring country to establish bases in Ethiopia. The group was thrown out of Ethiopia after the dictatorship collapsed in 1991. Later Ethiopia was to play a mediating role in settling the neighbour’s conflict, even sending peacekeepers to disputed zones, as the rebel group turned into a governing party. Name the group and country.

South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan in 2011. The group is Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), now known as the political outfit Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM)

3) He was born with the name Legesse in Adwa, the town where Ethiopian forces decisively routed the Italians in 1896. While at university he took the name of an activist killed by the authoritarian government. He quit medical studies to join rebels in the bush. Starting off as a Marxist, he went on to become Africa’s youngest leader while in his thirties. Who?

Meles Zenawi, who dropped out of medical school in 1974 and soon joined the newly-formed Tigray People's Liberation Front. He went on to lead the TPLF and incorporated other ethnic groups to set up the rebel-turned-ruling alliance, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Meles became President in 1991 and Prime Minister from 1995 until his death in 2012.

4) During the 1930s black communities in the U.S, London and the British West Indies held rallies for a particular cause. There was an effort to boycott businesses owned by another community in New York, fund-raising drives and a bid to organise volunteers to fight abroad. What was the cause?

The Italian invasion and occupation of Ethiopia in 1935. There was an effort to boycott Italian-American businesses in New York. The U.S. State Department warned that fighting abroad would jeopardise citizenship, thwarting the African-American drive to assist the Ethiopian defence. The League of Nations imposed limited sanctions on the Mussolini-led Italy but its ineffectiveness was another major blow to its founding principle of collective security. Emperor Haile Selassie was Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 1935 and delivered an acclaimed speech at the League of Nations in 1936. But he was to spend years in exile in Britain before returning triumphantly in 1941, as Italy was ousted by Ethiopian guerrillas and British-led forces during World War II.

The Italian invasion also marked the second time (after World War I) chemical weapons were used extensively, decisively turning the tide for Italy. The word ‘ambaradan’ in Italian for a ‘messy situation’ comes from Amba Aradam, a mountain in Ethiopia where Italian forces extensively used mustard gas to crush opposition. Italy acknowledged the use of poison gas only in 1996.

5) A shepherd boy who went on to join the imperial bodyguard serving Emperor Haile Selassie achieved something remarkable in 1960. This and subsequent achievements led to him being hailed as a pan-African hero. A readers’ poll at Jeune Afrique magazine serving Francophone Africa found him the most popular person in the continent. In Addis Ababa he once emerged from a painted globe to meet cheering crowds. Who and what achievement?

Abebe Bikila, the first black African to win an Olympic gold medal. Running barefoot, the unknown palace guard sprang a major surprise. Bikila’s route to marathon victory at the Rome Olympics was full of structures from the fascist era of Benito Mussolini including the Obelisk of Axum plundered from Ethiopia (it was returned later). More on Bikila here, here and here.

6) The coastal village of Ras Al Ara is the landing point for tens of thousands of Ethiopians trying to escape from poverty or security crackdowns. Where is Ras Al Ara and which country is the intended destination of the refugees and migrants?

Ras Al Ara is in war-torn Yemen and the Ethiopian refugees’ intended destination is Saudi Arabia. More here, here and here.

7) Months after stepping down in February 2018 to make way for Abiy Ahmed, now former Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn uploaded a photo on his Facebook page, showing him next to a reclusive figure based in Zimbabwe. A swift backlash followed and Hailemariam removed the photo. Who was the person who appeared next to the former PM?

Hailemariam Desalegn met Mengistu Haile Mariam, the former dictator who had led the Soviet bloc-affiliated regime known as the Derg, after the toppling of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974. Mengistu and the Derg were removed by the Meles Zenawi-led EPRDF in 1991. Mengistu presided over a massive purge known as the ‘Red Terror’ and the famine of 1984-85. More here and here.

8) Born in Eritrea, he was Ethiopia’s Health Minister from 2005 to 2012 and Foreign Minister from 2012 to 2016. He is Tigrayan and his name has been dragged into the ongoing conflict (he’s rejected accusations of bias). Who?

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization from 2017 and the first African to hold the top job in the WHO. He was elected after a drawn-out process that involved three rounds of voting, extensive campaigning and debates between the main contenders. Recently, Tedros rejected the Ethiopian army chief’s accusations that he supported Tigray regional leaders in the current conflict.

9) A number of soldiers were killed in 1995 as countries A and B fought an air and sea battle over Greater Hanish Island, located in the middle of an important Red Sea shipping lane. B’s forces briefly seized the island. In a landmark ruling on maritime boundaries in 1999, a UN-backed tribunal awarded the island to A, while also allowing artisanal fishermen from B to operate around the island. Name A and B.

A is Yemen and B is Eritrea. More here, here, here and here.

10) How did Derartu Tulu make it to the history books in 1992? (Hint: Sport)

Derartu Tulu became the first black African woman to win an Olympic gold medal (10,000m) at Barcelona in 1992. From 2018, Tulu has been President of the Ethiopian Athletics Federation.

