Culture Change in Ethiopia: An Evangelical Perspective (Regnum Studies in Mission) 1506475507, 9781506475509

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Culture Change in Ethiopia An Evangelical Perspective

num

Alemayehu Mekonnen

Alemayehu Mekonnen in Cultural Change in Ethiopia has brought a keen Christian perspective on the sweeping cultural change which has accompanied Ethiopia from Haile Selassie to the present. Be prepared to enter into the full emotion of several tragic chapters in Ethiopian history which can only be fully understood by someone who has lived through it with all of the accompanying angst about not only what happened, but what might have been. Mekonnen is a keen observer of both leadership dynamics and culture change. Drawing from his keen knowledge of cultural anthropology, Mekonnen delivers insights and a closing practical section which will be helpful to all who long to see Ethiopia thrive. With its ancient Christian history and its strategic placement as the bridge between N. Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, what happens in Ethiopia should interest all Christians everywhere. Dr Timothy Tennent, President Asbury Theological Seminary Growing up in the 1960s, I was vaguely aware of Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia, if only because I had heard that some believed he was semi-divine. As a young adult in the 1970s, I definitely read about the Marxist coup but had no clue why it happened. And what Westerner, alive during the horrible droughts and famines of the 70s and 80s, can forget the images of emaciated Ethiopians having to await foreign aid if they were even to survive? But how are these events linked? What was the West’s role in them all? What is Ethiopia like today and what is the role of the various branches of the Christian church there? What is the way forward? Ethiopian missiologist, Alemayehu Mekonnen, answers all these and related questions in a riveting account of key events of the last 70 years of his homeland’s history. Must reading for anyone who wants to be a truly global Christian! Craig L. Blomberg, Distinguished Professor of New Testament, Denver Seminary This is a book born out of the author’s deep love for his country and his people. Mekonnen wrestles with Ethiopia’s conflictive history and complex culture, as he tries to articulate a contextualized faith for Christian leaders and to chart a direction for a different future. The book is an informative and comprehensive introduction to Ethiopia that is laced with a passionate vision for authentic African Christian voices to be heard. M. Daniel Carroll R. (Rodas), Distinguished Professor of Old Testament, Denver Seminary While sharing his fascinating journey from prison to freedom, Alemayehu Mekonnen exposes the chaotic history of Ethiopia pre-1974 under Emperor Haile Selassie and post-1974 under the Marxist-Leninist regime. The author leads the reader through the historical, anthropological, educational and religious changes that took place in Ethiopia during those years. He concludes the book with significant recommendations for the Ethiopian Evangelical

church today and highlights the only solution to peace in the country (individual and national) – the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Hélène Dallaire, Associate Professor of Old Testament and Director of Messianic Judaism Programs, Denver Seminary

REGNUM STUDIES IN MISSION

Culture Change in Ethiopia An Evangelical Perspective

Series Preface Regnum Studies in Mission are born from the lived experience of Christians and Christian communities in mission, especially but not solely in the fast growing churches among the poor of the world. These churches have more to tell than stories of growth. They are making significant impacts on their cultures in the cause of Christ. They are producing ‘cultural products’ which express the reality of Christian faith, hope and love in their societies. Regnum Studies in Mission are the fruit often of rigorous research to the highest international standards and always of authentic Christian engagement in the transformation of people and societies. And these are for the world. The formation of Christian theology, missiology and practice in the twenty-first century will depend to a great extent on the active participation of growing churches contributing biblical and culturally appropriate expressions of Christian practice to inform World Christianity.

Series Editors Julie C. Ma Wonsuk Ma Doug Petersen Terence Ranger C.B. Samuel Chris Sugden

Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, Oxford, UK Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, Oxford, UK Vanguard University, Costa Mesa, CA, USA University of Oxford, Oxford, UK Emmanuel Hospital Association, Delhi, India Anglican Mainstream, Oxford, UK

A full listing of titles in this series appears at the end of this book

REGNUM STUDIES IN MISSION

Culture Change in Ethiopia An Evangelical Perspective

Alemayehu Mekonnen

Copyright © Alemayehu Mekonnen 2013 First published 2013 by Regnum Books International Regnum is an imprint of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies St. Philip and St. James Church Woodstock Road Oxford, OX2 6HR, UK www.ocms.ac.uk/regnum 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The right of Alemayehu Mekonnen to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher or a license permitting restricted copying. In the UK such licenses are issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-506475-50-9 Typeset by Words by Design

Distributed by 1517 Media in the US and Canada

Dedication to Roman K. Mekonnen My wife, a colaborer, a true friend, and a treasured gift from God. In the last 29 years of our marriage, she has lived her Christian faith in word and deed and taught me invaluable truth about life, family, and ministry.

Contents Foreword Acknowledgments Preface Introduction

xi xv xvii 1

Chapter One Establishing the Context

11

Chapter Two Culture and Cultural Change Concept of Culture Culture Change Worldview Theory and Worldview Change Worldview and Religion Change Agents Summary

17 19 20 22 26 28 30

Chapter Three Cultural Leadership Values Supernatural Power Heredity Orality Bravery Summary

33 34 36 37 39 41

Chapter Four Cultural Leadership Patterns in Ethiopia The Family Modernists Students Military Leaders Modern Military Ethiopian Army under the United States’ Patronage Mutiny The Ethiopian Army under the U.S.S.R.’s Patronage Recruitment and Training The Prelates The Emergence of Pentecostal / Charismatic Leadership

43 43 46 48 51 52 53 56 58 59 60 63

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Summary Chapter Five The Impact of Haile Selassie’s Modernization Program Modern Education under U.S. Tutelage Haile Selassie’s Role Modern Education and Culture Change Transferred Education The Impact of Modern Education Church in a Changing Culture A Call for Christian Transformation Summary

64 67 67 68 70 70 73 78 81 82

Chapter Six Change in the Area of Christian Faith The Religious Environment Ethiopians and the Spirit World The Ethiopian Orthodox Church Foreign Missions The Rise of Ethiopian Pentecostalism The Need for Religious Change Focus among Students Worship Style The Involvement of Women Homogeneity in the Heterogeneous Context Costly Faith The Pitfalls of the Pentecostal Movement Summary

83 86 87 88 91 92 94 95 100 102 102 103 104 105

Chapter Seven The Challenge of Marxism in the Economic Structure Economy under Haile Selassie: The Role of the U.S. Socialist Revolt Economic Consequences of Eritrea’s Secession The Issue of Poverty Summary

107 107 112 113 117 125

Chapter Eight Current Contextual Factors Population Characteristics Religious Composition Protestant Christian Growth The Spread of Islam Ethnic Composition Changes in the Area of Education Education in the Mother Tongue

127 127 128 129 130 133 137 137

ix The Impact of the Ethiopian National Literacy Campaign (ENLC) Setbacks/Flaws of the ENLC Achievements of the Literacy Campaign The Law of Protection of Regional Languages Political Environment After the End of the Mengistu Era Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front A Call for Contextualization Summary

138 139 140 140 142 143 144 145 149

Chapter Nine An Important Question Every Leader should ask: What is Man?

