Open Season on Ethiopia
by Gail Warden
This article originally appeared in Green Socialist Magazine Spring 2004.
Tourism to Ethiopia has doubled in the past six months, investment is increasing fast, Ethiopians are returning to their homeland in large numbers, a
bumper harvest is on the way that will break all records - all in all things are looking really good. Then along come British journalists to spoil it all.
First off the starter’s block was the BBC with a programme marking the 20th anniversary of Michael Buerk “saving Ethiopia”. Another excuse for showing distressing scenes of people dying of starvation in 1984 accompanied by a very poor account of modern day Ethiopia. Next year, on the 20th anniversary of Band Aid, the same footage will, once again, be splashed across our screens to remind us what generous souls we were. But the West did not save Ethiopia. Our contributions helped, but the real work was done by Ethiopians themselves who fought the despotic Derg regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam, forcing its retreat, and who drove truck-loads of aid grain overland from Khartoum at night (because the Derg bombed them during daylight hours). I don’t recall Mr Buerk fighting that fight or driving one of those trucks. Of course his reports and those of other journalists highlighted the 1984 famine and raised awareness, but this does not give them the right to claim Ethiopia as their own. The real heroes are unknown to most westerners - the tens of thousands who risked their lives, too often with fatal consequences. Not for nothing is it the case that ninety per cent of Ethiopians have heard neither of Band Aid nor of Michael Buerk.
The fundraising was, though, totally exceptional and on a scale never seen in the world before. Most of the credit rightly goes to Bob Geldof for this. But much of the aid sent to Ethiopia went in, not over the northern border directly to those who needed it most, but through the port of Assab which was government controlled, so that the aid fed soldiers and, many believe, prolonged the war.
At the height of the recent drought, in 2003, another British TV crew with documentary maker Sorious Samura went to live with a hungry family in northern Ethiopia to “share their pain”. He ate when they ate and went hungry with them – great television, but deeply shocking to Ethiopians who could not understand the crass exploitation involved in watching people go hungry on camera. Samura was aided and abetted by a western NGO that I will not name. He later recommended to Observer readers the “Sorious Samura special diet” saying “in four weeks eating with the rural poor in Ethiopia for my documentary Surviving Hunger, I lost about 3 stone, so I know it works”. Ethiopians were rightly upset at the film’s blatant exploitation of their fellow countrymen and women. Nowhere in the film was it made clear that those suffering from hunger are in the minority. It is true that five million farmers, of a population of 70m, are still reliant on food aid to supplement their income, but this number will reduce in the coming months and years as water-harvesting, voluntary re-settlement and other policies already piloted are fully implemented, as investment in agribusiness continues to rise and income from tourism replaces coffee as the main foreign currency earner. Lonely Planet, Trailfinders and Stanfords the map people have all recently said that Ethiopia is going to be really big in tourist terms in the coming two to three years.
But these films are not about Ethiopia. They are about us in the “me me me” ego-centric western culture. Ethiopians are, of course, graciously grateful to us for highlighting the 1984 famine and for sending our hard-earned cash. But let’s leave them in peace now. The 1984 famine happened, it’s over. The past fourteen years have seen radical improvements. Despite a recent three-year drought, as severe as that of 1984, Ethiopians did not die in vast numbers because early warning systems were there, grain stores had been established, there is responsible governance and the roads necessary for delivering aid to where it was needed had been built. This is the territory that Michael Buerk’s film should have covered.
It is time to move on, Ethiopians certainly want to. Let’s support them in their bid for freedom – freedom to develop their country in the way they want to. The IMF has begun, at last, to understand that Ethiopians know best and is more appreciative of the progress Ethiopia has made than it was. (The IMF’s past policies for Ethiopia were catastrophic and led to greater hardship – read Joe Stiglitz on this topic). It has praised Ethiopia’s poverty reduction strategy and its ability to grow its economy in spite of severe drought. The IMF has recently cancelled Ethiopia’s $1.3bn debt; the Americans and Germans tried to block this move but Gordon Brown and the French pushed it through. The new Blair Geldof Commission for Africa, of which Ethiopia’s Prime Minister is a member, will highlight Africa’s problems and promote solutions in the coming year.
I am tired of seeing Ethiopians patronised. They are a strong, hard-working and talented people who deserve recognition for what they have achieved in the past 14 years and in their long history. They have laid the foundations of a sound democracy - a written constitution guarantees rights for all its peoples, devolution of power to the regions has made strong and effective local government, a bi-cameral parliament houses both MPs and a second chamber with fully elected members from all the regions of the country. Perhaps the UK could learn from Ethiopia (the current House of Lords fiasco could not happen in Ethiopia) where there is real accountable government and where an executive has to consult parliament on issues, including the all-important issue of war. When Eritrea invaded Ethiopia in May 1998 Prime Minister Meles Zenawi immediately informed parliament, which thoroughly debated the planned response. A very different scenario from what happened vis-à-vis Blair and Iraq.
In addition to political reform, health and education provision has increased massively. Each woreda (district) in Ethiopia now has a clinic and secondary school and practically every village has a primary school. Thousands of schools and clinics have been built in the last 12 years. School enrolment has grown in that time from 28% to 65%. All in all the future looks bright for Ethiopia, but you wouldn’t know it from reading the western media.
Footnote
How can you support Ethiopia? Go and visit… the ancient city of Axum, the rock-hewn churches of Lalibella, the 17th century castles of Gondar, the Blue Nile Falls. Or go white-water rafting on the Omo River. Tourism will save Ethiopia and help it on the road to prosperity. And I can guarantee you will be warmly welcomed.