Ethnic Identity in Ethiopia. Why is it Important?

Side Goodo
November 29, 2007

“Human inability to alter the course of wretchedness and misery results in a desire for diversion. But the flaw in diverting our attention via diversion lies in the fact that it keeps us from realizing truth: And yet it is the greatest of our miseries. For it is that above all which prevents us thinking about ourselves and leads us imperceptibly to destruction … diversion passes our time and brings us imperceptibly to our death”. (Pascal, 1995. Trns.)

Based on naturalistic framework taken for granted by scientifically validated common sense, human beings are considered to be a particular sort of evolved animals, homo sapiens. Thus, undeniably, as a particular animal species, human beings have common attributes that distinguish them from other animal species.

However, unlike other animals, human beings have passed through intricate processes of identity development which takes us far beyond the philosophy of human being. Human identity is just that animal identity reflecting the collection of material parts suitable for the support of human existence and continuation of the species. Thus no one with in the home sapiens species can be born with out the common, universal attribute that distinguishes this species from other animal species. Otherwise that particular individual should be classified as a non-human being.

Beyond human identity, we find a distinct personal identity defined on the basis of the functions rather than the underlying nature of that being. This refers to a man as a moral agent or a moral or a rational being. This identity is as distinct as it is an essential attribute of humanity. In the absence of such distinct personal identity the essential attributes of man as a rational being do not exist. Then, the attribute of all animal species including home sapiens can be conveniently compared with the attributes of other animal species where donkeys, cats or dogs belong. However, human individuals posses a morally vital sense of personal identity. Both necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of such morally vital sense of identity is consciousness. A person is not just a moral being but also a moral and a conscious being. Issues such as accountability for ones actions emanate from the very existence of morally conscious being. Thus, it is not the universal attribute of human identity but the attributes of personal identity that are the most important objects of societal concern.

Human evolution bestowed human individuals with verities of identities. On top of the universal human identity and personal identity, we also find racial identity, ethnic identity and political identity. Racial and ethnic identity are critical parts of the overall framework of individual and collective identity. Thus they can not be dubbed as accidents of historical contingencies. Ethnic identity development consists of an individual’s movement towards a highly conscious identification with their own cultural values, behaviours, beliefs and traditions. This is a higher stage of human identity development compared to a rudimentary human identity and a more conscious personal identity. This is because a sense of ethnic identity is developed from shared culture, religion, geography, and language of individuals who are connected by strong loyalty and kinship or genealogy none of which are accidents of historical contingencies.

In advanced western societies with a common race and language, ethnic identity is manifested in mostly unconscious ways through their behaviours, values, beliefs and assumptions. For them ethnicity is usually invisible and unconscious because societal norms have been constructed around their racial, ethnic and cultural frameworks, as well as values and priorities which could be referred to as a culture of a country X. However, in underdeveloped countries such as ours, one can not talk of the “Ethiopian culture” because here societal norms have been constructed around specific ethnic and cultural frameworks as well as values and priorities, unless of course we force the various ethnic groups to submit to a societal norm of one politically dominant ethnic group.

Apart from this, in multiethnic societies an individual naturally integrates ethnicity into his/her self-concept or self-image. This leads to the development of ethnic self-identity. This is a full recognition of ones ethnicity and the subsequent self-identity that flows from the values, and norms of that ethnic group regardless of the opinions and the prejudices of the dominant ethnic group against it. Ethnogenesis is a very complex process. It involves an interaction of contextual and developmental factors. As opposed to racial identity which is defined on the basis of hereditary particles or genes and physical characters and that can disappear from time to time due to geographic and cultural isolation, ethnic identity is a continuous process.

In this context, therefore, ethnic identity is the most important element of human development and can not easily be reduced into an accident of historical contingency.

When the geographic boundaries of an ethnic population and a political state coincide, ethnic identity refers to national identity, i.e. a nation-state. Therefore, in this sense, ethnic identity is the basis of political identity. In this case there will be no conflict between ethnic self-identity and political identity. The problem arises when a political state extends beyond the geographic boundaries of an ethnic population as in the case of the present day Ethiopia.

Under these circumstances conflicts between various ethnic groups for the control of resources with in that geographic boundaries is inevitable. In the absence of clear and agreeable socio-political contracts among these various ethnic groups (which is often the case), the dominant group is bound to oppress and exploit the minorities or the less dominate ones. Anthropologist and historians suggest that such conflicts among ethnic groups should be resolved in one of two ways: first, the legitimacy of modern states must be based on notion of political rights of autonomous individual subjects. According to this view the state should not acknowledge the ethnic, national or racial identity, but instead enforce political and legal equality of all individuals. The second and the most dominant view is that the autonomous individual it self is a cultural construct and hence it is not possible to separate it from ethnic identity. According to this view states must recognise ethnic identity and develop a process through which the particular needs of ethnic groups can be accommodated with in the boundary of the state. If the state fails to address this fundamental problem, it is incumbent upon the ethnic groups to fight for their own separate nation state as we observe in Ethiopia at present. This process can be accentuated by irredentism or grievances with in the state boundary.

Thus the issue of ethnic identity in multiethnic countries like Ethiopia is of paramount importance. First ethnic demands and their legitimacy must be fully recognised. Then the state must clearly indicate which approach it follows to resolve conflicts among the various ethnic groups (most often between the dominant ethnic group and the rest) with in the state. It must be clear whether the state follows the notion of political rights of autonomous individual with no recognition to the ethnic identity or it recognises ethnic identity and agrees to develop a process to accommodate the particular needs of the ethnic group with in the boundary of the state, period.

There is no in-between solution to this fundamental human demand. However, the views of some Ethiopian scholars on this fundamental demand of humanity are inherently flawed. Instead of addressing the issue, the scholars choose to follow what Pascal calls the philosophy of diversion. Instead of addressing a rather straightforward question of ethnic identity, they try to divert the issue by reverting to unnecessary comparisons with universal human attributes that separates us from other animal species which are irrelevant here. They fail to understand and appreciate the value of ethnic self-identity in social development. They try to portray as if ethnic identity contradicts political identity. They try to deny the fact that the foundation of modern nation state is ethnic identity. Our preceding argument clearly indicated that there is no inherent contraction between ethnic identity and political identity. This incoherent attempt of diversion is a reflection of the most disturbing and the most fundamental principle of diversion in Ethiopia, i.e. trying to present Ethiopia as the country of “one people and one language”.

That is the reason why I began my rather short article on ethnic identity with a quote from one of the greatest philosophers, Pascal. We have one and only one choice: use scientific knowledge humanity has accumulated over time to address the problem. Stop diversion. Discover the truth. Avoid an inevitable death to the country.

The Former Leader of Sidama Liberation Movement Passes Away

November 25, 2007

The former leader of the Sidama Liberation Movement (SLM), Mr. Woldeamanuel Dubale Hankarso passed away on November 20, 2007 in a London Hospital. He was the leader of the movement since the late 1970s until recently. He lived in exile in Somalia between the late 1970s and 1991 when he came back to Ethiopia to participate in the formation of the transitional government led by EPRDF.

When EPRDF purged out SLM from the transitional government in 1992 Mr. Hankarso sought asylum in Britain and lived there until recently. However, he returned back to Ethiopia a year ago under unclear arrangement with the current government. He went back to Britain because of ill health and passed away there a week ago. His body was sent to Sidama for burial.

The Sidama Chronicle passes its condolences to his family.

Unity Vs Diversity, Delusion Vs Reality? The Ethiopian Scenario

Side Goodo

November 21, 2007

1. Introduction

For the good part of the twentieth century, the country was under two totalitarian political systems. These were the archaic feudal monarchy and the diehard socialist-cum-military dictatorship of the 1970s and 1980s. The current regime is awashed with rhetoric of democracy, press freedom, political pluralism, ethnic rights which are all illusive. The objective is to appease the west and most importantly to ensure continued inflows of aid.

The current regime neither tolerates genuine political opposition nor promotes genuine ethnic freedom. The ethnic based liberation movements such as OLF, and the Sidama Liberation Movement, which were part of the transitional government led by EPRDF were purged out from the government with in one year of its inception. A weak political opposition was tolerated as a showcase to the west. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s four or five opposition members of parliament were elected into an EPRDF dominated parliament of over 540 members. Prominent among these handful MPs were individuals such as Dr. Beyene Petros and one or two others. Both the 1995 and 2000 elections in the country were neither free nor fair by any standard.

However, the preparation for the May 2005 elections saw a little relaxation of EPRDF restrictions on the opposition movements. This miscalculation by the party that became overconfident after successfully rigging two successive elections later threatened its very existence.

The front runner opposition parties for the 2005 elections were Coalition for Unity and Democracy (known as Kinijit in Amharic), the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces (UEDF) led by Dr. Beyene Petros and Dr. Merara Gudina, the Oromo Federalist Party and the Sidama Liberation Movement, among others. Although the opposition posed a major threat to the ruling party for the first time in the history of the country, it was unable to change the course of the country’s political history. There are two fundamental causes fore this failure. First, there has never been any level playing field in the country’s political system. Second and equally important is the credibility of the political opposition itself. For a political opposition to enjoy unreserved support of the electorate, it must prove to the people that it is credible in terms of believability, authenticity, genuineness and legitimacy. For most Ethiopians, the current ruling party is not a credible political organization because it seriously lacks authenticity, believability and genuineness among others. The main reason for the credibility crisis of the ruling party is its fundamental belief in delusive unity while at the same time playing the ethnic card of diversity. The majority of the Ethiopian peoples cannot believe the main opposition either because; its diehard political stance of unity is delusive.

2. Unity, Diversity and the Credibility of the Ethiopian Political Opposition

As we stated earlier, the Ethiopian political opposition which took shape few months before the 2005 elections does not enjoy much credibility either. In particular, the major opposition party CUD (Kinijit) is viewed by many Ethiopians with a serious suspicion because of the past political history of the country. The basic political premise of CUD, i.e. unity is not a mere political ploy but is a reflection of deep rooted belief to restore the old political order in the country. Many non Amhara Ethiopians view unity as synonymous with the Amhara rule and as such as a serious threat to their aspiration for greater freedom, democracy and greater political autonomy. Can democracy be achieved only under unity? Is unitary government the best form of government for a country as diverse as Ethiopia? What is behind the concept of unity? Any group of people has full right to establish a political organization of its choosing. I am not questioning the right of the Amhara people to establish a political organization with a goal of unity. But what I am questioning is whether the rest of the Ethiopian peoples view this type of political organization as believable, dependable and trustworthy. According to the facts on the ground, they do not.

Ethiopia is an amalgamation of over 80 nations or ethnic groups which can be classified into peoples of 4 major ethnic origins. These are: (a) Kushitic peoples: Sidama, Oromo, Afar, Somalis, Hadiya, Alaba, Xambaro, Kambata, etc. (b) Semitic peoples: Amhara and Tigray, (c) Omotic and/or Bantu peoples: Wolayita, Gamo, Gofa, Dawro, Kulo Konta, etc. and (d) the Nilotic peoples: Anuak, Nuer, Gumuz, etc. The Kushitic group is the majority group in Ethiopia. According to the 2005 Central Statistical Authority’s population figures, the Kushitic group comprises of 51.3% of the 78 million total population of the country while the Semitic group comprises of 30%. The remaining 18.7% is constituted by the Omotic, Nilotic and other smaller groups.

It is undeniable fact that Ethiopia took its current shape only after the imperial expansion of the 1880s and 1890s by king Minelik. If any Ethiopian historian or politician believes that most peoples in the south, east and west were part of the current Ethiopia before 1880s and 1890s, he/she must be either hallucinating or in perpetual denial of the reality. Many peoples such as Sidama were never part of the Semitic “assimilation/domination” in the northern part of the country before this particular expansion. However, the main problem this article tries to address is not when and how the peoples of the south, the west and the east became part of the current Ethiopia. The main concern of this article is whether the current political system in the country provides any hope for the future peaceful and harmonious coexistence of various peoples of this country or it is bound to disintegrate it for ever.

The Oromo people, which form the majority ethnic group in the country, have started an organised struggle for freedom, democracy and total liberation from Ethiopia four decades ago. The Sidama people have been engaged in an organized liberation struggle since the early 1970s. Currently, an intensified campaign is under way in the Ogaden region by ethnic Somalis who seek greater political autonomy and or independence from Ethiopia. Thus, the facts on the ground clearly indicate that Ethiopia is not a nation state and a unitary form of government is not a feasible alternative for the country.