151

Chapter Ten The Way Forward

155

Conclusion Bibliography Index

171 175 193

Foreword

All cultures are inherently predisposed to change and at the same time to resist changes. There are dynamic processes operating that encourage the acceptance of new ideas and things while there are also others that encourage the maintenance of status quo. It is likely that socio-cultural changes induced, internally or externally, through pushes and pulls bereft of systematic deliberations can be costly with intended and unintended consequences. They can precipitate psychological chaos and cultural dislocations affecting individuals and the society at large. Ethiopia is a land of paradox. It is a land of deep traditions that has also experienced rapid change. Over the last half a century beginning from the attempted military coup d’état of the 1960 to the establishment of the current EPRDF leadership, Ethiopia has experienced gutwrenching political changes with serious spill overs on the cultural arenas. The Ethiopian people have experienced an identity crisis due mainly to the ontological disequilibrium engendered by the sudden, intense, and intrusive political changes that have occurred over a short span of time. One can think of the Ethiopian Diaspora, the millions of Ethiopians scattered across the globe – and who would have thought of this to happen a few decades ago? The generation of Ethiopians who lived in the immediate years of the post-Italian conquest would have a hard time to recognize the current disfigured sociocultural landscape of the country. The Ethiopian society saw the fall of the monarchy with deep roots in the nation’s history and the Ethiopian tradition at large, the coming of the military junta under the garb of Marxism declaring Scientific Communism as the doctrine of the state in a deeply religious society, and finally the establishment of an ethnic based federal government with massive disorienting impact on national identity. Through all these, the nation went through a fast-track progression of traumatic developments unparalleled in its history. To my knowledge, no one has attempted to address seriously what these rapid changes meant to the Ethiopian nation, to its people at large, to the individual citizens, and to all of us as Ethiopians. Alemayehu has taken the challenge to task himself to examine the complex dimensions and issues of changes from multiple perspectives. He goes deep-down into the history of Ethiopia to set the context of his book by examining the place of the Solomonic Dynasty in the history of Ethiopia, investigating the causes and implications of its demise, analyzing the socio-economic conditions that led to the military rule and the devastating impacts it left on the country, and finally looking into the

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emergence of the EPRDF and the ethno-politics it has espoused as its political frame. In tackling the theme of change, Alemayehu goes further in providing a contextualized analysis of the issue of world views and nuancing its connections with change in the framework of Ethiopia drawing fresh insights from various disciplines, particularly from the realm of cognitive Anthropology. His contribution is unique in the sense that he makes through personal, theological, and anthropological reflections through a painstaking exploration of the macro and micro contexts of socio-cultural changes in Ethiopia by paying attention to the various, vectors/forces operating behind them: including modernity/modernization, Western style education, globalization, the proliferation of pernicious radical ideologies (religious or secular), the rapid expansion of the evangelical faith, particularly its most potent variant, Pentecostalism. In so doing, he challenges us to think judiciously in assessing the collective impacts of these developments on the cultural constitution of the Ethiopian society and its people. He provokes us to consider along the lines of continuity and change – what are aspects of our culture that have either been lost or undermined and what are the elements that have survived the test of time and continue to inform us? Beyond this, Alemayehu weaves several themes in his larger narratives such as the culture of violence that has crept in our modern day politics which have been promoted in the name of justice under the dress of liberation movements and various political organizations with dire outcomes as was evidenced in the fratricidal strife between the left under the pretext of the “Red and White” terror. The unfortunate war between the left led to the disappearance of the cream of the emerging elite in ten and thousands and the resultant loss of trust among the Ethiopian intellectuals. He also tackles the paramount issue of leadership crisis in Ethiopia. He observes that the conception of leadership in Ethiopia, which drives from the monarchical system and its feudal values, has not substantially changed because of its deep cultural roots. This is true for the secular and spiritual arena. Leadership values in Ethiopia tend to be patriarchal and often require compelling obedience. Alemayehu insists this model of leadership needs to change. Ethiopian leaders, apart from Haile Selassie, came to power blown by the wind of social and political conflicts and history. This is becoming a pattern. He questions how long should Ethiopians have to withstand this and when will they need to put a full stop to it. In his opinion, Ethiopians are desperately looking to see the emergence of a magnanimous leader in the statures of men like Nelson Mandela. In his last chapter, “The Way Forward”, he develops an inclusive vision for Ethiopia by making a strong appeal for its children to make capital out of their accumulated, rich and diverse cultural archives from which they have drawn the wisdom and energy to survive in the midst of formidable odds, learning

