Agriculture in Ethiopia - The Ethiopian American

ReframingThe AfricanRenaissanceBy Tariku Abas-EteneshAfrica rising?Since May 2013, boldfaced and prominentbig billboards greet passersby in AddisAbaba reading: Arise Africa. It is arguablythe most frequently heard avowal duringthe recently celebrated golden Jubilee ofthe African Union (AU), under the theme:Pan-Africanism and African renaissance.The theme’s comfortingly deserved meaningis attributed to the current economic development,according to IMF data, in variousAfrican countries including Ethiopia. Whata positive spirit to celebrate the anniversarywith! As a Nigerian proverb says it, when aman says yes, his Chi (his personal god) saysyes; and so, when a continent says I am rising,the spirits of her citizens rise up with it.Despite the sense of positivism and audacitythe slogan entails, however, I believe it ishigh time for us, Africans, to deliberate withcaution not only the realities that gave ‘Africarising’ its meaningful context, but also thedirection Africa is rising. And allow me onemore question, is Africa claiming ‘to berising’ because it is so, or it is claiming so,because the West declared it?’Anyone who knows about the greatinfrastructure developments and recentdiscoveries of precious minerals and fossil oilthat changed the economic trajectory of anumber of African countries might assumethe question is ill constructed or playing evasiveof the facts on the ground. Well, this isnot my intention. Denying the facts would bea self debasing attempt and condescendingto AU. Rather, mine is an honest worry thatour continent should be insisting on framingits renaissance on a grassroots Pan-Africandrives in order to avoid repeating the mistakesof the 1960’s.The world is in recession and the corollarychallenges are spewing in forms of revolutionsagainst governments, tensions betweenreligions, and xenophobic tendencies againstthe scapegoat “others”.Against such backdrops, the rise that is beingpositively pronounced about Africa could alsobe regarded as a caution call for the continent.Why? For the obvious reason as the liberationmovements of the 1960’s were thwarted intonot completing the liberation project andended up being nominal political freedoms.And the dream for economic liberation wasstalled by nightmares of mishandled euphoriathat gave way for the former colonial mastersto hijack the much needed stability and prosperityand turn it into hotbeds of coups. As anAfrican proverb puts it ‘when a cock is drunk,he forgets the hawk.’The year of Africa - the 1960 – was not onlya time when Africa woke up free against allodds into a hostile world that was not willingto allow her enough time to gather herbreath. A polarized world that was caughtup in cold war engulfed the continent to notonly take sides but also disorient the fragilefreedom it just had won. The scares of thecold war coupled with conflict ridden economiesthe continent has spent a good part ofthe past half century wasting indebted to theWest and in some terms still paying the pricethrough the malignant dependence on aid.Now after half a century, Africa is set onanother proud stride; yet it does so into aworld reality with no less a cause for polarizationthan was furnished during the 1960’s.It is waking up and flexing its muscles yetin another tumultuous time of tensions. Forinstance, religious extremism which used tobe rare in the African continent hast spread,especially after the recession, thus riskingthe stability of a continent that has juststarted to positively paint herself. And likethe ‘cold war’ the former colonial powers areexploiting the tensions, as in the case in Mali,to further strengthen their presence as well assafeguard their interests in the continent.Africa is not an island and what is happeningelsewhere directly affects it. And oftentimes, the effects come from the greedyhawks who mean exploitation and fillingtheir pockets. A recently released reporton oil and mining industry practices inAfrica indicates the continent is sufferingfrom secret deals whereby multinationalcorporations and elites in various countriescut the mass out from sharing the wealth.And the trends, except in a few countries,seem to be the same and not changing.Adding fire to fuel is the other face of the developmenttrend that some of the countrieslike Ethiopia, applauded for being on therise, are doing taking growth as excuse forthe carelessness to uphold human rights andfree speech as stipulated in their constitutions.In Ethiopia, for instance, the constructionsection is in a boom that buildingssprout like mushroom and roads spread in ablink. However, the country’s human rightsrecord is one of the bleakest, according toAmnesty International. This is then thechallenge. Authoritarian governments, despitethe economic muscle flexing in varioussectors, could use the positive trend as licenseto impose human right abuses even more.So where is the worry? One might even askthat the mentioned challenges have been inDo not lookwhere youfell, butwhere youslippedwww.theethiopianamerican.com 21