AFRICA NINTH STOP ETHIOPIA (ABYSSINIA THAT WAS)

BACKGROUND :

Africa covers 6 per cent of the surface of the Earth and provides 20.4 per cent of Earth’s landmass.   Occupying this massive  and significant territory there are 1.1 Billion people. Africa is the second largest and second most populous continent on Earth.


ETHIOPIA

Ethiopia, it is probably fair to say, conjures up in the Western mind two images - its former Emperor Hailie Selassie ( probably filed mentally rightly or wrongly under the category "good thing") and the Evelyn Waugh book "WAUGH IN AFRICA" ( similarly filed under the heading "comic writing" or alternatively "No longer PC").

Landlocked Ethiopia is bordered to the North by Eritrea, to the East by Somalia, to the South by Kenya and to the West by Sudan. It is populated 88% by 11 tribes and a wide mixture comprises the remaining 12 %. With an estimated population of 90,000,000 it is the 14th most populous country in the world and the second most populous in Africa. It is the 27th largest country in the world in area and the 10th largest country in Africa.

However, Ethiopia is only the 122nd ranked world exporting country, but it is the 96th largest importing country in the world.(Interestingly, my own country Australia ranks 20th on both Imports and Exports lists - not bad for the 52nd Ranked country by population.)

Considering those statistics, I am amazed that I have so rarely given Ethiopia any thought at all.

Said to have historical roots back to the second millenium B.C., Ethiopia has, for most of the time been a monarchy. In the early centuries A.D. it was part of the Kingdom of Aksum. In more recent times it successfully resisted the European powers' scramble for colonial territory in Africa.
Even in the 1880s she succeeded in defeating Italy's attempts to conquer her. However the claims of the Ethiopian Emperor that he was the heir of a 3,000 years old dynasty were fanciful.

Between 1936 and 1941, Fascist Italy at length succeeded in occupying the country. British Empire forces then joined Ethiopian forces in driving out the Italians in a campaign that degenerated into guerilla war until 1943 when the Italians were finally beaten.In 1944 the British at last recognised Ethiopian sovereignty and this recognition was cemented in the Treaty signed in December, 1944. Since 1995 the country has been a federated Republic.Prior to that , and after the death of Hailie Selassie ,the country was ruled by a Communist Russian backed Military Dictatorship called the Derg.

The Ethiopian territory is a high plateau with a central mountain range divided by the Great Rift Valley. The highest point is Ras Dejen at 4,533 metres. 15% of the land is arable Permanent crops take up only 1.14% of the land.The Great Rift Valley is geologically active with occasional earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and drought.The Blue Nile rises in Lake Tana in the country's Northwest. It is believed that the coffee bean, grain sorghum and the castor bean are native to Ethiopia.

A slight majority of the population is Christian , mostly members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. One third of the population is Sunni Mohammedan.