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ETHIOPIA, a country study
Federal Research Division
Library of Congress
Edited by Thomas P. Ofcansky and LaVerle Berry
Research Completed 1991
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge their use and adaptation of information in the 1981 edition of Ethiopia: A Country Study, edited by Harold D. Nelson and Irving Kaplan. The authors are also grateful to numerous individuals in various government agencies and private institutions who generously shared their time, expertise, and knowledge about Ethiopia. These people include Paul B. Henze, The Rand Corporation; Thomas L. Kane, Department of Defense; Thomas Collelo, Department of Defense; Carol Boger, Department of Defense; Major Dale R. Endreson, United States Army; and Ralph K. Benesch, who oversees the Country Studies Area Handbook Program for the Department of the Army. None of these individuals is in any way responsible for the work of the authors, however.
The authors also wish to thank those who contributed directly to the preparation of the manuscript. These include Sandra W. Meditz, who reviewed all textual and graphic materials and served as liaison with the sponsoring agency; Marilyn Majeska, who managed the editing; Vincent Ercolano, who edited the chapters; Joshua Sinai, who helped prepare the manuscript for prepublication review; and Barbara Edgerton, Janie L. Gilchrist, and Izella Watson, who did the word processing. Andrea T. Merrill performed the final prepublication editorial review and managed production. Joan C. Cook compiled the index.
David P. Cabitto provided invaluable graphics support. Harriett R. Blood and Greenhorne and O'Mara prepared the maps, which were drafted by Tim Merrill and reviewed by David P. Cabitto. The charts were prepared by David P. Cabitto and Greenhorne and O'Mara. Wayne Horne deserves special thanks for designing the illustration for the book's cover. Deborah A. Clement designed the illustrations for the chapter title pages.
Finally, the authors acknowledge the generosity of the individuals and public and private agencies who allowed their photographs to be used in this study. They are indebted especially to those who contributed work not previously published.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
Country Profile
Introduction
Chapter 1. Historical Setting
.....Origins and the Early Periods
Early Populations and Neighboring States
The Aksumite State
Ethiopia and the Early Islamic Period
The Zagwe Dynasty
The "Restoration" of the "Solomonic" Line
Amhara Ascendancy
.....The Trials of the Christian Kingdom and the Decline of Imperial Power
Growth of Regional Muslim States
Oromo Migrations and Their Impact
Contact with European Christendom
The Gonder State and the Ascendancy of the Nobility
.....The Making of Modern Ethiopia
The Reestablishment of the Ethiopian Monarchy
From Tewodros II to Menelik II, 1855-89
The Interregnum
Haile Selassie: The Prewar Period, 1930-36
. . . . . . Italian Rule and World War II
Italian Administration in Eritrea
Mussolini's Invasion and the Italian Occupation
Ethiopia in World War II
. . . . . The Postwar Period, 1945-60: Reform and Opposition
Change and Resistance
Administrative Change and the 1955 Constitution
The Attempted Coup of 1960 and Its Aftermath
. . . . . Growth of Secessionist Threats
The Liberation Struggle in Eritrea
Discontent in Tigray
The Ogaden and the Haud
. . . . . Revolution and Military Government
Background to Revolution, 1960-74
The Establishment of the Derg
The Struggle for Power, 1974-77
Ethiopia's Road to Socialism
. . . . . The Mengistu Regime and Its Impact
Political Struggles Within the Government
War in the Ogaden and the Turn to the Soviet Union
Eritrean and Tigrayan Insurgencies
Social and Political Changes
. . . . . Ethiopia in Crisis: Famine and Its Aftermath,
Famine and Economic Collapse
Government Defeats in Eritrea and Tigray
The People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia
Changes in Soviet Policy and New International Horizons
Chapter 2. The Society and Its Environment
. . . . . Physical Setting
Boundaries: International and Administrative
Topography and Drainage
Population
Size, Distribution, and Growth
Urbanization
Resettlement and Villagization
. . . . . Refugees, Drought, and Famine
. . . . . Ethiopia's Peoples
Ethnic Groups, Ethnicity, and Language
Ethio-Semitic Language Groups
Cushitic Language Groups
Omotic Language Groups
Nilo-Saharan Language Groups
Occupational Castes
Ethnic and Social Relations
Interethnic Relations
Social Relations
. . . . . Social System
Rural Society
Urban Society
The Role of Women
. . . . . Religious Life
Demography and Geography of Religious Affiliation
Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity
Organization of the Church and the Clergy
Faith and Practice
Islam
Basic Teachings of Islam
Local Character of Belief and Practice
Indigenous Religions
Foreign Missions
. . . . . Education
Education During Imperial Rule
Primary and Secondary Education since 1975
Higher and Vocational Education since 1975
Literacy
Foreign Educational Assistance
. . . . . Health and Welfare
Chapter 3. The Economy
. . . . . Growth and Structure of the Economy
Developments up to l974
Postrevolution Period
. . . . . Role of Government
The Budgetary Process
Revenue and Expenditures
Banking and Monetary Policy
. . . . . Labor Force
Unemployment
Labor Unions
Wages and Prices
. . . . . Agriculture
Land Use and Land Reform
Land Use
Land Reform
Government Rural Programs
Peasant Associations and Rural Development
Cooperatives and State Farms
Resettlement and Villagization
Agricultural Production
Major Cash Crops
Major Staple Crops
Livestock
Fishing
Forestry
Government Marketing Operations
. . . . . Industry and Energy
Manufacturing
Industrial Development Policy
Energy Resources
Mining
. . . . . Transportation and Telecommunications
Roads
Railroads
Ports
Air Transport
Telecommunications
. . . . . Foreign Trade
Exports
Imports
Balance of Payments and Foreign Assistance
. . . . . Economic Prospects
Chapter 4. Government and Politics
. . . . . The Workers' Party of Ethiopia
Toward Party Formation
The Vanguard Party
. . . . . The 1987 Constitution
The Social Order
Citizenship, Freedoms, Rights, and Duties
National Shengo (National Assembly)
Council of State
The President
Council of Ministers
Judicial System
. . . . . Regional and Local Government
Regional Administration
Peasant Associations
Cash for Work" project sponsored by United Nations Children's
Kebeles
. . . . . . Civil Service
. . . . . The Politics of Development
The Politics of Drought and Famine
The Politics of Villagization
. . . . . Political Dynamics
Political Participation and Repression
The Eritrean Movement
Eritrea and the Imperial Regime
Eritrea and the Mengistu Regime
The Tigrayan Movement
Other Movements and Fronts
Oromo Groups
Afar Groups
Somali Groups
Leftist Groups
Regime Stability and Peace Negotiations
. . . . . Mass Media
. . . . . Foreign Policy
Diplomacy and State Building in Imperial Ethiopia
The Foreign Policy of the Derg
The Derg, the Soviet Union, and the Communist World
The Derg and the West
Ethiopia's Border Politics
Addis Ababa and the Middle East
. . . . . The Demise of the Military Government
Chapter 5. National Security
. . . . . Military Tradition in National Life
. . . . . The Armed Forces
The 1987 Constitution and the Armed Forces
Command and Force Structure
Army
Air Force
Navy
People's Militia
Training
Morale and Discipline
Manpower Considerations
Defense Costs
. . . . . Foreign Military Assistance
United States
Soviet Union
Cuba
East Germany
North Korea
Israel
The Eritreans
The Tigray
The Oromo
The Somali
. . . . . Public Order and Internal Security
The National Police
People's Protection Brigades
. . . . . Crime and Punishment
The Legal System
Prisons
. . . . . Human Rights
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Ethiopia: Preface
This study replaces Ethiopia: A Country Study, which was
completed in 1980--six years after a group of military
officers overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie I and eventually
established a Marxist-Leninist dictatorship. By 1990 this
regime, led by Mengistu Haile Mariam, was on the verge of
collapse, largely because of its inability to defeat two
insurgencies in the northern part of the country.
This edition of Ethiopia: A Country Study examines the
revolutionary government's record until a few months before
its demise. Subsequent events are discussed in the
Introduction. Like its predecessor, this study investigates
the historical, social, economic, political, and national
security forces that helped determine the nature of
Ethiopian society. Sources of information used in the
study's preparation included scholarly books, journals, and
monographs; official reports of governments and
international organizations; numerous periodicals; the
authors' previous research and observations; and interviews
with individuals who have special competence in Ethiopian
and African affairs. Chapter bibliographies appear at the
end of the book; brief comments on sources recommended for
further reading appear at the end of each chapter.
The available materials on Ethiopia frequently presented
problems because of the different transliterations of place-
names and personal names used by scholars and other writers.
No standardized and universally accepted system has been
developed for the transliteration of Amharic (the most
widely used language in the country), and even the Ethiopian
government's official publications vary in their English
spellings of proper names. Insofar as possible, the authors
have attempted to reduce the confusion with regard to place-
names by adhering to the system adopted by the United States
Board on Geographic Names (BGN), except that diacritical
markings are eliminated in this study. With regard to
personal names, the authors have attempted to use the most
common English spellings. The authors also have followed the
Amharic tradition of referring only to the first element of
a name when using it in a second reference. Thus, Mengistu
Haile Mariam becomes Mengistu after the first use.
The reader should exercise caution with regard to dates
cited in relation to Ethiopia. Dates used in this book
generally are according to the standard, Gregorian (Western)
calendar. But life in Ethiopia is actually governed by the
Ethiopian calendar, which consists of twelve months of
thirty days each and one month of five days (six in leap
years) running from September 11 to September 10 according
to the Gregorian calendar. The sequence of years in the
Ethiopian calendar also differs from the Gregorian calendar,
running seven years behind the Gregorian calendar at the
beginning of an Ethiopian year and eight years behind at its
end.
The reader will note the frequent use in this book of
double years, such as 1989/90 or 1990/91, especially in
Chapters 2 and 3. These dates do not mean that a two-year
period is covered. Rather, they reflect the conversion of
Ethiopian calendar years to the Gregorian system. When
1990/91 is used, for example, the date refers to September
11, 1990, to September 10, 1991, or the equivalent of the
Ethiopian calendar year of 1983. Some economic data are
based on the Ethiopian fiscal year, which runs from July 8
to the following July 7 in the Gregorian calendar, but eight
years behind the Gregorian year. Hence, Ethiopian fiscal
year 1990/91 (also seen as EFY 1990/91) corresponds to July
11, 1990, to July 10, 1991, or the equivalent of Ethiopian
fiscal year 1983. Concerning economic data in general, it
must be noted that there has been a dearth of new statistics
since 1988, reflecting the state of affairs within the
Ethiopian government since then.
All measurements in this study are presented in the metric
system. A conversion table is provided to assist those
readers who may not be familiar with metric equivalents (see
Appendix). The book also includes a Glossary to
explain terms with which the reader may not be familiar.
Finally, readers will note that the body of the text
reflects information available as of July 1991. Certain
other portions of the text, however, have been updated: the
Introduction discusses significant events that have occurred
since the information cutoff date; the Country Profile
includes updated statistics when such information is
available; and the Bibliography lists recently published
sources thought to be particularly helpful to the reader.
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COUNTRY
Formal Name: Ethiopia.
Short Form: Ethiopia.
Term for Citizens: Ethiopian(s).
Capital: Addis Ababa.
GEOGRAPHY
Size: About 1,221,900 square kilometers; major portion of
easternmost African landmass known as Horn of Africa.
NOTE--The Country Profile contains updated information as
available.
