SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – It is fitting that one of the most signature discoveries of humankind — a finding that has helped define a big part of our prehistory — would take place in one of the most unusual and historic places on the planet.
As the ancient fossil known as Lucy indicates, that portion of northern East Africa we now call Ethiopia may well have been the cradle of humanity. The oldest known fossils of modern humans, dated at 190,000 years old, have been found there along with the remains of chimplike ancestors who preceded Lucy by more than 2.5 million years.
But Ethiopia’s contributions certainly didn’t stop with possibly launching human evolution that eventually spread these inquisitive and creative hairless apes all over the place to ultimately build skyscrapers, fly airplanes and try to drive a car while talking on a cell phone.
This ceramic head is from the Beta Israel (literally, “House of Israel”) culture of Ethiopia, comprised of Jews of Ethiopian decent who have had a presence in the country since the 14th century. They are known for agriculture as well as exquisite crafts and jewelry, blacksmithing and pottery making.
As the exhibit at the Pacific Science Center emphasizes, Ethiopia has continued to play a significant — if often unrecognized — role in the global and cultural affairs of Homo sapiens up to the present.
Ethiopia is mentioned in the Bible many times — beginning with the book of Genesis, as Cush or Abyssinia, as perhaps the home of King Solomon’s Queen of Sheba and even of one of Moses’ wives. It is the only African country that successfully fought off European colonization, except for a brief occupation by Mussolini’s forces during World War II. It has long been a spiritual home for strong traditional communities of Christians, Muslims, Jews and even (symbolically, at least) for the cannabis-celebrating Rastafari movement, named after the precoronation name of Ethiopia’s last emperor, Haile Selassie, who was deposed the same year, 1974, that Lucy was discovered.
And, especially for Seattle residents, it is important to mention that ninth century Ethiopia also gave us coffee.
“But all anyone ever thinks about when you mention Ethiopia is famine,” chuckled Ezra Teshome, a leading figure in Seattle’s large Ethiopian community who moved here from Addis Ababa in 1971. “We’re hoping that Lucy coming here will provide an opportunity for people to learn more about the rich culture and history of the place.”
Diana Johns, the lead curator for the Lucy exhibit at the science center, worked with Teshome and others to make sure that this happens for visitors.
“People will come at the science in many different ways,” Johns said, and the Ethiopian context is critical. It’s impossible to talk about Lucy without talking about Ethiopia, she said, adding that it’s likewise impossible to talk about Ethiopia without talking about its amazingly rich — and sometimes peculiar — religious and cultural history.
The Ethiopian civilization of Aksum produced the first indigenous coinage in Africa. This example is from the reign of King Endubis, the first African king to mint coins.
“Take the Ark of the Covenant, for example,” Johns said. This legendary container of Moses’ stone tablets — the same ones Indiana Jones sought in the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark” — is said to reside under lock-and-key in a church in Axum, Ethiopia. Johns added that Haile Selassie is still celebrated by many Ethiopians as the final heir to the so-called Solomonic Dynasty (again, thanks to the Queen of Sheba) as a direct descendent of King Solomon.
“In Ethiopia, myth and fact mix comfortably together,” Johns said.
It can also be hard to remember what year it is in Ethiopia. In the late 1500s, when the Christian world was ordered to change from the Julian calendar system to the Gregorian system (our current dating and time-keeping system), Ethiopia refused. As such, the country continues to stubbornly live about seven years in the past.
This fascinating East African country is not without its problems, of course. Despite its rich and proud history, it remains one of the poorest nations in the world and today has been again caught up in the midst of a food crisis. Following the toppling of Selassie, a brutal Communist regime set up shop, leading to years of strife and civil war. In the mid-1990s, a democratically elected government was established but well after that had happened elsewhere in Africa.
The roof of the 12th-century Church of St. George, perhaps the best known of all rock-hewn churches in Lalibela.
Even the decision by the Ethiopian government to allow Lucy to travel and be exhibited abroad was viewed with suspicion and criticism by some who either thought it was inappropriate to move the fossils out of the country or that officials would misuse the revenue from the exhibit.
“There is still a lot of mistrust,” Teshome said.
And for such a deeply religious country, how do Ethiopians resolve the potential for conflict between Lucy’s place in evolutionary science and some of the more traditional Judeo-Christian (and Muslim) teachings of human origins?
“In Ethiopia, it’s not a big issue because we don’t put science and religion against each other,” Teshome said.
On a morning late last November in Mogadishu, Somalia, a tall, toothy 65-year-old man climbed into his beat-up sedan parked in the makeshift squatter’s camp he called home. Ali Mohamed Siyad, chairman of the central Bakara Market — once the economic engine of Mogadishu, but now a mostly ruined battleground — motored across town to my hotel for an interview.
Passing the accumulated debris of years of warfare, Siyad — know to his friends as “Ali Dere” (“Tall Ali”) — perhaps reflected on how far he’d fallen.
