BADHAASAA, Ethiopia (AP) — A cattle-herding tribe in southern Ethiopia has crowned a new king in a secret ceremony considered so sacred that the Borena people believe it has the power to kill unauthorized observers.
Guyyoo Gobbaa sits surrounded by people shortly after he was crowned the 70th king of the cattle-herding Borena people, Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2009 in Badhaasaa in southern Ethiopia. Guyyoo Gobbaa became the 70th king of the Borena people this Tuesday in a secret ceremony considered so sacred it has the power to kill unauthorized observers. Like his predecessors, he was chosen from birth to serve an eight year term in a system that rotates power between the tribe’s top clans and is as difficult to explain to outsiders as the American electoral college.(AP Photo/Anita Powell)
Guyyoo Gobbaa is spending the three days following his inauguration Tuesday drinking warm beer under an acacia tree and eating goat meat with various elders and government officials, some of whom walked hundreds of miles to his village.
Like his predecessors, Guyyoo was chosen from birth to serve an eight-year term in a system that rotates power between the tribe’s top clans and is as difficult to explain to outsiders as the American electoral college.
“If you see them exchanging power you’ll die,” said Mohammed Nur, a member of the Borena tribe who is also a local government official. “You’ll spit blood. It is totally sacred.”
The Borena king is recognized as an Ethiopian government official and his duties will include mediating in land disputes between tribes.
Traditional rulers exist alongside formal government in many African countries, and their behind-the scenes influence can help or hinder vital national interests.
In the oil-rich Niger Delta, chiefs in top hats and coral beads have sponsored peace talks between rival militant gangs and helped free foreign hostages. In Uganda, the government has legally limited the traditionally independent kingdoms to cultural custodians, but they can use their influence to encourage people to take part in campaigns like the one trying to limit the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Guyyoo, a 36-year-old cattle farmer, has promised to fix his 1 million people’s ailing economy by improving access to livestock markets and patching up relations with other tribes.
Desertification and punishing droughts are gradually pushing Guyyoo’s people to seek pasture for their cattle and camel herds further and further from home, bringing them into conflict with other tribes already settled on those lands.
Guyyoo’s official seal of power is a whip made of rhinoceros and giraffe parts, but he says he does not intend to use it, preferring diplomacy.
“My main aim is to uphold this traditional culture,” he said. “Not only for Borena. For the whole of Ethiopia.”
The Borena say their system, which dates back more than 550 years, relies on co-operation between the clans to ensure peaceful transitions and limits the potential damage caused by a bad king to eight years.
But even as they hail their new king, perhaps the advantages of a different form of governance have not been entirely lost on the Borena.
The 2-month-old son of Mohammed, the government official, is not eligible for the Borena kingship under traditional rules. But little Barack’s father — so named after Mohammed’s wife lost her plea to name the boy Obama — demurred before ruling him out.
“I don’t know,” he said when asked about the future. “Maybe we won’t want the traditional power. Maybe we’ll want the democratic one.”
Asmara (allAfrica.com) – A defecting Ethiopian police officer who arrived here recently said that the {www:Woyanne} (Tigray People Liberation Front) regime is stepping up its divisive ploy aimed at instigating conflict among various ethnic groups to prolong its stay in power.
Chief inspector of the south western Jimma federal police, Hussein Osman, stated that the regime is fomenting animosities among the ethnic groups under various guises so as to suppress any opposition of the Ethiopian people. It is particularly committing grave atrocities against members of the Afar ethnic group, he added.
The chief inspector pointed out that a number of TPLF regime soldiers, including high-ranking officials, are abandoning the regime opposing its divisive and racist policy.
Indicating that the budget allocated for the Afar zone is being robbed by the regime’s officials for their own personal interests, the defecting officer explained that members of the ethnic group who raise questions regarding the issue are being subjected to inhumane atrocities.
Hussein Osman who joined the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front in 1978 and rose the ran of officer arrived in Eritrea opposing the TPLF regime’s divisive ethnic policy and the atrocities it commits against the Ethiopian people.
Ethiopians have for centuries made a honey wine known as tej. You can sometimes find this meadlike beverage for sale at some Ethiopian restaurants. Or, you could try a mead made domestically.
For most diners looking for that Ethiopian meal out at a restaurant or for takeout, the drink of choice most likely will be beer or a grape-based wine.
The question is: What sort of wine to pour with Ethiopia’s highly seasoned meat and vegetable dishes, most of which are served on rounds of injera, the tart Ethiopian flat bread made from teff flour.