Topography: Massive highland complex of mountains and
dissected plateaus divided by Great Rift Valley running
generally southwest to northeast and surrounded by lowlands,
steppes, or semidesert; northeastern coastline of about 960
kilometers along the Red Sea. Great terrain diversity
determines wide variations in climate, soils, natural
vegetation, and settlement patterns.
Climate: Elevation and geographic location produce three
climatic zones: cool zone above 2,400 meters where
temperatures range from near freezing to 16 C; temperate
zone at elevations of 1,500 to 2,400 meters with
temperatures from 16 C to 30 C; and hot zone below 1,500
meters with both tropical and arid conditions and daytime
temperatures ranging from 27 C to 50 C. Normal rainy season
from mid-June to mid-September (longer in the southern
highlands) preceded by intermittent showers from February or
March; remainder of year generally dry.
SOCIETY
Population: Mid-1992 population estimated at 54 million,
with a 3 percent or higher annual growth rate. Urban
population estimated at about 11 percent of total
population.
Ethnic Groups and Languages: Distinguishable ethnolinguistic
entities, some speaking the same language, estimated at more
than 100; at least seventy languages spoken as mother
tongues. Largest group is the Oromo, about 40 percent of
total population. Roughly 30 percent of total population
consists of the Amhara, whose native language--Amharic--is
also spoken by additional 20 percent of population as second
tongue. Amharic is Ethiopia's official language. The Tigray,
speaking Tigrinya, constitute 12 to 15 percent of total
population. Large number of smaller groups include Somali,
Gurage, Awi, Afar, Welamo, Sidama, and Beja.
Religion: About 50 percent of population Ethiopian Orthodox;
Orthodoxy identified mainly with Amhara and Tigray peoples
but accepted by other groups as well. About 2 percent
Protestant and Roman Catholic combined. Approximately 40
percent adherents of Islam. Remainder of population
practiced various indigenous religions.
Education: In 1985/86 (Ethiopian calendar year--see
Glossary), 3.1 million children were enrolled in grades one
through twelve. Nearly 2.5 million, or 42 percent, of
primary school-age children enrolled in 7,900 primary
schools (grades one through six); 363,000 students attended
964 junior secondary schools (grades seven and eight); more
than 292,000, or 5.3 percent of secondary school-age
children, enrolled in 245 secondary schools (grades nine
through twelve). Vocational schools emphasized technical
education; in 1985/86 more than 4,200 attended nine
technical schools. Intense competition for admission to
approximately twelve colleges and universities; more than
18,400 students in various institutions of higher education.
Literacy: Less than 10 percent during imperial regime; had
increased to 63 percent by 1984, according to Ethiopian
government. Revolutionary government undertook major
national literacy campaign, which made significant gains,
especially among women.
Health: Malaria and tuberculosis major endemic diseases;
also health problems from parasitic and gastroenteritis
infections, leprosy, venereal diseases, typhus, typhoid,
trachoma, conjunctivitis, and childhood diseases. All
complicated by insufficient health facilities, shortage of
medical personnel, unsanitary practices, and nutritional
deficiencies. Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS)
becoming a greater problem.
Life Expectancy: Fifty years for males and fifty-three for
females in 1992.
ECONOMY
Salient Features: Socialist oriented after 1974 revolution,
with strong state controls. Thereafter, large part of
economy transferred to public sector, including most modern
industry and large-scale commercial agriculture, all
agricultural land and urban rental property, and all
financial institutions; some private enterprise and capital
participation permitted in certain sectors. Since mid-1991,
a decentralized, market-oriented economy emphasizing
individual initiative, designed to reverse a decade of
economic decline. In 1993 gradual privatization of business,
industry, banking, agriculture, trade, and commerce under
way.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP): US$6 billion in 1990; per
capita GDP about US$120. Economy grew during late 1970s but
declined in early 1980s and stagnated thereafter. GDP in
Ethiopian fiscal year (EFY) 1990/91 fell by 5 to 6 percent
in real terms, after a 1 percent decline in EFY 1989/90.
Agriculture registered modest gains after 1989.
Agriculture and Livestock: Accounted for approximately 40
percent of gross domestic product (GDP), 80 percent of
exports, and 80 percent of labor force in 1991; other
activities dependent on marketing, processing, and exporting
of agricultural products. Production overwhelmingly of
subsistence nature with large part of commodity exports
provided by small agricultural monetized sector. Principal
crops coffee, pulses, oilseeds, cereals, potatoes,
sugarcane, and vegetables. Livestock population believed
largest in Africa. Livestock alone accounted for about 15
percent of GDP in 1987.
Industry: Manufacturing severely affected by economic
dislocation following revolution. Growth of sector low after
1975. Primary subsectors cement, textiles, food processing,
and oil refining. In 1993 smaller enterprises being
privatized; larger ones still under state control. Most
industry functioning well below capacity.
Energy Sources: Hydroelectric power most important developed
and potential source of energy. Domestic mineral fuel
resources in 1991 included low-grade lignite and traces of
petroleum and natural gas. Potentially important geothermal
power exists in Great Rift Valley.
Foreign Trade: Little foreign trade by international
standards. Exports almost entirely agricultural commodities;
coffee largest foreign exchange earner. Value of imports
regularly greater than export receipts. Wide range of
trading partners, but most important in 1992 included United
States, Germany, Britain, and Japan.
Currency: Birr (pl., birr; no symbol). Prior to October 1,
1992, US$1 equaled 2.07 birr. After devaluation on that date
US$1 equaled 4.94 birr. Significant parallel currency market
existed before devaluation.
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS
Roads: Construction of adequate road system greatly hampered
by rugged terrain of highlands and normally heavy seasonal
rainfall. Approximately 18,000 kilometers of roads in 1991,
of which 13,000 kilometers were all-weather roads. Road
density lowest in Africa; perhaps three-fourths of farms
more than one-half day's walk from an all-weather road.
Railroads: One line operating in 1993 from Addis Ababa to
city of Djibouti. Second line from Akordat to Mitsiwa
discontinued operation in 1976 because of unprofitability
and partly destroyed in later fighting.
Ports: Two major ports--Aseb and Mitsiwa--both in Eritrea;
further access to ocean transport through port of Djibouti;
all usable by deep-sea vessels.
Civil Aviation: Important in domestic communications because
of underdeveloped state of other means of transportation.
International airports at Addis Ababa, Asmera, and Dire
Dawa; major airports at a few other towns; remaining
airfields little more than landing strips. In 1993 Ethiopian
Airlines provided domestic service to some forty-five
destinations and international service to Africa, western
Europe, India, and China.
Telecommunications: Minimal system. Radio-relay links
connected Addis Ababa with Nairobi and Djibouti; other
international service via Atlantic Ocean satellite of
International Telecommunications Satellite Organization
(Intelsat). Limited local telephone service and equipment;
four AM radio stations, one shortwave transmitter;
television service in ten cities.
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Party and Government: Until 1974 revolution ruled by an
imperial regime whose last emperor was Haile Selassie I.
Following revolution, a socialist state based on principles
of Marxism-Leninism, led by Workers' Party of Ethiopia.
Constitution promulgated in 1987 created People's Democratic
Republic of Ethiopia. In theory, National Shengo (National
Assembly) highest organ of political power, but real power
centered in hands of Mengistu Haile Mariam, president and
commander in chief of armed forces.
In May 1991, Mengistu regime overthrown by coalition of
forces led by Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic
Front (EPRDF). A National Conference in July 1991 created
Transitional Government of Ethiopia, consisting of a
president and a prime minister, a seventeen-member Council
of Ministers, and an eighty-seven-member Council of
Representatives. Transitional government to last not longer
than two-and-one-half years. Meles Zenawi, former head of
EPRDF, elected president by Council of Representatives. In
mid-1993 new constitution being drafted to come into force
not later than early 1994.
After May 1991, Eritrea controlled by Eritrean People's
Liberation Front (EPLF). EPLF set up Provisional Government
of Eritrea under its leader, Issaias Afwerki. In a
referendum held April 23-25, 1993, more than 98 percent of
registered voters favored independence from Ethiopia. In May
1993, Government of Eritrea was formed, consisting of a
National Assembly with supreme authority, a State Council
with executive powers, and a president. Issaias Afwerki
elected president by National Assembly. New government to
last not longer than four years, during which democratic
constitution is to be written.
Judicial System: As of mid-1993, new judicial system in
process of being established.
Administrative Divisions: In mid-1991 Transitional
Government of Ethiopia created twelve autonomous regions on
basis of ethnic identity, plus two multiethnic chartered
cities (Addis Ababa and Harer). Each region broken into
districts (weredas), the basic unit of administration. On
June 21, 1992, elections were held to fill seats on wereda
and regional councils.
Foreign Relations: In late 1980s, Ethiopia relied on Soviet
Union, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea),
Israel, and various East European countries for military
assistance and on Western nations for humanitarian aid and
small amounts of economic assistance. After mid-1991,
transitional government reoriented Ethiopia's foreign
relations from East to West, establishing warm relations
with United States and western Europe and seeking
substantial economic aid from Western countries and World
Bank. Ethiopia also active in attempts to mediate the civil
war in Somalia
International Agreements and Memberships: Numerous,
including Organization of African Unity and United Nations
and a number of its specialized agencies, such as World Bank
and International Monetary Fund.
NATIONAL SECURITY
Armed Forces: In mid-1991, combined strength of Ethiopian
armed forces about 438,000. Ground forces estimated at
430,000 (including about 200,000 members of People's
Militia). Air force estimated at 4,500. Navy estimated at
3,500. After downfall of Mengistu regime, armed forces
collapsed and were dismantled by EPRDF. In mid-1993, EPRDF
had 100,000 to 120,000 guerrillas under arms; EPLF had
between 85,000 and 100,000. Both planned to transform their
forces into conventional armies and also to reconstitute air
forces and navies.
Combat Units and Major Equipment: Before mid-1991, ground
forces organized into five revolutionary armies comprising
thirty-one infantry divisions supported by thirty-two tank
battalions, forty artillery battalions, twelve air defense
battalions, and eight commando brigades. Major weapons
systems included T-54/55 and T-62 tanks, various caliber
howitzers and guns, antiaircraft guns, and surface-to-air
missiles. Air force organized into seven fighter-ground
attack squadrons, one transport squadron, and one training
squadron. Equipment included 150 combat aircraft. Navy
equipment included two frigates and twenty-four patrol and
coastal combatants.
After downfall of Mengistu government, several insurgent
groups, including EPRDF, EPLF, and Oromo Liberation Front,
captured a considerable amount of ground equipment; former
soldiers sold an unknown quantity of small arms and light
equipment throughout Horn of Africa. Naval crews with their
vessels and an unknown number of pilots with their aircraft
scattered to neighboring countries. Information on military
organization, personnel strength, and equipment types and
numbers in both Ethiopia and Eritrea unavailable as of mid-
1993.
Defense Budge: Estimated at US$472 million in 1987-88. No
figures available for defense expenditures for Ethiopia or
Eritrea as of mid-1993.
Police Agencies and Paramilitary Forces: National police
included paramilitary Mobile Emergency Police Force,
estimated at 9,000. Paramilitary frontier guards. Local law
enforcement delegated to civilian paramilitary People's
Protection Brigades. By mid-1993, national police force
functioning throughout Ethiopia in place of EPRDF soldiers.
EPLF personnel performed police duties throughout Eritrea.