Ali Dere would never use the word to describe himself, but for several years beginning in the 1990s, he was one of the city’s powerful warlords, driven into the position by the looting that wracked Mogadishu in the wake of the 1991 civil war. With an arsenal of nearly 2,000 assault rifles, readily available on the black market, Ali Dere raised a security force big enough to patrol all of Bakara Market. To pay his troops, he imposed a small tax on businesses. Soon he had the armed force necessary to ward off looters. For a while, Bakara — indeed, much of Mogadishu — was safe, as warlords established a stable balance of power.
Contrast that to today. Mortar duels between Islamic insurgents and African Union peacekeepers in the last week have killed scores of civilians in Mogadishu. Attacks have shut down the international airport for the first time in years. Two foreign journalists and their Somali colleague were abducted at gunpoint in August and reportedly are being held somewhere in Bakara. Last weekend more than 100,000 refugees choked the roads heading out of town.
In just the last few weeks, Mogadishu, one of the world’s most desperate cities in one of the world’s most desperate countries, has somehow managed to become even more dangerous.
It wasn’t always like this. Two years ago, Mogadishu, and much of Somalia, were under the strict but fairly orderly rule of the Union of Islamic Courts, in alliance with a number of warlords, including Ali Dere. After years of financial drought, foreign investment poured in.
Then in 2006, a confederation of northern clans calling itself the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) teamed up with the EthiopianWoyanne army and, with significant U.S. backing, destroyed the Islamic Courts in Mogadishu, disarmed the warlords and sparked the present insurgency. In Somalia, as in Iraq, the logic of waging war on any political movement that remotely resembles Islamic extremism has resulted in greater extremism.
But it didn’t have to be this way. A more reasonable U.S. strategy in such places would be to engage hardline regimes. The alternative — chaos — is far worse.
In Mogadishu, the consequences of Washington’s refusal to engage with admittedly unsavory local and regional leaders are manifest in Ali Dere’s tragic fall.
His power, and his association with the Islamic Courts, made him a target of the U.S.- and Ethiopian Woyanne-backed TFG. When Mogadishu fell to the TFG and Ethiopians Woyanne in early 2007, Ali Dere was ordered to surrender his arms. He did so, but suspicions lingered that he was sympathetic to the Islamic Courts and the associated Al-Shabab insurgent group. The suspicions were exacerbated by Ali Dere’s vocal opposition to ongoing U.S. military strikes on suspected Islamists in Somalia. (The strikes reportedly have resulted in many civilian casualties.) “I know I might be arrested,” Ali Dere said when he reached my hotel that day last November, “but I don’t care.”
Sure enough, just a month after leaving Somalia the following December, I got an email saying Ali Dere had been arrested by government troops. I expected never to hear from him again. The transitional government’s “justice” system doesn’t dole out much justice, just torture and — if you believe the rumors — summary execution.
Had Ali Dere died, it would have been the logical result of outsiders’ illogical decision to remove the only powers capable of maintaining order in a troubled city. Mogadishu’s warlords had, alongside the Islamic Courts, enforced a measure of security that facilitated investment and commerce. Granted, it was security at the cost of democracy, along with many other liberties that Westerners take for granted. Cinemas, for example, were banned. But that was a small price to pay for peace.
In fact, though, Ali Dere survived. He reappeared in Mogadishu after a few weeks, explaining his arrest as a simple misunderstanding over property ownership. But I for one was skeptical. His detention coincided with reports that the TFG and Ethiopia Woyanne were trying to clear out insurgents and their sponsors from their Bakara hideouts. And in a follow-up interview, the former Bakara warlord seemed a shadow of his former self. Which led me to believe that Ali Dere was squeezed for information.
Regardless, the TFG’s and Ethiopia’s Woyanne’s Bakara offensive was a failure, and today Mogadishu is more violent than ever. The anti-Islamist, anti-warlord strategy in Somalia has failed, and similar approaches elsewhere in the so-called “war on terror” will also fail, as long as Washington prioritizes ideology over security in troubled countries.
To craft lasting peace, we must engage regional regimes and even local strongmen who might offend our Western sensibilities, but who are capable of enforcing a measure of law and order.
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — An outbreak of African horse sickness has killed more than 2,000 horses, mules and donkeys in Ethiopia since March, an official said Wednesday.
The disease has swept through the country’s southwestern regions since the first outbreak was reported, said Berhe Gebreegziabher, the head of animal health in the agriculture ministry.
“The mortality rate is high with over 2,000 equids dead, according to reports coming out of communities,” he said.
The outbreak has been compounded by the occurrence of a different viral strain of the disease for which Ethiopia has no vaccine, Berhe added.
African horse sickness is endemic to sub-Saharan Africa. Horses have the highest mortality rate with 90 percent dying once infected, while mules and donkeys share smaller rates with 50 and 10 percent respectively.
Written largely through the lens of rich nations, scholars have developed theories about how digital technology affects democracy. However, largely due to a paucity of evidence, these theories have excluded the experience of Sub-Saharan Africa, where meaningful access to digital tools is only beginning to emerge, but where the struggles between failed state and functioning democracy are profound. Using the lens of the 2007-2008 Kenyan Presidential Election Crisis, this case study illustrates how digitally networked technologies, specifically mobile phones and the Internet, were a catalyst to both predatory behavior such as ethnic-based mob violence and to civic behaviors such as citizen journalism and human rights campaigns. The paper concludes with the notion that while digital tools can help promote transparency and keep perpetrators from facing impunity, they can also increase the ease of promoting hate speech and ethnic divisions… Read the full report here.