Tom Benezra of Sal’s Beverage World stores, located in the Chicago suburbs, wants a wine with an “earthy minerality” alongside the fruitiness to enliven the food. That’s why he goes with Old World or Old World-influenced white wines. He particularly likes a South African chenin blanc or a French Vouvray to counter the berbere spice paste, a widely used combination of red pepper, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, onion, garlic and other seasonings, that provides zip in many Ethiopian dishes.
“For red wine drinkers, the fruity-spicy combination found in California zinfandel and Australian shiraz will work especially well with beef dishes,” he said. “Expect some fireworks in your mouth if the dish is hot.”
Natalie MacLean, a Canadian wine writer who runs an online food and wine matcher at her Web site, nataliemaclean.com, likes cabernet sauvignon with lamb-based Ethiopian dishes.
“But stick with New World cabs that are more fruit-forward and can also handle the spices in the dish,” she added. With doro wot, the Ethiopian chicken and egg stew, MacLean recommends an oaked chardonnay for a white or a syrah for a red.
“These deep, voluptuous wines will marry nicely with the richness of the dish,” she said.
The tasting
We tried three reds, two white and a honey wine to find a good match for doro wot, the popular Ethiopian chicken and egg stew. Why a honey wine? It’s a traditional beverage in Ethiopia. The big winner? A South African chenin blanc. It scored first on its own and when paired with the doro wot. As with all food-wine ratings, the final score reflects how well the wine and the food worked together.
2007 Mulderbosch Chenin Blanc
This South African white had a brilliant light yellow color, a jazzy herbal nose and a mouthwatering crispness. The richness of the doro wot cut the wine’s tartness while the wine made the stew taste spicier. $15
2006 Yangarra Grenache McLaren Vale Old Vine
This big Australian red had a nose of eucalyptus and smoke. The flavor offered lots of black cherry fruit and a touch of mint. The wine and the doro wot balanced each other well; the wine’s flavor lingered on the palate. $24
NV Wild Blossom Meadow Mead
Tasters loved this Chicago honey wine’s intense clove scent. A refreshing acidity kept sweetness in check. But panelists weren’t so sure how the mead worked with doro wot. Some thought the wine’s spices gave the stew a delicious zap, yet others thought the mead didn’t work with all of the stew’s ingredients, especially the hard-cooked egg. $13.
2006 Georges Duboeuf Fleurie
A red from one of so-called cru villages of France’s Beaujolais region. The nose was a tad musty, and the flavor was lean on fruit, but the doro wat’s seasoned sauce reinvigorated the wine to a degree. $15
2004 Kim Crawford Chardonnay, Tietjen & Briant Vineyards
This white from New Zealand’s Gisborne wine region was classic chard: color, aroma and flavor. Expect notes of vanilla, oak, toast. The texture of the buttery wine made the doro wot seem plusher. $17
2005 Ajello Majus Nero d’Avola
Solo was a terrific Sicilian red, with an extraordinary nose of tea, tobacco and cedar and a lush fruit flavor kept in check by just the right degree of tannin. But the wine lost its luster with the doro wot. The two vied too much for attention, reducing each other. $11
Sources: These wines may or may not be in stock at your local store; inquire first. At least one of these wines was found at these stores: Binny’s Beverage Depot , Sal’s Beverage World, Sam’s Wines & Spirits, Sav-Way Fine Wine & Spirits, Uncork It, DiCarlo Fine Wine & Spirits in Mundelein. Prices are rounded off.
Lake Turkana is a miraculous anomaly of life-giving water in a parched and unforgiving land. Formed millions of years ago in the tectonic upheavals that created East Africa’s Great Rift Valley, Turkana is the largest permanent desert lake in the world. Extinct volcanoes enclose the horizon, and the heat is so intense that when the blustery wind from Mount Kulal on the eastern shore temporarily ceases and clouds gather overhead, raindrops sometimes evaporate before they even reach the lake. It is called “ghost rain.”
Areas affected by Gibe III
This other-worldly scene is bolstered by the world’s largest population of Nile crocodiles which survive on another Nilotic ancestor, the giant perch, which in turn feeds on a profusion of blue-green algae. This prehistoric lake has also long been a focus for humans: its shores have revealed the oldest-known fossil remains of Homo habilis. Today, more than a quarter million residents from at least ten tribes have become masters of wresting sustenance from the harsh landscape. Without the lake, life here would be virtually impossible.
But Lake Turkana and its inhabitants now face an environmental catastrophe – and an avoidable one. The lake could start drying up when its main source, the Omo River, is depleted by a huge dam across the border in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Government is planning a series of upstream dams on the Omo River; the most imminent is the Gibe III hydroelectric dam, already two years into construction.