3. Ethiopia is a Multinational State

Ethiopia is not a nation state. Ethiopia is a multinational state with various nations that have successfully preserved their language, culture and distinct socio-economic setting. The failure by the Amhara rulers to build an empire state led to a failure in nation building. Due to lack of education, industrialization, urbanization and broader economic development, the majority of the peoples of the country continued to live primitive life style in rural areas with little or no interaction and integration with the rest of the peoples in the country and the rest of the world. Over 80% of the country’s population belongs to subsistence peasant households in rural areas of the country. Many areas are still today inaccessible by any means. These peoples have maintained their distinct socio-cultural and socio-economic set up for centuries albeit serious disruptions by the feudal system in the south, east and west. These peoples strive to maintain and promote their distinct culture, language and social settings. To achieve these, their basic demands are freedom, democracy and above all greater political autonomy.

The advocates of unity in Ethiopia presume that these ethnic and national diversities do not exist and Ethiopia is a country of “one people, one nation and one language”. There is a blatant misrepresentation of the reality. Denial of diversity and wishing away ethnic differences has not come out of genuine love for the rest of the peoples but out of utter lack of respect and out right contempt. By implication, wishing away ethnic diversities in Ethiopia means that the 70% of the non Amhara and non Tigray population of the country are considered to be immaterial, negligible, marginal and even nonexistent. Let me provide an example. It was after the 1991 political change in the country. One morning, an Amhara friend of mine came to the office very angry and frustrated. I asked what had happened to my good old co-worker. I was shocked to hear his response. He told me that the Tigrians (the ethnic group of the people who took power in 1991) were promoting tribalism in the country by allowing the Oromo language to be broadcast on the Ethiopian television. I asked him whether he believed that the Oromos were Ethiopians. He replied that he did but continued that all of us should speak one language, Amharic and lamented further that allowing the Oromo language to be broadcast on TV was promoting tribalism. He was implying that speaking the language of his Amhara tribe would not imply tribalism. But the moment other languages were spoken that would reflect tribalism, what ever that meant.

I learned one important lesson from my good old Amhara friend. There is a serious attitude problem particularly among the educated Amharas. They believe that the Amharas are superior to others in the country, the feeling that was echoed in some writings of their intellectuals. That is the biggest mistake of today’s Amhara elites and the biggest mistake of their political opposition.

I later told my good old Amhara friend that if Ethiopia is to stay together, the Oromo language must be made the second official and working language in the country, if Oromos agree to settle for it, let alone showcasing it on TV for 30 odd minutes. I regret for not being able to learn the Oromo language in schools in Ethiopia. I told my friend that in Canada, the Quebec region speaks French and the rest of the country speaks English. They have two official languages. Both the French speakers and English speakers respect each other as human beings and live in peace and harmony. They developed their country to one of the 7 most industrialised countries in the world. Here are we busy undermining each other and at the bottom of every single country in the world. At the bottom of GDP per capita, at the bottom of human resources development index, at the bottom of trade and industry development index, and most crucially at the bottom of food self sufficiency.

Against this backdrop we hear a constant preaching for unity. Unity for what? Unity for poverty, unity for hunger, unity for underdevelopment. The premise of unity by the aforementioned political opposition is based on the denial of the facts on the ground; the fact that Ethiopia is a multinational state and not a nation state.

The recent crisis in the main opposition party CUD is a reflection of fundamental problem, i.e. wrong political premise of the organization than a mere power struggle.

4. The Current Crisis in the Opposition

The political goal of CUD is de-ethnicisation of the current Ethiopian politic in the sense of undermining the rights and the powers of national groups such as the Oromos, Sidamas and so on. As we have reiterated earlier, the party advocates for unity that does not recognise the diversity of the country’s populations. Their political agenda is based on myth of one nation, one language, and one country rather than the reality of many nations and many languages in one country. The recent rift between some diehard leadership of CUD and two or three a little moderate non Amhara leadership of the organization clearly indicates that there is a conflict between the goals and the structure of the organization.

If the members of the various political organisations that formed CUD were genuine advocates of freedom and democracy and the rule of law in the country, why did they purge out the renowned Kushitic intellectuals and veteran opposition leaders such as Dr. Beyene Petros and Dr. Merara Gudina from their coalition and form an almost exclusively Semitic-cum-Amhara coalition (Kinijit)? Again I am not questioning the right of the people to form any party. However, the political parties should clearly understand the political boundaries they are setting themselves when they decide to limit the participation of other peoples in their organisations.

Worse still, the top leadership of the party has recently indicated that it would not tolerate any remaining non Amhara voice in its leadership. The current crisis of CUD not only made it a mockery of the ruling EPRDF but also stripped it of any credibility what so ever.

Another serious credibility crisis of CUD is its attempt to forge unholy alliance with certain political organisations that stand in stark contradiction to its principles of unity. This refers to the alliance with OLF, SLF, and other more pro-independence political organisations after the 2005 elections. Are these organisations more compatible with the objectives of unity than United Ethiopian Democratic Forces? Can we believe that this alliance is genuine?

The fundamental solution to the Ethiopian political crisis can not be found by political organisation that play hide and seek games. Call a spade a spade. Stop ostentatious and excessive preoccupation with delusive unity. Work for a realistic and long-lasting political solution if the country is to stay united.
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5. The Best Solution for the Ethiopian Political Crisis is Strong Federalism

Advocating unitary and centralist political system for a country like Ethiopia where the majority of the population is already seeking greater autonomy and/or total independence from the country, is totally unrealistic. Nor is the current weak and pseudo-federal arrangement of EPRDF a viable solution for the crisis facing the country.

The only sustainable solution for the Ethiopian political crisis is a strong federal system where various ethnic groups enjoy full political autonomy to fully decide on their internal affairs. In this , the role of the central government should be limited to international relations, defense and implementation of certain supranational projects. One may ask how it can be possible to create viable ethnic based federal entities in Ethiopia with over 80 ethnic groups. This is a legitimate question. It is neither feasible nor viable to create over 80 ethnic based federal regions in Ethiopia. The federal arrangement should be based on a combination of various objective criteria such as ethnic background, population size, economic potential, geographical proximity and socioeconomic similarities between the peoples in question.

It is a mockery to organize 45 different nations in the south under one pseudo-federal region called SNNPR. The 45 different ethnic groups belong to four major ethnic origins mentioned earlier. The fifth largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, Sidama, is forcefully held in the ghetto of the SNNPR. Sidama qualifies for its own federal state by any standard, be it population size, economic potential, socio-cultural and socio-economic unity of the people, if the Sidama people agree to settle for it. The SNNPR can be appropriately restructured in to 8-10 federal states. The rest of the country can be reorganized accordingly into similar federal systems which will yield no more than 20 strong federal states in the country in total.

To ensure real and sustainable as opposed to delusive unity in Ethiopia, the only alternative is to grant greater political autonomy to the majority of the population by creating strong federal system of government. Even more advanced countries in Western Europe such as Germany, Switzerland, and Austria as well as the emerging market economies in Latin America such as Brazil and Argentina exercise strong federal system, where sub-national states have more power than the national government. And yet they have not disintegrated.

Thus, a credible political opposition in Ethiopia is not the one that wishes away ethnic and cultural diversities and advocates for unrealistic unity in the country nor is it a political organization that uses ethnic cards to score local and global political goals with out genuine recognition of democratic and ethnic rights of the peoples concerned.

6. The Possible Way Ahead for the Opposition

Political opposition that can pose a serious and credible challenge to the current EPRDRF rule in the country must address the following fundamental issuers:

First, work for genuine and strong federal arrangement in the country. Various Ethiopian peoples have already been demanding a greater political autonomy or independence for decades. If any political organisation is concerned with the rights of the majority of the Ethiopian peoples which it strives to rule or lead, it must be able to address their concerns. If any political party tries to dictate what is better for the majority of the population it is bound to fail.

Second, accept openly and honestly that Ethiopia is a multination state. It is not a nation state. The right of various ethnic groups to promote their language and culture must be accepted unequivocally.

Third, a country wide political party should include key leadership members of major ethnic groups: Oromo, Amhara, Tigray, Ogadenis, Sidama, Hadiya, Wolayita, Afar Gumuz and so on. This is the case in many politically stable and democratic countries of the world. One or two leadership members for a political party dominated by one ethnic group will not make it different from an ethnic liberation organisation. Otherwise, such political parties will end up as a minority ethnic and regional parties which will never pose a serious and credible threat to EPRDF. In the meantime regions such as Oganden may split up from the country paving the way for further disintegration of the country.

Finally, appreciate EPRDF’s strengths. EPRDF is a much clever political party compared to CUD and UEDF. EPRDF at least pays leap services to ethnic rights and ethnic diversities in the country. It does not openly advocate the delusive concept of one nation, one language and one country, although it believes in it. A political organisation that strives to take the majority of the Ethiopian peoples an inch backward from what they have achieved under EPRDF will never be able to enjoy popular support and will never be able to rule the country peacefully. Remember that EPRDF was able to fabricate its own surrogate representatives of the entire ethnic groups in the country. These surrogates honestly believe that the demands of their peoples have fully been answered by EPRDF. Therefore, they are bound to fully back the party in its future elections. This is not a myth. It is a reality. Thus, given the current crisis of credibility by the major political opposition and the utter weaknesses of other opposition parties, EPRDF would easily outmanoeuvre the opposition and will win so many elections to come. I do not believe that HR2003 alone would bring a miracle! As it stands at present, there is no credible political alternative to a noncredible ruling party in Ethiopia.

Open letter to Owners of “Sidamo” Cafe

October 18, 2007

Dear the owners of the "Sidamo" Cafe
Washington, USA

Thank you for your great work in promoting the market for Sidama Speciality Coffee which has also been known by "Sidamo" coffee.

The term "Sidamo" province was used to refer to a region in South Ethiopia which included Sidama, Wolayita, Gedeo, Burji, Guji and Borena Oromos. That region was reduced to "Sidamo" administrative region by the socialist government by removing Wolayita from it in early 1980s. In 1993 EPRDF dissolved the "Sidamo" administrative region and created SNNPR. There were no people who were called Sidamo then or now.

Since 1993 the term "Sidamo" ceased to exist as a legal term as did "Wolamo" and "Galla" long time ago. But knowingly or unknowingly people continued to use this term both in Ethiopia and globally up to now. Thus, the Sidama people at home and in Diaspora have begun a massive campaign to correct the continued use of the derogatory misnomer "Sidamo" and replace it with the rightful name Sidama world wide. Please visit http://sidamachronicle.blogspot.com/ or http://www.sidamaconcern.com/ for your information about the history of the Sidama people and how the misnomer "Sidamo" originated.

The article was written to the Oxfam offices world wide. We thank you in advance for your understanding.

Sidama not "Sidamo" Coffee campaign team.

Open Letter to Oxfam

Oxfam America,
All Oxfam Offices World Wide

October 16, 2007

RE: The Use of the Misnomer “Sidamo”

This is to bring to your attention that the use of the derogatory term “Sidamo” continues both in Ethiopia and abroad after 15 years of the dissolution of the former “Sidamo” administrative region of the socialist government. Up to now the Sidama people have been opposing the use of this degrading and insulting term “Sidamo” on individual basis. However, the time has now come to take a collective action as a nation and inform the international community that there are no people called “Sidamo” at present.

A campaign has started by voluntary and free Sidama intellectuals and Sidama community members to inform the international community that THERE ARE NO PEOPLE CALLED “SIDAMO” AND THE USE OF “SIDAMO” MISNOMER MUST BE STOPPED IMMEDIATELY. We have prepared a brief document pertaining to the history of the Sidama people and the origin of the misnomer “Sidamo” to enable you to make informed decisions about the continued use of this derogatory term. These are presented below:

1. An overview of the history of Sidama people

The Sidama people live in the southern part of the present day Ethiopia, in the Horn of Africa. They belong to the people of Kushitic origin that occupy the vast area of north eastern and eastern Africa extending from the Sudan throughout the Horn of Africa to Tanzania. The most notable peoples of the Kushitic origin to which the Sidama people belong include, the Saho in Eritrea, Oromo, Hadiya, Afar and Somalis in Ethiopia; the Somalis especially the Degodai tribe both in Somalia and Kenya; the Randle and Sakuye in Kenya and many others in Eastern and central Africa. The Sidama along with Agew and Beja were the first settlers in the northern highlands of the present day Ethiopia before the arrival of Abyssineans. That was why the present day Ethiopia was called the land of Kush. The Ethiopian historians such as Taddese Tamirat themselves accept this fact.