Foreword

xiii

from the mishaps of their recent past, reinvigorating their spirits with passion and energy, embracing enterprising spirits, making the best use of modern technological advancements, and taking the best efforts to be globally relevant and engaging. These, he believes, will open for the present generations of Ethiopians new vistas to re-dream a new Ethiopia free from the perils of uncritically absorbing of radical ideologies and parochialism/ localism. In all these, he stays anchored in his strong Christian faith convictions and rich spiritual resources of his nation cultural repertoires, such as the fear and love of God that have the capacity to foster civility, mutual harmony, respect for each other and the appreciation of the dignity of people. Alemayehu is not a pessimist. He makes this clear in his concluding remark. He unequivocally believes in the resilience of the Ethiopian people. Ethiopia is an undying “message.” Mistakes have been committed, failures, perhaps in the right direction, have also been encountered, yet he has the firm belief that redemption is possible. He declares that he is quintessentially Ethiopian for he has hugely drunk from the wellspring of its rich culture and surplus history. In making his case, he identifies all his heroes that have shaped and influenced his life beginning from his yeneta that fed him “Ha Hu” (ABC) to literary rebels like Abe Gubegna always insisting that the center of gravity of his life being his Master, Jesus Christ. He wrote the book for those who gave so much for the nation whom they passionately love, for the present generation and for posterity. He is unafraid of assigning blame to those who deserve it but he is more futuristic in his position. In this, he does not exempt his own fellow believers. He wants all of us to pose, reflect critically and consider the road ahead taking into account the heavy sacrifices our fathers and all those who loved Ethiopia, have paid as children of the nation no matter what the differences. That is the only way we can meet the dreams, cries, and yearning for those who gave us their ultimate lives. It seems to me that Alemayehu’s book triumphantly meets the intellectual demands and shows a detailed undressing of the diversity of conditions that have eventuated critical changes in Ethiopia particularly over the last five decades. What he offers is not only a synthesis but a guide and a challenge for all of us to be wise and cautious as we engineer the political space in the hope of bringing change without paying serious regard to the collateral damages. Anyone who reads his book will realize that he is not prey to sweeping generalization to facile hopes or fears but someone who roots his work in extremely pertinent literatures concerning the multi-layered issues of culture change in Ethiopia. He wrote the book not only with thorough academic research but from his own existential, missiological, and theological perspectives. Culture Change in Ethiopia: An Evangelical Perspective is written from an intersection of faith and engagements. It is an urgent and compelling book for all Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia to read. In this book Alemayehu has amply demonstrated that his love and commitment for his country dispelling the often-held assumptions that

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evangelical Christians are aloof and unpatriotic. This book is about a very crucial subject of culture change written engagingly from a holistic perspective. He is the first scholar who addressed well-rounded issues pertinent to Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa, and to the countries that have undying interest in the region. Alemayehu’s work, I hope, will inspire many from his faith circles to pursue his path. Dr. Tibebe Eshete Visiting Assistant Professor, Michigan State University

Acknowledgments

A writing of this nature could not be achieved by the endeavour of only one person – especially by one who started life in exile thirty two years ago with 75 American cents in his pocket. Had it not been for the encouragement, generosity and kindness, teaching and mentoring, of many godly brothers and sisters in Christ, I would not be here today, let alone the book. It is impossible to list all of the names that have positively impacted my life and enabled me to think and write with academic integrity. But I will mention some. American Christians funded one hundred percent of my undergraduate and ninety-five percent of my graduate studies. I am forever grateful for the investment that these people made in me. All of the intellectual wealth that I gained is because of them. The late professor Norm Arnesen, who met me in my late twenties while I was teaching at East Africa School of Theology, saw my potential and worked hard to open doors of opportunity for my doctoral studies in the U.S., will never be forgotten. He was the reason for a major turning point in my academic career. I am thankful to the late Dr. Paul Hiebert, who acted as a model for a healthy blend of piety and scholarship, and challenged me to sharpen my anthropological knowledge. My good friend, professor Victor Cole, who in word and deed, demonstrated to me what godliness means, showed me the discipline of life as an African scholar, reinforced in me a healthy pride in my African heritage and deep love for the continent of Africa and has been pivotal in my professional life. My years of interaction with African and American students, their sincere questions, their pursuit of truth, and their gracious comments and challenging remarks have made an enormous contribution to the writing of this book. As I went through my intellectual struggle in the early nineties, to reconcile the irreconcilable differences between Ethiopia and the United States, to make meaning out of life between the country of my birth and adopted country, my relationship with the Evangelical Free Churches of America as a missionary, under the leadership of Benjamin Swatsky, mended my soul that could have been torn apart. My eight years of missionary experience in Kenya and my interaction with and observation of the Evangelical Free Church Christians in America enabled me not to stereotype Americans. It is through this experience that I realized every culture has its own wheat and tares. My involvement in an almost exclusively white mission agency helped me to develop a healthy and balanced view of people. I am so grateful to them for my internal healing and I appreciate pastor Mel Loucks for introducing me to the denomination. Had it not been for the encouragement and gentle nudging of Dr. Tibebe Eshete, this book could have not seen the light of the day. His affirmation of the content and timeliness of the message gave me the necessary energy and

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focus to complete the writing task. I am so grateful for the role he played in the progress of my research and his willingness to write the Foreword. Last but not least, my gratitude goes to David Bass for proofreading. His corrections, comments, and suggestions were invaluable.

Preface

Anthropologists concur that the locus of culture is the human mind. The research or writing of culture change is not something one can do as a biologist or a chemist in the laboratory detaching oneself from the subject matter. In fact, if the student of culture is an outsider, the discipline of anthropology requires and in some circumstances demands that the researcher should involve in participant observation for a sufficient period of time so that he/she can have an emic/insider’s perspective. The “Culture Change in Ethiopia” is written as academic research and with a good balance of using foreign and national resources. Intentionally, I decided not to divorce myself from the study matter for three reasons: 1) I am part of the cultural change process in Ethiopia, 2) the cultural change is the reason that led me to do the research by raising ultimate questions about the meaning of existence, 3) to this day and until I die, I am directly and indirectly affected by the cultural changes in Ethiopia. Therefore, I want the reader to understand that some of my personal reflections are not intended to compromise the academic rigour the book requires but to reinforce and enlighten the findings of the research. As I immersed myself in studying the cultural change in Ethiopia and attempted to unravel why we are where we are and why the country is lagging behind many colonized African countries, I have discovered that Ethiopian culture is wounded and needs many kinds of physicians. Many times, the war against foreign aggressors has caused the loss of lives and resources and social disintegration, and a lack of trust towards outsiders and among the nationals. The freedom that we Ethiopians boast about was costly and has kept us as one of the poorest nations in the world. The cultural wounds that were inflicted on the Ethiopian people that led the country to search for a new identity were caused by atheistic intellectuals who were proponents of capitalism and by those who had materialistic assumptions and were protagonists of Marxism. Initially, under the guise of democracy, both groups started to fight for their ideas to prevail through their writing. Eventually, their pens turned into swords and they killed each other on the streets, at home, in schools, offices and motels, and outside in forests. A nation so victimized by centuries of internal and external strife, conflict and struggle, came to the brink of disintegration during the Marxist revolution. As an eyewitness of this self-inflicted injury, I have seen millions thrown into jail without due process, languishing for years in starless nights and sunless days. Tears were more common than laughter. The whole nation became like a

