Battling Brothers - Ethiopia and Eritrea – Ethiopian Journey – Blog Post no 72

Eritrean President and Late Prime minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia

Ethiopia and India have something in common. Both have a long-lasting military conflict with one of their neighbours. India has fought many wars with Pakistan and is still fighting a proxy, so-called ideology based war.

Ethoipia and Eritrea Maps 

Similarly, Ethiopia has fought and is still fighting with its neighbour to the north, Eritrea. Let us look at some facts and figures.

India’s land size is 32,87,000 million square km and Pakistan land size is 7,96,095 square km. Pakistan land size is almost a quarter of India’s size. By Comparison, Ethiopia’s land size is 11,04,000 square km and Eritrea is only 117,600 square km, one-tenth of Ethiopia’s size.

Eritrea is the 99th smallest country in the world according to size. Eritrea and Telangana state (112,077 square km) are of the same size, what a coincidence!!!

Tigray

Oromo

Amhara

Somali

Sidama

Ethiopia’s relations with Eritrea are quite difficult to explain, especially from a foreigner’s perspective. Ethiopia is the homeland of many tribes; Oromos 34.5%, Amhara 26.9%, Somali 6.2%, Tigray 6.1%, Sidama 4%, Gurage 2.5% and Wolayta 2.3%. Of these, the Oromos, Amharas, Somali and Tigray make up for the majority and they all have inbuilt contradictions among themselves.

Eritrea: In the middle ages Eritrea was called Medri Bahri (sea-land). The name Eritrea comes from the Greek name for Red sea (Erythra Thalassa). It first came to the notice of the eastern world with the formation of Italian Eritrea in 1889. Italy had left an indelible impression on Eritrea and its mark is profound in the country’s architecture especially in the capital city of Eritrea, Asmara. Asmara was referred to as ‘Little Rome’ by the doting Italians.

Eritrea Map

The territory later became Eritrea Governorate in 1936. But when the Italian army was defeated by the British army in 1942, Eritrea came under the British administration.  After deliberations in the United Nations, it was decided that Eritrea would be self-governed for its domestic affairs through an elected Eritrean Parliament while trade, foreign affairs and defence would be handled in a federal status with the Government of Ethiopia.

But in 1962, the government of Ethiopia cancelled the Eritrean Parliament and annexed Eritrea as one of the provinces of Ethiopia. But by then Eritreans guessed what the Ethiopian government was up to and therefore in 1960, they formed the Eritrean Liberation Front. After 30 years of armed struggle, Eritrea gained its de-facto independence in 1991. The name of the new state was defined as the State of Eritrea.

EPRDF

The freedom fight for separation from Ethiopia had a very interesting twist to it. After the dethroning of the Hailey Selassie’s government, Ethiopia was ruled by the Derg regime which was supported and funded by the USSR. But by the late eighties, USSR started weakening and its grip on its ‘friendly’ supported countries, started to decline.

By this time the fighters of two countries came together -  The Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) and the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a  rainbow coalition front consisting of The Oromo People's Democratic Organization (OPDO), the Amhara National Democratic Movement  (ANDM), the Southern Ethiopian Democratic Movement (SEPDM) and the Tigrayan Liberation Front (TPLF).

Derg Regime 

The combined fronts defeated the Derg regime and that paved for the formation of a new government in Ethiopia headed by Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front and the Prime Minister was Meles Zenawi who himself was the head of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

Ex-Prime Minister of Ethiopia Meles Zenawi 

Although Meles and his administration claimed that they preferred a united but federal state that included the Eritrean state, as Meles’s TPLF fought together with EPLF, Meles left the decision to the Eritrean citizens hoping that the independence referendum would vote against secession from Ethiopia.

However, after the EPLF secured their borders and after the majority of Eritreans voted for independence on 24 May 1993, Isaias Afewerki became the leader of Eritrea.

President of Eritrea Isaias Afewerki 

This is what led to bad relations between the two neighbouring countries. The Eritrean – Ethiopian War took place from May 1998 to June 2000 between two of the world's poorest countries. Both spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the war and suffered tens of thousands of casualties as a direct consequence of the conflict.

Eritrean Army 

Ethiopian Army 

According to a ruling by an international commission in The Hague, Eritrea broke international law and triggered the war by invading Ethiopia. At the end of the war, Ethiopia held all of the disputed territories and had advanced into Eritrea. After the war ended, the Eritrea – Ethiopia Boundary Commission, a body founded by the UN, established that Badme, the disputed territory at the heart of the conflict, belongs to Eritrea.

Badme region

As of now, Ethiopia still holds the territory near Badme, including the town itself. One of my Ethiopian colleagues very proudly said that it was the Indian army under deputation to the United Nation that patrols the Eritrea - Ethiopia border. I felt so very proud that our country is keeping the peace between these two beautiful countries of the Horn of Africa under the aegis of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE). The entire peacekeeping force (the Dogra regiment) was from India.

Indian Dogra regiment, UNMEE

The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) was established by the United Nations Security Council in July 2000 to monitor a ceasefire in the border war that began in 1998 between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The mission maintained its headquarters in Asmara (Eritrea), and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), and consisted of 1,676 military personnel. 1,500 of these peacekeepers were from the Indian Army. In addition, there were about 147 international civilians, 202 local civilians and 67 UN Volunteers. USMEE withdrew its operations in 30th July 2008.