At present the majority of the Sidama people live in the Southern part of Ethiopia with notable geographical features like lake Awassa in the North and lake Abaya in the South. The population of the Sidama land is about 5 million at present. However, during the course of great popular migration from North and East to the South of Africa, some Sidamas were left behind and were later scattered into different parts of the country and even beyond. One example of such groups of people related to Sidama includes those who live around river Dawa in South Eastern Ethiopia and North Eastern Kenya. The Dawa river was the turning point in the history of the migration of the Sidama people from North to the South. These people now speak Somali language and identify themselves as Digodai, the clans of which include several clans in Sidama. The most notable of these clans is Fardano whose name is maintained both in Sidama and Somali Digodai tribe with out slightest modification. Other people that have even greater affiliation to the Sidama people and its culture and language and that were only separated from the present day Sidama land most recently include Alaba, Tambaro, Qewena and Marako. These groups of the Sidama people live in the western vicinity of the present day Sidama land. This latter group of Sidama people are called western Sidamas. Some writers of the feudal era were misled by some non-Sidama writers into believing that there were two different groups of peoples called “Sidamo” and Sidama. That is absolutely incorrect. There are no two peoples called Sidama and “Sidamo”. There are only one people called Sidama.

2. The Origin of the Misnomer “Sidamo”

When Baalichcha Worawo, the last king of Sidama, made the Wuchale type treaty with Bashah Aboye, the general of Minelik and the leader of the invading Abyssinian army that first set its foot on the Sidama land in 1891, the latter asked the King of Sidama what the name of this people was called. King Baalichcha Worawo told him that his people were called the Sidama people. However, Beshah never used the name Sidama to refer to this people. This was because it was part of the policy of occupation and subjugation to humiliate the occupied territories by degrading their identity either by selling the peoples as slaves or using other humiliating mechanisms such as calling them with inferior names. Accordingly, Beshah and his soldiers refused to call the people in their real name and started to call them “Sidamo” which implied their inferior status now under occupation. However, because the treaty between Beshah and King Baalichcha failed to work, Beshah’s army was defeated and Beshah retreated back to Shewa. The Sidama land was free once again although it was for a brief period.

When Beshah arrived back in Addis Ababa, he reported to emperor Minelik that he encountered some people called “Sidamo” who repulsed his army. Thus, the term “Sidamo’ was first coined by Beshah Aboye and his soldiers in 1891. That was how the term emerged. There have never been any people called “Sidamo” and there never are at present!! Therefore, the term was a deliberate fabrication by the invading soldiers of King Minelik as part of the campaign to humiliate, undermine and subjugate the newly conquered territories in the South of the country.

Minelik’s army had to change the direction of their attack on Sidama from the north western tip of Sidama near lake Awassa where Beshah was defeated by Baalichcha Worawo to the more remote eastern highland of Hula adjacent to Bale in the present day Oromia region. This time another general of Minelik called Leulseged launched a massive military attack which was superior in armament and ammunition compared to the ordinary armaments the Sidama people then had to reoccupy the Sidama land. He successfully reoccupied the Sidama land and established his first administrative post in Hula which was later called Hagereselam town in the mid 1890s.

Later in 1890s Leulseged forced Baalichcha Warawo to join him in his campaign to conquer the Konso land, south of Sidama. King Baalichcha had no power to refuse to accompany Leulseged because he was now under occupation. King Baalichcha Worawo was taken to the Konso land with the pretext of assisting the conquest and was assassinated there by Leulseged. His mule called Laango on which Baalichcha travelled to Konso came back home travelling an amazing distance of over 200 kms by its own. To date the Sidama people lament about Baalichcha’s assassination by saying that: “Warawo Baalichcha, diinu galafati ma manchi shaalicha. Gaangichosi Laango, Baalichchi gorena bae dagu gaango”, roughly translated as “the enemy brutally murdered the beloved King of Sidama. But his mule escaped and came home alone!!”.

After the Conquest of Sidama, Gedeo, the Guji and Borana Oromos and other smaller Kushitic nations south of Sidama, the entire area of Sidama and south of Sidama including Wolayita and starting from Tikur wuha in Awassa town up to Moyale on the Ethiopian-Kenyan border was named the “Sidamo” province by the successive Amhara rulers until the early 1980s when the military Junta reduced the size of the “Sidamo” province by separating Wolayita and Borana from it. This province was dissolved when the new government formed SNNPR in 1993.

Therefore, the use of the term “Sidamo” ended in 1993 with the dissolution of the “Sidamo” administrative region the same year. At present there are neither regions nor peoples who are called “Sidamo”. But the use of this term has continued in Ethiopia as well as internationally. It is not possible to correct this misnomer on an individual basis by addressing individuals or organizations who use the term globally.

The Wolayita people were able to change the derogatory term “Wolamo” used against them long time ago. The Oromos also managed to ban the use of another derogatory term “Galla” long time ago.

The former “Sidama” province which referred to a collection of Sidama, Wolayita, Gedeo, Burji, Guji and Borena Oromos was dissolved by the derg in early 1980s. None of these people referred to themselves as “Sidamo” any way. “Sidamo” was simply an administrative name used by the rulers and did not actually reflect the true name of any of the peoples in the province. The Sidama people never called themselves “Sidamo”, the Wolatyita people never called themselves “Sidamo”. neither did Gedeo, Burji, Guji or Borena Oromos.

3. The Sidama Coffee Farmers’ Cooperative Union trades “Sidamo” Coffee?

At present this derogatory term “Sidamo” is being used to represent the Sidama people. The evidence for this is the use of Ethiopian “Sidamo” coffee to refer to the Ethiopian Sidama coffee. This is not acceptable. The coffee farmers are Sidama and the coffee is Sidama coffee. The Gedeo coffee is trade marked as Yirgacheffe separately. It is time that the “Sidamo” coffee trade mark be changed to the Ethiopian Sidama coffee. The continued use of “Sidamo” to refer to the Sidama coffee is against the rule of the fair international trade in commodities and clear violation of the right of the Sidama farmers to sell their products in the name they assign to the product. One can not trade the Russian Gold as the USSR Gold today because there is no more USSR today.

How and why does the Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union trade in “Sidamo” coffee? This is completely against the principle of fair trade.

4. Conclusion and call for immediate halt in the use of “Sidamo” misnomer

There are no people in Ethiopia called “Sidamo”. The misnomer was invented in 1891 by the invading Minelik’s generals and soldiers as part of a psychological war to degrade and dehumanise the newly occupied land of Sidama and other peoples living around the Sidama land. The same dehumanising misnomer was used against the Wolayita people who were called “Wolamo”. Oromos were called with another derogatory name called “Galla” which in fact preceded “Sidamo” and “Wolamo” misnomers.

5. Request to Oxfam America and all Oxfam Offices worldwide

Oxfam is a voice of voiceless. Its worldwide campaign to make trade fair was a great achievement to the Sidama poor.

We, the Sidama people, therefore request Oxfam’s good offices worldwide to assist the Sidama people once again to be able to trade their high quality coffee in the name of Ethiopian Sidama coffee instead of a misnomer Ethiopian “Sidamo” coffee.

THERE ARE NO PEOPLE CALLED “SIDAMO”: STOP THE USE OF “SIDAMO” MISNOMER

Side Goodo
October 4, 2007

1. Introduction

Time and again the Sidama people have rejected the use of the derogatory term “Sidamo”. The term was a deliberate fabrication by the invading Abyssinian soldiers of King Minelik as part of the campaign to humiliate, undermine and subjugate the newly conquered territories in the South of the country.

This article is motivated by the outrageous statements made by Eremias Woldemikael during his email conversations with Kambata Xola of Sidama National Liberation organization (SNLO) regarding the Abyssinian occupation, subjugation and exploitation of the Sidama land. Eremias writes:

“When I was referring to Sidama and Oromo relationship, I was using the term ‘Sidama’ in a historical sense. Historians use the term ‘Sidama’ to refer to peoples that lived South of and including some part of Shewa. The term "Sidamo" is used to one of the ethnic groups of those peoples. As you may know the region was conquered by the Oromo during their expansion in the 16th c. For further information on the distinction between Sidama and Sidamo, see J.S. Trirmingham's Islam in Ethiopia pp. 179-185 and Mordechai Abir's Ethiopia: The Era of the Princes pp.73. By making this distinction, I hope you do not feel like I am trying to lecture you about your culture or ethnicity. I am simply trying to explain the context of my discussion”.

I am shocked to read the above statements in the 21st century. I agree with Eremias, on one point, however. Abyssinians do not know anything and do not want to now anything about non-Abyssinian peoples such as Sidama. They must be taught not only about democracy, respect to human dignity and the rule of law but also the fact that there are other proud nations in Ethiopia who have their own history, who know their history very well and who can articulate these at least as much as the Abyssinians do regarding their peoples. Who is Eremias to tell us who we are and who wrote what rubbish about us? We, the Sidama people very well know where we originated, when and where we first settled in Ethiopia and when and how we came to our present land. Quoting rubbish written on Sidama by foreign transcribers of Abyssinian rulers and telling us that the Oromos conquered us in the 16th century, which they did not, is as outrageous as it is a blatant distortion of our history. Our brief history is presented in the next section in case it may wake Abyssinians like Eremias up in the future. The origin of the misnomer “Sidamo” is elaborated in section 3 of the article. Section 4 presents other evidences of deliberate name changes by Abyssinian rulers in Sidama. Finally, section 5 concludes the article.

2 An overview of the history of Sidama people

The Sidama people live in the southern part of the present day Ethiopia, in the Horn of Africa. They belong to the people of Kushitic origin that occupy the vast area of north eastern and eastern Africa extending from the Sudan throughout the Horn of Africa to Tanzania. The most notable peoples of the Kushitic origin to which the Sidama people belong include, the Saho in Eritrea, Oromo, Hadiya, Afar and Somalis in Ethiopia; the Somalis especially the Degodai tribe both in Somalia and Kenya; the Randle and Sakuye in Kenya and many others in Eastern and central Africa. The Sidama along with Agew and Beja were the first settlers in the northern highlands of the present day Ethiopia before the arrival of Yemeni habeshas (Abyssineans). That was why the present day Ethiopia was called the land of Kush. The Abyssinian historians such as Taddese Tamirat themselves accept this fact.

At present the majority of the Sidama people live in the Southern part of Ethiopia with notable geographical features like lake Awassa in the North and lake Abaya in the South. The population of the Sidama land is about 5 million at present. However, during the course of great popular migration from North and East to the South of Africa, some Sidamas were left behind and were later scattered into different parts of the country and even beyond. One example of such groups of people related to Sidama includes those who live around river Dawa in South Eastern Ethiopia and North Eastern Kenya. The Dawa river was the turning point in the history of the migration of the Sidama people from North to the South. These people now speak Somali language and identify themselves as Digodai, the clans of which include several clans in Sidama. The most notable of these clans is Fardano whose name is maintained both in Sidama and Somali Digodai tribe with out slightest modification. Other people that have even greater affiliation to the Sidama people and its culture and language and that were only separated from the present day Sidama land most recently include Alaba, Tambaro, Qewena and Marako. These groups of the Sidama people live in the western vicinity of the present day Sidama land. This latter group of Sidama people are called western Sidamas. The transcribers of the Abyssinian rulers whom Eremias quotes as his authentic sources on Sidama were misled by the post Minelik Abyssinians writers into believing that there were two different groups of peoples called “Sidamo” and Sidama. That is not only absolutely incorrect but also absolutely outrageous!! I will show why in the next section.

