Change looms for Ethiopia's ancient salt trade

By Siegfried Modola      

A Camal caravan in the Danakil Desert (Photo: adwardje)

HAMAD-ILE, Ethiopia (Reuters) - Abdu Ibrahim Mohammed was 15 years old when he began trekking with caravans of camels to collect salt in a sun-blasted desert basin of north Ethiopia that is one of the hottest places on earth.

Now 51 and retired, he has passed his camels to his son to pursue this centuries-old trade in "white gold" from the Danakil Depression, where rain almost never falls and the average temperature is 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34.4 Celsius).But the tradition of hacking salt slabs from the earth's crust and transporting them by camel is changing as a paved road is built across the northern Afar region.Although the road being cut through the Danakil Depression is making it easier to transport the salt, the region's fiercely independent local salt miners and traders are wary of the access it might give to industrial mining companies with mechanized extraction techniques that require far less labor.
"Most of the people who live here are dependent on the salt caravans, so we are not happy with prospective salt companies that try to set up base here," said Abdullah Ali Noor, a chief and clan leader's son in Hamad-Ile, on the salt desert's edge.
"Everything has to be initiated from the community. We prefer to stick with the old ways," he added.
The tarmac road will link the highland city of Mekele with the village of Dallol in the Danakil Depression, a harsh but hauntingly beautiful geographical wonder of salt flats and volcanoes once described as "a land of death" by the famous British desert explorer Wilfred Thesiger.
The road has cut from five hours to three the drive from Mekele to Berahile, a town two days' trek by camel from the Afar salt deposits that one of Ethiopia's main sources of the crystalline food product.
New roads like these are gradually helping to transform this landlocked Horn of Africa state, which has a unique culture and history but has been racked by coups, famines and droughts, into one of the fastest-growing economies on the continent.
As Africa's biggest coffee producer, Ethiopia's economy remains based on agriculture, which accounts for 46 percent of gross domestic product and 85 percent of employment. But its nearly 94 million population - the second biggest in Africa - is attracting the attention of foreign investors hungry for new markets.
ACCESS TO MARKET
Further south in the Danakil Depression, at the salt reserve of Lake Afdera, industrial salt production is already under way.
A company named Berhane and Zewdu PLC came to the desert plains near Hamad-Ile in 2011 aiming to produce salt there, according to Noor.
Clan leaders saw the threat to their ancient trade and lined up to oppose the project. Fearing sabotage of its equipment, the company left the following year, local people said.
But Noor still welcomed the new road.
"The new highway will give easy access to the market, which will bring benefits and development to this region," Noor said.
The development he talks of is visible in Berahile, where caravans from the salt pans come to drop off their cargo so it can be transported to the rest of the country. Most residents are involved directly or indirectly in the salt business.
Telephone and electricity networks have been extended to the town over the past four years, a new Berahile Salt Association was established in 2010 to facilitate trade and a recently built salt store is now the biggest construction in town.
"Thousands of people benefit from this work as the salt here is exported throughout the country," said the head of the association, Derassa Shifa.
For now, tradition and modernity co-exist - the organization buys salt from the caravans that make the four-day trek to the salt flats and back, then sells it to merchants who carry it away by truck.
The salt blocks, which were once used as a unit of money, are sold across Ethiopia, many of them to farmers to provide their animals with essential minerals. Ethiopia has the largest livestock population on the African continent.
Life is harsh for the thousands of camel herders and salt extractors who use traditional hoes and axes to carve the "white gold" out of the ground in the Danakil Depression.
Many of the salt diggers live in Hamad-Ile and hire out their services to different caravans.
The work, however exhausting, still draws thousands onto the baking salt flats.
"You forget about the sun and the heat," said Kidane Berhe, 45, a camel herder and salt merchant. "I lost a friend once on the salt desert because he was working too much with no protection from the sun. Eventually he just collapsed."
(Additional reporting by Mohammed Abdella in Hamad-Ile and Aaron Maasho in Addis Ababa; Writing by Hannah Vinter and Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Tom Pfeiffer)

