The merchants of the wars and the plight of horn of Africa

 

Anastasias Alexander, Professor of Eastern and African Studies

This article will have a three part and the first one is about the challenges that Ethiopia is facing

I am writing my observations on what is happening in Ethiopia and its neighbors because I have a special attachment to this country. My grandfather immigrated to Ethiopia fleeing the Ottoman Turks’ genocide and stayed in Ethiopia all his life.  I grew up in Ethiopia and I have visited Ethiopia five times on study tours since 1985.

Each time I come back; I observe a drastic loss of confidence in the people towards their leaders. The leaders are egotistical and focused only on staying in power at whatever means. They don’t have principles, moral, religious beliefs and cultural norms.

Tragically, the political elites are not only fighting each other but also socio-religious values that have kept the Ethiopian people for thousands of years. Furthermore, the political rulers’ actions and inactions are not driven by thoughtful process, what is good for the people or the country but designed to impress foreign powers.

This bring me to a question why then foreign interested in the Ethiopian internal problems?

Ethiopia is located at a strategic location on the Red See and till recently used to control the African side of the Red Sea.  Now through sustained pressure for more than 30 years, Ethiopia is forced to retreat from the Red Sea by 35 km inland.

The Red Sea is a vital waterway for international relation. It connects Asia, Africa and Europe through the Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. It is also a strategic location for trade, security and energy. Many countries have interests and influence in the Red Sea region, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran, Turkey and the US.  Despite Ethiopia’s forced retreat inland, Ethiopia is still close to be ignored.

The other foreign interest is the Nile.  Ethiopia is blessed to be a water tower of Africa with 122 km³/year fresh water. This is big compared to Saudi Arabia that has a total renewable water resource of 2.4 km³/year, UAE has 0.9 km³/year, Israel has 1.7 km³/year, and Egypt get has 58.5 km³/year from Ethiopia and Sudan much higher.  All the rain falling on the Ethiopian highland goes to the neighboring countries and the countries do not want Ethiopia to develop and start utilizing it’s God given resources.

 

The third global interest is it’s history.  Ethiopia is probably the only country that had managed to defeat all colonialists over the three thousands year to keep her independence.  Those who were interested to conquer and subjugate the other races find Ethiopia to be a bad example to others Africans and Asian countries.  Hence, they want to erase Ethiopia or belittle her achievements.

The finial and the biggest interest on Ethiopia is it’s unique religion. The Ethiopia Orthodox Church is one of the oldest church and establishment without interruption.  Ethiopia was once a Judaic country before Christ and when the salvation came with Christ, Ethiopia accepted Christ as savior to change it’s synagogue to Churches. The Ethiopian eunuch was a high-ranking public official in the royal courts of Ethiopia. According to Acts 8:27-39, he was baptized by Philip the Evangelist on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza.

 

So Ethiopia accepted Jesus Christ direct from God’s apostil and not through intermediary of European evangelists.  This obvious to all Christians but the biggest concern of European Christian is to convert Ethiopia at any means necessary to their own version of Christianity.

 

Finally, Ethiopia was the first country to accept Islam. The first migration to Abyssinia (modern-day Ethiopia) was in 615 when a group of Muslims were counseled by Prophet Muhammad to escape persecution in Mecca and travel to Ethiopia, which was ruled by Najashi, (Negash) which means a pious Christian king. As a result Ethiopia is a home of the first Sunni Muslims, but now, with emergence of a radical Islam, Ethiopian Muslims are marked for conversion.

These powers have been trying to influence, conquer or destroy Ethiopia as part of securing their geo-political interests, water security or religious domination

Ethiopia has faced many challenges and survived with able leaders who often rely on the people's trust and backing of the church. For example, Ethiopia faced the Ottoman Turks and its surrogate Giragn Ahmed and defeated the scramble for Africa by Europeans at the battle of Adwa under the leadership of Ate Minilik. The Ottoman and Durvish attack was repelled by Ate Yohannes at the expense of giving his life. However, there are concerns that Ethiopia is facing challenges with its current leadership.

The  challenge the new century

 

The challenges are the same but Colonel Abiy Ahmed Ali is not up to the job or does not have the intellectual caliber or modesty to listen to the wisdom of the people. He is uneducated, egoistic, narcissistic and power-hungry and he is simply a bad job of the Western experiment. project. He bows to anything and anyone so long as he believes that it keeps him in power.

Hence, my advice to Ethiopians is they need to walk-up to the new reality to have a leadership they trust and follow.