ECDC-CARI - African Countries

Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

Date of Independence : N/A
Capital: Addis Ababa
Languages: Amharic, Tigrinya, Oromigna, Guaragigna, Somali, Arabic
Ethnic Groups: Oromo, Amhara, Tigre, Sidamo, Shankella, Somali, Afar, Gurage,
Major Religions: Christianity, Islam
Currency: Birr
Population: 74.2 million (2005)
Main Exports: Coffee, beeswax, sugarcane, qat, gold, leather products, live animals, oilseeds

Ethiopia is Africa’s oldest independent nation, is one of only two African nations to escape colonization. There was a brief 5-year period when the country was occupied by Mussolini’s Italy, but the Italians were expelled in 1941 with the assistance of British troops.

Known as Abyssinia until the 20th century, Ethiopia was home to the powerful kingdom of Axum that flourished from around the first century AD. In the 4 th century, its king, Ezana, was converted to Christianity by a Syro-Greek castaway named Frumentius. It became an Orthodox Christian kingdom. The Axumite dynasty eventually fell. In its place rose the Solominid dynasty, claiming descent from the ancient kings of Axum, and from the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon. After the 1500s Ethiopia divided into a number of small kingdoms, which were reunified by Menelik II in the 1880s.

It was in the 1880s that Europe began to colonize Africa. Italy colonized Eritrea in 1882 and conflicts between the two countries resulted in the Battle of Adowa in 1896. In an historic battle, the Ethiopians defeated the European power and remained independent. Italy and Ethiopia signed a provisional treaty of peace on October 26, 1896.

From 1930 – 1974 the country was ruled by Emperor Haile Selassie I, a descendent of the Solominid line. In 1974, Haile Selassie was deposed by a Marxist military junta known as “the Derg”, led by Mengistu Haile Mariam. The Derg, a committee of top military officers, had initially been established to root out corruption and clamp down on mutinous activities in Ethiopia’s military. However, the Derg steadily gained power and soon began to turn its attention to members of the imperial government. Through powers granted to them by the emperor himself, the Derg began arresting government officials at every level. Finally, on September 12, 1974, the Derg deposed and imprisoned Haile Selassie himself.

Mengistu established a one-party communist state and ruled till 1991. His rule is most remembered for ushering in the Ethiopian Red Terror, where from 1974-1977 opponents of the new government were systematically imprisoned without trial or eliminated altogether. Tens of thousands of people were imprisoned, killed or simply disappeared during that period.

Ethiopia went through many more major upheavals during that time. In 1977, Somali forces invaded the country seeking to annex the Ogaden region, home to many Somali-speaking peoples. The invaders were quickly defeated, with the help of the Soviet Union and Cuba. Also that year, the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) began a war of secession, seeking independence for the region. This initiated a war that lasted until 1993, when Eritrea formally declared its independence from Ethiopia.

In the late 1970s, Ethiopia suffered from a series of droughts which progressively lowered agricultural production. Already behind in food production, from 1984-1986, the country was devastated by an especially prolonged drought and plunged into widespread famine. Over 1 million people died from starvation. Hundreds of thousands more left the country, fleeing famine, disease, and the civil war which continued to rage throughout the period.

In 1991, the Derg was toppled by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, a coalition of opposition forces led by Meles Zenawi and a provisional government was set up. The new government recognized the independence of Eritrea. In 1995, a new constitution was written, turning the country into a federal republic. Zenawi retains a firm grip on power however, and has been elected prime minister three times.

In 1998, a border dispute with Eritrea erupted into war, which led to the deaths of thousands of people in both Eritrea and Ethiopia. Tens of thousands more fled into surrounding countries seeking refuge. Many of them still remain refugees, even though a cease-fire was declared in 2000. The source of the dispute was the demarcation of the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Although the border was formally demarcated in 2004, differences over territory have kept tensions simmering.

Sources:

Ethiopia, MSN Encarta, available at: http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761573854/Ethiopia.html