There is no question that Ethiopia needs power. But the irony of the Gibe III dam is that while it threatens the economy of the Turkana region, a large share of its electricity will be sold to consumers in other parts of Kenya. For Ethiopia, the project is a commercial one: they want to make money selling the power elsewhere, not provide power to their own people. For Kenya, it’s a matter of allowing one part of the country to be devastated so that others may get a little more power.
The assault on the Omo River and Lake Turkana by the Gibe dam is projected to result in a drop of seven to ten meters in the lake’s depth in the first five years alone (the lake has already receded by about five to eight meters because of climate change). Resulting changes in the chemical balance of the water threatens the region’s tremendous biodiversity, including large populations of Nile crocodiles, hippopotamus, and over 40 different species of fish and snakes. The riparian forest, one of the last pristine dryland forests in Africa, would also be in grave danger.
The saga of Gibe III Dam is just the latest episode of human pressures contributing to the dying of Africa’s biggest lakes. Lake Chad has nearly disappeared from diversions that stopped its flow, and Lake Victoria has seen major drops in its water levels from dams that let too much water out. Climate change could add several more to the list of dead or dying lakes and depleted rivers across the continent. Losing our precious water resources will make us less able to adapt to climate change.
Endangered People
Turkana’s indigenous communities are highly dependent on the lake for their food crops, livestock grazing and watering, and fishing. Any impacts to the lake’s ecosystem would disrupt the economy, leading to an increase in conflicts in the area. Considering the unstable state of peace in Northern Kenya, such damage to the local economies would invoke a threat to regional stability.
While a power purchase agreement outlining the terms of electricity sales was reportedly signed between Ethiopia and Kenya in 2006, no bilateral agreements on the use of the Omo-Turkana waterway and the dam’s downstream effects to Kenya are publicly known. The 300,000 people who live around Lake Turkana in Kenya were neither informed of the project’s impacts nor consulted on their priorities. Their situation mirrors that in Ethiopia, where the traditional economy of the Lower Omo Valley supports up to half a million people. The Ethiopian dam-affected people – who, like those on the Kenyan side, are largely indigenous peoples leading traditional lifestyles – have heard little or nothing about the project and their options, even though the changes to the Omo will upset the fragile balance of river bank cultivation and herding they maintain, unraveling the valley’s best strategy against food insecurity. Resulting scarcity could quickly lead to violent conflict in one of the most culturally diverse areas of Africa.
Even if Ethiopia’s affected communities organize to object to the plans, the government is notoriously unsympathetic to citizen concerns. In Ethiopia, civil society activists who might normally help raise awareness about such projects or advocate for affected people have been hesitant to join the fray, given their government’s restrictive policies and repressive tendencies regarding NGOs.
The financial backers of the Gibe III Dam may include the African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, the Italian Government and JP Morgan Chase. While the World Bank has refused to consider project funding, they may still consider financial support through loan guarantees. Agence Francaise de Dévelopement, Germany’s aid agency KFW, and the Development Bank of Southern Africa may support the costly transmission line from the Gibe III Dam to Kenya’s national grid.
While such funders require an Environmental Impact Assessment, the one that has been submitted is incredibly sloppy and hopelessly incomplete. Shockingly it does not even mention that the Omo River supplies almost 80 percent of the Lake Turkana waters. It suggests that the dam will regulate the natural flooding cycle of the Omo River, eliminating the seasonal floods critical to downstream farmers. The truncated, artificial flood suggested in the EIA is ill-designed to achieve its purpose. The minimum, environmental flow is based on the single, lowest monthly flow recorded in the driest month, since 1964. There is no mention of how long it may take to fill Gibe III’s massive reservoir, during which time dam operators may only release 25m3/ sec, creating a prolonged dry season up to several years long. Ironically, while the filling of the reservoir alone could drive Lake Turkana to the brink of ecological collapse, the EIA argues that the dam will help restore Lake Turkana, not deplete it. So far, the project has continued despite the huge deficiencies in this official study, but those concerned about the impacts on Lake Turkana intend to bring their case to these agencies.
The project’s lack of transparency in other areas borders on the corrupt. The US$1.7 billion project is the single largest infrastructural work being undertaken in Ethiopia, yet its lucrative contract was handed to Italian construction giant, Salini, based on a questionable exception to Ethiopia’s own procurement rules. The uncompetitive awarding of the contract also contradicts World Bank and African Development Bank procurement guidelines, The World Bank has declared the project ineligible for project lending, unlike the African Development Bank which plans to consider the project despite the contract violation.