Ethiopian Lale Labuko wins UN Prize for Humanitarian Service

UN Report
May 17, 2013

Lale Labuko

Lale Labuko co-founded Omo Child to stop the ritualistic killing of infants and children in the Omo River Valley of Ethiopia and provide safe shelter, care, and education for the children he rescues. He divides his time between Ethiopia and the United States, where he is a student at Hampshire College.
“An ancient tribal practice has killed tens of thousands of children over the centuries. I’m working to make sure my generation brings an end to it forever.” .Lale Labuko witnessed the unspeakable and spoke out. At age 15, he saw elders from his tribe in southwestern Ethiopia tear a 2-year-old girl from her mother’s arms and run away with her. The child was never seen again. On that day, he heard the word “mingi” for the first time—a term to describe a cursed baby or child. Ancient belief says children who are deemed mingi will bring drought, famine, and disease to the tribe if they are allowed to live. Ritualistic killing is traditionally seen as the only solution. “I was crying and so shocked. I wanted to save that little girl.” The killings are kept secret from anyone younger than 15. In fact, Labuko later learned he had two older sisters, both mingi, who were killed before he ever knew them. Tribal elders kill mingi babies and young children by drowning them in rivers, pushing them off cliffs, or leaving them in the bush to starve or be eaten by wild animals. Labuko vowed to end the practice. A few years later, pleading with tribal elders to let him take doomed children to safety, he said “Let me be your river, your cliff, your bush.”
Labuko’s village sits in one of Africa’s most remote regions, Ethiopia’s Omo Valley. Traditions held by the 17 tribes who live there have remained unchanged for centuries. Tribes believing in mingi can deem a child bad luck for three main reasons. Children who get their top teeth before their bottom teeth, babies born out of wedlock, and babies born to married couples whose pregnancy was not first blessed by tribal elders can all be declared mingi. If families don’t cooperate, they themselves will be cursed and banished.Labuko was able to see the bigger picture because he had seen the bigger world. His father, a respected village elder, made the unheard-of decision to send him away to school. When told, Labuko asked, “What’s school?” His culture has no words for school, pen, or paper; no written language exists. Each trip to boarding school required him to walk 65 desert miles barefoot, constantly on guard for lions, hyenas, and enemy tribes.The perspective gained from education fueled his resolve to save mingi children and abolish the practice. He returned to his village and started a school. “I knew if the youth of my Kara tribe were educated, they would help my efforts.” So began a long, slow, delicate process of changing ingrained attitudes and fears within his family, community, and ruling elders. “I told them I respected our culture, but that my generation did not want the blight of mingi to spoil the wonderful parts of our heritage. I said rather than kill these children, let me take them away and the curse will leave with them.” After finally gaining permission to remove some of the children, he and his wife cared for them in their own home at a nearby town. Ultimately he was able to work with Ethiopia’s government and raise funds from international donors to begin Omo Child, a nonprofit humanitarian organization and children’s home. Today, 37 mingi babies and children rescued by Labuko now live in the home, many saved only moments before certain death. “They are being educated and live in a clean, safe place with medical care and enough to eat,” says Labuko. “The nannies love and care for them as if they were their own children. I’m especially proud that three of them are the first girls from my tribe to ever attend school. No child in our tribal villages has all this.”As a result of his advocacy efforts with tribal elders, Labuko’s greatest accomplishment came in July 2012 when his own tribe, the Kara, officially banned mingi. “We completely changed the culture and attitudes.” Yet for him, the victory won’t be complete until mingi is abolished from all tribes. “Some 130,000 people secretly continue to practice mingi,” Labuko says. “They know it is controversial, so they hide it.” He has initiated meetings with a Hamar king in an effort to begin the complex task of persuasion in that tribe as well. Now attending college in the United States, he believes education will empower the next generation, especially mingi children. “I want Ethiopia to pass laws ensuring these children will be treated equally, and given priority if they want to go to college. I’m working to build this into our society culturally and legally, so whatever happens to me, they’ll be protected for the future and never discriminated against.”“My father always told me that to earn respect you must help the weak and fight the strong. These children I saved are examples to everyone. They will change the world one day.”