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cornered animal or a bird in a cage gasping for freedom and joy. In addition, drought and starvation caused suffering for millions of Ethiopians. People were starved and thirsty for words of kindness, love, commitment, care, and justice. Our souls were darkened by fear and the inhumanity of man. Life became nothing. The sword that caused the horrifying bloodshed also cut off the maker that brought us into existence. Life had to be understood, defined and lived with a new Godless theory or principle. If one does not embrace this ideology voluntarily, it will be enforced and people will be coerced to believe in it. Rejection of Marxism can cause imprisonment, torture, and even death. Intentionally and unintentionally, the leadership in Ethiopia has conditioned the people to the pursuit of misery. As I stated in the book, the effect is manifested in all aspects of life to this day. Growing up in this cultural background, I came to the United States in my early twenties, a country that crafted her constitution to enable her citizens to have a “pursuit of happiness.” The two countries, economically, technologically, politically, and culturally are a world apart. However, it was a startling discovery to me how the two are connected, and how the political, economic, academic, military, and diplomatic relationship impacted Ethiopians. It was during the journey of my life in these two countries that I was determined to understand the meaning of my existence. Even if people live under the guise of poverty and affluence, without the knowledge of Jesus Christ, despair is a common phenomenon for all mankind. When life itself is death-bound, neither atheistic democracy nor materialistic philosophy can give ultimate hope to people. That is what we are trying to scrutinize in this book. In a subject as wide-ranging as this one, a person cannot muster every argument in one book. As I researched the “Culture Change in Ethiopia”, I decided to approach it from the anthropological, theological and missiological angles. Hence, the book is not dealing with a systematic study of the Marxist revolution or the Evangelical movement in Ethiopia. For an analytical study of the Marxist revolution, I strongly recommend to readers the two books brilliantly written by Messay Kebede: Ideology and Elite Conflicts: Autopsy of Ethiopian Revolution, and Radicalism and Cultural dislocation in Ethiopia, 1960-1974. For an understanding of the Ethiopian Evangelical Movement, I recommend Tibebe Eshete’s The Evangelical Movement in Ethiopia: Resistance and Resilience as a mine of historical information.

Introduction

Life seldom unfolds as we planned. Circumstances beyond our control often block our progress and divert our direction. For some, such crises are opportunities to be creative and innovative. For others, the interference in their goals and plans puts them in a quandary that can lead them into the doldrums. I experienced neither innovation nor depression as a result of the abrupt and drastic change that happened in my country of origin, Ethiopia. I was often on the brink of death with no capacity for making a long-term plan in the last five years of the 1970s. No matter how unbearable my circumstances were, those experiences under the Marxist government left me with lifetime questions – questions that led to the writing of this book. Hence, the anthropological concepts, theology, and Christology that I developed are a reflection of my praxis in a given historical and cultural context. Just as Paul repeatedly referred to his experience on the road to Damascus in the New Testament, I have no option but to begin in the context where God revealed his son, Jesus Christ, to me – that is, my home country, Ethiopia. Our Christology cannot be divorced from our Christo-praxis, the story of our Christian life, our society and our culture. In order to make sense, the history of the church in Africa must be written, taught and understood in the light of the historical, political, and socioeconomic context of the entire continent and of each individual country. If one desires to understand the present situation of the Congolese church, one must start before the time of colonialism and be willing to be brutally honest about the involvement of Belgium, the United States, France, and others. If one wants to understand the history of the Ethiopian church, one has to start around the beginning of the second century and analyze the influence of the Middle East, North Africa, the United Kingdom, the Italian invasion, the involvement of the United States, and finally, of the Soviet Union. Neither Christianity nor culture happens in a vacuum. Andrew Walls rightly said; “It is our past which tells us who we are; without our past we are lost. The man with amnesia is lost, unsure of relationships, incapable of crucial decisions, precisely because all the time he has amnesia he is without his past. Only then when his memory returns, when he is sure of his past, he is able to relate confidently to his wife, his parents, or know his place in a society” (2002:13). When done with academic integrity, history is like a good mirror. It shows the naked truth of those who are involved and teaches a valuable lesson to the present generation.

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Culture Change in Ethiopia

From 1973 until I left the country through the Kenyan border to seek asylum in December 1979, living in Ethiopia was like driving a car with a shattered windshield through an impenetrable fog. Or, if you grew up in Africa like I did, it was like riding a horse in a dense forest in darkness. You could hardly see anything, near or far. But because you were alive, you moved on. Yet you moved toward an immeasurable goal and an undetermined destiny. In those days, there were few choices and they were mostly negative. They included torture, imprisonment, hunger and poverty. The lucky ones were forced into exile. At the age of seventeen in Bale, Goba, with limited knowledge and life experience, I watched the Wallo famine film – developed by the BBC journalist Jonathan Dimbleby in June 1973 – which touched the heart and conscience of the world. The emaciated bodies of fathers, mothers, and children, hundreds and thousands of corpses on the streets and in villages were difficult for me to watch, but I watched it. In contrast to this human suffering, Dimbleby showed Emperor Haile Selassie feeding his lions and dogs the choicest meat. Toward the end of the film, the moving song of the late, legendary singer, Tilahun Gessese, was played: wai wai silu yerhaben gunfan siselu (snivelling and coughing the cold of hunger). In the middle of the song, I found myself sobbing uncontrollably. I had no idea that this was the beginning of my lamentation, not the end. I later discovered that the 1973 famine was just one of many from the recent past and the first of many more to come. I have spent many hours pondering what might have been, what could have been if… If the Western science curricula had been geared to improve the life of the nationals… If the Western-educated Ethiopian scientists had been trained to pursue the betterment of Ethiopian society… If we had used our big rivers and underground waters for irrigation instead of depending only on rainfall... If scientifically developed techniques had arrested the rapid deforestation that caused climate change and drought… If our natural resources, such as gold, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, opals, gas, and oil, had been used to boost the economy and usher in modern techniques of farming… If the monarchy had allowed innovation, change, and development even at the risk of threatening Haile Selassie’s throne... Most of the famines in Ethiopia, however deadly they were, could have been prevented. The night I viewed Dimbleby’s film, I joined Jeremiah in saying, “Oh, that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people” (9:1). But the film’s effect on most Ethiopians was an eruption of anger that led them to overthrow the Emperor and turn their back on the West, at least for two decades.