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Ethiopia: Introduction
FEW AFRICAN COUNTRIES have had such a long, varied, and
troubled history as Ethiopia. The Ethiopian state originated
in the Aksumite kingdom, a trading state that emerged about
the first century A.D. The Askumites perfected a written
language; maintained relations with the Byzantine Empire,
Egypt, and the Arabs; and, in the mid-fourth century,
embraced Christianity. After the rise of Islam in the
seventh century, the Aksumite kingdom became internationally
isolated as Arabs gradually gained control of maritime trade
in the Red Sea. By the early twelfth century, the successors
of the Aksumites had expanded southward and had established
a new capital and a line of kings called the Zagwe. A new
dynasty, the so-called "Solomonic" line, which came to power
about 1270, continued this territorial expansion and pursued
a more aggressive foreign policy. In addition, this
Christian state, with the help of Portuguese soldiers,
repelled a near-overpowering Islamic invasion.
Starting about the mid-sixteenth century, the Oromo people,
migrating from the southwest, gradually forced their way
into the kingdom, most often by warfare. The Oromo, who
eventually constituted about 40 percent of Ethiopia's
population, possessed their own culture, religion, and
political institutions. As the largest national group in
Ethiopia, the Oromo significantly influenced the course of
the country's history by becoming part of the royal family
and the nobility and by joining the army or the imperial
government. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
religious and regional rivalries gradually weakened the
imperial state until it was little more than a collection of
independent and competing fiefdoms.
Ethiopia's modern period (1855 to the present)--represented
by the reigns of Tewodros II, Yohannis IV, Menelik II,
Zawditu, and Haile Selassie I; by the Marxist regime of
Mengistu Haile Mariam; and, since mid-1991, by the
Transitional Government of Ethiopia under Meles Zenawi--has
been been characterized by nation-building as well as by
warfare. Tewodros II started the process of recreating a
cohesive Ethiopian state by incorporating Shewa into his
empire and by suppressing revolts in the country's other
provinces. Yohannis IV battled to keep Ethiopia free from
foreign domination and to retard the growing power of the
Shewan king, Menelik. Eventually, Menelik became emperor and
used military force to more than double Ethiopia's size. He
also defeated an Italian invasion force that sought to
colonize the country.
Struggles over succession to the throne characterized the
reign of Zawditu--struggles won by Haile Selassie, the next
ruler. After becoming emperor in 1930, Haile Selassie
embarked on a nationwide modernization program. However, the
1935-36 Italo-Ethiopian war halted his efforts and forced
him into exile. After returning to Addis Ababa in 1941,
Haile Selassie undertook further military and political
changes and sought to encourage social and economic
development. Although he did initiate a number of
fundamental reforms, the emperor was essentially an
autocrat, who to a great extent relied on political
manipulation and military force to remain in power and to
preserve the Ethiopian state. Even after an unsuccessful
1960 coup attempt led by the Imperial Bodyguard, Haile
Selassie failed to pursue the political and economic
policies necessary to improve the lives of most Ethiopians.
In 1974 a group of disgruntled military personnel overthrew
the Ethiopian monarchy. Eventually, Mengistu Haile Mariam,
who participated in the coup against Haile Selassie, emerged
at the head of a Marxist military dictatorship. Almost
immediately, the Mengistu regime unleashed a military and
political reign of terror against its real and imagined
opponents. It also pursued socialist economic policies that
reduced agricultural productivity and helped bring on
famine, resulting in the deaths of untold tens of thousands
of people. Thousands more fled or perished as a result of
government schemes to villagize the peasantry and to
relocate peasants from drought-prone areas of the north to
better-watered lands in the south and southwest.
Aside from internal dissent, which was harshly suppressed,
the regime faced armed insurgencies in the northern part of
the country. The longest-running of these was in Eritrea,
where the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) and its
predecessors had been fighting control by the central
government since 1961. In the mid-1970s, a second major
insurgency arose in Tigray, where the Tigray People's
Liberation Front (TPLF), a Marxist-Leninist organization
under the leadership of Meles Zenawi, opposed not only the
policies of the military government but also the very
existence of the government itself.
In foreign affairs, the regime aligned itself with the
Soviet Union. As long as the Soviet Union and its allies
provided support to Ethiopia's armed forces, the Mengistu
government remained secure. In the late 1980s, however,
Soviet support waned, a major factor in undermining the
ability of government forces to prosecute the wars against
the Eritreans and the Tigray. Gradually, the insurgent
movements gained the upper hand. By May 1991, the EPLF
controlled almost all of Eritrea, and the TPLF, operating as
the chief member of a coalition called the Ethiopian
People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), had overrun
much of the center of the country. Faced with impending
defeat, on May 21 Mengistu fled into exile in Zimbabwe; the
caretaker government he left behind collapsed a week later.
The EPLF completed its sweep of Eritrea on May 24 and 25,
and a few days later EPLF chairman Issaias Afwerki announced
the formation of the Provisional Government of Eritrea
(PGE). Meanwhile, on May 27-28, EPRDF forces marched into
Addis Ababa and assumed control of the national government.
After seizing power, Tigrayan and Eritrean leaders
confronted an array of political, economic, and security
problems that threatened to overwhelm both new governments.
Meles Zenawi and Issaias Afwerki committed themselves to
resolving these problems and to remaking their respective
societies. To achieve these goals, both governments adopted
similar strategies, which concentrated on national
reconciliation, eventual democratization, good relations
with the West, and social and economic development. Each
leader, however, pursued different tactics to implement his
respective strategy.
The first task facing the new rulers in Addis Ababa was the
creation of an interim government. To this end, a so-called
National Conference was convened in Addis Ababa from July 1
to July 5. Many political groups from across a broad
spectrum were invited to attend, but the EPRDF barred those
identified with the former military regime, such as the
Workers' Party of Ethiopia and the All-Ethiopia Socialist
Movement, as well as those that were opposed to the EPRDF,
such as the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party and the
Coalition of Ethiopian Democratic Forces. A number of
international observers also attended, including delegations
from the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United
Nations (UN).
Although it received accolades for running an open
conference, the EPRDF tightly controlled the proceedings.
The conference adopted a National Charter, which was signed
by representatives of some thirty-one political groups; it
established the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE),
consisting of executive and legislative branches; and it
sanctioned an EPLF-EPRDF agreement that converted Aseb into
a free port in exchange for a referendum on Eritrean self-
determination to be held within two years. The transitional
government was to consist of the offices of president and
prime minister and a seventeen-member multiethnic Council of
Ministers. To ensure broad political representation, an
eighty-seven member Council of Representatives was created,
which was to select the new president, draft a new
constitution, and oversee a transition to a new national
government. The EPRDF occupied thirty-two of the eighty-
seven council seats. The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF)
received twelve seats, and the TPLF, the Oromo People's
Democratic Organization, and the Ethiopian People's
Democratic Movement each occupied ten seats. Twenty-seven
other groups shared the remaining seats.
The National Charter enshrined the guiding principles for
what was expected to be a two-and-one-half-year transitional
period. The charter called for creation of a commission to
draft a new constitution to come into effect by early 1994.
It also committed the transitional government to conduct
itself in accordance with the UN Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and to pursue a foreign policy based on
noninterference in the internal affairs of neighboring
states. Perhaps its most significant provisions concerned a
new system of internal administration in which the principle
of ethnicity was to constitute the basis of local and
regional government. The charter recognized the right of all
of Ethiopia's nationalities to self-determination, a right
that was to be exercised within the context of a federated
Ethiopia, and called for creation of district and regional
councils on the basis of nationality.
Essentially, the National Conference was a first, basic
step in the reconstruction of a viable, legitimate central
government. With the end of civil wars all over the country,
the aim was to create a balance of competing ethnic and
political groups at the center of the state that would allow
the wounds of war to heal and economic recovery to begin.
Additionally, there was the task of reconciling some
segments of the population to the impending loss of Eritrea
and of Ethiopia's Red Sea ports.
As the new order got under way, the Council of
Representatives elected Meles Zenawi president of the TGE.
Then, in order to implement the administrative provisions of
the National Charter, the TGE drew up twelve autonomous
regions based on ethnic identification and recognized two
multiethnic chartered cities--Addis Ababa and Harer. The
largest nationalities--the Amhara, Oromo, Somali, and
Tigray--were grouped into their own regions, while an
attempt was made to put culturally related smaller groups
together. Each region was composed of a number of districts
(weredas), intended to be the basic administrative unit. The
largest region--that of the Oromo--contained some 220
weredas; the next largest region--that of the Amhara--
contained 126, out of a total of 600 weredas in all of
Ethiopia. Under this system, each wereda exercised
executive, legislative, and judicial authority over local
communities, while the central government remained supreme
in matters of defense, foreign affairs, economic policy,
citizenship requirements, and currency.
In order to staff these new administrative units, the TGE
scheduled national elections. Originally foreseen for later
1991, these elections were postponed for administrative and
political reasons into 1992. By then, the authorities had
registered almost 200 political parties; few of them,
however, had a significant membership or any real influence
in shaping government policies. The TGE held preliminary
elections for local governing committees beginning in April
and for wereda and regional councils on June 21, 1992.
Security problems prevented elections from being held in
some areas, notably among the Afar and the Somali and in
Harer. More important, a corps of some 250 UN observers
concluded that the June elections suffered from a number of
serious shortcomings, including an absence of genuine
competition, intimidation of nongovernment parties and
candidates, closure of political party offices, and jailing
and even shooting of candidates. Numerous observers also
claimed that various administrative and logistical problems
impaired the electoral process and that many Ethiopians
failed to understand the nature of multiparty politics. As a
result, several political parties, including the OLF, the
All-Amhara People's Organization, and the Gideo People's
Democratic Organization, withdrew a few days before the
elections. On June 22, the OLF withdrew from the government
and prepared to take up arms once again. Nonetheless, the
TGE accepted the results of the elections, although it
appointed a commission to investigate irregularities and to
take corrective steps.
In the economic arena, the TGE inherited a shattered
country. In his first public speech after the EPRDF had
captured Addis Ababa, Meles Zenawi indicated that Ethiopia's
coffers were empty; moreover, some 7 million people were
threatened with starvation because of drought and civil war.
Economic performance statistics reflected this gloomy
assessment. In Ethiopian fiscal year (EFY--see Glossary)
1990/91, for example, the gross domestic product (GDP--see
Glossary) declined by 5.6 percent, the greatest fall since
the 1984-85 drought. Preliminary figures indicated a further
decline in GDP in 1991/92, although some gains were
registered for agriculture.
To resolve these problems, the TGE abandoned the failed
policies of the Mengistu regime. It began dismantling the
country's command economic system and shifted toward a
market-oriented economy with emphasis upon private
initiative. In December 1992, it adopted a new economic
policy whereby the government would maintain control over
essential economic sectors such as banking, insurance,
petroleum, mining, and chemical industries. However, retail
trade, road transport, and a portion of foreign trade was
placed in private hands; and farmers could sell their
produce at free-market prices, although land remained under
government control. While smaller businesses were to be
privatized, agriculture was to receive the most attention
and investment. By 1993 the state farms of the Mengistu era
were being dismantled and turned over to private farmers;
similarly, the agricultural cooperatives of prior years had
almost all disappeared. A major effort was also being made
to steer large numbers of ex-soldiers into farming as a way
of increasing production and of providing much-needed
employment.
Meanwhile, on October 1, 1992, the TGE devalued Ethiopia's
currency to encourage exports and to aid in correcting a
chronic balance of payments deficit. The country had in
addition begun to receive economic aid from several sources,
including the European Community, the World Bank (see
Glossary), Japan, Canada, and the United States.
Developments such as these provided a solid foundation for
future economic improvement--gains that in mid-1993 were
still very much in the realm of anticipation. It seemed
clear that Ethiopia would remain one of the world's poorest
nations for the foreseeable future.