3. The Origin of the Misnomer “Sidamo”

When Baalichcha Worawo, the last king of Sidama, made the Wuchale type treaty with Bashah Aboye, the general of Minelik and the leader of the invading Abyssinian army that first set its foot on the Sidama land in 1891, the latter asked the King of Sidama what the name of this people was called. King Baalichcha Worawo told him that his people were called the Sidama people. However, Beshah never used the name Sidama to refer to this people. This was because it was part of the policy of occupation and subjugation to humiliate the occupied territories by degrading their identity either by selling the peoples as slaves or using other humiliating mechanisms such as calling them with inferior names. Accordingly, Beshah and his soldiers refused to call the people in their real name and started to call them “Sidamo” which implied their inferior status now under occupation. However, because the treaty between Beshah and King Baalichcha failed to work, Beshah’s army was defeated and Beshah retreated back to Shewa. The Sidama land was free once again although it was for a brief period.

When Beshah arrived back in Addis Ababa, he reported to emperor Minelik that he encountered some people called “Sidamo” who repulsed his army. Thus the term “Sidamo’ was first coined by Beshah Aboye and his soldiers in 1891. That was how the term emerged. There have never been any people called “Sidamo” and there never are at present!!

Abyssinians had to change the direction of their attack on Sidama from the north western tip of Sidama near lake Awassa where Beshah was defeated by Baalichcha Worawo to the more remote eastern highland of Hula adjacent to Bale in the present day Oromia region. This time another general of Minelik called Leulseged (probably a Tigre due to his name) launched a massive military attack which was superior in armament and ammunition compared to the ordinary armaments the Sidama people then had to reoccupy the Sidama land. He successfully reoccupied the Sidama land and established his first administrative post in Hula which they later called Hagereselam town in the mid 1890s.

Later in 1890s Leulseged forced Baalichcha Warawo to join him in his campaign to conquer the Konso land, south of Sidama. King Baalichcha had no power to refuse to accompany Leulseged because he was now under occupation. King Baalichcha Worawo was taken to the Konso land wth the pretext of assisting the conquest and was assassinated there by Leulseged. His mule called Laango on which Baalichcha travelled to Konso came back home travelling an amazing distance of over 200 kms by its own. To date the Sidama people lament about Baalichcha’s assassination by saying that: “Warawo Baalichcha, diinu galafati ma manchi shaalicha. Gaangichosi Laango, Baalichchi gorena bae dagu gaango”, roughly translated as “ the enemy brutally murdered the beloved King of Sidama. But his mule escaped and came home alone!!”.

After the Conquest of Sidama, Gedeo, the Guji and Borana Oromos and other smaller Kushitic nations south of Sidama, the entire area of Sidama and south of Sidama including Wolayita and starting from Tikur wuha in Awassa town up to Moyale on the Ethiopian-Kenyan border was named the “Sidamo” province by the successive Amhara rulers until the early 1980s when the military Junta reduced the size of the “Sidamo” province by separating Wolayita and Borana from it. This province was dissolved when TPLF fabricated another pseudoregion called the South Ethiopia Nations and Nationalities and People’s Region in 1993.

The Wolayita people who bordered western Sidama land also resisted the Abyssinian occupation very strongly. After they were defeated, their King Xoona was captured by Minelik’s army and was taken to Addis Ababa and was killed there. Due to their fierce resistances, the Wolayita people were given the name of baria (slaves) and harshly mistreated by the Abyssinians. They were sold as slaves in the country. As a result of their resistance their name was deliberately changed from Wolayita to “Wolamo”. This justifies our previous argument that the name change from Sidama to “Sidamo” and its application as a name of a province that includes, Sidama, Gedeo, Burji, Wolayita, the Guji and Borena Oromos was a deliberate policy of humiliation. This was aimed at degrading the occupied nations and subject them to a psychological torture to tame them for permanent slavery. Until recently, the Wolayita people were called the “Wolamo” which is an out right derogatory and insulting misnomer. While “Wolamo” is less frequently used at present, we the Sidama people are being insulted by Abyssinians like Eremias Woldemikeal being called “Sidamo” in the 21st century. This is an abuse of the right of the Sidama people to be called by their right identity. If people like Eremias will not unconditionally stop from insulting us again by calling us “Sidamo”, we will regard this as a deliberate abuse of our right as a nation and refer the case to the relevant international human rights organizations.

Another outrageous statement by Eremias Woldemikael is the following:“Now, I understand you are concerned only about the Sidamo people who still very specifically use that term for their ethnicity. I have read some about them but I am open to any new information you can contribute to my knowledge of the people and their issues.”

Which people use the term “Sidamo” to refer to their ethnicity? We the Sidama people in Sidama land with the capital city of Awassa never called ourselves “Sidamo” in our entire history. The other Sidama people in Alaba, Qewena, Xambaro or Marakko never call themselves “Sidamo”. The Woalyita, the Gedeo, Burji, the Guji and Borena Oromos to which the name “Sidamo” province referred to never accepted that name and none of them used the term “Sidamo” before or now. So which ethnic group uses the term “Sidamo” at present? Where did Eremias read about this non-existent ethnic group? If Eremias is able to distort the truth at present while the Sidama intellectuals are providing the correct information about Sidama, one can imagine how his uneducated ancestors were able to distort our names and history in 1890s and thereafter. It is amazing how Abyssinians are unwilling to learn from their past mistakes and unwilling to accept the correct account of history other than the ones fabricated by their rulers and written by some foreign opportunistic transcribers who served as chroniclers of the Abyssinians kings.

4. Further Evidences of Deliberate Name Changes in Sidama

The use of the derogatory terms and name changes by invading Abyssinian forces was not limited to the fabrication of the derogatory misnomer “Sidamo” for the Sidama people, “Wolamo” for the Wolayita people and so on.

The settling Abyssinian rulers exercised a policy of deliberate name change on the Sidama people after their attempt to forcefully convert the Sidama people into orthodox Christianity in 1910s and 20s failed. The Sidama people rejected deliberate conversion to orthodox Christianity by lamenting this statement: “Xoomi yihero xoomi. Xoomiro xoomo gowwu doomi. Miniki giddo doogo nooni?” roughly translated as “If they ask you to fast, do it. Let the foolish do it. But is there any road through your house? Why do you even bother about it?”. The ingenious and most democratic Sidama elders used to organise the Sidama resistances through such poems which most of the time were very effective and successful. The Sidama people later accepted Christianity in the 1950s and 60s through protestant missionaries who brought some education and development projects with them.

Deliberate policy of name changes was part of the Abyssinians operation and subjugation. If a child was allowed to join a handful of schools built in Sidama before 1974 he was not allowed to use his Sidama name. In fact, the Abyssinian rulers forced the Sidama youngsters to go to Wolayita for primary school and the Wolayita youngsters to travel to Sidama so that these people will abandon their aim of getting education because of the high transport and living cost involved if they decided to travel to those distant places to get education. Is not this barbaric denial of the right of a child to have access to primary education? And yet Ethiopia used to boast to be part of the League of Nations and United Nations that guarantees the right of a child to have access not only to primary education but to primary education in their mother tongue. For instances, if a child was sent to a school in Sidama he was asked to come with a civilized name, i.e. of course Amhara name. Thus beautiful Sidama names such as Baxisso, Gabisso, Agana were all ridiculed and were replaced with Abebe, Bekele, Ayele so on. In case a child resisted or refused to change his name, then he was either denied school and any other opportunities or his name would be bastardised like “Sidamo”. In this case the Sidama names such as Dangisso were changed to a bastardised name of “Degsew”, Argata to “Argachew” and so on.

However, forced name changes came to an end with the 1974 revolution which abolished barbaric Abyssinian feudalism. But, of course, other forms of subjugations and oppressions continued until today.

5. Conclusion and Call for Immediate Halt in the Use of “Sidamo” Misnomer

There are no people in Ethiopia called “Sidamo”. The misnomer was invented in 1891 by the invading Minelik’s generals and soldiers as part of a psychological war to degrade and dehumanise the newly occupied land of Sidama and other peoples living around the Sidama land. The same dehumanising misnomer was used against the Wolayita people who were called “Wolamo”. Oromos were called with another derogatory name called “Galla” which in fact preceded “Sidamo” and “Wolamo” misnomers.

We ask all the Abyssinians living in Ethiopia and globally to stop using the derogatory term “Sidamo” which was coined by their invading ancestors. The continued use of this term only validates our arguments that Abyssinians are not the people to live with and the Sidama people be better off as an independent nation in east Africa. Do not add insult to injury by reminding us all the time what your ancestors did to us by using this humiliating term “Sidamo” .

The term “Sidamo” must be declared illegal both in Ethiopia and internationally and must be removed from all websites, other electronic and hard copy documents.

We also plead to the international community to stop using the misnomer “Sidamo” from today on and put pressure on the Ethiopian government to declare the term “Sidamo” illegal as it is illegal to use the term “Galla” and “Wolamo” any more. No people and individuals know better the history of the Sidama people than the Sidamas themselves. We are Sidama not “Sidamo” and no one else is “Sidamo” either.

Sidama: Coffee Economics, Politics and Poverty

Side Goodo
September, 2007

1. Poverty, Hunger and Underdevelopment in Africa
Over the last two centuries many countries of the world have developed at a breakneck speed. However, after half a century of decolonization, Africa still remains the darkest continent and the majority of its people still live under abject poverty.

Half of the 800 million people on the African continent live on less than US$1 per day while the mortality rate of children under five years of age is 140 per 1000. Only 58 percent of the population had access to safe water. The rate of illiteracy for people over 15 is 41 percent and there are only 18 mainline telephones per 1000 people compared with 146 for the world and 567 for developed countries (NEPAD, 2001). Thus, in Africa, at present, poverty defined in terms of both lack of ownership of economic resources and lack of access to social and economic services which refer to the broader livelihoods is rampant. Poverty is also about lack of power. The poor is the most vulnerable and the most powerless group of society.

Among the 49 least developed countries of the world as of 2007, 33 are in Africa. These are: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo Democratic Republic, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia.

The LDCs or the fourth world countries are characterized by low income, GNI per capita of less than US$750, low level of human resources development, and economic vulnerability. A country must achieve GNI per capital of over US$ 900 to leave the forth world. About five of these African LDCs are characterised by a very low level of economic progress measured by a very low level of Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of less than US$ 200. These are: Ethiopia, Somalia, Seira Leon, Burundi, and Guinea Bissau.

Only two countries in Africa have shown remarkable economic performances during the past 20 years and were able to graduate from the LDC category. These were Botswana which moved up the ladder in 1994 and Cape Verde Island which graduated from LDCs just in 2007.

The poverty and backwardness of Africa stands in stark contrast to the prosperity of the developed world. The continued marginalization of Africa from the globalization process and the social exclusion of the vast majority of its peoples constitute a serious threat to global stability (NEPAD, 2001). The continued influx of Africans seeking better living conditions in Europe has already caused a great alarm among the EU member states but no concrete actions have been taken by this block of wealthy nations to bring sustainable development in the African continent.

The UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted in 2000 are not likely to be achieved in many of the African countries because of such dismal economic performances in most of these countries. The 2015 targets for most indicators are already accepted as unachievable. Thus many of African countries are trapped in a vicious circle of underdevelopment, poverty, hunger and famine. The world has the resources and the technology to eradicate poverty in Africa and globally, but it does not have the will.

2. Poverty and Underdevelopment in Ethiopia
Ethiopia’s dismal economic performance with GNI per capita of about US$152 in 2005 puts the country at the bottom of the least developed countries of the world (the fourth world). As a result, poverty in Ethiopia is rampant. According to BBC World Service (Feb 2007), 81% of Ethiopia’s population is living below the poverty line of US $2 a day. Given Ethiopia’s current population of about 78 million, this means that over 63 million Ethiopians live below poverty line.

At the beginning of the 21st century, we witness an increase in global poverty and hunger along side unprecedented affluence among nations and individuals implying an ever increasing disparity between nations and with in various regions of a nation. The fact that the Microsoft tycoon Bill Gate’s net worth is 5 times as big as Ethiopia’s 2005 annual Gross National Income (GNI) of $11.1 billion US dollars at current prices (World Bank, 2005) is a vivid depiction of not only how the country has failed in terms of economic achievement during the past century but also the alarming disparity between individuals and countries in the developed world and individuals and countries in the LDCs.