Introduction

3

In 1974, with the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie, centuries of monarchy in Ethiopia ended. The military junta that dethroned the emperor declared that, with the Marxist-Leninist revolution and ideology, they would eradicate poverty, injustice, corruption, exploitation, and suppression once and for all from Ethiopia. Those Ethiopians who joined their cause were called teramage (progressive). Those who did not support the regime had different names: adhari (feudal), kelbash (revisionist), ye abiot telat (enemies of the revolution). Though I had no well-organized denominational structure, capital, or outside mission connection that could pose a threat to anybody, let alone the Ethiopian government, because of my Christian faith I was considered an enemy of the revolution. Persecution and suffering enabled me to see the skeleton of the Marxist government while in prison and gave me an opportunity to debate with the most radical Marxist-Leninist Ethiopians. While in prison, I heard prisoners begging for their lives as they were taken for execution without trial. I saw mothers and wives wailing when they came to visit their loved ones in prison and discover they were too late. For the Marxist government, that was the most courteous and kind way of informing them of the death of a husband or a child. And I saw many languish in prison for years without a sentence. Despite going through suffering myself and often being younger in age, I tried to comfort those who were unmercifully tortured, chained, and suffering from depression and anxiety. These and many other kinds of atrocities made me ask why Ethiopia ended up this way. How can a country that boasts of thousand years of independence and history end up enslaving herself to injustice, hunger, poverty, disease, and death? What went wrong with the Western education and modernism that Haile Selassie championed for half a century? Is Marxism a real solution for the inhumanity of man? If so, why did the “missionaries” of Marx and Lenin live and act like predators ready to devour everybody, including their own “children”? Abiot lejuan tibelalelch (revolution eats her own child) was the justification for when the government kills the very people who worked with it and for it. Can all the “Liberation Fronts” that mushroomed really liberate Ethiopians? What is liberation, anyway, for human beings who are, in the words of Schopenhauer, “tormenting devils and tormented souls”? Where does the problem of mankind lie? Is it in ideology, race, social systems, government, politics, and education, or is it in all of us? How can I keep my sanity in an insane revolution? What does it mean to be a follower of Christ in an uncertain world where the government – and all Ethiopian Marxists, for that matter – view Christians as their enemies? How could centuries of Christian influence not prevent Ethiopia from embracing Marxism and Leninism, an ideology contrary to Christian faith? During my theological and missiological studies in the U.S., I tried to get answers to my questions. I painfully discovered that theologies developed outside my own cultural context offered no answers for me because they were not asking my questions. Theology in Western pedagogy deals almost exclusively with the issues of Western people and the Western church and was often clueless as to the

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realities of the rest of the world. It was in this kind of foreign academic context that I tried to find purpose and meaning for my existence theologically. My attempts were futile and yet representative of the dilemma in which many African theologians find themselves. However, the exposure and experience did not leave me without a solution. It has helped me to ask the right questions and search for an answer through proper academic and historical research. As the African church continues to go through major transitions, these transitions create an identity crisis. They lead to a rediscovery of one’s past. They demand an understanding of one’s present, and they enforce a mapping of the future. Where should the African church, scholars and students then turn to learn? Kwame Bediako emphatically asserts: “The phase of Christian history which offers the most instructive parallels to the modern African context is the beginning of the Hellenistic Christianity in the early Roman Empire. With Christianity virtually transposed from its original Jewish Matrix and fast becoming a predominantly Gentile phenomenon, it was from the circles of Gentile Christian thought that a significant body of Christian literature emerged, in which the problem of Christian identity and the nature of continuity with the pre-Christian tradition began to be faced in earnest” (1999:7). Such an academic pursuit by African scholars is not only bringing a healthy transition for the African church, but also giving a different image and identity to African Christianity. To find God’s revelation to be relevant in one’s own culture and to see the incarnate Christ dwelling, acting, and transforming individuals and culture is a fulfilment of Scriptural promise. It is the ushering in of the kingdom of God that invites believers to live in creative tension between the now and the not yet. Yet being citizens of the heavenly kingdom does not satisfy the whole answer for our existence in this imperfect world. Hence the disciples asked: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Extensive reading of early Christian literature, including the Bible, history and the story of Christian movements, helped me to embrace my Christian faith as an Ethiopian phenomenon. Night and day, I was wrestling with the queries I mentioned above, which were pertinent to my situation in Ethiopia. Several years later, I tried to answer them as I conducted research for my Ph.D. dissertation on Ethiopia. The bulk of this book is taken from my dissertation, which I defended in 1995. Ethiopian intelligentsia who read my dissertation, along with Scandinavian, American, and African friends and colleagues and missionaries who have worked in the Horn of Africa, have been asking me to put it into book form. With a few updates and three additional chapters, I have tried to interpret the culture change in Ethiopia – from Haile Selassie to Meles – from an evangelical perspective. I will address several issues in this book – politics, economy, education, the military, Ethiopian student movements, geo-politics, ethnicity and mother tongue education – in order to understand the present situation of the country. I will attempt to give each subject a fair academic treatment. Without unravelling the internal and external factors that made Ethiopia what