Since the downfall of the Mengistu regime, Ethiopia's human
rights record has improved. At the same time, the TGE has
failed to end human rights abuses. In the absence of a
police force, the TGE delegated policing functions to the
EPRDF and to so-called Peace and Stability Committees. On
occasion, personnel belonging to these organizations were
alleged to have killed, wounded, or tortured criminal
suspects. There were also allegations of extrajudicial
killings in many areas of the country.
Several incidents in early 1993 raised further questions
about human rights in Ethiopia. On January 4, security
forces opened fire on university students protesting UN and
EPRDF policies toward Eritrea and the upcoming independence
referendum. At least one person, and possibly several
others, died during the fracas. In early April, the Council
of Representatives suspended five southern political parties
from council membership for having attended a conference in
Paris at which the parties criticized the security situation
in the country and the entire transitional process. A few
days later, on April 9, more than forty instructors at Addis
Ababa University were summarily dismissed. The TGE alleged
lack of attention to teaching duties as the reason for its
action, but the instructors asserted that they were being
punished for having spoken out against TGE policies. These
developments came on top of United States Department of
State allegations that more than 2,000 officials of the
Mengistu regime remained in detention without having been
charged after almost twenty months.
One of the most serious dilemmas confronting the TGE
concerned its inability to restore security throughout
Ethiopia. After the EPRDF assumed power, it dismantled the
440,000-man Ethiopian armed forces. As a result, several
hundred thousand ex-military personnel had to fend for
themselves. The government's inability to find jobs for
these soldiers forced many of them to resort to crime as a
way of life. Many of these ex-soldiers contributed to the
instability in Addis Ababa and parts of southern, eastern,
and western Ethiopia.
To help resolve these problems, the TGE created the
Commission for the Rehabilitation of Ex-Soldiers and War
Veterans. By mid-1993 this organization claimed that it had
assisted in the rehabilitation of more than 159,000 ex-
soldiers in various rural areas. Additionally, commission
officials maintained that they were continuing to provide
aid to 157,000 ex-soldiers who lived in various urban
centers.
Apart from the difficulties caused by former soldiers and
criminal elements, several insurgent groups hampered the
TGE's ability to maintain stability in eastern and western
Ethiopia. The situation was particularly troublesome with
the OLF. For example, in mid-1991 government forces clashed
with OLF units southwest of Dire Dawa over the rights to
collect qat revenues. Qat is a plant that produces a mild
narcotic intoxication when chewed and that is consumed
throughout the eastern Horn of Africa and in Yemen. Although
the two groups signed a peace agreement in August, tensions
still existed, and fighting continued around Dire Dawa and
Harer at year's end. In early 1992, EPRDF-OLF relations
continued to deteriorate, with armed clashes occurring at
several locations throughout eastern and western Ethiopia.
After the OLF withdrew from the elections and the government
in late June, full-scale fighting broke out in the south and
southwest, but OLF forces were too weak to sustain the
effort for more than a few weeks. Even so, in April 1993 the
OLF announced that it was once again expanding its
operations, but many observers doubted this claim and the
OLF's ability to launch effective military campaigns against
government forces.
The TGE also experienced problems with the Afar
pastoralists who inhabit the lowlands along Ethiopia's Red
Sea coast, particularly during its first year in power. In
early September 1991, some Afar attacked a food relief truck
column near the town of Mile on the Addis Ababa--Aseb road
and killed at least seven drivers. The EPRDF restored
security in this region by shooting armed Afar on sight.
Since then, EPRDF-Afar relations have remained tense. Some
Afar have associated themselves with the OLF, but many
others joined the Afar Liberation Movement, which by early
1993 claimed to have 2,500 members under arms.
Elsewhere in eastern Ethiopia, the TGE experienced problems
with the Isa and Gurgura Liberation Front (IGLF). On October
4, 1991, clashes between government forces and IGLF rebels
resulted in the temporary closure of the Addis Ababa-
Djibouti railroad near Dire Dawa and the disruption of trade
between the two countries. The fighting also disrupted
famine relief distribution to nearly 1 million refugees in
eastern Ethiopia. By early 1992, the IGLF still had refused
to recognize the EPRDF's right to maintain security in the
Isa-populated area around Dire Dawa. By 1993, nonetheless,
improved conditions allowed the Addis Ababa-Djibouti
railroad to operate on a fairly regular basis.
In western Ethiopia, during the July-September 1991 period,
the EPRDF engaged in several battles in Gojam and Gonder
with the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP), the
only major political group excluded from power.
Additionally, in Gambela, the EPRDF battled the Gambela
People's Liberation Front, which claimed the right to
administer Gambela without EPRDF interference. The downfall
of the Mengistu regime also created a crisis for
approximately 500,000 southern Sudanese who lived in refugee
camps in and around Gambela. Although the new government
claimed they could remain in Ethiopia, nearly all of the
refugees, fearing reprisals for belonging to or supporting
southern Sudanese insurgents that the EPRDF opposed, fled
toward southern Sudan. As a result, by early 1992 fewer than
15,000 Sudanese refugees remained in western Ethiopia.
In southern Ethiopia, crime was the main security problem.
In late March 1992, EPRDF troops reportedly arrested 1,705
armed bandits and captured thousands of weapons, including
machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Despite this and
similar sweeps, many Western observers believed that
security problems would continue to plague the EPRDF regime
for the foreseeable future because of the large number of
available arms and unemployed ex-fighters in the south.
In contrast with the political divisiveness in Ethiopia,
nearly all Eritreans appeared to support the EPLF and its
goals. As a result, in the first two years after military
victory, the PGE was able to move swiftly on a number of
fronts. As one of its first acts, the new government
expelled thousands of soldiers and personnel of the former
Ethiopian army and government in Eritrea, together with
their dependents, forcing them across the border into
Tigray. The PGE maintained that the expulsions were
necessary to free up living quarters and jobs for returning
Eritreans and to help reduce budgetary outlays. In October
1992, the government opened schools across Eritrea. A few
weeks later, the PGE announced new criminal and civil codes
and appointed dozens of judges to run the court system. A
National Service Decree made it mandatory for all Eritreans
between the ages of eighteen and forty to perform twelve to
eighteen months of unpaid service in the armed forces,
police, government, or in fields such as education or
health.
Perhaps most important, the PGE honored the agreement it
had reached with the EPRDF and the OLF in 1991 to postpone a
referendum on the question of Eritrean independence for two
years. By early 1993, given the general popularity of the
PGE and the desire among Eritreans to be free of control
from Addis Ababa, the outcome of the referendum was a
foregone conclusion. On April 23-25, 1993, the PGE carried
out the poll. In a turnout of 98.5 percent of the
approximately 1.1 million registered voters, 99.8 percent
voted for independence. A 121-member UN observer mission
certified that the referendum was free and fair. Within
hours, the United States, Egypt, Italy, and Sudan extended
diplomatic recognition to the new country. Thereafter,
Eritrea joined the UN, the Organization of Africa Unity, and
the Lom‚ Convention (see Glossary).
A month after the referendum, the EPLF transformed the PGE
into the Government of Eritrea, composed of executive,
legislative, and judicial branches. Supreme power resided
with a new National Assembly, comprised of the EPLF's former
central committee augmented by sixty additional
representatives from the ten provinces into which Eritrea
was divided. Aside from formulating internal and external
policies and budgetary matters, the assembly was charged
with electing a president, who would be head of state and
commander in chief of the armed forces. The executive branch
consisted of a twenty-four-member State Council, chaired by
the president. The judiciary, already in place, continued as
before. At its initial meeting on May 21, the assembly
elected Issaias Afwerki president. This new political
configuration was to last not longer than four years, during
which time a democratic constitution was to be drafted and
all members of the EPLF would continue to work for the state
without salary.
In the months following independence, the Eritrean
government enjoyed almost universal popular support. Even
such former adversaries as the Eritrean Liberation Front
(ELF), the Eritrean Liberation Front-United Organization,
and the Eritrean Liberation Front-Revolutionary Council
issued statements of support for the referendum and for the
new regime. During his first press conference after the
referendum, President Issaias stressed that his government
would pursue pragmatic and flexible policies. He also
discussed prospects for close economic cooperation with
Ethiopia and raised the prospects of a future confederation
between the two countries. Meanwhile, the president pledged
that Aseb would remain a free port for goods in transit to
Ethiopia. Additionally, he reaffirmed the EPLF's commitment
to the eventual establishment of a multiparty political
system, but there would be no political parties based on
ethnicity or religion.
Its popularity notwithstanding, the Eritrean government
faced many problems and an uncertain future. Economically,
the country suffered from the devastation of thirty years of
war. Eritrea's forty publicly owned factories operated at no
more than one-third capacity, and many of its more than 600
private companies had ceased operations. War damage and
drought had caused agricultural production to decline by as
much as 40 percent in some areas; as a result, about 80
percent of the population required food aid in 1992. The
fighting also had wrecked schools, hospitals, government
offices, roads, and bridges throughout the country, while
bombing had destroyed economically important towns like
Mitsiwa and Nakfa.
To resolve these problems, Eritrea implemented a
multifaceted strategy that concentrated on restarting basic
economic activities and rehabilitating essential
infrastructure; encouraging the return and reintegration of
nearly 500,000 Eritrean refugees from neighboring Sudan; and
establishing the Recovery and Rehabilitation Project for
Eritrea. Additionally, the Eritrean government reaffirmed
its commitment to a liberal investment code, the response to
which by mid-1993 was encouraging. Even so, the Eritrean
government estimated that it needed at least US$2 billion to
rehabilitate the economy and to finance development
programs--aid that it sought largely from Western countries
and financial institutions.
Another serious issue confronting the new government
concerned the status of the country's armed forces. Since
the country's liberation in 1991, the government had lacked
the funds to pay salaries. Nevertheless, officials adopted a
compulsory national service act that required all former
fighters to labor without pay for two years on various
public works projects. When the new Government of Eritrea
extended unpaid compulsory national service for an
additional four years on May 20, 1993, thousands of
frustrated former fighters who wanted to be paid and to
return at last to their families demonstrated in Asmera. The
government responded by promising to begin paying the
fighters and by instituting a military demobilization
program that would allow volunteers who could fend for
themselves to return to their homes.
Eritrea's long-term well-being also depended on President
Issaias's ability to preserve the country's unity. Achieving
this goal will be difficult. Eritrea's 3.5 million
population is split equally between Christians and Muslims;
it also is divided into nine ethnic groups, each of which
speaks a different language. A reemergence of the historical
divisions between the Muslim-dominated ELF and the largely
Christian EPLF is possible and could prove to be the young
country's undoing. Also, at least some Eritreans doubted
President Issaias's pledge to establish a multiparty
democracy and viewed with skepticism his determination to
prevent the establishment of political parties based on
ethnic group or religion. However, as of mid-1993, Eritrea
remained at peace, and the government enjoyed considerable
support. As a result, most Western observers maintained that
the country had a good chance of avoiding the turbulence
that plagued much of the rest of the Horn of Africa.
The ultimate fates of Ethiopia and Eritrea are inevitably
intertwined. For economic reasons, Ethiopia needs to
preserve its access to Eritrean ports, and Eritrea needs
food from Ethiopia as well as the revenue and jobs that will
be generated by acting as a transshipment point for
Ethiopian goods. Also, political and military cooperation
well be necessary to prevent conflict between the two
nations.