The rest of the African countries blame colonialism for their underdevelopment. However, Ethiopia has been praised as the only African country that resisted western colonialism. Then why is Ethiopia at the bottom of the fourth world? Ethiopia has no one to blame for its unprecedented development disaster except for successive archaic feudal and totalitarian political leaderships. Archaic monarchical rule and rapacious feudalism that lasted for over half a century kept the country under perpetual darkness while the rest of the world was moving forward with lightening speed. Neither the 1974 revolution nor the 1991 TPLF take over of the political power in the country brought any fundamental changes on political organizations and economic management in the country. The socialist regime wasted 17 years of opportunity for economic revival of the country. Like its predecessors, the current regime managed to cling to political power for over 16 years with out any improvement in economic lives of the majority of the peoples in the country. In fact poverty, hunger and famine are now embodied into the very structure of the Ethiopian economy.

A decade and a half is not a short time to harness the resources of the country towards the path of sustainable growth and development. On the contrary, the current leadership is preoccupied with maintaining its political power at the cost of economic nightmare. Time and resources are wasted on repressions of democratic freedom and human rights. Dictatorial and predatory regimes, lack of democratic freedom and human rights, lack of recognition of the rights of various ethnic groups in the country, inappropriate value systems of the societies’ of the ruling elites, absence of the rule of law, absence of property rights and institutions that support free enterprise under the current and previous Ethiopian regimes are solely responsible for continued underdevelopment and abject poverty of the majority of the citizens of this country.
The Sidama province located in the southern part of the country is endowed with abundant natural resources. However, under the current Ethiopian political organization, the Sidama region has deteriorated from self sustained traditional economic system into an economic disaster where hunger and famine have become the order of the day.

3. Poverty in Sidama Region
The Sidama region with estimated total population of 5 million which makes Sidama the 5th largest ethnic group in Ethiopia after Oromo, Amhara, Ogaden and Tigray, is one of the least developed regions in the country already at the bottom of the fourth world.

Only about 8% of the inhabitants of Sidama have access to electricity. The average rural household has only 0.3 hectare of land (compared to the national average of 1.01 hectare of land) and the equivalent of 0.5 heads of livestock. Most cattle in Sidama particularly in the low lands died due to tsetse fly infestations in the early 1980s. Only 15.4% of the population is in non-farm related jobs, compared to the national average of 25% and a southern average of 32%. Primary school enrollment has improved since recently to reach about 68% of all eligible children while enrollment in secondary school is one of the lowest (18%). These figures are inflated because of highly deflated population figure for Sidama of 3 million. Continued changes in climatic conditions due to global warming increased land areas in Sidama exposed to malaria to about 72% (World Bank, Country Memorandum, 2004).

All indictors reflect the glaring poverty in Sidama region. Sidama is predominantly rural society. 91 % of the total pupation in Sidama lives in rural areas. Thus it is primarily the peasant farmers who languish in poverty in the Sidama region. Fragmented land holdings, less than 0.3 hectares per household, coupled with very high population density of over 430 persons per sq km, implies a huge reservoirs of redundant labour force that needs to be employed out side of the subsistence farming. And yet the proportion of the total population engaged in non-farm related jobs in the Sidama region is only about 15%.

Sidama is endowed with various natural resources. Rivers such as Ganale that form Wabeshebelle river in Somalia originates in Sidama high lands of Harbagona. Lakes Awassa in the north west and Abaya in the south west offer great tourism potentials for the region. On top of all these, Sidama is endowed with the resources that make the Sidama name a global household name- that is, its black gold- coffee. Sidama produces abundant high quality organic (speciality) Sidama (Sidamo is a bastardised name given by the Amhara rulers) coffee that fetches the highest international retail prices for food chain multinationals such as Starbucks.

4. Sidama: Coffee and Poverty
Coffee, believed to have been discovered a 1000 years ago by a Kaffa goatherd, in the Kaffa region of the country, is one of the most important cash crops in the Sidama region. In the year 2005, Sidama and Gedeo alone produced over 63,562 tons of coffee (Central Statistical Agency, 2005). This is 1/3 of the total coffee output for the country during the year.

Sidama is very well known for its production of garden coffee. Speciality Coffee is grown in many villages. Sidama has ideal soil type and climatic conditions-including altitude, rainfall and temperature for the production of Arabica coffee. Coffee is predominantly produced in villages organized in 39 primary coffee cooperatives in Shabadino, Dalle, Aleta Wondo, Darra and Bansa districts. However, almost every household in rural Sidama outside of extremely hot lowlands of Awassa, Shabadino and Dalle and very cold highlands of Hula and Harbagona produces coffee. Over half of the total population in Sidama directly or indirectly depend on coffee for livelihoods.

Over 60% coffee produced in Sidama region is washed coffee and ready for export while half of the country’s coffee output of about 200,000 tones is consumed domestically. There are over 89 coffee washing stations in Sidama alone. Thus, over 40% of washed coffee destined to the export market comes directly from the Sidama region.

Coffee is the single most important export commodity for Ethiopia providing about 65% of the country’s foreign exchange earnings. Ethiopian coffee exports currently account for about $400 million in export income. More than 20 million people in the country (about 25% of the population) derive their livelihoods from the coffee sector. Coffee contributes over 10% of Ethiopia’s GDP.

Coffee is the most important agricultural commodity in the world, and is worth up to $14 billion annually. In fact coffee is the second most widely traded commodity in the world next to petroleum. More than 80 countries, including Ethiopia, cultivate coffee, which is exported as the raw, roasted or soluble product to more than 165 countries worldwide. More than 121 countries export and /or re-export coffee. More than 50 developing countries, 25 of them in Africa, depend on coffee as an export, with 17 countries earning 25 per cent of their foreign exchange from coffee.

Coffee classification and grading systems in Ethiopia were developed and licensed for the first time in 1952 and then modified in 1955. Ethiopian coffee certification began after the establishment of the National Coffee Board of Ethiopia in 1957. Licensed and graded coffee export from Ethiopia has the history of over half a century. However, half a century of progressive coffee export did not at all translate to poverty reduction and increased access to livelihoods in Sidama. Instead, as specialty coffee production, processing and exports increased from Sidama, poverty, hunger and famine also increased. This is a symptom of fundamental economic and political problems in the country.

Why did massive high quality coffee production fail to reduce poverty in the Sidama region and in other coffee producing regions in Ethiopia? There are various factors that explain why coffee failed to contribute to poverty alleviation in these regions and in Sidama in particular. Among others these include (a) inimical macroeconomic policies, (b) systematic exploitation of producers by parastatals (c) unfair allocation of retail returns, and (d) international price volatility. I will deal with each of these in the following sections.

a) Inimical macroeconomic policies
Successive dictatorial regimes in the country followed inimical macroeconomic policies. One of such policies is the exchange rate policy. Ethiopia followed fixed exchange regime during both the feudal and socialist regimes. The national currency, birr, was exchanged for highly overvalued rate of about 2 birr for 1 US dollar for over two decades. Both economic theory and practice shows that currency overvaluation has serious negative effects on the export performance and export earnings. Since coffee is the country’s major export, currency over valuation has the most undesired effects on the coffee export performance and earnings in the country.

Thus, prolonged currency overvaluation in the country during both the feudal and socialist regimes meant that coffee producers were denied of most of their coffee incomes. Since the government was the primary exporter during these periods, it was able to artificially set the farm gate prices at a very low level so that it retains most of the returns generated from the coffee export. Thus the peasant farmers continued to earn negligent income from their coffee produces. This perpetuated rural poverty and under development in major coffee producing regions such as Sidama.

However, the macroeconomics alone does not explain why coffee failed to alleviate poverty in Sidama. Systematic exploitation of coffee farmers through parastatals was another reason why the benefit of coffee could not trickle down to the legitimate producers. I will review this in the next section.

b) Systematic exploitation of coffee producers by the parastatals
In addition to inappropriate macroeconomic policies, there is also another indirect mechanism by which coffee income from the area is stifled to the center. These is carried out systematically through the parastatal called the development bank of Ethiopia. The coffee producing cooperatives are required to deposit their earnings only in the development bank accounts. However, when they deposit their monies there, they are forced to put it in the non-interest bearing current account. This enables the bank to lend and benefit by charging interest to other borrowers the money deposited by these cooperatives. Thus while cooperatives get no interest for the money they deposit in these banks, the banks charge these co-ops exorbitant rates of interest whenever they want to borrow from these banks. Thus there is double exploitation of the coffee revenues of these cooperatives. Their money does not bear interest but they pay high interest for what they borrow from these banks.

Cooperatives are private businesses and there is no reason why they should not earn interest from their assets. This is another mechanism of inappropriate resource misappropriation that perpetuates the misery of the coffee producing farmers in Sidama.

(c) Unfair distribution of retail returns
The Sidama coffee along with Harar and Yirgacheffe is considered to be among the world’s best coffee. However, the producers of this coffee, the Sidama peasant farmers, are among the world’s poorest people. One of the reasons for this is the insignificant retail return these farmers obtain for their coffee produce. The specialty coffee fetch higher prices for food chain multinationals compared to the prices of commodity coffee. That is each of the high quality coffees sells at a premium over commodity coffees in world markets and draws high retail prices.

However, the distribution retail returns from the speciality coffee is monopolised by the importers and distributors. The peasant farmers in Sidama, Gedeo and Harar who produce such speciality coffee in Ethiopia obtain only around 6%-10% of the total retail returns. This barely covers even the production costs.

This is far less than the percentage the high quality coffee producers in other developing countries obtain for their produce. For instance, producers of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee capture 45% of their product's retail price which is 35 percentage points higher than what the Sidama producers obtain for their produce. The fact the Jamaican retail return share is acceptable by both the importers and distributors indicates that, other things remaining constant, there is a possibility for the Sidama farmers to increase their coffee income by three folds. However, the realisation of this dream is very difficult if not impossible in Ethiopia.

(d) International price volatility
The recent plunge in the international coffee prices contributed to further deterioration of the incomes of the Sidama coffee producers usually supported by the IMF and World Bank poverty alleviation, structural adjustment and stabilization programmes. The global oversupply of the commodity coffee resulting from increased production by farmers led to a sharp decline in coffee prices beginning in 2001. At the beginning of 2003, the world coffee prices have fallen by 50% and were at their lowest in 30 years where the global supply was about 8% above the global demand.

Accordingly, the world market price for coffee has become less than US$0.50 per pound, of which farmers only receive half. This was five times less than what the farmers used to get before the slum began in 2001. However, still in Western countries, coffee was sold for around US$10 per pound. As a result of this massive slump in coffee price, the Sidama and other coffee farmers in Ethiopia faced a sharp increase in poverty and hunger.

The main reason for such devastating price slump was the global over supply of commodity coffee. However, the effect is compounded in Ethiopia because of the country’s insignificant share in the world coffee market. For instance, while Brazil produces over 2 million tones, Ethiopia’s out put is only about 200,000 tons 1/3 of which comes from Sidama and Gedeo alone. Ethiopia produces only 10% of Brazils coffee output and les than 2% of the world coffee output. Nothing has been done by the successive Ethiopian regimes to increase the country’s share in global coffee market. Vietnam which was insignificant coffee producers before 1980s has now become the world’s second largest producer of coffee following Brazil. The successive Ethiopian rulers continued to plunder revenues collected from wild coffee trees and those produced by poor Sidama, Gedea, Wollaga and Harar peasant framers but did nothing to improve the efficacy and the scale of production except boasting that coffee originated in Ethiopia 1000 years ago. This represents another 1000 years of lost opportunity in Ethiopia.

Thus Ethiopia does not have any role in international coffee price determination. The country is the best example of a coffee price taker firm with perfectly elastic price line and demand curve. The Sidama coffee enriches the importers and distributors to the detriment of the peasant farmers who produce it. The recent battle between Starbucks and the Ethiopian government over the issue of trademarks over specialty coffees, i.e. Sidama, Yirgachefe and Harar was a typical example of how globalisation tends to perpetuate poverty in the periphery and continues to enrich the centre. Finally, Starbucks accepted the country’s right to trade mark the Sidama (Sidamo is the bastardised name given by the Amhara rulers and is a misnomer) other specialty coffees. Accordingly, with the support from DFID in 2005 and 2006, the Light Year Intellectual Property (LYIP) assisted the country to obtain trade marks in over 30 countries.