Russia has been given permission to use force against pirates who’ve seized a Ukrainian ship off the coast of Somalia.
Our Africa correspondent, Andrew Geoghegan, reports a Russian warship is on its way to intercept the hijacked Ukrainian freighter, which is carrying ammunition and 33 Russian tanks bound for Kenya.
The Somali government has given the Russians permission to use force against the pirates, who seized the ship a week ago.
However, an east African maritime union has appealed to the Russians to use restraint and not endanger the 20 Ukrainian and Russian crewmen onboard.
The freighter is currently being shadowed by American warships.
President Yusuf okays Russian ships in pirate fight
(SomaliNet) Somalia’s ambassador to Moscow said Wednesday that Somalia welcomes Russian help in fighting piracy off its coast and is “not satisfied” with warships from other countries.
Ambassador Mohammed Mahmud Handule said at a press conference in Moscow that Somlai President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed “gave permission for Russian ships to enter the sea (off Somalia) and fight the pirates in the sea and on the coast.”
Handule spoke as a Russian warship headed to the African country’s coast amid a standoff between the US Navy and Somali pirates over a hijacked Ukrainian cargo ship carrying tanks and other arms.
The Somali ambassador criticised the activities of foreign warships off Somalia, although he did not name any countries. “Many warships can be found near our shores, but we are not satisfied with the results of their activities,” said Handule.
“More than 10 countries are patrolling (Somalia waters) but we have asked Russia and she agreed to our request,” he said, referring to an international effort to contain piracy.
Handule also offered warm words for Moscow, a former Cold War ally of Somalia. The enovy praised Russia’s conduct in its war with Georgia in August and said Somalia would follow Moscow in recognising the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the rebel Georgian regions at the heart of the war.
Pirates off Somalia get $18-30 mln ransoms -report
By Frank Nyakairu
NAIROBI (Reuters) – Piracy in the Gulf of Aden has cost shippers between $18-30 million so far this year in ransoms and is threatening global business, British think-tank Chatham House said on Thursday.
Pirates have hijacked more than 30 ships off Somalia this year, making the country’s 3,300 km (2,060 mile) coastline one of the most dangerous in the world and threatening an important shipping lane between Europe and Asia.
“Total ransom payments for 2008 probably lie in the range of $18-30 million. Inflation of ransom demands makes this an ever more lucrative business,” a Chantam House report said.
The gangs have received ransoms between $500,000 and $2 million for each ship taken this year, according to the report titled: Threatening Global Trade, Feeding Local Wars.
Chatham House says the piracy was likely to divert shipping away from the major global sea artery used by about 20,000 vessels each year, increasing operating costs and end prices.
Risk insurance premiums have risen tenfold this year, the report said.
Shippers are considering avoiding the Gulf of Aden for a longer route to Europe and North America around the Cape of Good Hope, Chatham House said.
“Extra weeks of travel and fuel consumption would add considerably to the cost of transporting goods. At a time when the price of oil is a major concern, anything that could contribute to a further rise in prices must be considered very serious indeed.”
The pirates are getting more sophisticated and brazen as little is done to counter their activity, the report said.
In the latest hijacking, Somali pirates captured a Ukrainian ship carrying 33 tanks and have demanded a $20 million ransom.
The pirates are said to be using MANPADS (Man Portable Air Defence Systems) and rocket propelled grenades during their attacks. They also have GPS systems and satellite phones.
Most attacks have been in the Gulf of Aden between Yemen and north Somalia, a major route leading to the Suez canal linking Europe and Asia.
Despite U.S. and French military bases in the area and the U.N. Security Council having promised to take steps against the pirates, the Chatham House report said international action was lacking.
The U.S. Navy said last month allied warships in an international force in the region had stopped 12 attacks since May and were doing all they could and that shipping companies should take measures to protect their vessels and crews. Russia said last moth it had sent a warship to Somalia’s coast to combat pirates and German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said on Wednesday European Union states planned to deploy three frigates, a supply ship and three surveillance ships.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: Haile Gebrselassie will compete in January in the US$2 million Dubai Marathon, the world’s richest running race, the organizers said Thursday.
The Ethiopian long-distance runner became the first man to run a marathon under 2 hours, 4 minutes last week in Berlin and will have the chance to win a US$1 million bonus if he sets a new world record in Dubai. The marathon also has a $1 million prize fund.
Last year in Dubai, the 35-year-old Ethiopian won in 2 hours, 4 minutes, 53 seconds.
“His appearance in Dubai in January this year took the standing of the Dubai Marathon to a new level,” said Ahmed Al Kamali, Dubai Marathon general coordinator and president of the Emirates Athletics Federation.
“I’m sure we’ll see more of the same in three months time and we’ll do all we can to give him every chance of breaking the world record in Dubai,” he said.
Gebrselassie set his 26th world record when he won the Berlin Marathon last week with a time of 2:03.59, shaving 27 seconds off his own record, set in the same race in 2007.