Ethiopian Muslim Activists’ Reclaiming of Hope in the Face of Regime Brutality

By Alemu Tafesse, Political Analyst and academic
May 17, 2013
Symbolic Resistance and Marriage:
Anti-authoritarian struggles creep into the symbolical world both in content and form. Acts of defiance send across sparks of moments that carry multiple meanings to multiple audiences. In many instances, with more repression, more sophisticated symbolization of protest come to the fore, defying both state control and some people’s pessimist expectations.
 The Ethiopian Muslims civil right movement has been a text-book instance of such pluri-meaning sets of symbolical struggle. A struggle that began with very strong and loud cry of autonomy and freedom has gone through phases that are not only unseen in the history of the country, but also unsubduable (so far) by the state authorities. A spectacular aspect of this indomitability lies in its fluidity. And its fluidity has been manifested in the multifarious innovative symbolical demonstrations of defiance that haven’t followed the classical fashion of protest, the latter being something many authoritarian governments are very adept at keeping under control usually swiftly.
Among the many symbolical moves of the Muslim protesters, three have been remarkable: the hand gestures, and the waving of white and yellow cards. The hand gestures have included the crisscrossing of vertically stretched hands symbolizing both unity and unlawful incarceration. Such a move goes diametrically against the perceived intentions of the government (i.e., shattering the unity of Muslims). It also absolves—from the protester’s perspective-- the incarcerated from any guilt (as the incarceration is showed to be illegal), and also illustrates the level of state oppression prevalent in Ethiopia. This mode of protest was initiated a little after the government issued stern warning on its media that the protest—which it declared has gone “meren” (“shamelessly wild”) in Amharic-- should stop or otherwise face adverse consequences. By immediately changing the colour of the “mereninet” the government was propagandizing about and was prepared to crash, the spirit of the movement continued in other forms. It was a defiant move that is quite daring in its demonstration of the persistence of the struggle
The waving of white and yellow cards symbolizes peace and warning respectively. Both show formidability and persistence. The waved white cards have challenged the terrorism discourse, and re-affirmed the peace-lovingness of the Muslim community. But the peace has not meant to be a passive one, one that accepts and lives with structural oppression. Waving white papers signifies the unflinching determination to fight—peacefully—for the prevalence of just peace. It is not content with the absence of war but the presence and maintenance of freedom, equality and justice.The yellow card was showed by the same people who first waved the white one some weeks ago. The warning made it evident that the people couldn’t just keep demanding their rights forever. They believed, so the meaning went, that they have power to threaten; that they wanted to show publicly what they believed about their power; and that they required immediate response from the government. In other words, they didn’t protest just for its own sake, but to get the government do what they want it to do.On May 6, 2013, something different happened. Two of the prisoners in Kality (one of Ethiopia’s notorious dungeons) tied the knot of marriage with their loved ones around them and with much fanfare and visible joy. Mubarak and Khalid are two Muslim activists recently jailed and now amongst the many facing terrorism charges. The best men of the bridegrooms were none other than four of the incarcerated Muslim members of the committee that was organized towards the end of 2011, who led the Muslim rights movement since its beginning and up till the mass arrests began. The wedding ceremony was held in the houses of the brides, in local mosques, and most interestingly, in Kality prison itself. The ceremony was reportedly very colourful and joyful.What does all this unprecedented incident mean, politically speaking? The most important meaning, I submit, can be surmised in relation to the power of hope. Authoritarian governments don’t necessarily break the hope of their subjects, but actually limit its form and source. These governments do know that they have to satisfy as many of their subjects as possible to securely sustain their power for the longest time possible. They try to ensure that people not only fear and respect them but also love and worship them. This means that they have to ensure the prevalence of a sense of hope among the populace within the contours of the system. This is at the cornerstone of ideational hegemony that should exist side by side with coercion in order to safely sustain regime power. However, the hope allowed to prevail is limited in many ways. First, it should always be ultimately tied to the existing regime. All happiness should as much as possible be perceived to have ensued from it. The regime should get the ultimate credit of at least the major happy milestones in the lives of the people. If and when that is not possible and an alternative source of hope is getting the attention of the people, then authoritarian regimes would to see to it that they can still have the power to obstruct that hope when and if they deem it unfavourable for the “peace” of their power. This means that alternative sources of hope can be tolerated only in so far as the dispossession of that hope is within the secure reach of the power of the government. The form of hope that is allowable to flourish under authoritarianism can be deduced from the above reflections. Politically speaking, the ideal form is “submissive” or “dependent” hope—one that sparks through submitting oneself to the whims and interests of those that wield state power. When total control over the fate of people gets much difficult due to the globalizing trend in human rights protection and democracy, submissive hope can’t be realized in the entire corners of any country in the post-Cold war world. The second best form of hope that is allowed to subsist is thus what we may call “fragile” and “precarious” hope. As long as hope is fragile and precarious, any of its forms can be widely tolerated in dictatorship-led countries. Ultimately, although dictators can’t fairly have monopoly over the kind of hope we have as citizens of a country in the same way as they usually have monopoly over violence, they don’t usually compromise on their monopoly over the power to extinguish any “unfavourable” hope in their territory. Authoritarians never feel secure if and when they lose this latter power of theirs.The marriage that took place in Kality is a showcase of the manifestation of not only an independent but also a defiant hope. The government has required that the Ethiopian people obediently follow it through all the “bright way towards democracy and development”. This is the official version of the government’s vision that has deafened the people at large. More tacitly, it has given the hope of enrichment and political promotion for those loyal to it. However, both the official and the unofficial versions of hope couldn’t satisfy an increasingly growing section of the population. The most vocal and the most recent one of such sections of the population has turned out to be that of Ethiopian Muslims. In their quest for collective freedom and autonomy, they have strongly envisioned a tomorrow outside and against the practical realm of the government’s discourse. They have demanded apparently easy but practically difficult (for any control-maniac regime) questions with a determination that has defied the expectations of many an observer. The government has always had a significant power to obstruct such an envisioning, however, and it has worked, as usual, on destroying this envisioning this time around, too. Most importantly, it has