This together with the involvement of coffee cooperatives in Fair Trade is meant to increase incomes of peasant coffee producers. It is argued that Fair Trade guarantees a minimum of $1.26/pound (a living wage) and access to credit at fair prices to poor farmers organized in cooperatives. Fair Trade is also believed to promote socially and environmentally sustainable techniques and long term relationships between producers, traders and consumers. How many of the Sidama coffee cooperatives are able to benefit from this agreement is not clear at present.
Although the Sidama coffee producers have been organized in cooperatives since early 1980s they have never benefited from the organization. The recent attempt to reorganize the Sidama coffee producers union that will be able to directly export coffee has been a disaster. It was reported that while coffee price has recovered recently and other coffee unions are making recovery, the Sidama coffee cooperative union became bankrupt for some reason. Thus, whether Starbucks accepts the country’s bid to trade mark the Sidama and other specialty coffees or not, the benefits of a massive coffee production from these areas will not likely trickle down to the poor farmers in the near future.

The Ethiopian political economy needs a fundamental change. It is only when such changes take place peacefully and sustainably and as immediately as possible that the current subhuman living conditions of the people in Sidama and the rest of the country will improve.

The Murder of Mathewos Korsisa and his Nephews in Sidama

Side Goodo,

July 2007

It is often argued that the socialist regime of the military junta that took power after the 1974 revolution in Ethiopia was not exclusively an Abyssinia (Tigre and Amhara) dominated administration. The basis of such argument was the participation of handpicked few surrogates who were ready to serve their Abyssinian masters at the expense of their own peoples. In this regard, there were a number of notorious non Abyssinian cadres of the socialist government who tortured, maimed and killed their own people to obtain favours from their Abyssinian masters. Ali Musa of the then Bale province in the present Oromia region and Pertros Gebre of the then southern Shewa province are the cases in point. These individuals were some of the most brutal and the most feared non Abyssinian cadres of the socialist government of the time.

Although such surrogates were encouraged to kill and maim their own people they were not tolerated when they try to voice little concern about their own peoples. Mathewos Korsisa, a Sidama from Dalle District rose to one of the highest ranks in the socialist government through his participation in the Socialist Ethiopia Farmer’s Association. From the secretary of the Dalle District Socialist Ethiopian Farmer’s Association Mathewos Korsisa moved up the ladder to become the secretary of the Sidama Provincial Socialist Ethiopian Farmer’s Association. When the Workers’ Party of Ethiopia was inaugurated during the early 1980s Mathewos was recruited to become a member of central committee of the party, the highest position any regional government or parastatal leader could hold. Unlike Petros Gebre and other notorious cadres, Mathewos Korsisa was not an administrator and hence was not involved in brutalising the local people. He rose to fame because of his involvement in organizing farmer’s cooperatives particularly in coffee rich Sidama and Gedeo areas which led to an initial increase in coffee productivity and increased high quality coffee export for the central government. Mengistu Haile Mariam applauded him on several occasions for the initial success of the various farmers’ cooperatives in the Sidama and surrounding areas.

Mathewos Korsisa used his position and his relation with Mengistu Haile Mariam to fight against the corrupt government regional administrators such as Tefera Endalew. Tefera Endalew was one of the most notorious Abyssinian administrators of then Sidama province. He was from Wello province in the present Amhara region. He used to torture, harass and intimidate the Sidama, Gedeo and Guji Oromos who were part of the Sidama province. Towards the end of 1970s, Tefera Endalew ordered each and every peasant farmer in the Sidama province to pay over 50 birr (very big money 30 years ago) in order to build a small meeting hall in Awassa town now called Sidama Cultural Hall. Over 8 million Birr was mobilised by peasant framers in Sidama, Gedeo, Jemejem and Arero (the later two are in Oromia at present) in forced taxation. However, the construction of the hall took only about 1.5 million birr. Mathewos Korsisa as the representative of the peasant farmers not only opposed excessive taxation but also demanded to know what has happened to the millions of Birr mobilised in the name of building a small meeting hall in Awassa. He complained that Tefera Endalew was impoverishing the peasantry by forced taxation in the name of building small meeting halls.

However, what did not occur to Mathewos Korsisa was not only that his highest political authority in the region (his position as a member of central committee of workers’ party of Ethiopia) was fake because he was a Sidama but also that Tefera Endalew was not alone in making decisions to lay excessive taxation on the Sidama peasantry in the name of building little projects. That was an integral part of Abyssinian systematic exploitation of the resources of Sidama and other areas in the South that continued since 1891.

The money raised in the name of such small projects was shared among the top echelons of the Abyssinian administrators. Tefera Endalew alone could not make such big decisions unless he was backed by the high ranking Abyssinian officials in Addis Ababa. In fact, millions of the money raised in the name of building a meeting hall in Awassa was shared between Fiseha Desta, a Tigre and the then vice president of the country and Tefera Edalew himself among others.

Unaware of such Abyssinian deceptions and trickery and thinking that his position as a central committee member of the ruling party in the country was real, Mathewos Korsisa launched an all out attack on Tefera Endalew in front of other officials. He condemned him for impoverishing the Sidama, Gedeo, and Guji Oromos in the name of small building projects and plundering most of the money.

Tefera Endalew was temporarily humiliated but never admitted that he made a mistake. He started to plot with his bosses in Addis Ababa to eliminate Mathewos Korsisa once and for all. But there was a problem. Mathewos Korsisa was a member of central committee of the ruling party, a person with the “highest ranking political authority” in the region. He was liked by every peasant member in the region. He was not involved in brutalizing the people in the area. Therefore, eliminating such a famous figure in the area proved to be difficult task for the Abyssinians. Besides the issue of Abyssinian corruption in the province he was condemning was correct and most people knew it.

Thus, the only way to get ride of Mathewos Korsisa was to fabricate lies and implicate him in serious and inhuman crimes that one could ever imagine. Abyssinians are experts in lies and deceptions and they finally wrote a gruesome fiction and committed a gruesome murder that paved the way for them to get ride of Mathewos Korsisa. An innocent Mathewos Korsisa had befriended an Abyssinian small restaurateur in Awassa town. He would not imagine that Abyssinians would use that as an opportunity to eliminate him from the planet for ever.

Tefera Endalew used the Abyssinian government police commanders in Awassa to commit the most brutal murder on the Abyssinian restaurateur and her family so that Matehows Korsisa could be implicated for her and her family’s murder. The Awassa police department led by Major Chane also from Wello province went to the residence of the Abyssinian women murdered her and her mother in an inhuman and most barbaric manner ever witnessed in Sidama history. They cut the woman’s body into pieces and put objects in her private parts. Mathewos was in a meeting with peasant farmers in Dale districts when this all happened. When he returned back to Awassa after 3 days, there was a rumour spreading around Awassa stating that Mathewos murdered his Amhara girl friend and her mother. The organized Abyssinian cadres started to harass all Sidama people stating that the Sidama people are barbaric. How do they murder an Abyssinian women in such a brutal manner and so on. Mathewos was stunned. He and the Sidama people knew that this was not the work of Mathewos Korsisa. Every body knew that that was a plot. But to no avail. After a week of lies and deceptions Tefera Endalew finally got Mathewos Korsisa. Even before his immunity as a member of central committee of the ruling party was officially stripped, Mathewos along with his two nephews who lived in Awassa with him, was implicated in the crime, imprisoned and tortured to unconsciousness. The level of torture was so inhuman that Mathewos gave a plastic full of dead body tissues from his legs to his family as an evidence of Abyssinian brutality.

The Sidama people led by a famous Sidama elder and an uncle of Mathewos Korsisa called Assefa Balango who was also a two time member of Haile Selassie’s parliament submitted a petition to the central government stating that Mathewos would never commit such a heinous crime and it was not in the culture of the Sidama people to murder women. But to no avail.

Fiseha Desta and other high ranking officials in Addis Ababa who shared millions of the money from the province with Tefera Endalew told Assefa Balango and the Sidama delegates that they knew that Mathewos was a "killer" and would never be pardoned. In 1987 Mathewos Korsisa and his two nephews were tortured for the whole day and then taken out of the Awassa prison with the pretext that they were being transferred to a prison in Addis Ababa. However, that was not the case, they were taken some where in between Awassa and Addis Ababa, left there until it became dark and then brought back to the Oromia side of lake Awassa at night and brutally killed and buried there by Major Chane and his colleagues who also killed the same Abyssinian woman and her mother. The truth about the disappearance of Mathewos was disclosed only in 1996 when the Sidama police managed to capture major Chane in Wello and managed to bring him to Awassa. Major Chane testified that he killed both the women and her mother and Mathewos Korsisa with his two nephews because he was ordered to do so by Tefera Endalew. Major Chane took the Sidama police to the place where they buried Mathewos Korsisa and his two nephews. The skeleton of three men was found after 8 years of their brutal murder.

After Mathewos Korsisa was taken out of Awassa prison, his uncle and a famous Sidama elder, Asseffa Balango tried to locate him in Addis Ababa prisons. He would never find him any where. Finally he realised that he was killed. He died of heart attack in Yirgalem hospital few weeks after.

Such was the first hand account of Abyssinian brutality in Sidama. We can draw a parallel with the current TPLF brutality. The Loqqe massacre is the continuation of the same Abyssinian brutality.

Mathewos Korsisa survived with his Sidama wife and several children.

Tefera Endalew lives a luxury life in Nairobi, Kenya at present. He runs a lucrative tax business with the money he looted from the Sidama province.

Sidama: An Overview of History, Culture and Economy

W K
June 2007

I. An Overview of the Sidama History

The Sidama people live in the southern part of the present day Ethiopia, in the Horn of Africa. They belong to the people of Kushitic origin that occupy the vast area of north eastern and eastern Africa extending from the Sudan throughout the Horn of Africa to Tanzania. The most notable peoples of the Kushitic origin to which the Sidama people belong include, the Saho in Eritrea, Oromo, Hadiya and Afar in Ethiopia; the Somalis especially the Degodai tribe both in Somalia and Kenya; the Randle and Sakuye in Kenya and many others in Eastern and central Africa. The Sidama along with Agew and Beja were the first settlers in the northern highlands of the present day Ethiopia.

At present the majority of the Sidama people live in the Southern part of Ethiopia with notable geographical features like lake Awassa in the North and lake Abaya in the South. However, during the course of great popular migration from North and East to the South of Africa, some Sidamas were left behind and were later scattered into different parts of the country and even beyond. One example of such groups of people related to Sidama includes those who live around river Dawa in South Eastern Ethiopia and North Eastern Kenya. The Dawa river was the turning point in the history of the migration of the Sidama people from North to the South. These people now speak Somali language and identify themselves as Digodai, the clans of which include several clans in Sidama. The most notable of these clans is Fardano whose name is maintained both in Sidama and Somali Digodai tribe with out slightest modification. Other people that have even greater affiliation to the Sidama people and its culture and language and that were only separated most recently include Alaba, Tambaro, Qewena and Marako. These groups of the Sidama people live in the western vicinity of the present day Sidama land. At present Sidama has an estimated population of about 5 million.

Total area of the land where the majority of the Sidama people live is estimated to be about 15-16000 km sq. The capital city of Sidama, Awassa, is located 275 kms south of Addis Ababa. Land features range from low lands of about 1500 m a.s.l in the Great East Africa Rift Valley that cuts through lakes Awassa and Abaya up to 3000 m a.s.l in the eastern Sidama high lands of Arbegona, Bansa and Arroressa districts. The Sidama land is one of the most ever green and fertile lands in Africa. As a result, for centuries, the Sidama people led one of the most stable and self sufficient lives as an independent nation state in the north eastern Africa until the nation was conquered by the Abyssinian king Minelik II in 1893. Before the Abyssinian conquest, the Sidama people lived in indigenous egalitarian and democratic social, economic, political and cultural systems.

II. The Sidama Indigenous Political System

The Sidama nation was administered by the Moote system. Moote is the system of administration where Mootichcha who is equivalent to a King, is nominated by the family and near relatives for the position. The nominated Moote (the King) is presented to a Fichche, the Sidama New Year celebration, for Qeexala or popular demonstration. Qeexala serves both as approval and mass media to communicate the decision of the coronation to the general public. Then, the Mootichcha (the King) starts to carry out his duties and responsibilities. The Mootichcha is the head of political and administrative structure. The Mootichcha is assisted by Ga’ro, akin to king’s assistant, and hence next to the former in politico-administrative authority.