Introduction

5

she is today, it is difficult to have a clear understanding of the conditions of the people as well as the church. In light of the culture changes the country went through during the time of Haile Selassie, Mengistu and Meles, I believe one of the major ways the country and the Horn of Africa can be saved from a major predicament is through mission. The biblical mission I perceive has to be principally Trinitarian and primarily done by Ethiopians and other Africans in partnership with the global Christian community. The religious freedom EPRDF granted in the country for the last twenty years has been a wonderful opportunity for the church. Utilizing and maximizing this freedom would make the evangelical churches into a dynamic tool for transforming the society through the power of the gospel. For this historical change and religious freedom that has been seen so far in the last two decades, the present Ethiopian government should be commended. I have read books on Ethiopia written by nationals and foreigners. Except for the recent book by Tibebe Eshete, “Evangelical Movement in Ethiopia: Resistance and Resilience” (2009), I have yet to encounter an author who takes the God of the Bible seriously as the prime mover of history and sees human beings as in need of a redeemer. Even Tibebe’s book has not dealt with the politics, the economy, and the role of different countries in the affairs of Ethiopia. Unlike those who have written books on Ethiopia before me, I have tried to analyze Haile Selassie’s modernity, Mengestu’s Marxist revolution, and Meles’ ethnically based governance for the last two decades in the light of my theological and Christian convictions. As I explained in this book, I have no qualm in recognizing ethnic languages, culture, art and music, and facilitating and encouraging the development of this kind of trend in Ethiopia. The country belongs to many ethnic groups, not one or two. However, I strongly believe that how we implement this change is as important as why we do it. We can enjoy our diversity with tolerance, mutual understanding and respect, or we can polarize our differences, harbouring animosity and hatred that can lead to fragmentation and destruction. Unfortunately, the national political trend and the interest of foreign powers that support the existence and ruling of the present government’s policy favour the latter. One of the things that people of my faith were unjustly accused of during the revolution was having no love for our country; we were believed to know little about and do nothing for our country. Preachers in particular were considered to be agents of the American CIA, who numbed the minds of young Ethiopians to be unproductive. After you patiently finish reading this book, I will let you judge us (evangelicals) as to whether such accusations are fact or fiction. The main point of this book, however, is not to keep score or prove my former opponents wrong. My goal is to invite Ethiopians of all backgrounds to work for the common good and to speak to the consciences of international powers who always get involved in the affairs of Ethiopia for mere personal interest or advantages for their governments. The more I read about Ethiopia,

6

Culture Change in Ethiopia

the more convinced I am that leading a country like Ethiopia, which is geopolitically strategic and a bone of contention among international and regional powers, is more complicated and challenging than landing a man on the moon. With goodwill and optimism, possible impossibilities can be achieved. Hence, this book is written for that sole purpose. As I read about the interventions of the U.S. and the then-U.S.S.R. in Ethiopia, as well as the role Italy, France and Britain played in the history of the country, I saw they were seldom for good and often for the misery of Ethiopians. I discovered what Tunisia, Algeria, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Somalia – in short, the Arab League – contributed for the secession of Eritrea to make Ethiopia a landlocked country and learned how the Christians in Eritrea are unjustly suffering today. All this was passively watched and tacitly supported by the Western powers because of Ethiopia’s association with the former Soviet Union and other communist countries. When I realized how often Ethiopians have ended up being a tool to harm their own people for different outside interest groups, I saw that the cycle might endlessly continue. I watched in perplexity the ineptitude of the evangelical churches to have a prophetic voice and engage the deeper social and political issues of the nation and the geo-politics of the Horn of Africa. I am fully persuaded that there is a greater danger on the horizon for Ethiopia than most of us perceive and talk about (see Haile Selassie, Western Education and Political Revolution in Ethiopia, by Paulos Milkias, 2006; The Horn of Africa: Conflict and Poverty, by Mesfin Woldemariam, 1999). Realizing the inevitable threat that can lead the country to more fragmentation or an irreversible change of culture, history, and religion should lead all of us who are in politics, leadership, economic development, and religious engagement into a totally different level of commitment, thinking, and communication that can bring Ethiopians of all ethnic and religious backgrounds to a genuine unity, tangible peace and security. The modus operandi of the past politics that often rushed our people to kill and incriminate each other cannot prepare us for the next challenge or development. Even though I feel like a voice crying in the wilderness, I have tried to put my perspective on the table for all who are involved and will be involved in the affairs of Ethiopia. Before we make a sprint to eliminate our opponents, it is good to ask who we are as human beings, why we are here and where we are going. Monarchy, Modernity, Marxism, and EPRDF’s ideology have not addressed this fundamental question of BEING, existence, and meaning. “The ancient stories reveal that just before He created the first human, God said, ‘Let us make humans in our image.’ The implications are profound: we, uniquely among all creation, possess a reservoir of godlike capacities. Because of this, our only hope for personal and cultural transformation is in rediscovering these rich, fertile roots as image bearers of God. Any successful search for the true human identity begins by understanding the revealed truth conveyed in this ancient story. Without God’s mysterious involvement in creation, we can only

Introduction

7

conclude that we are accidental bits of billion-year-old carbon. Without reference to God, in whose image we are created, our pursuit for meaning is futile” (Dick Staub 2007:52-53). Viewing Ethiopians as “accidental bits of billion-year-old carbon,” as I will show in this book, the atheistic and the Marxist Ethiopians erred, and made a costly leap into a non-constructive culture change. The negative change is costly because it has cost Ethiopia and impaired the fundamental historical, cultural, and ethical foundations of the country that glued the people together as an undivided nation. In my opinion, the damage caused by the Marxists is worse than what Italy did to Ethiopia with mustard gas during the Second World War. The diagnosis and prognosis of the educated young generation of Ethiopians of the centuries of Ethiopia’s historical development have left us in search of a new identity. Even today we lag years behind other African countries that achieved their independence in the 1960s, most of them through the direct and indirect assistance of Ethiopia. In order to bring a healthy and enduring change to Ethiopia, human beings, who are the main actors in the drama of life and history, must be treated with civility and dignity. To be human is to be more than black or white; it is to be more than Jew or Gentile, Tigre, Amara, Gurage, Oromo, Hutu or Tutsi. “Whenever we say that a man is a person, we mean that he is more than a mere parcel of matter, more than an individual element in nature, such as is an atom, a blade of grass, a fly or an elephant. Where is the liberty, where is the dignity, where are the rights of an individual piece of matter? There would be no sense in a fly or an elephant giving its life for the liberty, dignity or rights of the fly or the elephant. Man is an animal and individual, but unlike other animals or individuals. Man is an individual who holds himself in hand by his intelligence and his will. He exists not merely physically; there is in him a richer and nobler existence; he has spiritual super-existence through knowledge and love. He is thus in some fashion a whole, not merely a part; he is a universe unto himself, a microcosm in which the whole great universe can be encompassed through knowledge; and through love he can give himself freely to beings who are, as it were, other selves to him. For this relationship no equivalent is to be found in the physical world. All this means, in philosophical terms, that in the flesh and bones of man lives a soul which is a spirit and which has a greater value than the whole physical universe. However dependent it may be on the slightest accidents of matter, the human person exists by virtue of the existence of its soul, which dominates time and death. It is the spirit which is the root of personality” (Maritain 2011:66). Without encountering and facing the ultimate cause of the origin, existence and destiny of mankind, our effort to bring healthy and lasting change will be in vain. Like the very people who we fought for their unjust treatment in the past, in order to unshackle their chain of bondage, we will find ourselves doing injustice to and causing sorrow and suffering for people. To get out of this endless cycle of tragedy, a change in outlook of life is paramount. Ethiopians, who have been mimicking capitalism and socialism, can learn a lot from Post-