Despite this obvious interdependence, Ethiopia and Eritrea
face a difficult future. Many Ethiopians, primarily those
who are Amhara, and some Eritreans, largely from the Muslim
community, remain opposed to Eritrean independence and the
EPLF-dominated government. These malcontents could become a
catalyst for antigovernment activities in both countries.
Within Ethiopia, the TGE's concept of ethnicity as the basis
for organizing political life has aroused controversy and
has stymied many of the TGE's policies and programs, thereby
reducing chances for the emergence of a democratic
government. Additionally, if the EPRDF does not broaden its
ethnic base of support and bring such groups as the Amhara
and the Oromo into the political process, the likelihood of
violence will increase. As of mid-1993, it was unclear
whether the TGE's plans for a new constitution and national
government would resolve these problems or would founder on
the shoals of ethnic politics and economic despair.
September 10, 1993 Thomas P. Ofcansky
********************
Chapter 1. Historical Setting
by John W. Turner (An African analyst with the Department of
Defense)
.
MODERN ETHIOPIA IS THE PRODUCT of many millennia of
interaction among peoples in and around the Ethiopian
highlands region. From the earliest times, these groups
combined to produce a culture that at any given time
differed markedly from that of surrounding peoples. The
evolution of this early "Ethiopian" culture was driven by a
variety of ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups.
One of the most significant influences on the formation and
evolution of culture in northern Ethiopia consisted of
migrants from Southwest Arabia. They arrived during the
first millennium B.C. and brought Semitic speech, writing,
and a distinctive stone-building tradition to northern
Ethiopia. They seem to have contributed directly to the rise
of the Aksumite kingdom, a trading state that prospered in
the first centuries of the Christian era and that united the
shores of the southern Red Sea commercially and at times
politically. It was an Aksumite king who accepted
Christianity in the mid-fourth century, a religion that the
Aksumites bequeathed to their successors along with their
concept of an empire-state under centralized rulership.
The establishment of what became the Ethiopian Orthodox
Church was critical in molding Ethiopian culture and
identity. The spread of Islam to the coastal areas of the
Horn of Africa in the eighth century, however, led to the
isolation of the highlands from European and Middle Eastern
centers of Christendom. The appearance of Islam was partly
responsible for what became a long-term rivalry between
Christians and Muslims--a rivalry that exacerbated older
tensions between highlanders and lowlanders and
agriculturalists and pastoralists that have persisted to the
present day.
Kingship and Orthodoxy, both with their roots in Aksum,
became the dominant institutions among the northern
Ethiopians in the post-Aksumite period. In the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, a dynasty known as the Zagwe ruled
from their capital in the northern highlands. The Zagwe era
is one of the most artistically creative periods in
Ethiopian history, involving among other things the carving
of a large number of rock-hewn churches.
The Zagwe heartland was well south of the old Aksumite
domain, and the Zagwe interlude was but one phase in the
long-term southward shift of the locus of political power.
The successors of the Zagwe after the mid-thirteenth
century--the members of the so-called "Solomonic" dynasty--
located themselves in the central highlands and involved
themselves directly in the affairs of neighboring peoples
still farther south and east.
In these regions, the two dominant peoples of what may be
termed the "Christian kingdom of Ethiopia," the Amhara of
the central highlands and the Tigray of the northern
highlands, confronted the growing power and confidence of
Muslim peoples who lived between the eastern edge of the
highlands and the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. In religious and
ethnic conflicts that reached their climax in the mid-
sixteenth century, the Amhara and Tigray turned back a
determined Muslim advance with Portuguese assistance, but
only after the northern highlands had been overrun and
devastated. The advent of the Portuguese in the area marked
the end of the long period of isolation from the rest of
Christendom that had been near total, except for contact
with the Coptic Church of Egypt. The Portuguese, however,
represented a mixed blessing, for with them they brought
their religion--Roman Catholicism. During the early
seventeenth century, Jesuit and kindred orders sought to
impose Catholicism on Ethiopia, an effort that led to civil
war and the expulsion of the Catholics from the kingdom.
By the mid-sixteenth century, the Oromo people of
southwestern Ethiopia had begun a prolonged series of
migrations during which they overwhelmed the Muslim states
to the east and began settling in the central highlands. A
profound consequence of the far-flung settlement of the
Oromo was the fusion of their culture in some areas with
that of the heretofore dominant Amhara and Tigray.
The period of trials that resulted from the Muslim
invasions, the Oromo migrations, and the challenge of Roman
Catholicism had drawn to a close by the middle of the
seventeenth century. During the next two-and-one-half
centuries, a reinvigorated Ethiopian state slowly
reconsolidated its control over the northern highlands and
eventually resumed expansion to the south, this time into
lands occupied by the Oromo.
By the mid-nineteenth century, the Ethiopian state under
Emperor Tewodros II (reigned 1855-68) found itself beset by
a number of problems, many of them stemming from the
expansion of European influence in northeastern Africa.
Tewodros's successors, Yohannis IV (reigned 1872-89) and
Menelik II (reigned 1889-1913), further expanded and
consolidated the state, fended off local enemies, and dealt
with the encroachments of European powers, in particular
Italy, France, and Britain. Italy posed the greatest threat,
having begun to colonize part of what would become its
future colony of Eritrea in the mid-1880s.
To one of Menelik's successors, Haile Selassie I (reigned
1930-74), was left the task of dealing with resurgent
Italian expansionism. The disinclination of the world
powers, especially those in the League of Nations, to
counter Italy's attack on Ethiopia in 1935 was in many ways
a harbinger of the indecisiveness that would lead to World
War II. In the early years of the war, Ethiopia was retaken
from the Italians by the British, who continued to dominate
the country's external affairs after the war ended in 1945.
A restored Haile Selassie attempted to implement reforms and
modernize the state and certain sectors of the economy. For
the most part, however, mid-twentieth century Ethiopia
resembled what could loosely be termed a "feudal" society.
The later years of Haile Selassie's rule saw a growing
insurgency in Eritrea, which had been federated with and
eventually annexed by the Ethiopian government following
World War II. This insurgency, along with other internal
pressures, including severe famine, placed strains on
Ethiopian society that contributed in large part to the 1974
military rebellion that ended the Haile Selassie regime and,
along with it, more than 2,000 years of imperial rule. The
most salient results of the coup d'‚tat were the eventual
emergence of Lieutenant Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam as
head of state and the reorientation of the government and
national economy from capitalism to Marxism.
A series of crises immediately consumed the revolutionary
regime. First, domestic political violence erupted as groups
maneuvered to take control of the revolution. Then, the
Eritrean insurgency flared at the same time that an uprising
in the neighboring region of Tigray began. In mid-1977
Somalia, intent upon wresting control of the Ogaden region
from Ethiopia and sensing Addis Ababa's distractions,
initiated a war on Ethiopia's eastern frontier. Mengistu, in
need of military assistance, turned to the Soviet Union and
its allies, who supplied vast amounts of equipment and
thousands of Cuban combat troops, which enabled Ethiopia to
repulse the Somali invasion.
Misery mounted throughout Ethiopia in the 1980s. Recurrent
drought and famine, made worse in the north by virtual civil
war, took an enormous human toll, necessitating the infusion
of massive amounts of international humanitarian aid. The
insurgencies in Eritrea, Tigray, and other regions
intensified until by the late 1980s they threatened the
stability of the regime. Drought, economic mismanagement,
and the financial burdens of war ravaged the economy. At the
same time, democratic reform in Eastern Europe and the
Soviet Union threatened to isolate the revolutionary
government politically, militarily, and economically from
its allies.
***************
Ethiopia: Early Populations and Neighboring States
Details on the origins of all the peoples that make up the
population of highland Ethiopia were still matters for
research and debate in the early 1990s. Anthropologists
believe that East Africa's Great Rift Valley is the site of
humankind's origins. (The valley traverses Ethiopia from
southwest to northeast.) In 1974 archaeologists excavating
sites in the Awash River valley discovered 3.5-million-year-
old fossil skeletons, which they named Australopithecus
afarensis. These earliest known hominids stood upright,
lived in groups, and had adapted to living in open areas
rather than in forests.
Coming forward to the late Stone Age, recent research in
historical linguistics--and increasingly in archaeology as
well--has begun to clarify the broad outlines of the
prehistoric populations of present-day Ethiopia. These
populations spoke languages that belong to the Afro-Asiatic
super-language family, a group of related languages that
includes Omotic, Cushitic, and Semitic, all of which are
found in Ethiopia today. Linguists postulate that the
original home of the Afro-Asiatic cluster of languages was
somewhere in northeastern Africa, possibly in the area
between the Nile River and the Red Sea in modern Sudan. From
here the major languages of the family gradually dispersed
at different times and in different directions--these
languages being ancestral to those spoken today in northern
and northeastern Africa and far southwestern Asia.
The first language to separate seems to have been Omotic,
at a date sometime after 13,000 B.C. Omotic speakers moved
southward into the central and southwestern highlands of
Ethiopia, followed at some subsequent time by Cushitic
speakers, who settled in territories in the northern Horn of
Africa, including the northern highlands of Ethiopia. The
last language to separate was Semitic, which split from
Berber and ancient Egyptian, two other Afro-Asiatic
languages, and migrated eastward into far southwestern Asia.
By about 7000 B.C. at the latest, linguistic evidence
indicates that both Cushitic speakers and Omotic speakers
were present in Ethiopia. Linguistic diversification within
each group thereafter gave rise to a large number of new
languages. In the case of Cushitic, these include Agew in
the central and northern highlands and, in regions to the
east and southeast, Saho, Afar, Somali, Sidamo, and Oromo,
all spoken by peoples who would play major roles in the
subsequent history of the region. Omotic also spawned a
large number of languages, Welamo (often called Wolayta) and
Gemu-Gofa being among the most widely spoken of them, but
Omotic speakers would remain outside the main zone of ethnic
interaction in Ethiopia until the late nineteenth century.
Both Cushitic- and Omotic-speaking peoples collected wild
grasses and other plants for thousands of years before they
eventually domesticated those they most preferred. According
to linguistic and limited archaeological analyses, plough
agriculture based on grain cultivation was established in
the drier, grassier parts of the northern highlands by at
least several millennia before the Christian era. Indigenous
grasses such as teff (see Glossary) and eleusine were the
initial domesticates; considerably later, barley and wheat
were introduced from Southwest Asia. The corresponding
domesticate in the better watered and heavily forested
southern highlands was ensete, a root crop known locally as
false banana. All of these early peoples also kept
domesticated animals, including cattle, sheep, goats, and
donkeys. Thus, from the late prehistoric period,
agricultural patterns of livelihood were established that
were to be characteristic of the region through modern
times. It was the descendants of these peoples and cultures
of the Ethiopian region who at various times and places
interacted with successive waves of migrants from across the
Red Sea. This interaction began well before the modern era
and has continued through contemporary times.
During the first millennium B.C. and possibly even earlier,
various Semitic-speaking groups from Southwest Arabia began
to cross the Red Sea and settle along the coast and in the
nearby highlands. These migrants brought with them their
Semitic speech (Sabaean and perhaps others) and script (Old
Epigraphic South Arabic) and monumental stone architecture.
A fusion of the newcomers with the indigenous inhabitants
produced a culture known as pre-Aksumite. The factors that
motivated this settlement in the area are not known, but to
judge from subsequent history, commercial activity must have
figured strongly. The port city of Adulis, near modern-day
Mitsiwa, was a major regional entrep"t and probably the main
gateway to the interior for new arrivals from Southwest
Arabia. Archaeological evidence indicates that by the
beginning of the Christian era this pre-Aksumite culture had
developed western and eastern regional variants. The former,
which included the region of Aksum, was probably the polity
or series of polities that became the Aksumite state.
