In Ethiopia, more land grabs, more indigenous people pushed out

(csmonitor)In Ethiopia, more land grabs, more indigenous people pushed out A journalist's visit to South Omo, where rights groups say police have raped women and otherwise pressured locals to leave an area tagged to become a huge sugar plantation, was quickly curtailed by authorities. HAILEWUHA VILLAGE, SOUTH OMO, ETHIOPIA As night wore on in a remote valley in southern Ethiopia, one policeman dozed and another watched a DVD comedy on a battery-powered laptop. Close by, in a clutch of thorn trees and grass huts, an ethnic Mursi man tried to explain to outsiders why he is so concerned for his people, who have lived here as semi-nomads for generations but may soon be evicted to make way for a giant sugar plantation. "We Mursi [people] do not accept this ambitious government ideology," the man said of an official state plan to house them in new villages in exchange for their compliant departure. He is speaking in the village of Hailewuha, his face lit by flashlight. Cattle shuffle and grunt nearby. "What we want is to use our own traditional way of cultivation," he says. RECOMMENDED: Think you know Africa? Take our geography quiz. Ethiopian officials say the Mursi, like a growing number of ethnic or tribal groups in Ethiopia, are voluntarily moving out of their ancient lands; human rights groups say this is untrue. The ongoing controversy is not new in Ethiopia, and "land grabs" by governments for lucrative leasing deals have become a story across the continent. For example, in Ethiopia's lush Gambella region, in the western area bordering Sudan, locals have been forcibly relocated to make way for the leasing of farms to foreign firms. This year, the World Bank and British aid agencies were swept into controversy over charges they helped fund the relocation including salary payments to local officials involved in the clearing of land.  The Mursi have lived in Omo for centuries. Partly for this reason they get frequent visits by tourists and anthropologists alike. Tall and elaborately decorated, their scarified bodies are daubed with paint and ornamented by hooped earrings and bicep bangles. But now the Mursi may be those most affected by government operations to overhaul South Omo, an area that officials in Addis Ababa are calling economically and socially backward. The plan would turn this scrub and savanna into about 700 square miles of state-owned sugar plantations that would in turn require building Ethiopia’s largest irrigation project. The water to feed the sugar cane year-round is to come from the Omo river, and is made possible by Gibe III, a partly Chinese-funded hydropower dam that may be completed as early as next year. The cane will be processed at some five local factories. The people of this valley, the Mursi, Bodi, and Karo, some of whom number only a few thousand, would need to reduce their cattle -- their most prized possessions. Then many if not all will move into enlarged permanent villages. Controlling the flow of the river will mean the end of an annual flood that makes fertile a strip of land for crops once the seasonal waters recede. An ongoing attempt to control Mursi traditions now means that at public meetings, state authorities implore the group to end "very bad” cultural practices like stick fighting and their characteristic lip-plates. To be sure, Ethiopian authorities promise new jobs, public services, and plenty of irrigation for every Omo household that agrees to move out. But this is not the view of international human rights groups who claim that Ethiopia is broadly and constantly harming locals as part of an authoritarian model of development. In the most recent salvo, the Oakland Institute accused the state of using killings, beatings, and rapes as methods of forcing South Omo residents to accept the sugar cane projects. The California-based advocacy group also accused Western aid agencies and some US and British officials of covering up evidence of the abuses they heard about on research missions. Instead of investigating claims made by Survival International, Human Rights Watch, and the Oakland Institute, Ethiopian authorities smear them as anti-development. These groups help "drag Ethiopia back to the Stone Age," is how the prime minister's spokesperson, Getachew Reda, recently described Oakland's agenda. "We have a scar from them [critics]," says the chief administrator of South Omo, Molloka Wubneh Toricha, about the activists and journalists who make the 400 mile journey from Addis Ababa to the Kenya-border area, hoping to monitor developments. "They try and blacken our image." Yet in the single nighttime interview the Monitor was able to conduct with the Mursi, the criticism of the rights groups were echoed: "The government uses our ignorance and backwardness to control us,” said the Mursi man. "They force us to do farming…. Those who have been in the bush shall settle together in common village and be brothers. But our leaders do not accept this." It is impossible to verify whether these comments reflect the community's opinion since officials and police prevented further inquiries by reporters in a trip there in August.   While regional officials at first permitted access to the Mursi, a few hours later, the administration backtracked. Reporters on an independent visit were forced to camp next to the Hailewuha police station. A security commander regularly called in on a shortwave radio to check that the journalists were still corralled. Senior regional police arrived the next morning to escort them back to the regional capital, Jinka. Later, apologetic officials in Jinka all had the same explanation: there had been a "misunderstanding."  Yet rather than a genuine mix-up, the obstruction seemed to stem from a basic mistrust of outside eyes and voices. Mr. Molloka said journalists frequently "divert" the views of residents: "This is what burns our hearts," he says, "at public meetings we told all the people not to give information to journalists."