Asmara, Eritrea 

Asmara, the capital of Eritrea:  is locally known as Asmera and has an interesting story behind its name.  Legend says that women from four villages came together and built the first church and it was a mission accomplished. From those words came the name of the city, Asmera ("They made them unite" in Tigrinya).

Asmara, Eritrea 

Asmara is the capital city and the largest city of Eritrea. It has a population of just over 800,000 inhabitants and sits at an elevation of 2,325 metres (7,628 feet). At 2,325 metres it is the sixth highest capital in the world by altitude. In 2017, the city was declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Indian faculty friends who worked in Asmara told me that the city is very nice to work in and that Eritreans are very similar to Ethiopians in their work culture and customs. The city is spectacularly clean and has a very pleasant climate - what in India is referred to as a ‘hill station climate’, very mild and enjoyable. The only grouse that the Indian faculty had is that the salary earned in Eritrea is only repatriable by 60% meaning that 40% of salary has to be spent in Eritrea itself.

Unlike the 60% only repatriable rule that Eritrea enforces on its foreign workers, Ethiopia till very recently allowed, 100% repatriation; 100% of salary can be saved and sent to India. But I am told that new rules have been framed and that from this year’s contract there is income tax being levied on expatriate salaries. This might mean a death knell for Indian teachers teaching in Ethiopia – what with salaries increasing in India and the double whammy of the increased cost of living and imposition of income tax will make Ethiopia a less preferred destination.

“Are you not coming to the class?” - Ethiopian Journey - Blog Post No – 35

 Ethiopian Graduate students come to the university from a very vigorous schooling system. Government Universities in Ethiopia can be compared with the Indian IITs and IIMs. The students come from all over Ethiopia and are allotted seats in different universities based on their merit score.

All the expenses are taken care by the university. Typically students come to BDU (Bahirdar University) on their own but from that point onward all their expenses including tuition fees, food, and accommodation are taken care by the university.

By the time I returned back to India, the federal Government came out with an innovative scheme where all the expenses were initially paid for by the government. But the students had to sign a document promising that they would serve the government or would work in the country for a period of four years. If any of the students break the bond they would have to repay all the expenses incurred along with interest.

Students would come to the class with a single note book. Most Ethiopian students in my time would have very small and compact hand writing. I was initially puzzled but quickly understood the logic. They were conserving space! Many of my students could write one entire day’s class notes in a single page. So one note book of 200 pages would be enough to write notes for three subjects. So with two, 200 page note books they would manage to write down all the notes for the whole semester.

Most boys would wear jeans and T-shirts and on it would wear an unbuttoned shirt. The open shirt would double as a coat. Some would wear a stylish coat. Most girls would wear a western dress or a long coat.

Ethiopian students have some of the most startlingly big eyes in the world. And to go with those big eyes they had the most solemn expressions on their faces. They would simply stare, not smile, not acknowledge me and remain expression less. It was annoying and yes, it was very puzzling. The facts about Ethiopians in the book that my Brother-in-law, Sai Matam had gifted came flashing into my mind.

Ethiopians endured a very brutal Derg regime that suppressed all type of dissent. So any expression shown on the face would instantaneously mean punishment or even death during that regime. So an entire generation of Ethiopians had mastered the art of ‘dead pan expression’ on their faces. Once they trusted and liked a person, Ethiopians opened up and their faces would explode into a mosaic of expressions.

They would listen solemnly and when I made eye contact, would give a shy smile and drop their eyes. Most would not ask questions as English was not the medium of instruction till graduation and they would speak English very haltingly. They would get confused between I and you and would inter change the usage. For example one of my students asked me “Mr. Anil (they would address the faculty by name) who teaches your children at home?” I replied “my wife”, “my wife!?” he asked, I got little perturbed but said “not your wife, MY WIFE”. Seeing his puzzled expression, I simply left the issue. Some things are better as they are!

Another student came to the faculty room and enquired “are you not coming to the class?” I was totally foxed. If I said yes, it means that I would not be coming and if I say No, it meant that I would be coming to the class. But I was not very sure if the student actually understood the meaning. Giving up, I simply nodded my head and walked to the class room as quickly as I could. 

If I asked a question for which they have to give an answer in affirmative, the students would emit a soft guttural sound “ah”. Initially I thought that the entire class was grunting. Even after four years I found the Ethiopian way of saying yes, charming, puzzling and yes a little disconcerting!

I remember my first class of “Sales Management”. I wore a very formal dress and a matching tie. I was sure the students were very impressed by my persona. I cleared my voice and said ‘Good morning students” in my best voice “Let us get the ball rolling”.

There was a pin drop silence in the class! I could hear the leaves rustling from outside the classroom. The students initially looked confused but later a knowing smile came on many students’ faces. They started looking around. Then it struck me. ‘Oh my, my”, I said to myself. Not knowing the idiom “let us get the ball rolling” meant ‘let us get started or let’s start’, my Ethiopian students have thought that this strange Indian teacher was a football lover and wanted to have a game of football in the class room itself.