8

Culture Change in Ethiopia

Marxist Russia and Postmodern Western society. If all that we believe and do will finally cause us to search for meaning, why do we not lay our dreams and aspirations on solid ground rather than on sinking sand right from the beginning? Such an approach to life and leadership will demand us to change ourselves before we change others. As we have seen from history, humans enter into this world and live until they exit. None of them said that they would come back except one – Jesus Christ. He is the only righteous judge who will one day hold all of us accountable. Our mortality and his immortality, our finiteness and his infiniteness, our imperfection and his perfection, our limited power and his omnipotence should make us rethink how we understand and interpret history. The incarnation of God in human history has introduced a non-negotiable paradigm from which to look at people and their culture. Without this paradigm, Paul would never be able to understand the place of Israel, his own identity, and the grand narrative of God’s redemptive history as he lived and served God under the Roman Empire. “Denying God leaves man free to abolish the past and decree the future, but those who know the most do not find hope in man’s decrees. The lack of certainty and of a future hope was the canker in the heart of paganism. Evidently our neopaganism fares no better – the canker has become cancerous, and man’s behavior and character certainly do not alleviate the fear of the future” (Zacharias 1994:54). To assume and lead a nation with a concept of truth that neglects or denies the absolute is to grope in the dark. Alexander Solzhenitsyn captured the severity of the world’s situation and our calling in it: “If the world has not approached its end, it has reached a major watershed in history, equal in importance to the turn from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. It will demand from us a spiritual blaze; we shall have to rise to a new height of vision, to a new level of life.”1 It is time to engage with contextualized theology that focuses in transformational change in Ethiopia, going beyond mere explanations of the origin and destiny of mankind. Preaching and teaching ought to take believers to “a new height of vision and a new level of life” that will lead to reconciliation, national unity and economic development. John Mbiti, one of the pioneers of modern African theology, acknowledges that “Christian Theology ought properly to be Christology, for Theology falls or stands on how it understands, translates, and interprets Jesus Christ, at a given time, place, and human situation.” Mugabe and Magesa concur that, “theology is not Christian at all when it does not offer Jesus Christ of Nazareth as the answer to the human quest, and as the answer to the people who ask the reason for the hope that all Christians hold through faith” (1998:X). In his groundbreaking book “The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity” (2002:19), Philip Jenkins states, “By the time the first Anglo-Saxons were converted, Ethiopian Christianity was already in its tenth generation.” One wonders if Christ, who is the Prince of Peace and the source of every blessing 1

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, speech at Harvard University, January 1978.

Introduction

9

in life, has been understood, translated, and interpreted into a human situation in Ethiopia. In different times of the country’s history and in different places and political and economic environments, Ethiopians have encountered the ultimate and penultimate questions of life. The gap between the introduction of Christianity and the “fruit” of the gospel in terms of the quantitative and qualitative growth of the church and its impact on the society begs theological and anthropological explanations. In this book, after observing a deliberate absence of a “spiritual blaze” in modernity, Marxism, and the current leadership, in Ethiopia, I will try to give a fresh look at who we are, what we have done and what we can do, all from an evangelical perspective. I do so without malice toward individuals, people or nations, without compromising my Christian convictions, without ambition for political power, and with all due respect to all who have sacrificed so much to build a happy and prosperous nation. And with much appreciation for all Ethiopians who are currently building the country in various ways, I will try to share what will be good for Ethiopia, the Horn of Africa, those who have undying interest in that region, and the world. In the flat world, there is no country so small or so poor that its political and economic situation will not affect the well-being of the rest of the global community. Even if I differ in my views from so many whom have gone before me in analyzing Ethiopia, I firmly believe that “I am because we are, and since we are therefore I am” (Mbiti 1984:113). My individuality is the outcome of several generational achievements and many years of historical process. The longer I live, the more I realize how much I am indebted to so many Ethiopians who fought for freedom, shaped the values and norms of the country that I grew up in, and formed my worldview and personality. Paradoxically, I discovered this priceless and essential truth in my last thirty-two years outside of Ethiopia. I am eternally indebted to the Kenyans and Americans for hosting me magnanimously and to so many international friends that enabled me to deepen my roots and make me feel at home in the global community. Being different did not make me wander in isolation, but rather forced me to find the dynamics that contributed to who I am, where I came from, and the purpose for which I exist. It is my sincere desire that a reader will find this book to be a helpful gateway in understanding Ethiopia and Ethiopians, and to comprehend the political and religious complexity of the Horn of Africa.