Fichche is the most celebrated Sidama cultural holiday which represents the Sidama New Year. The Fichche is based on the lunar system. Sidama elders (astrologists) observe the movement of the stars in the sky and decide the date for the New Year and the Fichche celebration. The Sidama New Year is therefore unique in that it does not have a fixed date. It rotates every year following the movements of the stars. Sidama has 13 months a year. And each of the months is divided equally into 28 days while the 13th month has 29 days. This is because the Sidama week has only 4 days and hence each month has 7 weeks instead of the conventional 4 weeks. The names of the 4 days in Sidama week are called: Dikko, Deela, Qawadoo and Qawalanka to be followed by Dikko completing the cycle of a 4-day week.

The Moote and Ga’ro rule in consultation with the council of people’s representatives known as the Songo. The Songo is similar to the modern day parliament. There was a great parliamentary democracy in the Songo. Agenda for discussion was forwarded by every member of the Songo and decisions were made by the members and forwarded to the Moote for approval. The Songo did not have written constitution. It was guided by the oral constitution which was handed over by generations and was learnt by all involved by heart. Moote was involved in over all political and administrative issues of the society including defence, provision of justice, and the like.

The defence side of the administration is handled by Gaadana or war leader. The Luwa system which involves both administrative and cultural aspects of the Sidama society was mainly responsible for the defence activities of the society. Luwa is administered by an age grade system where each grade rotates every 8 years. There are five rotating grades in the Luwa system: These are: Darara, Fullassa, Hirobora, Wawassa and Mogissa. The Malga clan in Awassa district adds Binancha as the sixth grade.

In the Luwa system, recruits stay outside of their homes for about 5 months. During this period, the recruits carry out military training and training on war songs like Geerarsha which is a counterpart of Geerarsa of the Oromo people. Luwa is ruled by a democratic principle and its leader is known as Gadaana (different from Gaadana-war leader). The deputy of Gadaana is known as Ja’lawa. Under Ja’lawa comes Murrichcha (division leader) who during wartime leads Murassa an equivalent of a military division. The Sidama indigenous defence system was therefore fairly well advanced. This was because of the threat of constant conflict with the neighbouring tribes for more cultivable and grazing lands.

III. The Sidama socio-economic culture

The cultural affairs of the Sidama society is handled by the Woma system. The Woma system has its own council known as the Womu Songo. Woma acts like a cultural and religious leader. He usually performs Kakalo (sacrifices) and other cultural and religious rituals including marriage and circumcision.

There were also other independent socio economic institutions which reflect a unique and egalitarian culture of the Sidama society. Among such institutions the most notable one is Seera. The Sidama Seera system is divided into two: the first refers to the broad concept of Seera as a social constitution which governs the Sidama social life based on the Sidama moral code of halale (the ultimate truth). John Hammer, an American anthropologist who studied the Sidama society extensively, stated that the Sidama moral code halale, provides the basis for distinguishing “good” and “evil” and in the broadest sense the term refers to ‘the true way of life’ (Hammer 2002). If an individual in a community is involved in wrongdoing but refuses to admit it or pay the prescribed fine, this may result in ostracism (Seera) where the recalcitrant becomes non-person as people refuse to work, eat or associate with him (Hammer 2002). Although there were no written procedures and enforcement mechanisms for Seera, individuals abide by it because of the fear of breaking the halale and being referred to God, by the elders, as a consequence.

The second concept of Seera refers to the narrower sub constitution created to facilitate cooperation among the community members in construction of houses. This type of Seera is usually referred to as Minu Seera (constitution for house construction). This is similar to the modern day constitution of building society’s but is more powerful because it is linked to the broader concept of Seera that is linked to the societal moral code of halale.

Another related Sidama social sub constitution is called Jirte. Jirte refers to the mechanism of community cooperation during death and other ceremonies. In Sidama, community members living in near by villages form one Jirte system. The Jirte system is comprised of 4-6 villages and is usually formed based on lineages. If a person dies, community members share the burden of looking after mourners until the mourning ends. The mourning usually takes one week. However, non Christian community members could organize remourning ceremonies based on the social status of the deceased. If a community member does not obey the Jirte system, he can be fined based on the principles of the larger Seera system. Jirte is a typical example of the present day voluntary community based organizations (CBOs).

The Sidama society also had unique systems of economic cooperation. The most notable of these are: (a) Dee-rotating labour contribution for farming, (b) Kotta- producers’ cooperatives, and (c) Shufo-rotating butter credit.

Dee is a voluntary arrangement to contribute labour during the farming season instead of farming on one’s plot individually. The labour pooling system usually involves manual digging of plots but can include oxen farming if all of the members have oxen and are willing to cooperate to rotate the farming. The labour pooling system starts with the elders in the groups and goes down to the youngest member. However, if any one in the system needs an urgent assistance, the members will skip the age based system of rotation. Dee is unique Sidama economic cooperation for which modern counterpart cannot be found easily.

The Sidama society also had what one may call an early form of cooperative movement called Kotta. Kotta is a voluntary farmers’ (producers’) cooperative and hence common ownership of given crops on a given plot of land. The Kotta can be limited to one year or can continue for several years and is purely voluntary economic arrangement. The output of the crops is shared among the Kotta members according to their contributions. The Sidama society had, thereof, had a model cooperative system in Kotta that could serve as an example of successful voluntary producers’ cooperatives.

The Shufo, rotating butter credit, is different from other economic arrangements in that it involves (a) commodity credit and (b) it is carried out exclusively by women. In Sidama society women could not own any property except butter. Therefore, when they are in a financial problem or have social occasions for which they need larger amount of butter, the other women living in the village can bring certain amount of the commodity and hand over to the needy women after taking the measurement of the size of the butter contributed by each woman. Another interesting feature of Shufo is that, not all women know how to measure the butter and keep the size of the butter each woman contributed in their memories for so many rounds. It needs exceptional talent to keep the size of each measurement in memory because none of the women involved are literate and can read and right. This was how the Sidama women fought both poverty and economic marginalization by men.

Before the Abyssinian conquest land in Sidama was mostly owned privately. Every household had access to land and was able to produce enough for its needs. Land outside of the private ownership was owned communally and was called the Danawa land. The Danawas were administered by the local Songos and were distributed to newly married men and new comers based on their needs. Communal lands in Sidama were properly conserved.

In that way the Sidama society was able to maintain sustainable socio-economic and socio-political system for centuries. However, most of these systems were disrupted as a result of the Abyssinian conquest in 1893 and the consequent brutal feudal system.

IV. Sidama and the Feudal System

After the conquest the Sidama society lost most of their democratic and egalitarian socio-political and socio-economic systems. They were subjected to an alien political domination. Alien culture and language were imposed on them while their culture and language were relegated as “uncivilized and backward”.

The conquering army of Minelik known by the name of Neftegna, carriers of guns, began to establish few garrison towns throughout Sidama to ensure a complete domination and subjugation of the people. The first commander of Minelik, Beshah Aboye, who encroached Sidama from the northern tip, by the side of lake Awassa, did not succeed to establish a permanent control over Sidama because of systematic resistance led by Baalichcha Worawo, the last King of Sidama. It was Luelseged, the second commander of Minelik who encroached Sidama through the eastern side of the boarder between Sidama and Bale Oromos, who was able to establish the first permanent settlement of northerners in the place called Hula. Leulseged succeeded in controlling Sidama because he waged a massive attack with superior military power and organization which was unmatched by the Sidama traditional weaponry. The Sidama people always resent that it was Luelseged who subjugated their nation and assassinated their king Baalichcha Worawo. Baalichcha Worawo was taken to the Konso land in South of Sidama near lake Abaya and was killed there.

As the conquering army continued to establish itself in Sidama land, the main stay of the Sidama economy, land, was taken away from its legitimate owners, the Sidama people, and was divided among the conquering neftegnas who became new landlords. This signified the beginning of the brutal feudal oppression in Sidama. The Sidama people were turned into virtual tenants whose lives completely depended on the mercy of these landlords. Three fourths of what they produced was robbed by the landlords and the Church which was an army of the Abyssinian administration. On top of the wanton economic plunder and exploitation, the Sidamas were reduced to virtual slaves where both heads of a household had to work for land lords both within Sidama and other parts of the country particularly the capital, Addis Ababa. Several people had been taken to Addis Ababa to provide slave labour to the landlords. Many of these people perished either on their way or in the capital. The writer’s uncle served as a slave labourer in Addis Ababa in early 1920s for over a year and had to travel back to Sidama on foot for over a month. He told the writer that he served the Amhara land lords for over a year in a settlement near Intoto, the northern part of the present day Addis Ababa, under very harsh conditions.

V. The Aftermath of the Feudal System

The brutal Abyssinian feudal system was overthrown by the popular movement in 1974. However, the popular movement was hijacked by the armed military junta which proclaimed the country a socialist state and ruled with an iron feast. The head of the Junta Colonel Mengistu Haile Mariam established a close ties with the Eastern socialist block to help him implement misguided socialist economic policies and to suppress any resistance to its brutal subjugation of the rights of peoples.

The little freedom and prospects for economic development expected from abolition of serfdom and return of land to the tillers was immediately lost as a result of such misguided economic policies of collectivization and villagization. These not only brought untold suffering to the Sidama people but led to economic collapse the result of which was massive unemployment and impoverishment.

The Sidama people who have never accepted the Abyssinian conquest and its consequent brutal subjugation from its very onset have started to wage an organized armed struggle against the military regime beginning from its very inception in 1970s. The war between Sidama and the military regime that took place in the highland districts of Arbegona, Bansa and Arroressa between 1977-1983 claimed over 30,000 Sidama lives. Similar resistance struggle took place in northern Sidama in places known as Borrichcha in Shabadino district and Wotara Rassa in Awassa district in 1978. The socialist regime brutally crushed all Sidama resistance movements during the early 1980s and subjected the nation to untold suffering.

However, the socialist government had one positive contribution in Sidama. That was the construction of several elementary schools in many parts of Sidama and the building of few modern manufacturing industries in Awassa town such as the Awassa textile factory, the Awassa Flour Mills, the Awassa Ceramics Factory and several other smaller socio-economic infrastructures. Mass education for the rural people in Sidama began during the time of the socialist regime.

VI. Sidama Today

The Sidama people had made tremendous and historic contribution to the weakening and the final down fall of the military regime. However, the TPLF, which overthrew the military regime in 1991, ignored the historic contribution of other peoples in the struggle against the socialist regime and monopolised political power in the country. The current regime continued to deny human and democratic rights of the Sidama people by denying the people its basic right to regional self determination.

The current regime follows an outdated system of indirect rule used by the British Empire in the colonies before the 1960s. The regime assigns handpicked loyalists who often lack education and experience to serve as the representatives of the Sidama people. The purpose of these people is to use them as informers to the central TPLF leadership instead of as leaders of their people. Whenever the informers fail to inform properly or try to voice little concern about the people they are supposed to represent, they are removed immediately and either sent to jails in Awassa or Addis Ababa or are left jobless. The Sidama administrative sub region (also called zone) witnessed 11 administrative changes in 13 years, one informer (leader) serving less than 1.1 years. One can imagine how economic and social progress as well as the provision of justice can be attained with such highly volatile political environment. The irony is that the volatility is deliberately maintained by the regime that claims to be the champion of the oppressed peoples.

This derives from the strategic plan of the regime to suppress the Sidama struggle for regional self determination which the regime successfully reduced to the struggle for regional status. The regional questions are crucial in the Ethiopian politico- administrative structure. Sidama as a nation of an estimated 5 million people have undisputed democratic right to be an independent region in Ethiopia. The Sidama people resent being bullied by the current regime with 45 smaller tribes. The continued suppression of this fundamental democratic right by using naïve loyalists who end up in jail turn by turn, only increases the resentment and the determination of this heroic people to fight for their total independence.


Following the genocide of the peaceful antigovernment Sidama demonstrators in Looqe, Awassa, by the regime’s defence and police forces, on May 24, 2002, in which over 70 Sidamas were brutally murdered and hundreds of others were wounded, the Sidama nation has witnessed unprecedented violations and abuse of the rights of its citizens. Mass imprisonment, torture, harassment and intimidation became the order of the day. The abuse of human rights continued until today because the people have intensified their struggle for recognition of regional status.

Awassa town was established in 1964 by removing the Sidama dwellers near lake Awassa. The Sidama people have been living in the present land of Awassa for over 1000 years. However, the current regime in Ethiopia tries to rewrite history by denying the right of the Sidama people to ownership of the city. The current regime made several attempts to remove the Sidama capital from Awassa and send it to remote districts in the hinterland of Sidama. In a similar manner, the regime tried to remove the Oromos from Finfine (Addis Ababa) but when the people of Addis Ababa rejected the current ruling party in May 2005 elections, the Oromos were regranted their right of living and working in Finfine as their capital. Several such examples of double standards and policy inconsistencies of the current regime can be listed but time and space are not always on our side.