The irony of Meles Zenawi’s Foundation

 

by Robele Ababya, 17 May 2013
USA locking horns with the monster it created?
The TPLF regime was catapulted to power armed to the teeth with modern weapons of war provided by Gaddafi coupled with supply of intelligence about the military movements of the Derg regime, which the western powers wanted to revenge for its ideological leaning to the left and its anti-USA stance – all due to the political immaturity of Mengistu breaking at a public rally bottles filled with red liquid condemning imperialism. The US and UK governments in revenge to Mengistu’s bluff kept the TPLF warlords in power by direct financial and security support. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs portfolio has been under the monopoly of TPLF regime for the last 22 years in order to make sure that the interests of the two Western powers are served through instructions whispered to the Minister with whom they frequently meet at various international forums and domestically through their resident envoys.
However, it is encouraging to hear the statement by the acting deputy State department spokesman Patrick Ventrell that “The US was “deeply disappointed” that Ethiopia’s federal supreme court upheld the men’s “conviction and harsh sentencing,” adding that “Today’s decision further reinforces our serious concern about Ethiopia’s politicized prosecution of those critical of the government and ruling party, including under the anti-terrorism proclamation.” Mr.Ventrell went on to stress that “the Universal Declaration of Human Rights gives everyone “a right to freedom of opinion and expression, and that this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference.”
The USA looks set to lock horns with the monster regime, which it created and supported for the last 22 years. Nevertheless, the onus is on us Ethiopians to restore our dignity as human beings and work hard to usher in freedom, justice, liberty, equality and democracy thriving in a prosperous and compassionate society under the rule of law – so that the rampant heart-rending agony symbolized by the young Ethiopian lady in the picture below will end after the demise of the EPRDF regime.
The irony of Zenawi’s Foundation
I have been compiling and updating the following irrefutably ugly record inherited from Zenawi by the EPRDF regime:
“The tyrant finally died leaving Ethiopians with the legacy of: sellout of Ethiopia’s vital national interests such as active support for the separation of Eritrea; grisly heinous crimes including genocide, victims of torture, incarceration of peaceful protesters en masse; extra judiciary execution of peaceful protesters, the wailing of mothers, the agony of bereaved families, filthy jails in which hundreds of political prisoners are cruelly kept, toiling peasants in serfdom, interethnic hatred, daylight robbery of votes, pervasive corrupt practices, culture of pathological lies, demised free media, government monopoly of all pillars of democracy, blocked freedom of expression, poor educational standard, forbidden academic freedom in tertiary institutions, a land-locked country, fertile farmland ceded to the Sudan; leasing large chunks of fertile farmlands to unscrupulous foreign investors at tiny price; massive unemployment largely affecting the youth; demoralized youth addicted to psycho-thermal drugs; abject poverty; embezzlement of national treasure and diverting donor fund; rampant breach of the constitution; regional instability et al” – to which I have referred a couple of times in my previous articles.

The tyrant finally died leaving Ethiopians with the legacy of grisly heinous crimes including genocide

All in all it was a tragedy that befell Ethiopia

When the truth punches the desperate Ethiopian regime in the face?

 

Like it or not Ethiopians are coming together to end Woyane rule. What is left for regime and its stooges is to continue pocking hole on Ethiopiawinet; pandering and instigating ethnic and religious divisions and conflicts to divert the issue of illegitimacy. As my uncle use to say, ‘ወያኔ ፈረስ ከገብስ ያጣላል’ In its desperate attempt to cover up the truth and avoid responsibility diversion became the only option left. የቸገረው እርጉዝ ያገባል?
by Teshome Debalke