11) In the 1950s Emperor Haile Selassie, while on an official visit to another country, was so impressed by the literacy standards in a particular region that a large number of school teachers were recruited from there. This region has a significant community of Orthodox Christians whose leadership has close ties to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The new teachers were largely from the Orthodox Christian community. Name the region and the country.

Kerala, India. Haile Selassie visited Kerala in 1956 and was due to be a prominent guest at the ceremony marking the state’s formation on November 1 that year (article in Malayalam here). The Ethiopia-born doctor and author Abraham Verghese, the son of school teachers from Kerala, writes about the links between the two regions here and here. Documentary about Indian teachers and Ethiopia here.

Paul Verghese, who moved to Ethiopia as a school teacher in 1947, mastered Amharic and its grammar and taught the language in high school, impressing Haile Selassie. The Emperor persuaded Verghese to return as a key aide during his visit to Kerala in 1956 (article on Ethiopia by Paul Verghese from that period here). While he left after three years and was soon ordained as a priest, this account indicates that Selassie still consulted him and sent him on a peace mission to Jamaica to quell a rebellion by the Rastafari community, who revered the Ethiopian ruler. Fr. Paul Verghese later became Bishop Paulos Mar Gregorios, who established a diocese for the Kerala-based Malankara Orthodox Church in the Indian capital Delhi.

2025 update: I was interviewed by Fr. Shinu K. Thomas from the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church about Bishop Paulose Mar Gregorios’ association with Ethiopia.

12) What was Operation Moses, carried out during 1984-85, all about?

Thousands of Jews from Ethiopia were clandestinely moved to Israel from refugee camps in Sudan amid the famine of 1984-85. One of the children who arrived in Israel, Pnina Tamano-Shata became the country’s first black cabinet minister this year.

However, Israelis of Ethiopian origin have faced racial discrimination and police violence. More here and here.

13) Black Africans, largely from Ethiopia, were brought to India as slaves in large numbers from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Many of them served as elite soldiers, while others became administrators and merchants. A few controlled entire territories, the most-high profile being Malik Ambar, believed to be of Oromo heritage. A group of Ethiopian slaves-turned-soldiers took control of a large region in India in 1487, establishing a Sultanate that however ruled for only six years. Where?

Bengal. More here, here, here and here. More on Malik Ambar and his effective use of guerrilla warfare against the Mughal Empire here. The first prominent slave-turned-nobleman (13th century) was Yaqut, a close aide of the only woman to rule from Delhi as Sultan, Razia (the 1983 Bollywood film has Dharmendra essaying Yaqut’s role in blackface). The last rulers claiming Ethiopian heritage were from the small princely states of Sachin (in Gujarat) and Janjira (in Maharashtra) that were incorporated into the Indian Union after independence from the British in 1947. An estimated 25,000 Siddis of African heritage currently live in India.

14) Ibrahim Omer, who braved border guards with shoot-to-kill orders to cross from Eritrea to Sudan, recently became the first-ever MP from Africa in which country?

New Zealand. Ibrahim Omer’s first parliamentary speech last month about his journey from Eritrea to a Sudanese refugee camp and eventually New Zealand via went viral.

Eritrea is the world’s most censored country, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Since independence in 1991, it’s had only one President, Isaias Afwerki. Eritrea is one of the largest sources of refugees per capita.

15) A 1929 colonial treaty engineered by the British gave Egypt veto power. Another resource-sharing deal was signed in 1959 between Egypt and Sudan excluding Ethiopia. 2015 saw the signing of a preliminary deal also involving Ethiopia, but since then the issue has snowballed into tensions. What are we talking about?

Sharing the waters of the river Nile. The 1929 treaty granted Egypt veto power over construction projects on the river or any of its tributaries. The 1959 agreement between Egypt and Sudan reinforced the earlier Anglo-Egyptian Treaty. Ethiopia, whose highlands supply 80 per cent of the water flowing into the Nile, has raised the stakes over the past decade, alarming downstream countries Egypt and Sudan with the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Africa’s largest dam project. 

16) In 1948 Emperor Haile Selassie gave 500 acres of land to ‘black people from the West’ who had supported him. The place called Shashamene was soon dominated by a particular community who revered Haile Selassie. The community’s most renowned member visited the town in 1978. But now it’s shrunk to a few hundreds in Shashamene. Name the community.  

Rastafari. Haile Selassie’s pre-imperial name was Ras Tafari Makonnen. The most prominent Rastafarian, the singer Bob Marley, visited Ethiopia and Shashamene in 1978. Bob Marley’s song ‘War’ had lines taken verbatim from the Emperor’s 1963 UN speech calling for racial equality and peace.

More about the shrunken Rastafari community in Shashamene here.

17) Axum, a town in Tigray recently captured by the Ethiopian government, was the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Axum. Axum as well as the city of Marib in Yemen have both laid claim to an ancient ruler mentioned in both the Bible and the Koran. Who?

The Queen of Sheba, known as Makeda in Ethiopia and Bilqis in Yemen. More on the rivalry here.