After the massacre the Sidama people living in the town were considered as second class citizens. Most of the people were systematically removed from the town and sent to districts in the name of restructuring of the civil services. Hundreds of ethnic Sidama civil servants were removed from their jobs following the massacre. Many civil servants have fled the country. In Sidama history mass emigration took place only twice. The first was during the war of 1977-1983 between the Sidama freedom fighters and the military regime. And the second was during and after the massive human rights abuses following the May 24, 2002 Looqe massacre. For a comprehensive and pioneering study of the Diaspora identify and forced flight of the Sidama people refer to Seyoum Hamesso (2007). Moreover, several hundred ethnic Sidama members of the police force have been removed for their alleged support of the cause of the Sidama people. On the other hand, the naïve loyalists were promoted to various lucrative positions.

People were also removed from Sidama land in the name of resettlement to reduce population pressure. The genuine solution to the over population of a given area is to establish an alternative employment schemes by investing on alternative manufacturing, mining and services sectors. Deportation of the people from their home lands to an area which is less developed than their own home land can not be justified by any reason. Forced resettlement and villagization programmes carried out by the socialist regime were utter failures. There is no guarantee that an equally unpopular regime can bring a miraculous success by forcing people to move from their lands and settling them in remote areas of the country.

VII. The Sidama Economy

The Sidama economy is based primarily on subsistence agriculture characterized by archaic production techniques. However, a substantial proportion of the Sidama land produces coffee which is the major cash crop in the area. Coffee has been the major sources of income for the rural households in the coffee producing regions of the Sidama land. However, the recent plunge in international coffee price coupled with inimical government policy on Sidama drew most of these households back into the subsistence production and absolute poverty. In fact, Sidama is one of the major coffee producing regions in Ethiopia. In particular, Sidama supplies 45-50% of washed coffee to the central market. Coffee is the single major export earner for the country. Export earnings from coffee ranges from 55-67% although the country’s share in the world market is less than 3%.

The Sidama people have never faced hunger and famine in the history of their society because they had always produced enough for themselves. The society has been characterised by what one may call the long run equilibrium. Even the 1984 great famine that hit all other parts of the country did not affect the Sidama land. However, the subsistence nature of agricultural production which is dependent on archaic technology and vagaries of nature coupled with massive growth of rural population and inimical government policy, made the Sidama land prone to frequent hunger and famine that characterizes the country. Thus, it is not surprising to see that, today, about 1/4 of the total population in Sidama is directly or indirectly dependent on food aid from the international community.

A semi narcotic crop called Chat has recently become another major cash crop in the Sidama land. A crop whose leaves are chewed as stimulants has become another major export earner for the country and a substantial amount of this crop comes from the Sidama region. Given the dramatic fall in the world coffee price and subsequent loss of revenue and deterioration in living standards of the rural households in Sidama, it is feared that farmers may root the coffee plants out and replace them with Chat permanently.

Other major crops produced in Sidama include Enset (also called false banana or Weese in Sidaamuffo), wheat, Oat, maize, barley, sorghum, millets, sugar cane, potatoes, and other cereal crops and vegetables. Enset is the main staple food in Sidama. Apart from being the main source of food, parts of the Enset tree can be used as inputs in other economic activities like construction of houses, production of containers like sacks, and for handling food items during and after preparation of food. Thus, the pattern of Enset and coffee production and consumption over the years has substantially shaped the nature of the Sidama culture and hence the name the Enset culture.

The role of livestock was highly significant in medieval and early 20th century Sidama society. However, recently the importance of live stock has been dwindling because of two factors. First, a rapid increase in population reduced the size of grazing land for large stocks, and second a severe ‘Tse-Tse’ fly disease in low land areas has virtually wiped out most of the livestock population during the last quarter of the 20th century. However, livestock is still the most important source of livelihood for people living in the peripheral areas of the Sidama land.

Although agriculture is a key to the development of the country, successive regimes failed to successfully transform the traditional agriculture in Ethiopia. The transformation of traditional agriculture as an engine of growth and development was emphasised by one of great economists, Theodore Schultz (1964), who states that all resources of the traditional type are efficiently allocated, and hence the rate of return to increased investment with the existing states of the art is too low to induce further saving and investment. According to Schultz, therefore, the development of traditional agriculture depends on breaking the established equilibrium. Based on a theory of the price of income streams, he suggests that breaking such established equilibrium requires the introduction of modern inputs in the form of human and material capital. The author is certain that when Schultz talks about the modern inputs (human and material) he does not mean dumping fertilizers to the poor who have no clue as to how to use them. Worse still, in Ethiopia the modern input is not only incomplete but also is a means of enriching government companies at the expense of the poor. Where the poor manage to produce surplus in one bumper season, there will be no market to sell the products. Therefore, during the next season the farmers are bankrupt and unable to sustain the previous level of production. This perpetuates an endless cycle of poverty in Sidama land.

Forestry and fishery are underdeveloped in the Sidama area. Fishing activities are limited to the most prominent lakes in Sidama: lake Awassa and lake Abaya. Although Sidama has several perennial rivers these rivers have never been exploited. Although commercial forestry is underdeveloped, Sidama is well known for its traditional agro forestry system which saved the land from erosion and desertification for centuries. Every household in Sidama practices planting crops with trees. However, this tendency has also brought a negative impact in recent times. Farmers began planting Eucalyptus trees near other crops. Because the later plant has a poisonous effect, it destroys other crops planted near it. Most farmers are aware of the problem. However, the economic benefits of the eucalyptus tree outweigh the cost of losing small crops near it for individual farmers. But this trend is dangerous for the overall environmental sustainability of the Sidama land.

Sidama is characterized by a very low level of industrial development. There are very few manufacturing factories in Sidama land. A very few factories available in the area are all located in Awassa town and its environs. The government owned textile and ceramic factories are the only notable manufacturing activities in Sidama. A chip wood factory built in recent years and a meat processing factory in Malga Wondo are the only major private manufacturing activities in the entire Sidama land. Small scale manufacturing activities are highly underdeveloped because of the inimical government policies. No attempt has been made by the government to develop industrial sector to create jobs for the massive redundant labour force in the rural area.

The agriculture development led industrialization strategy of the current regime is a policy document for donor consumption. We have not seen the strategy in practice for 15 years now. The conventional agriculture development led industrialization involves the building of agro processing industries that process the local agricultural inputs that can be sold in domestic or export markets thereby adding value to the primary products. This plays a crucial role in reducing rural poverty. The poverty reducing impact of such projects is twofold: first, the market for the agricultural products is readily available at the door step of producers. Second, processed products fetch better price both in domestic and foreign markets than primary products. The writer has never witnessed any agriculture development led industrialization activity in Sidama or other parts of South Ethiopia during the past 15 years. The writer has witnessed successful agriculture development led industrialization in the Philippines where there are over 70 medium and large scale sugar processing factories located through out the country which is the size of the Oromia region in Ethiopia. Varieties of other agro processing factories are found in this country and the country follows an exemplary agriculture development led industrialization policy.

Mining is virtually non existent. Although Sidama is said to have a good potential of mineral resources particularly in the Great East African Rift Valley and the eastern highlands of the Sidama land, nothing has been done to exploit these resources. An absolute lack of industrial development in the area which is characterized by massive over population in rural areas, means that the Sidama people will continue to suffer from poverty, illiteracy and starvation for years to come.

The development of both economic and social services is very low. Economic infrastructure is severely underdeveloped. The Supply of electricity, water and telephone services is the monopoly of the government and hence its supply is severely curtailed. Many of the capital towns of the main districts do not have electric supply connected to the national grid. All whether roads are not more than 400 kms. Asphalted roads are non existent except for the 90 kms stretch of the Cairo - Addis Ababa- Gaborone road that passes through the Sidama land. The private financial services are beginning to operate in the area but are still insignificant. Trade and transport services are severely underdeveloped and limited mainly to very few urban areas. Trade activities in rural Sidama heavily depend on purchase and sale of coffee. The coffee slum has severely affected these activities.

There is a great tourism potential in Sidama land. The rift valley lakes like Awassa and Abaya are already some major tourist attractions in Sidama land. However, the access to lake Abaya through Sidama land has been opened only five years ago and is not well developed and not open for potential tourists. The agro forestry and the mountain ranges of eastern highlands are other potential tourist attractions in Sidama. However, they have not been exploited so far.
Unemployment and underemployment is rampant. An estimated 1.5 million people in rural Sidama are either unemployed or under employed. Employment in modern sector is very much limited. The total estimated number of the labour forces employed in modern sector in Sidama is less than 1%. Out of the estimated total population of 5 million, an estimated 2.5 million people are in the active labour force of which 1.5 are estimated to be underemployed or unemployed in Sidama. If properly utilised huge supply of labour can make positive contribution to economic development. As early as the middle of 20th century economist such as William Arthur Lewis, the first black economist to win Nobel Prize in economics, have emphasised the potential of economic development with unlimited supply of rural labour. Lewis’s (1954) paper on ‘Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour’, elaborates how the dual sector model can be successfully used in promotion economic development in poor countries with unlimited supply of labour.

The deliberate dismantling of the donor assisted development initiatives in Sidama by the current regime has made matters worse. Last week the author watched a feature film on international media that showed the Sidama people from Awassa and Borrichcha districts queuing for food hand outs while the woman carried emaciated children on their backs. I was told by my colleagues to watch people who are starving to death in Ethiopia, but when I watched, the people were from my own village. Their story inspired me to write this article.

VIII. Conclusion

The Sidama people had enjoyed an independent and egalitarian socio-economic life before the 1893. They had a unique indigenous political system led by the Mote (King) assisted by Ga’ro. The Mote serves as the political and administrative leader of the nation and rules in consultation with the council of people’s representatives called the Songo. The cultural affairs of the society were the responsibility of the Woma who is responsible for carrying out religious sacrifices (Kakalo) and other cultural duties. The most prominent Sidama culture is the Seera (the grand social constitution) linked to the Sidama moral code of halale (the ultimate truth), “the true way of life”. Varieties of sub Seera’s or constitutions were developed based on the grand Seera such as Minu Seera (building societies), Jirte (association during mourning and other social events) and economic cooperations such as Dee (labour contribution for farming), Kotta ( producers’ cooperatives) and Shuffo (revolving commodity credit). Sidama had such unique and beautiful indigenous and egalitarian, social, political and economic arrangements that it could offer to the international community.

However, this beautiful indigenous socio-cultural and socio-political set up was disrupted with the imperial conquest of Minelik. The consequent feudal system not only deprived the Sidama people their right to the ownership of their basic capital land, but also converted the people into a virtual slavery.

The abolition of the feudal system did not bring fundamental changes to the lives of the Sidama people. Although serfdom and direct slavery were abolished, misguided economic polices based on the socialist ideology of the military regime brought further suffering. Forced collectivisation and villagization programmes led to massive fall in agricultural production. The resistance to such unpopular policies led to the war between the military regime and the Sidama people between 1977-1983 and various other uprisings in Sidama which were all brutally crushed by the military regime. In this war over 30,000 Sidamas were killed. This seriously undermined the Sidama struggle for freedom and democracy but did not kill the spirit of the nation.

At present even though the fundamental problem of the Sidama society is perpetuation of underdevelopment with all its manifestations: hunger, poverty and illiteracy, the lack of regional representation in the country is considered to be a major step backward in the history of the society. Economic development and poverty reduction can not be thought of when the people do not enjoy their fundamental rights. Continued resistance for regional recognition have not only led to high volatility in Sidama political administration, but also to a massive abuse of human rights ranging from massacre to imprisonment and torture. However, a society that survived over a century of suppression will not at all despair.


References

Hammer, JH. 2002. The Religious conversion process among the Sidama of North East Africa. Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 72 (4): 598-627

Hameso, S. 2007. Diaspora identity formation and forced flight of Sidamas. The University of East London, UK.

Schultz, TW. 1964. Transforming traditional agriculture. Yale University Press.

Lewis, WA. 1954. Economic development with unlimited supplies of labour. The Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies. May 1954.