Recent news the regime ruling Ethiopia detained some of its corrupt officials after it use and abuse them for two decade to accomplish its grand corruption is another hide-and-seek game of the illegitimate regime plays. It sounds more of the same face saving scum of TPLF to preserve its draconian rule and corruption by all means necessary. TPLF’s apologist and the badmouth Medias running wild and swinging wide to preserve the rotten regime.
The so called Federal Ethics and Corruption Commission spontaneous and unexpected move like its sister agencies TPLF set up isn’t different to rescue the self declared and illegitimate ethnic minority regime. Like the Election Board, the Human Right Commission, the Federal Courts, the Prosecutor Office, Communication Affair Minster… and the rest that are notorious to put up dramas to show there is a resemblance of a functioning government in Ethiopia is in full gear.
The infamous Federal Court is exceptionally notorious in putting up shows; thwarting real justice to send the innocent to jail to protect TPLF’s felons running loss in cover of Justice. Likewise, FECC was set up as instrument of eliminating TPLF’s economic treats as well as its political opponents with tramp up charges in the name of fighting corruption.
This time around TPLF activated FECC on its own cadres and found fall guys to divert the many accusations coming its way, particularly the charge of ethnic cleansing. The hapless TPLF’s stooges are also throwing all kinds of diversion at us to protect the grand villains and their machinery of corruption and atrocity. It is the same old ritual small time tyrants use to ‘eat’ their own offspring to show there is resemblance of normalcy in the ‘government’ they run; mostly for international consumption.
The last and only time FECC was used on TPLF members before was on Siye Abrha and family. The former TPLF executive member and the ‘Defense Minster’ of Ethiopia that spent six years in jail convicted of corruption; something common among TPLF members when they ransacked the public resources since Woyane took power. It was TPLF’s way of telling the rest of its members, if you mess up with the grand plan of Woyan you will bit the dust even if you are Siye’s stature.
Ever since, the stooges are scared to rock the boat; quietly robbing Ethiopians with impunity until the new round of arrest began unexpectedly. The motive behind the new wave of arrest for sure wasn’t corruption until the news broke out TPLF security agency is behind the whole thing. Like always, it turns out to be another diversion to protect the big fishes and the establishment; striped necked of conspiracy in committing heinous crimes of all kinds against the people of Ethiopia.
Speaking of Siye, it would be brave of him to tell the truth and nothing but the truth what he knew, when he knew it and how TPLF conspired to commit the heinous crime of ethnic cleansing and economic alienation of one group of Ethiopians or another to divide the people and rule. The last time he addressed the Diaspora in the US as a leader of the opposition we heard people didn’t appreciate for failing to come clean; acting as firefighter after he was member of the arsonist club most of his adult life. It doesn’t seem he fully comprehend the enormity of TPLF’s conspiracy of ethnic cleansing and economic annihilation of the people of Ethiopia.
Therefore, the recent bogus arrest of Woyane officials shouldn’t distract people from the real issue of the regime’s crime against humanity and massive corruption of TPLF and the unfinished business of freedom and democracy the people demand from the self declared minority ethnic junta.
Frankly it would have been appropriate if FECC arrested the ringleaders of TPLF’s corruption and ethnic cleansing like Azeb Mesfin, Berkit Simon, Sebhat Nega, Syoum Mesfin, Berhane G. Kirstos… to mention a few. But, the Commission picked foot soldiers that are feeding the grand corruption as ordered; reviling it is another diversion like many before it. The Commission should also arrest Al-amudi, the Saudi investor that allegedly known to bribe many government officials to advance his economic interest. In fact, he in many occasions admitted in public advancing benefits to his close associates in the Woyane regime that landed him an exclusive right to the gold mines and land grabbing at will. If that isn’t grand corruption to charge him we don’t know why FECC is chasing small fishes.

