THE LAND OF DIVERSITY
Ethiopia is a country that possesses a massive wealth of history and fascinating culture. It was home to the most ancient kingdom on the continent, recognized as one of the most ancient kingdoms in the world. It is the only African country that possesses its own alphabet and unique calendar and a country that kept its own independence in the face of European colonies.
GEOGRAPHY
This ancient kingdom, Ethiopia, lies on the eastern side of Africa situated almost centrally between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator, the region that constitutes the heart of the horn of Africa covers an area of 1,194.000 sqkm which is as large as France and Spain combined. It is the land of immense physical and biological contrasts. It is the Roof of Africa owing to the fact that most of the country is mountainous which starts at the Simien range towering at 4620 m above sea level which in turn gives way to the low-lying Danakil Depression in Afar one of the lowest points on earth. Dalluel is located 116m below sea level.
Temperature is no less varied. It ranges from the icy cold of the mountains with frost and in places even snow through the temperate highland which is the country’s most historical settlement to the torrid lowland in the northeast. This geographical variation is a factor for the rainfall distribution. The torrential downfall in the highlands contrasted with the precipitation in the parched almost waterless lowlands. Highlands and lowlands are always juxtaposed next to each other for this reason people settled in the highlands and lowlands have lots of differences in terms of their ways of living. Jungles and rainforests, particularly in the west, desert, and semi-desert scrub, lands mainly to the east and south; fertile but largely deforested regions mainly in many areas of medium elevations.
HISTORY
Ethiopia is a land rich in a colorful history that goes back to the Old Testament. Its name is derived from the Greek word Aithiopia which means Land of the Burnet Face and this name geographically indicates the area south of Egypt which is called Kush in Hebrew. It is the continent’s only country that has its own unique Alphabet and calendar and survived the scramble of Africa by defeating the Italians at the battle of Adwa 1896.
It is the land named as the land of Punt as early as the time of the Egyptian Pharaohs, Ethiopian first recorded foreign contact, who dispatched numerous expeditions in search of Incense (Myrrh) and this relationship with Egypt continued until the Christian period in which Ethiopian Christendom was exclusively dependent on Egypt for the importation of the Patriarchies. If there is anything that defines the country without doubt the absence of Homogeneity in its characteristics. Diversity as a dominant feature, can be expressed in terms of Ethnic, Linguistic, and Religion Groups. The mountainous nature, lots of rivers, ravines, and flash torrents make traveling very difficult and during the rainy season virtually impossible this leads to the perpetuation of many different ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups. Ethiopia has 83 ethnic groups, each has its own language, culture, folklore methodology of living, etc. These ethnic groups are scattered within a unique geographical setting and develop a unique culture in Africa. The varied people, despite the fact that their precise geographical location massively changed, as well as expanding or contrasting over centuries, belonged to four linguistic groups known as Semitic, Cushitic, Omoic, and Nilo- Saharan. People of the northern and central parts of present-day Ethiopia are versed in Semitic languages and are represented there by the ancient ecclesiastical Ge’ez language and by three other currently spoken tongues Tigrinya in most parts of the north, Tegray (Tegregnye) in areas near the Red Sea Cost, and Amharic, the National language, more in the center and in the northwestern part of the country. Semitic languages also exist in the south and east. The Gurages are those found in the south and the Adere knew also as the Harari and the Aregoba both in the southeast like the Gurage and the Harerie people who live in the walled city of Hare speak the traditional Harerie language. The Cushitic languages are predominantly confined to the south of the country and consist of the widely diffused Oromifa or Afan-Oromo, Sidamo, Hadeya, etc. But Cushitic languages are also found in the north and northeast where the Agew, Beja, Saho, Qemant, and Afar occupied.
Omotic languages are represented in the lower omo valley and are indigenous to the region and spoken by pastoral people the Hamer, Ari, Benna, Beshada, Maale, Dizi, Gemerra, Karo, Dorze andWolayita.
The Nilo- Saharan language is found in Ethiopia’s southwestern territory spoken by the Kunama further north, Berta, Gumeze, Mejengure, Mursi, Surma, Bodi, Nyangatm, Me’en and more to the south Nuer and Anuak, a diffusion of it stretches as far over into Sudan.
RELIGION
As per the geographical settlement of the people, the spread of the three world’s Monotheistic religions is represented here in Ethiopia. The northern highlands and central part of the country are inhabited by the most strongly adherent Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity made the state religion in the middle of the 4th .C.A.D. by King Ezana the great. Religion plays such a very important role in the day-to-day life of the Ethiopians and this can be observed in many ways.
The lowlands and the east, including the ports and the great commercial center Harer, in contrast, are populated by Muslims. These first Islamic populations were granted a right to run the country’s commercial affairs on the world stage.
Judaism was limited in the north and northwest of the country and practiced by the small group of the Bête Israel or house of Israel. They served largely as craftsmen, blacksmiths, builders, and potters. They were scattered in areas south of Axum in the Simien Mountain National park,
Gondar and Lake Tana region.
A small number of people are still adherents of local animist religions which preponderate in extensive, but gradually contrasting areas of the south and west. Most such faiths doubtless predate the coming of monotheist religion.
ECONOMY
Geographical variation and its unique ecosystems lead to the invention, development, and practices of different methods of living such as the domestication of plants and animal husbandry. The result is that the three world’s principal types of Economic activities are age–old practices in Ethiopia. 85% of the population is agriculturalist and they use plough agriculture which makes them unique in the rest of the continent and occupying the most fertile highlands. Pastoralists mainly in the more widely spread lowland and these people accumulate and upkeep cattle as wealth with very limited agricultural produce for their almost immediate consumption. Large canopies of trees along the banks of the rivers and lakes are occupied in the immediate vicinity by hunters and gatherers.
POPULATION
Ethiopia is now becoming the 2nd highest populated country in Africa with a population of 100 million. 85% of its population is rural because of the fact that the prime means of living is agriculture. The temperate regions are very conducive for agricultural practices and animal husbandry so they are the most populated regions while the northeast and south Omo valleys are regions that are less rich in resources and due to undesirable climatic nature,
are less populatedc