The Ethiopian Famine: Cultural Survival's New Report

Ethiopia, which was hit in the mid-1980s by a highly publicized famine, is, as U4ited Nations figures show, ond of the poorest countries in the world. It is, however, the recipient per capita of virtually the least foreign investment and long-term development aid. International assistance has tended to flow from European 'metropolitan' powers to their former colonies and dependencies: Ethiopia has as a result been punished for the crime of maintaining her age-old independence. This economically underprivileged condition has been intensified in recent years by the Cold War, for several Western powers who provide the country with 9/lOths of all development assistance have denied, or strictly curtailed, development aid to Ethiopia because of her current military dependence on the Soviet Union. Another consequence of Ethiopia's current international alignment has been the excessive politicization of famine on the part of some western writers, who, like the authors of the publication by Cultural Survival Inc. reviewed here, Politics and the Ethiopian Famine, 1984-1975 (Jason W Clay and Bonnie K. Holcomb, $10), seem more intent on discrediting the present Ethiopian government than on producing an objective assessment of tho famine. The historical introductio -i, which is supposed to place this Cultural Survival report in context, displays little grasp of the subject, and is marred by many inaccuracies, only few of which, for reasons of space, may be mentioned. The authors, who seem to forget the unifying efforts of Emperors Tewodros and Yohannes, assert (p 7) that Emperor Menilek was the 'first' to envisage an Ethiopian empire. They go on to remark (p 15) that prior to his reign, the title of King of Kings had been 'primarily' claimed by Tigrayans. This claim was in fact made by only one Tigrayan Menilek's immediate predecessor Yohannes, whereas it was made by a succession of Ethiopian monarchs since the medieval period. Coming to more recent times Clay and Hoilcomb observe (p 17) that 'accounts of Haile Selassie's return to Addis Ababa in the 1940s indicate that the Wollo Oromo spat on him as he passed through their areas', which would seem to have been a difficult feat as his journey did not take him within a hundred miles of Wollo. It is further stated (p 12) that the British, after reinstating him on the throne, 'even shaped the new constitution' which is therefore dubbed an 'imported' one (p 15). This constitution, which was not promulgated until 1955 14 years after the liberation was actually drafted in Addis Ababa by a high level Ethiopian committee, and the only foreign advisers, as explained by one of their number (Spencer 1984), were not British, but American. Clay and Holcomb, who seem oblivious of the fact that the United Nations federated Eritrea with Ethiopia, assert, once again entirely incorrectly, that the former Italian colony was a United Nations 'mandate' (p 15) whose 'independence' was scheduled according to a United Nations timetable! (p 14). Such confusion sets the tone for the remainder of the work, much of which is based in hea say rather than serious research. We read for example (p 5) that the Ethiopian population has been variously estimated at between 32 and 45 million, and that assessment has 'always been more an art than a science! It would, however, have required little scientific rigour to discover that an Ethiopian census was taken in 1984, and that the first volume, published that year, gave a population figure of 42 million, which should at least be cited. The main body of the work sets out to present an independent account of the famine of 1984-5. However, despite lip-service (p,25) to the 'debate over the nature of refugee testimony' and an acceptance that 'information derived from refugees provides only a part of a complex picture' the report in fact relies almost entirely on refugees, and fails to consider the growing body of literature on famine. The so-called 'scholars and specialists' statements about the causes of famine' (p 31) turn out to be no more than newspaper reports and statements by 'liberation fronts', while the classic works on famine, such as those of A. Sen (1981) and Mesfin Wolde Mariam (1984) as well as countless others (see J. Seeley's bibliography of 1986), are ignored. Nor is any significant use made of reports by the many nongovernmental organizations operating in the country, nor of United Nations agencies, let alone of the Ethiopian government's Relief and Rehabilitation Commission. A semblance of academic respectability and impartiality is conjured up by the use of statistics. Scrutiny of this data however gives rise to some concern. The researchers spent only two months in Sudan, much of which was occupied in travelling between sites. Only 250 people were interviewed, and no more than 100 interviews were random. Most of the samples were too small to be meaningful, for example we learn (p 106) that 6.7% of a sample of 15 persons, i.e. one individual, was a woman. No less remarkably it is stated (p 75) that only one person from Shoa and one from Gondar were interviewed, and that they were therefore 'lumped together under the category "Wollo etc" but we are not told how many interviewees were from Wollo. In several cases questions were not asked to the full sample. We read (p 89) that 60% of those interviewed had seen people die, but the 'remainder were not asked the question' so that, as the report observes with faultless if dubious logic, 'everyone asked the question had seen people die' Another problem with the information collected is that it is not always explained. There is for example no attempt to indicate why the Tigrayan refugees (p 77) were 20 years older, i.e. twice as old, as those from Wollo. Another weakness arises from the fact that refugees were on occasion interviewed in groups, so that, for example, (p 43) men answered 'even when questions were Dr. Richard Pankhurst is a scholar of Ethiopian affairs with a particular interest in the historical dimension to famine. Five of his articles on famine, originally published between 1961-1973, have recently been republished in a book entitled The History of Famine and Epidemics in Ethiopia prior to the Twentieth Century (2.50 from Central Books) by the Relief and Rehabilitation Commission, Addis Ababa. Dr Pankhurst was formerly Director of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa University, and is presently Librarian of the Royal Asiatic Society. We note that the conclusions of a recent report by Survival International, entitled Ethiopia's Bitter Medicine: Settling for disaster, are very similar to those of Cultural Survival, in their view that 'Resettlement, far from being a humanitarian venture of famine relief is an immense exercise in ethnic engineering designed to "combat tribalism": to build national unity by dismantling ethnic differences. ' Survival International quote (SI News No 11, 1985) the Ethiopian Government UN representative's reference to SI as a 'politically motivated organisation, acting as an instrument of bandits and terrorists echoing the propaganda of secessionalist elements against the unity and territorial integrity of my country'. An earlier report by SI, entitled Resettlement in Ethiopia: an Evaluation had been submitted to the UN subcommission on the prevention of Discrimination and the