Kerry’s Ethiopia Opportunity

 

The U.S. secretary of state’s visit to Addis Ababa is a chance to pressure the government on its dreadful record on human rights.
By MARTIN SCHIBBYE AND PATRICK GRIFFITH
This month, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to attend the 21st African Union (AU) summit. The message he brings will speak volumes about the future of American engagement on the continent.
In announcing the visit during a U.S. Senate hearing last month, Mr. Kerry expressed concern about the potentially negative impact of China’s and Iran’s increased presence in Africa. He noted that graft and poor development choices could undermine the stability of some African governments, and he acknowledged the need for more U.S. engagement.
Further American cooperation on development and security would be good news for Africa. But the U.S. must continue to focus on another potentially destabilizing factor in the continent: ongoing violations of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Since their inception, the AU and its precursor, the Organization of African Unity, have embraced the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The African Charter on Human and People’s Rights expressly protects a raft of basic human rights, including freedom of association, free expression and political participation. But despite these affirmations, the protection of such rights remains inconsistent across AU nations. Some governments continue to ignore certain provisions entirely.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry

If he needs an example, Mr. Kerry need only look out his window in Addis Ababa. This month the Ethiopian Supreme Court upheld an 18-year prison sentence against independent journalist Eskinder Nega.
Though the Ethiopian government is often touted as a close U.S. partner on security and poverty-reduction efforts, it has a dreadful record on rights. After parliamentary elections in 2005, the government jailed opposition leaders such as former judge Birtukan Mideksa and independent journalists who reported on the post-election unrest.
Mr. Nega and his wife Serkalem Fasil, herself a prominent publisher, were among those arrested. They spent 17 months in a detention center on trumped-up charges of treason and genocide before they were finally released. Pregnant at the time of her arrest, Ms. Fasil was denied prenatal care for seven months and gave birth to their son Nafkot while in custody.