Country Is So Famous, But Why?

 

Why should you care about Ethiopia? 

It has no professional sports teams, famous food, or movie stars. However, this African nation is so famous that many people around the world know its name. Ethiopians were slave traders and "black hole" of the slave trade during 18th and 19th century.

But why do so many people care about Ethiopia? 

According to some scholars, it is because the country became a source of inspiration and hope for slaves everywhere due to its anti-slavery resistance and Protestant reformations in general.

After slavery and colonialism, Ethiopia's image as a long-suffering and rebellious nation has persisted. It is sacred to Ethiopians and popular among anti-government demonstrators around the world.

Ethiopia rose out of the ashes of the empire that once ruled its territory, after a 13-year war that crushed Emperor Haile Selassie's army in 1974. Ethiopia today has a population of more than 80 million people, mostly living in rural areas. Although it is now one of Africa's most economically developed nations, it still has one of the largest populations of people living below the poverty line.

It is one of Africa's most scientifically accomplished countries. Its scientists, who won the country its first Nobel Prize in 1995, have since won two more prizes. The list also includes scientists such as Haile Selassie's doctor, who discovered the genetic disease that causes anemia in Ethiopian children.

Ethiopia has a history of economic and political instability, which has led to a number of wars and famines. Unlike other nations, it had to fight several wars with neighboring nations to gain its independence from them. This caused a great deal of bloodshed and many people lost their lives during these conflicts. It also caused a great deal of resentment and a desire among the other nations to take revenge.

Ethiopia's current political instability has been going on for over a year.

 The protests have been very violent, but still peaceful.  The country experienced its first anti-government demonstration in more than 30 years. Thousands protested because of economic hardships and what they perceived to be unfair power distribution from the emperor. The protesters were angered by pictures of Emperor Haile Selassie's death, which was broadcast on national television after his fall from power in 1974 during a nationalistic uprising that turned into a violent coup d'etat. Many protesters used this event as a symbol to express their discontent with the current government. The protest quickly became violent and hundreds of protesters were killed and thousands were arrested and detained.

Ethiopia is famous for the African Renaissance, which lasted from the early 1900s until the 1960s. But this was not a period of prosperity for Ethiopians, but rather one during which they suffered from poverty and famine due to drought, lack of development in agriculture, corrupt governance, overextension of scientific knowledge about food production to commercial farming during an era when other countries were already mechanizing agriculture, overabundance of population while the government only had enough food for its own people instead of any other peoples benefiting from its agriculture.

In the 1950s, a group of scholars and intellectuals emerged from the Ethiopian community that sought a free Ethiopia independent from its colonizers. They rejected Western colonial influences and sought an identity as Ethiopians, without being controlled by Europeans. The movement was inspired by Thomas Carlyle's "romantic nationalism."

In 1989, the first non-governmental organization to work in Ethiopia since the 1960s was established as a result of this social movement. It later became known as Ethiopian Online Organization (EOO), which is currently one of Africa's most famous and influential websites.