But this case is not just the responsibility of outside agencies and the Ethiopian dam planners. The Kenyan government must first and foremost do more to protect the interests of the peoples of northwest Kenya, and the ecosystems upon which they depend. The power purchase agreement with the Ethiopian government needs to be made public. We need to know if the impact on Lake Turkana was even considered before the power purchase agreement was signed. The ministries of Energy, Water, and Northern Kenya must account for their plans to preserve the environment and livelihoods of the region. The members of parliament representing Northern Kenya need to know what is planned, and have a chance to voice their communities’ concerns. The peoples of Lake Turkana must be heard.
Ethiopia is gearing for Amman, Jordan, with grim realisation that the trio, which constitutes its most potent distance running assault weapons, will not line up for battle.
On Tuesday, reports from Addis Ababa confirmed that three-time senior women champion, Tirunesh Dibaba and husband Sileshi Sihine, were out of the March 28 World Cross due to injury and training fatigue.
Ethiopians are also sweating on the prospects of their team going to their first World Cross in nine years without six-time senior men champion, Kenenisa Bekele.
“It is now pretty certain that a slow recovery from a leg injury will rule out reigning men’s champion,” the IAAF website reported on Tuesday.
Quite to the contrary, the news was not received by three cheers or champagne and caviar celebration at the Kenyan camp training in Embu.
“It’s sad for the event that the three will not be there. Our runners motivate themselves to face them because they bring out the best,” head coach, Julius Kirwa, told FeverPitch yesterday.
“Even without the three, Ethiopia will still field strong athletes and we are training hard to better them as well as all other countries that will be there,” the coach noted.
“We are not going to allow our runners to relent in their mission following the news. In fact, their absence, if true, will make the competition more open and will lift other nations and we have to be ready,” Kirwa disclosed.
The Ethiopian Athletics Federation (EAF) named its provisional squad of 24 for the Amman World Cross last Saturday where Bekele, Tirunesh and Sihine were missing.
EDITOR’S NOTE: What better is expected from the dumbest government in the world? Even monkeys know how to get food out of a warehouse.
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (IRIN) – Beneficiaries of food aid in Ethiopia could face tougher times unless supplies that are stuck in Djibouti port arrive quickly in the country, sources said.
Officials blamed congestion at Djibouti port, land-locked Ethiopia’s main access to the sea, but insisted the situation was improving.
“It was a problem during October and December,” Mitku Kassa, Ethiopia’s Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development, said. “Through negotiation and discussions with the officials, especially Dubai Port World, which manages the port, and STDV, the port agency, the [situation] is improving.”
A recent joint assessment by the Ethiopian government and its humanitarian partners found that 4.9 million people would require humanitarian assistance over the next six months. The government and donors have appealed for US$389.3 million worth of food to alleviate the situation.
“A large quantity of WFP’s [UN World Food Programme] food is at the port,” Paulette Jones, WFP spokeswoman in Addis Ababa, said. “These [food] commodities are needed urgently to assist beneficiaries who are still suffering from the impact of the drought, high food prices and [low] global food stocks.”
Rations
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), January food allocations have been affected by limited resources.
Only the worst-affected areas would receive full cereal and blended food rations, based on the agreement reached by a prioritisation committee. Other beneficiaries would receive full pulse and vegetable oil rations reduced by two-thirds.
WFP said it was exploring the options of using Port Sudan and Berebera in Somaliland – which would also make it easier to deliver food to the Somali region of Ethiopia.
Meanwhile, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has warned that livestock owned by southern pastoralist families have reduced drastically over the past two decades after animals died from diseases induced by climate change and severe drought.
In a report prepared by Ethiopian and Dutch researchers, published on 26 February, the IFRC said average livestock numbers owned by households had declined from 10 to three oxen, 35 to seven cows, and 33 to six goats in Borena zone of Oromiya region.
“For families entirely dependent on their animals for income and as a food source, losses on this scale would be disastrous,” it noted.
As animals died, people became dependent on aid while dry seasons triggered local “resource conflicts” over water and pasture, the study found. “About a quarter of all households in Borena and Guji zones suffered from cattle-raiding related to conflict in the period 2004–2008,” IFRC said.
Ethiopians have for centuries made a honey wine known as tej. You can sometimes find this meadlike beverage for sale at some Ethiopian restaurants. Or, you could try a mead made domestically.
On Tuesday, reports from Addis Ababa confirmed that three-time senior women champion, Tirunesh Dibaba and husband Sileshi Sihine, were out of the March 28 World Cross due to injury and training fatigue.