Our Ethiopian Odyssey (3): a few introductory facts and figures
So much for the ancient history of Ethiopia. What about modern times? The recent history of Ethiopia has involved the Derg socialist revolution and ‘the red terror’ (in 1974-75, between 100,000-500,000 were murdered), invasions (by Somalia in 1977 and of Somalia in 2006), famines (most infamously in 1984-85 when between 400,000-million died), and full scale war (with Eritrea in 1999-2000). So a model of stability, really.
A few basic facts about the nation:
- Ethiopia is located in the horn of Arica. It lost the province of Eritrea in 1993 and with it its coastline, so today it is a land-locked nation (the largest such in the world) which has borders with Eritrea in the north and north east, Djibouti and Somalia to the east, Kenya to the south, and Sudan and South Sudan to the west.
- It is a huge country geographically at over one million square kilometres (actually 1,104,300 sq kms or 426,371 sq miles) which makes it the 27th largest country in the world and four and a half times the size of the UK.
- The population is 90 million which makes the country the second most populous in Africa (after Nigeria and just before Egypt). Almost two-thirds of its people are illiterate.
- The official language is Amharic (a member of the Semitic language group, including Arabic and Hebrew), but English is widely spoken, and the local currency is the birr (about 30 to the British pound or 20 to the American dollar).
- The first multi-party election was held in 2000, but the government of the Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) remains strictly authoritarian with a tight control on all media (including social media).
- Ethiopia is one of Africa’s poorest states, although it has experienced rapid economic growth since the end of the civil war and currently claims an annual growth rate of around 10%.
- Over 80% of the population still live in rural areas. The economy, therefore, revolves around agriculture, which in turn relies on rainfall, and it is one of Africa’s leading coffee producers.
- Ethiopia is one of the largest recipients of UK development aid, receiving around £300 million a year.
- One of the most famous singers is Mahmoud Ahmed (born 1941) and, before the trip, we bought and listened to one of his best known CDs called “Tizeta” (the word means ‘memory’). The newest thing in local music, however, is a movement called Ethiopiyawi electronic.
- Just over two-fifths of the population is Ethiopian Orthodox Christian (mainly in the north), while a third of the population is Muslim (mainly in the east and south).
- All of our trip is in Northern Ethiopia and “The Lonely Planet” guidebook to the country states: “For visitors to Ethiopia, it’s all about the north. Unlike anywhere else on Earth, northern Ethiopia has the ability to wow you day after day after day.”
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We fly to Ethiopia today and, subject to the availabiklity of WiFi locally, I’ll be blogging about the trip on a regular basis – so please keep visiting this blog.