****************
The Aksumite State
The Aksumite state emerged at about the beginning of the
Christian era, flourished during the succeeding six or seven
centuries, and underwent prolonged decline from the eighth
to the twelfth century A.D. Aksum's period of greatest power
lasted from the fourth through the sixth century. Its core
area lay in the highlands of what is today southern Eritrea,
Tigray, Lasta (in present-day Welo), and Angot (also in
Welo); its major centers were at Aksum and Adulis. Earlier
centers, such as Yeha, also continued to flourish. At the
kingdom's height, its rulers held sway over the Red Sea
coast from Sawakin in present-day Sudan in the north to
Berbera in present-day Somalia in the south, and inland as
far as the Nile Valley in modern Sudan. On the Arabian side
of the Red Sea, the Aksumite rulers at times controlled the
coast and much of the interior of modern Yemen. During the
sixth and seventh centuries, the Aksumite state lost its
possessions in southwest Arabia and much of its Red Sea
coastline and gradually shrank to its core area, with the
political center of the state shifting farther and farther
southward.
Inscriptions from Aksum and elsewhere date from as early as
the end of the second century A.D. and reveal an Aksumite
state that already had expanded at the expense of
neighboring peoples. The Greek inscriptions of King Zoskales
(who ruled at the end of the second century A.D.) claim that
he conquered the lands to the south and southwest of what is
now Tigray and controlled the Red Sea coast from Sawakin
south to the present-day Djibouti and Berbera areas. The
Aksumite state controlled parts of Southwest Arabia as well
during this time, and subsequent Aksumite rulers continually
involved themselves in the political and military affairs of
Southwest Arabia, especially in what is now Yemen. Much of
the impetus for foreign conquest lay in the desire to
control the maritime trade between the Roman Empire and
India and adjoining lands. Indeed, King Zoskales is
mentioned by name in the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea (the
Latin term for the Red Sea is Mare Erythreum), a Greek
shipping guide of the first to third centuries A.D., as
promoting commerce with Rome, Arabia, and India. Among the
African commodities that the Aksumites exported were gold,
rhinoceros horn, ivory, incense, and obsidian; in return,
they imported cloth, glass, iron, olive oil, and wine.
During the third and fourth centuries, the traditions
related to Aksumite rule became fixed. Gedara, who lived in
the late second and early third centuries, is referred to as
the king of Aksum in inscriptions written in Gi'iz (also
seen as Ge'ez), the Semitic language of the Aksumite
kingdom. The growth of imperial traditions was concurrent
with the expansion of foreign holdings, especially in
Southwest Arabia in the late second century A.D. and later
in areas west of the Ethiopian highlands, including the
kingdom of Meroë .
Meroë was centered on the Nile north of the confluence of
the White Nile and Blue Nile. Established by the sixth
century B.C. or earlier, the kingdom's inhabitants were
black Africans who were heavily influenced by Egyptian
culture. It was probably the people of Meroë who were the
first to be called Aithiopiai ("burnt faces") by the ancient
Greeks, thus giving rise to the term Ethiopia that
considerably later was used to designate the northern
highlands of the Horn of Africa and its inhabitants. No
evidence suggests that Meroë had any political influence
over the areas included in modern Ethiopia; economic
influence is harder to gauge because ancient commercial
networks in the area were probably extensive and involved
much long-distance trade.
Sometime around A.D. 300, Aksumite armies conquered Meroë
or forced its abandonment. By the early fourth century A.D.,
King Ezana (reigned 325-60) controlled a domain extending
from Southwest Arabia across the Red Sea west to Meroë and
south from Sawakin to the southern coast of the Gulf of
Aden. As an indication of the type of political control he
exercised, Ezana, like other Aksumite rulers, carried the
title negusa nagast (king of kings), symbolic of his rule
over numerous tribute-paying principalities and a title used
by successive Ethiopian rulers into the mid-twentieth
century.
The Aksumites created a civilization of considerable
distinction. They devised an original architectural style
and employed it in stone palaces and other public buildings.
They also erected a series of carved stone stelae at Aksum
as monuments to their deceased rulers. Some of these stelae
are among the largest known from the ancient world. The
Aksumites left behind a body of written records, that,
although not voluminous, are nonetheless a legacy otherwise
bequeathed only by Egypt and Meroë among ancient African
kingdoms. These records were written in two languages--Gi'iz
and Greek. Gi'iz is assumed to be ancestral to modern
Amharic and Tigrinya, although possibly only indirectly.
Greek was also widely used, especially for commercial
transactions with the Hellenized world of the eastern
Mediterranean. Even more remarkable and wholly unique for
ancient Africa was the minting of coins over an
approximately 300-year period. These coins, many with inlay
of gold on bronze or silver, provide a chronology of the
rulers of Aksum.
One of the most important contributions the Aksumite state
made to Ethiopian tradition was the establishment of the
Christian Church. The Aksumite state and its forebears had
certainly been in contact with Judaism since the first
millennium B.C. and with Christianity beginning in the first
century A.D. These interactions probably were rather
limited. However, during the second and third centuries,
Christianity spread throughout the region. Around A.D. 330-
40, Ezana was converted to Christianity and made it the
official state religion. The variant of Christianity adopted
by the Aksumite state, however, eventually followed the
Monophysite belief, which embraced the notion of one rather
than two separate natures in the person of Christ as defined
by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 (see Ethiopian Orthodox
Christianity, ch. 2).
Little is known about fifth-century Aksum, but early in the
next century Aksumite rulers reasserted their control over
Southwest Arabia, though only for a short time. Later in the
sixth century, however, Sassanian Persians established
themselves in Yemen, effectively ending any pretense of
Aksumite control. Thereafter, the Sassanians attacked
Byzantine Egypt, further disrupting Aksumite trade networks
in the Red Sea area. Over the next century and a half, Aksum
was increasingly cut off from its overseas entrep"ts and as
a result entered a period of prolonged decline, gradually
relinquishing its maritime trading network and withdrawing
into the interior of northern Ethiopia.
****************
Ethiopia and the Early Islamic Period
The rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula had a
significant impact on Aksum during the seventh and eighth
centuries. By the time of the Prophet Muhammad's death (A.D.
632), the Arabian Peninsula, and thus the entire opposite
shore of the Red Sea, had come under the influence of the
new religion. The steady advance of the faith of Muhammad
through the next century resulted in Islamic conquest of all
of the former Sassanian Empire and most of the former
Byzantine dominions.
Despite the spread of Islam by conquest elsewhere, the
Islamic state's relations with Aksum were not hostile at
first. According to Islamic tradition, some members of
Muhammad's family and some of his early converts had taken
refuge with the Aksumites during the troubled years
preceding the Prophet's rise to power, and Aksum was
exempted from the jihad, or holy war, as a result. The Arabs
also considered the Aksumite state to be on a par with the
Islamic state, the Byzantine Empire, and China as one of the
world's greatest kingdoms. Commerce between Aksum and at
least some ports on the Red Sea continued, albeit on an
increasingly reduced scale.
Problems between Aksum and the new Arab power, however,
soon developed. The establishment of Islam in Egypt and the
Levant greatly reduced Aksum's relations with the major
Christian power, the Byzantine Empire. Although contact with
individual Christian churches in Egypt and other lands
continued, the Muslim conquests hastened the isolation of
the church in Aksum. Limited communication continued, the
most significant being with the Coptic Church in Egypt,
which supplied a patriarch to the Aksumites, but such
contacts were insufficient to counter an ever-growing
ecclesiastical isolation. Perhaps more important, Islamic
expansion threatened Aksum's maritime contacts, already
under siege by Sassanian Persians. Red Sea and Indian Ocean
trade, formerly dominated by the Byzantine Empire, Aksum,
and Persia, gradually came under the control of Muslim
Arabs, who also propagated their faith through commercial
activities and other contacts.
Aksum lost its maritime trade routes during and after the
mid-seventh century, by which time relations with the Arabs
had deteriorated to the point that Aksumite and Muslim
fleets raided and skirmished in the Red Sea. This situation
led eventually to the Arab occupation of the Dahlak Islands,
probably in the early eighth century and, it appears, to an
attack on Adulis and the Aksumite fleet. Later, Muslims
occupied Sawakin and converted the Beja people of that
region to Islam.
By the middle of the ninth century, Islam had spread to the
southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and the coast of East
Africa, and the foundations were laid for the later
extensive conversions of the local populace to Islam in
these and adjacent regions. East of the central highlands, a
Muslim sultanate, Ifat, was established by the beginning of
the twelfth century, and some of the surrounding Cushitic
peoples were gradually converted. These conversions of
peoples to the south and southeast of the highlands who had
previously practiced local religions were generally brought
about by the proselytizing efforts of Arab merchants. This
population, permanently Islamicized, thereafter contended
with the Amhara-Tigray peoples for control of the Horn of
Africa.
In response to Islamic expansion in the Red Sea area and
the loss of their seaborne commercial network, the Aksumites
turned their attention to the colonizing of the northern
Ethiopian highlands. The Agew peoples, divided into a number
of groups, inhabited the central and northern highlands, and
it was these peoples who came increasingly under Aksumite
influence. In all probability, this process of acculturation
had been going on since the first migrants from Southwest
Arabia settled in the highlands, but it seems to have
received new impetus with the decline of Aksum's overseas
trade and consequent dependence upon solely African
resources. As early as the mid-seventh century, the old
capital at Aksum had been abandoned; thereafter, it served
only as a religious center and as a place of coronation for
a succession of kings who traced their lineage to Aksum. By
then, Aksumite cultural, political, and religious influence
had been established south of Tigray in such Agew districts
as Lasta, Wag, Angot, and, eventually, Amhara.
This southward expansion continued over the next several
centuries. The favored technique involved the establishment
of military colonies, which served as core populations from
which Aksumite culture, Semitic language, and Christianity
spread to the surrounding Agew population. By the tenth
century, a post-Aksumite Christian kingdom had emerged that
controlled the central northern highlands from modern
Eritrea to Shewa and the coast from old Adulis to Zeila in
present-day Somalia, territory considerably larger than the
Aksumites had governed. Military colonies were also
established farther afield among the Sidama people of the
central highlands. These settlers may have been the
forerunners of such Semitic-speaking groups as the Argobba,
Gafat (extinct), Gurage, and Hareri, although independent
settlement of Semitic speakers from Southwest Arabia is also
possible. During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the
Shewan region was the scene of renewed Christian expansion,
carried out, it appears, by one of the more recently
Semiticized peoples--the Amhara.
About 1137 a new dynasty came to power in the Christian
highlands. Known as the Zagwe and based in the Agew district
of Lasta, it developed naturally out of the long cultural
and political contact between Cushitic- and Semitic-speaking
peoples in the northern highlands. Staunch Christians, the
Zagwe devoted themselves to the construction of new churches
and monasteries. These were often modeled after Christian
religious edifices in the Holy Land, a locale the Zagwe and
their subjects held in special esteem. Patrons of literature
and the arts in the service of Christianity, the Zagwe kings
were responsible, among other things, for the great churches
carved into the rock in and around their capital at Adefa.
In time, Adefa became known as Lalibela, the name of the
Zagwe king to whose reign the Adefa churches' construction
has been attributed.