A Renaissance for Ethiopia's Youth

By Alemayehu G Mariam    

For the past one-half decade, Ethiopia has been awash with talk of renaissance. There has been a lot of windbagging about a “Renaissance Dam” over the Blue Nile. Our ears nearly fell off listening to the endless gab about an “economic renaissance” with “11 percent” plus annual growth. There has also been much talk of a political and social renaissance complete with slogans of “ethnic federalism”, multiculturalism, pluralism and other “isms” (excluding neoliberalism). Of course, all of it is talk!
That is exactly what I am talking about. How come there is no talk about a renaissance for Ethiopia’s youth?


The term “renaissance” is generally used to signify rebirth and revival in culture and learning. Immediately following the Middle Ages (“Dark Ages”), Europeans had a “Renaissance” which led to the flourishing of art, science and astronomy flourished and expansion of global trade and exploration. Senegalese scholar Cheikh Anta Diop minted the concept of “African Renaissance” in 1946 to advocate the cultural, scientific, economic, and political renewal of the continent. It later evolved to become a philosophical and political movement for the establishment of democratic societies free of strife, corruption and poverty on the continent. Aparently, the idea of “Ethiopian Renaissance” is the figment of the late dictator in Ethiopia. 
It seems to me that if Ethiopia is to have a “renaissance”, a “rebirth” or “revival” of any kind, it could only come through the blood, sweat and tears of her young people, and not from fables invented by despots and their mouthpieces. I believe young Ethiopian entrepreneurs are the tip of the spear in leading the country into an economic renaissance. Young Ethiopians scholars should lead the forces of intellectual transformation. Young Ethiopian scientist and engineers should lead the country into self-sufficiency and global competitiveness. Young Ethiopian lawyers should carry the sword of justice. Young Ethiopian leaders must be the dynamic agents of social and political change and lead Ethiopia into a bold and brave 21^st Century.   
Unfortunately, the older generation -- in or out of power, inside or outside of the country -- do not want to talk about Ethiopian youth, let alone an Ethiopian Youth Renaissance. Again, I am just talking about an Ethiopian youth renaissance, not doing anything to make the renaissance happen. (It is said that “action speaks louder than words”; but when everyone is silent, silence itself becomes action and speaks louder than words.)
I must confess that there are some in the older generation who disapprove and are somewhat offended by my irrevocable commitment to Ethiopia’s youth. I have heard it said that in my complete and shameless partisanship in favor of Ethiopian youth (“Ethiopian Cheetahs and Hippos ”), I have invented a new and dangerous division in society between the young and old in a land already fractured and fragmented by ethnic, religious and regional divisions. “Methinks they doth protest too much”, to invoke Shakespeare.
To me youth is a state of mind, not necessarily chronological age. As Robert Kennedy told South African students in 1966, youth is “a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the life of ease.” Not long ago,  I pleaded for a renaissance of the older generation by restoring faith with the younger generation. “We must unlearn to hate each other because we belong to different ethnic groups or worship the same God with different names. To restore faith with ourselves, we must be willing to step out of our comfort zones, comfort groups, comfort communities and comfort ethnicities and muster the courage to say and do things we know are right.” (I guess my generation is hard of hearing.)
So much for a renaissance of my generation. Back to talking about a renaissance for Ethiopia’s youth. Nobody is talking about it.  That does not just cause me concern, it alarms me (or as young people might say, “it freaks me out”). Why aren’t Ethiopia’s youth front and center in public policy-making, political debate and discourse? Why aren't the regime, the opposition and the Ethiopian Diaspora taking youth issues as the most urgent and critical facing the country?

Ethiopia is the second most populous country in sub-Saharan Africa with an estimated population approaching 90 million. It is reported that over one-half of Ethiopia’s population is between the ages of 15-24 years. An estimated 70 percent of the population is under 40 years old. Ethiopia’s youth suffer from all sorts of deprivations and social maladies. Youth unemployment continues to grow as youth landlessness in rural areas    has opened the floodgates to increasing in-migration to urban areas. According to a 2012 USAID study, “Ethiopia has one of the highest urban youth unemployment rates at 50 percent and there is a high rate of youth under­employment in rural areas, where nearly 85 percent of the