By the time of the Zagwe, the Ethiopian church was showing
the effects of long centuries of isolation from the larger
Christian and Orthodox worlds. After the seventh century,
when Egypt succumbed to the Arab conquest, the highlanders'
sole contact with outside Christianity was with the Coptic
Church of Egypt, which periodically supplied a patriarch, or
abun, upon royal request. During the long period from the
seventh to the twelfth century, the Ethiopian Orthodox
Church came to place strong emphasis upon the Old Testament
and on the Judaic roots of the church. Christianity in
Ethiopia became imbued with Old Testament belief and
practice in many ways, which differentiated it not only from
European Christianity but also from the faith of other
Monophysites, such as the Copts. Under the Zagwe, the
highlanders maintained regular contact with the Egyptians.
Also, by then the Ethiopian church had demonstrated that it
was not a proselytizing religion but rather one that by and
large restricted its attention to already converted areas of
the highlands. Not until the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries did the church demonstrate real interest in
proselytizing among nonbelievers, and then it did so via a
reinvigorated monastic movement.
****************
The "Restoration" of the "Solomonic" Line
The Zagwe's championing of Christianity and their artistic
achievements notwithstanding, there was much discontent with
Lastan rule among the populace in what is now Eritrea and
Tigray and among the Amhara, an increasingly powerful people
who inhabited a region called Amhara to the south of the
Zagwe center at Adefa. About 1270, an Amhara noble, Yekuno
Amlak, drove out the last Zagwe ruler and proclaimed himself
king. His assumption of power marked yet another stage in
the southward march of what may henceforth be termed the
"Christian kingdom of Ethiopia" and ushered in an era of
increased contact with the Levant, the Middle East, and
Europe.
The new dynasty that Yekuno Amlak founded came to be known
as the "Solomonic" dynasty because its scions claimed
descent not only from Aksum but also from King Solomon of
ancient Israel. According to traditions that were eventually
molded into a national epic, the lineage of Aksumite kings
originated with the offspring of an alleged union between
Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, whose domains Ethiopians
have variously identified with parts of Southwest Arabia
and/or Aksum. Consequently, the notion arose that royal
legitimacy derived from descent in a line of Solomonic
kings. The Tigray and Amhara, who saw themselves as heirs to
Aksum, denied the Zagwe any share in that heritage and
viewed the Zagwe as usurpers. Yekuno Amlak's accession thus
came to be seen as the legitimate "restoration" of the
Solomonic line, even though the Amhara king's northern
ancestry was at best uncertain. Nonetheless, his assumption
of the throne brought the Solomonic dynasty to power, and
all subsequent Ethiopian kings traced their legitimacy to
him and, thereby, to Solomon and Sheba.
Under Yekuno Amlak, Amhara became the geographical and
political center of the Christian kingdom. The new king
concerned himself with the consolidation of his control over
the northern highlands and with the weakening and, where
possible, destruction of encircling pagan and Muslim states.
He enjoyed some of his greatest success against Ifat, an
Islamic sultanate to the southeast of Amhara that posed a
threat to trade routes between Zeila and the central
highlands (see fig. 3).
Upon his death in 1285, Yekuno Amlak was succeeded by his
son, Yagba Siyon (reigned 1285-94). His reign and the period
immediately following were marked by constant struggles
among the sons and grandsons of Yekuno Amlak. This
internecine conflict was resolved sometime around 1300, when
it became the rule for all males tracing descent from Yekuno
Amlak (except the reigning emperor and his sons) to be held
in a mountaintop prison that was approachable only on one
side and that was guarded by soldiers under a commandant
loyal to the reigning monarch. When that monarch died, all
his sons except his heir were also permanently imprisoned.
This practice was followed with some exceptions until the
royal prison was destroyed in the early sixteenth century.
The royal prison was one solution to a problem that would
plague the Solomonic line throughout its history: the
conflict over succession among those who had any claim to
royal lineage.
****************
Amhara Ascendancy
Yekuno Amlak's grandson, Amda Siyon (reigned 1313-44),
distinguished himself by at last establishing firm control
over all of the Christian districts of the kingdom and by
expanding into the neighboring regions of Shewa, Gojam, and
Damot and into Agew districts in the Lake Tana area. He also
devoted much attention to campaigns against Muslim states to
the east and southeast of Amhara, such as Ifat, which still
posed a powerful threat to the kingdom, and against Hadya, a
Sidama state southwest of Shewa. These victories gave him
control of the central highlands and enhanced his influence
over trade routes to the Red Sea. His conquests also helped
facilitate the spread of Christianity i
n the southern
highlands.
Zara Yakob (reigned 1434-68) was without a doubt one of the
greatest Ethiopian rulers. His substantial military
accomplishments included a decisive victory in 1445 over the
sultanate of Adal and its Muslim pastoral allies, who for
two centuries had been a source of determined opposition to
the Christian highlanders. Zara Yakob also sought to
strengthen royal control over what was a highly
decentralized administrative system. Some of his most
notable achievements were in ecclesiastical matters, where
he sponsored a reorganization of the Orthodox Church,
attempted to unify its religious practices, and fostered
proselytization among nonbelievers. Perhaps most remarkable
was a flowering of Gi'iz literature, in which the king
himself composed a number of important religious tracts.
Beginning in the fourteenth century, the power of the
negusa nagast (king of kings), as the emperor was called,
was in theory unlimited, but in reality it was often
considerably less than that. The unity of the state depended
on an emperor's ability to control the local governors of
the various regions that composed the kingdom, these rulers
being self-made men with their own local bases of support.
In general, the court did not interfere with these rulers so
long as the latter demonstrated loyalty through the
collection and submission of royal tribute and through the
contribution of armed men as needed for the king's
campaigns. When the military had to be used, it was under
central control but was composed of provincial levies or
troops who lived off the land, or who were supported by the
provincial governments that supplied them (see Military
Tradition in National Life, ch. 5). The result was that the
expenses borne by the imperial administration were small,
whereas the contributions and tribute provided by the
provinces were substantial.
In theory, the emperor had unrestrained control of
political and military affairs. In actuality, however, local
and even hereditary interests were recognized and respected
so long as local rulers paid tribute, supplied levies of
warriors, and, in general, complied with royal dictates.
Failure to honor obligations to the throne could and often
did bring retribution in the form of battle and, if the
emperor's forces won, plunder of the district and removal of
the local governor. Ethiopian rulers continually moved
around the kingdom, an important technique for assertion of
royal authority and for collection--and consumption--of
taxes levied in kind. The emperor was surrounded by ceremony
and protocol intended to enhance his status as a descendant
of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. He lived in
seclusion and was shielded, except on rare occasions, from
the gaze of all but his servants and high court officials.
Most other subjects were denied access to his person.
The emperor's judicial function was of primary importance.
The administration of justice was centralized at court and
was conditioned by a body of Egyptian Coptic law known as
the Fetha Nagast (Law of Kings), introduced into Ethiopia in
the mid-fifteenth century (see The Legal System, ch. 5).
Judges appointed by the emperor were attached to the
administration of every provincial governor. They not only
heard cases but also determined when cases could be referred
to the governor or sent on appeal to the central government.
*****************
The Trials of the Christian Kingdom and the Decline of Imperial Power
From the mid-fifteenth through the mid-seventeenth century,
Christian Ethiopians were confronted by the aggressiveness
of the Muslim states, the far-reaching migrations of the
Oromo, and the efforts of the Portuguese--who had been
summoned to aid in the fight against the forces of Islam--to
convert them from Monophysite Christianity to Roman
Catholicism. The effects of the Muslim and Oromo activities
and of the civil strife engendered by the Portuguese left
the empire much weakened by the mid-seventeenth century. One
result was the emergence of regional lords essentially
independent of the throne, although in principle subject to
it.
Beginning in the thirteenth century, one of the chief
problems confronting the Christian kingdom, then ruled by
the Amhara, was the threat of Muslim encirclement. By that
time, a variety of peoples east and south of the highlands
had embraced Islam, and some had established powerful
sultanates (or shaykhdoms). One of these was the sultanate
of Ifat in the northeastern Shewan foothills, and another
was centered in the Islamic city of Harer farther east. In
the lowlands along the Red Sea were two other important
Muslim peoples--the Afar and the Somali. As mentioned
previously, Ifat posed a major threat to the Christian
kingdom, but it was finally defeated by Amda Siyon in the
mid-fourteenth century after a protracted struggle. During
this conflict, Ifat was supported by other sultanates and by
Muslim pastoralists, but for the most part, the Islamicized
peoples inhabited small, independent states and were divided
by differences in language and culture. Many of them spoke
Cushitic languages, unlike the Semitic speakers of Harer.
Some were sedentary cultivators and traders, while others
were pastoralists. Consequently, unity beyond a single
campaign or even the coordination of military activities was
difficult to sustain.
Their tendency toward disunity notwithstanding, the Muslim
forces continued to pose intermittent threats to the
Christian kingdom. By the late fourteenth century,
descendants of the ruling family of Ifat had moved east to
the area around Harer and had reinvigorated the old Muslim
sultanate of Adal, which became the most powerful Muslim
entity in the Horn of Africa. Adal came to control the
important trading routes from the highlands to the port of
Zeila, thus posing a threat to Ethiopia's commerce and, when
able, to christian control of the highlands.
Although the Christian state was unable to impose its rule
over the Muslim states to the east, it was strong enough to
resist Muslim incursions through the fourteenth century and
most of the fifteenth. As the long reign of Zara Yakob came
to an end, however, the kingdom again experienced succession
problems. It was the monarchs' practice to marry several
wives, and each sought to forward the cause of her sons in
the struggle for the throne. In those cases where the sons
of the deceased king were too young to take office, there
could also be conflict within the council of advisers at
court. In a polity that had been held together primarily by
a strong warrior king, one or more generations of dynastic
conflict could lead to serious internal and external
problems. Only the persistence of internal conflicts among
Muslims generally and within the sultanate of Adal in
particular prevented a Muslim onslaught. Through the first
quarter of the sixteenth century, relations between
Christian and Muslim powers took the form of raids and
counterraids. Each side sought to claim as many slaves and
as much booty as possible, but neither side attempted to
bring the other firmly under its rule.
By the second decade of the sixteenth century, however, a
young soldier in the Adali army, Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al Ghazi,
had begun to acquire a strong following by virtue of his
military successes and in time became the de facto leader of
Adal. Concurrently, he acquired the status of a religious
leader. Ahmad, who came to be called Grañ (the "Lefthanded")
by his Christian enemies, rallied the ethnically diverse
Muslims, including many Afar and Somali, in a jihad intended
to break Christian power. In 1525 Grañ led his first
expedition against a Christian army and over the next two or
three years continued to attack Ethiopian territory, burning
churches, taking prisoners, and collecting booty. At the
Battle of Shimbra Kure in 1529, according to historian
Taddesse Tamrat, "Imam Ahmad broke the backbone of Christian
resistance against his offensives." The emperor, Lebna
Dengel (reigned 1508-40), was unable to organize an
effective defense, and in the early 1530s Grañ 's armies
penetrated the heartland of the Ethiopian state--northern
Shewa, Amhara, and Tigray, devastating the countryside and
thereafter putting much of what had been the Christian
kingdom under the rule of Muslim governors.
It was not until 1543 that the emperor Galawdewos (reigned
1540-49), joining with a small number of Portuguese soldiers
requested earlier by Lebna Dengel, defeated the Muslim
forces and killed Grañ . The death of the charismatic Grañ
destroyed the unity of the Muslim forces that had been
created by their leader's successes, skill, and reputation
as a warrior and religious figure. Christian armies slowly
pushed the Muslims back and regained control of the
highlands. Ethiopians had suffered extraordinary material
and moral losses during the struggle against Grañ , and it
would be decades or even centuries before they would recover
fully. The memory of the bitter war against Grañ remains
vivid even today.
**************
Oromo Migrations and Their Impact
In the mid-sixteenth century, its political and military
organization already weakened by the Muslim assault, the
Christian kingdom began to be pressured on the south and
southeast by movements of the Oromo (called Galla by the
Amhara). These migrations also affected the Sidama, Muslim
pastoralists in the lowlands, and Adal. At this time, the
Oromo, settled in far southern Ethiopia, were an egalitarian
pastoral people divided into a number of competing segments
or groups but sharing a type of age-set system (see
Glossary) of social organization called the gada system (see
Glossary), which was ideally suited for warfare. Their
predilection toward warfare, apparently combined with an
expanding population of both people and cattle, led to a
long-term predatory expansion at the expense of their
neighbors after about 1550. Unlike the highland Christians
or on occasion the lowland Muslims, the Oromo were not
concerned with establishing an empire or imposing a
religious system. In a series of massive but uncoordinated
movements during the second half of the sixteenth century,
they penetrated much of the southern and northern highlands
as well as the lowlands to the east, affecting Christians
and Muslims equally.
These migrations also profoundly affected the Oromo.
Disunited in the extreme, they attacked and raided each
other as readily as neighboring peoples in their quest for
new land and pastures. As they moved farther from their
homeland and encountered new physical and human
environments, entire segments of the Oromo population
adapted by changing their mode of economic life, their
political and social organization, and their religious
adherence. Many mixed with the Amhara (particularly in
Shewa), became Christians, and eventually obtained a share
in governing the kingdom. In some cases, royal family
members came from the union of Amhara and Oromo elements. In
other cases, Oromo, without losing their identity, became
part of the nobility. But no matter how much they changed,
Oromo groups generally retained their language and sense of
local identity. So differentiated and dispersed had they
become, however, that few foreign observers recognized the
Oromo as a distinct people until the twentieth century.
In a more immediate sense, the Oromo migration resulted in
a weakening of both Christian and Muslim power and drove a
wedge between the two faiths along the eastern edge of the
highlands. In the Christian kingdom, Oromo groups
infiltrated large areas in the east and south, with large
numbers settling in Shewa and adjacent parts of the central
highlands. Others penetrated as far north as eastern Tigray.
The effect of the Oromo migrations was to leave the
Ethiopian state fragmented and much reduced in size, with an
alien population in its midst. Thereafter, the Oromo played
a major role in the internal dynamics of Ethiopia, both
assimilating and being assimilated as they were slowly
incorporated into the Christian kingdom. In the south, the
Sidama fiercely resisted the Oromo, but, as in the central
and northern highlands, they were compelled to yield at
least some territory. In the east, the Oromo swept up to and
even beyond Harer, dealing a devastating blow to what
remained of Adal and contributing in a major way to its
decline.
*******************
Contact with European Christendom
Egyptian Muslims had destroyed the neighboring Nile River
valley's Christian states in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries. Tenuous relations with Christians in Western
Europe and the Byzantine Empire continued via the Coptic
Church in Egypt. The Coptic patriarchs in Alexandria were
responsible for the assignment of Ethiopian patriarchs--a
church policy that Egypt's Muslim rulers occasionally tried
to use to their advantage. For centuries after the Muslim
conquests of the early medieval period, this link with the
Eastern churches constituted practically all of Ethiopia's
administrative connection with the larger Christian world.
A more direct if less formal contact with the outside
Christian world was maintained through the Ethiopian
Monophysite community in Jerusalem and the visits of
Ethiopian pilgrims to the Holy Land. Ethiopian monks from
the Jerusalem community attended the Council of Florence in
1441 at the invitation of the pope, who was seeking to
reunite the Eastern and Western churches. Westerners learned
about Ethiopia through the monks and pilgrims and became
attracted to it for two main reasons. First, many believed
Ethiopia was the long-sought land of the legendary Christian
priest-king of the East, Prester John. Second, the West
viewed Ethiopia as a potentially valuable ally in its
struggle against Islamic forces that continued to threaten
southern Europe until the Turkish defeat at the Battle of
Lepanto in 1571.
Portugal, the first European power to circumnavigate Africa
and enter the Indian Ocean, displayed initial interest in
this potential ally by sending a representative to Ethiopia
in 1493. The Ethiopians, in turn, sent an envoy to Portugal
in 1509 to request a coordinated attack on the Muslims.
Europe received its first written accounts of the country
from Father Francisco Alvarez, a Franciscan who accompanied
a Portuguese diplomatic expedition to Ethiopia in the 1520s.
His book, The Prester John of the Indies, stirred further
European interest and proved a valuable source for future
historians. The first Portuguese forces responded to a
request for aid in 1541, although by that time the
Portuguese were concerned primarily with strengthening their
hegemony over the Indian Ocean trade routes and with
converting the Ethiopians to Roman Catholicism.
Nevertheless, joining the forces of the Christian kingdom,
the Portuguese succeeded eventually in helping to defeat and
kill Grañ .
Portuguese Roman Catholic missionaries arrived in 1554.
Efforts to induce the Ethiopians to reject their Monophysite
beliefs and accept Rome's supremacy continued for nearly a
century and engendered bitterness as pro- and anti-Catholic
parties maneuvered for control of the state. At least two
emperors in this period allegedly converted to Roman
Catholicism. The second of these, Susenyos (reigned 1607-
32), after a particularly fierce battle between adherents of
the two faiths, abdicated in 1632 in favor of his son,
Fasiladas (reigned 1632-67), to spare the country further
bloodshed. The expulsion of the Jesuits and all Roman
Catholic missionaries followed. This religious controversy
left a legacy of deep hostility toward foreign Christians
and Europeans that continued into the twentieth century. It
also contributed to the isolation that followed for the next
200 years.
*******************
The Gonder State and the Ascendancy of the Nobility
Emperor Fasiladas kept out the disruptive influences of the
foreign Christians, dealt with sporadic Muslim incursions,
and in general sought to reassert central authority and to
reinvigorate the Solomonic monarchy and the Orthodox Church.
He revived the practice of confining royal family members on
a remote mountaintop to lessen challenges to his rule and
distinguished himself by reconstructing the cathedral at
Aksum (destroyed by Grañ ) and by establishing his camp at
Gonder--a locale that gradually developed into a permanent
capital and that became the cultural and political center of
Ethiopia during the Gonder period.
Although the Gonder period produced a flowering of
architecture and art that lasted more than a century, Gonder
monarchs never regained full control over the wealth and
manpower that the nobility had usurped during the long wars
against Grañ and then the Oromo. Many nobles, commanding the
loyalty of their home districts, had become virtually
independent, especially those on the periphery of the
kingdom. Moreover, during Fasiladas's reign and that of his
son Yohannis I (reigned 1667-82), there were substantial
differences between the two monastic orders of the Orthodox
Church concerning the proper response to the Jesuit
challenge to Monophysite doctrine on the nature of Christ.
The positions of the two orders were often linked to
regional opposition to the emperor, and neither Fasiladas
nor Yohannis was able to settle the issue without alienating
important components of the church.
Iyasu I (reigned 1682-1706) was a celebrated military
leader who excelled at the most basic requirement of the
warrior-king. He campaigned constantly in districts on the
south and southeast of the kingdom and personally led
expeditions to Shewa and beyond, areas from which royal
armies had long been absent. Iyasu also attempted to mediate
the doctrinal quarrel in the church, but a solution eluded
him. He sponsored the construction of several churches,
among them Debre Birhan Selassie, one of the most beautiful
and famous of the churches in Gonder.
Iyasu's reign also saw the Oromo begin to play a role in
the affairs of the kingdom, especially in the military
sense. Iyasu co-opted some of the Oromo groups by enlisting
them into his army and by converting them to Christianity.
He came gradually to rely almost entirely upon Oromo units
and led them in repeated campaigns against their countrymen
who had not yet been incorporated into the Amhara-Tigray
state. Successive Gonder kings, particularly Iyasu II
(reigned 1730-55), likewise relied upon Oromo military units
to help counter challenges to their authority from the
traditional nobility and for purposes of campaigning in far-
flung Oromo territory. By the late eighteenth century, the
Oromo were playing an important role in political affairs as
well. At times during the first half of the nineteenth
century, Oromo was the primary language at court, and Oromo
leaders came to number among the highest nobility of the
kingdom.
During the reign of Iyoas (reigned 1755-69), son of Iyasu
II, the most important political figure was Ras Mikael
Sehul, a good example of a great noble who made himself the
power behind the throne. Mikael's base was the province of
Tigray, which by now enjoyed a large measure of autonomy and
from which Mikael raised up large armies with which he
dominated the Gonder scene. In 1769 he demonstrated his
power by ordering the murder of two kings (Iyoas and
Yohannis II) and by placing Tekla Haimanot II (son of
Yohannis II) on the throne, a weak ruler who did Mikael's
bidding. Mikael continued in command until the early 1770s,
when a coalition of his opponents compelled him to retire to
Tigray, where he eventually died of old age.
Mikael's brazen murder of two kings and his undisguised
role as kingmaker in Gonder signaled the beginning of what
Ethiopians have long termed the Zemene Mesafint (Era of the
Princes), a time when Gonder kings were reduced to
ceremonial figureheads while their military functions and
real power lay with powerful nobles. During this time,
traditionally dating from 1769 to 1855, the kingdom no
longer existed as a united entity capable of concerted
political and military activity. Various principalities were
ruled by autonomous nobles, and warfare was constant.
The five-volume work Travels to Discover the Source of the
Nile by James Bruce, the Scottish traveler who lived in
Ethiopia from 1769 to 1772, describes some of the bloody
conflicts and personal rivalries that consumed the kingdom.
During the most confused period, around 1800, there were as
many as six rival emperors. Provincial warlords were masters
of the territories they controlled but were subject to raids
from other provinces. Peasants often left the land to become
soldiers or brigands. In this period, too, Oromo nobles,
often nominally Christian and in a few cases Muslim, were
among those who struggled for hegemony over the highlands.
The church, still riven by theological controversy,
contributed to the disunity that was the hallmark of the
Zemene Mesafint.
******************
The Making of Modern Ethiopia
After the mid-nineteenth century, the different regions of
the Gonder state were gradually reintegrated to form the
nucleus of a modern state by strong monarchs such as
Tewodros II, Yohannis IV, and Menelik II, who resisted the
gradual expansion of European control in the Red Sea area
and at the same time staved off a number of other challenges
to the integrity of the reunited kingdom.
******************
The Reestablishment of the Ethiopian Monarchy
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Gonder
state consisted of the northern and central highlands and
the lower elevations immediately adjacent to them. This area
was only nominally a monarchy, as rival nobles fought for
the military title of ras (roughly, marshal; literally, head
in Amharic) or the highest of all nonroyal titles, ras-
bitwoded, that combined supreme military command with the
duties of first minister at court. These nobles often were
able to enthrone and depose princes who carried the empty
title of negusa nagast.
The major peoples who made up the Ethiopian state were the
Amhara and the Tigray, both Semitic speakers, and Cushitic-
speaking peoples such as the Oromo and those groups speaking
Agew languages, many of whom were Christian by the early
1800s. In some cases, their conversion had been accompanied
by their assimilation into Amhara culture or, less often,
Tigray culture; in other cases, they had become Christian
but had retained their languages. The state's largest ethnic
group was the Oromo, but the Oromo were neither politically
nor culturally unified. Some were Christian, spoke Amharic,
and had intermarried with the Amhara. Other Christian Oromo
retained their language, although their modes of life a |