Establishing the Context

One of the challenges of serving the Lord in this ever-changing world is coping with change itself. Changing ideologies, economic realities and the coming and going of a certain lifestyle all raise new leadership issues and more profound anthropological and theological concerns. Shifts in cultural environment also have repercussions for the church; the converse is also true. The church can make an impact on the community it serves. The impetus behind the subject of this book is the radical and rapid change that has occurred in Ethiopia during the Marxist regime in 1974 and the government that toppled it in 1990, which is still ruling the country. The focus of my research is on the factors of culture change in Ethiopia in reference to the role and contribution of evangelical churches and on the task the church faced in carrying out the Great Commission in that context. Several factors have contributed to the development of my interest in culture change and leadership: Haile Selassie’s modernization programme, the Marxist revolution, the impact of the Evangelical movement and my personal experience, as a then-young convert, pastor, and teacher. Haile Selassie’s Modernization Programme Haile Selassie’s foreign policy, diplomatic ability, ambition for modernization, and interest in world affairs set the tone for Ethiopia’s international relations throughout much of the 20th century.1 He was involved in foreign policy as early as 1923, when, during his regency, Ethiopia was admitted to membership in the League of Nations. He reconciled different African factions and blocks, which led to the creation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963 and the selection of Addis Ababa as its permanent headquarters. Dawit Wolde Giorgis writes: Ethiopia commanded great respect because of Haile Selassie. For Africans and many blacks in other parts of the world, Ethiopia was a symbol of black freedom and independence. The Ras Tafarians in the West Indies even looked upon it as 1

For background on factors affecting Ethiopia’s international relations prior to the revolution of 1974, see Harold Marcus, Ethiopia, Great Britain and the United States, 1941-1974 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), and John H. Spencer, Ethiopia at Bay: A Personal Account of the Haile Selassie Years (Algonac, MI: Reference Publications, 1987).

12

Culture Change in Ethiopia the Promised Land, with Haile Selassie as their Christ. Within the country he was “The Emperor,” the quasi-divine father figure, the protector, omnipotent and infallible (1989:7).

Until the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974, Ethiopia was ruled by kings. More than all the previous kings, Haile Selassie was obsessed with the modernization of Ethiopia. His long-time American advisor, John Spencer,2 commented, “Haile Selassie had raised Ethiopia from a desired supplication to become a symbol to the world of the overriding obligation to respect the territorial integrity and independence of all states” (Spencer 1992:14). His ambition to modernize Ethiopia was implemented through training Ethiopians in practically all disciplines (see chapter 5). He advanced schools, hospitals, and land and air transportation systems. However, as ironic as it seems, the fulfillment of his dream became his nemesis. He did not cope with the change for which he struggled. Alemayehu Gebre Mariam comments: Haile Selassie’s problems with modernization were intrinsically related to his sense of Pater Patrae, his belief that he was the patriarch and father of the country. All the people in his realm were his children, and as the father he knew what was best for his children. In return for his benevolent paternalism he demanded loyalty and filial obedience from his people (1992:20).

The dissatisfaction of the people, the student movement,3 the protest of the proletariat and peasants, and the revolt of the army finally ended the reign of 2

Haile Selassie, who had a good knowledge of the making of Ethiopia’s empire, had directly requested that the United States provide him someone of sufficient calibre to understand the needs and position of his dependent empire and the operation of the big powers. The Ethiopians “requested” the man whom they knew and who knew them. The United States responded favorably to Ethiopia. The State Department located John Spencer and informed him of the invitation. Spencer accepted the position. As a lawyer, as a naval officer, and as man who had observed the fall of the League of Nations, he was the top candidate for the position. He knew the ins and outs of the positions of the super-powers and of the smaller empires in general, and that of Ethiopia in particular, through his varied experience. 3 For a detailed account of the Ethiopian student political movement, see Kiflu Taddesse (1993). Taddesse covers the active political participation of the Ethiopian students from December 1961 through February 1974. See his chronological summary of the student movement (pp. 62-67). The interesting paradox of the student movement is that both Marxism and Pentecostalism were operating concurrently on the Addis Ababa university campus and other centres. Concerning the fate of the students involved in the political movement, Taddesse writes, “In the incessant struggle of the radicals and the brutal policies of the regime well-intentioned, educated and skilled citizens, hundreds and thousands of revolutionary activist including EPRP members, were lost. Many of those who survived the ordeal are still undergoing the trauma of the repression and carry its scar. Many are disabled physically. Many of them are unmarried and have no family of their own and children to care for. They were married to a struggle that had gone astray. Many are still grieving the loss of their comrades and contemplating their

Establishing the Context

13

the age stricken emperor. Haile Selassie was blamed for monopolizing power. He was severely criticized for presuming to be the ultimate law and its single chief. Although this observation sounds simple, its implications were very complex. There had been a change in leadership expectations and perceptions of power, which, as will be discussed further below, also had implications for Christian leaders. Values of education and leadership training were thrown into question. Thus the issue of contextually appropriate education and leadership training arose. It is this issue that this book seeks to address. The Marxist Revolution The year 1974 marked the beginning of a fundamental change in Addis Ababa and the country in general. It saw the fall of the old imperial regime and its replacement by a group of young army officers who aimed to revolutionize their society and abolish the feudal system. These officers were the by-products of Haile Selassie’s modernization program. After the Second World War, the emperor had established a centralized, Western-trained army. The army, probably the smallest in Ethiopia’s long history, numbered only 45,000 professionals (See Erlich 1986: 220). Erlich explains its deployment: Generally speaking, the army was made up of four divisions, an air force (based in Dabre-Zeit, forty miles from Addis Ababa and in Asmara), and a small navy; Division I, also known as the Imperial Guard, was stationed around the capital and was in charge of supporting the regime. Division II, centered in Asmara, was in charge of fighting the Eritrean separatists; the Harer-based, mechanized Division III faced the Somalis; and Division IV, with headquarters in Addis Ababa, was in charge of the South and the West (1986:225-226).

The emperor thus managed to build an army that was Western-educated, politically neutral, and yet equipped with modern weapons. The military upper class (including the ranks of colonel and above) was part of the ruling establishment and was looked upon as the main pillar of the existing order (Erlich 1986:228). At the same time provinces were demilitarized. The establishment of political parties and organizations was avoided. New political ideas were repressed. The emperor, therefore, initially based his absolute political power on the allegiance of the depoliticized army. The army, however, revolted and, under the badge of Marxism, a brutal military junta ruled Ethiopia

unfulfilled dreams. They still do not know if their struggle had become the source of the misery for their folks, as the economic plight of the people under the Haile Selassie regime had turned for the worse in the years that followed. Ethiopian mothers reportedly fell victims of the ongoing political repression and thousands of them suffered from high blood-pressure and other health complications” (emphasis mine 1993:247).

14

Culture Change in Ethiopia

for seventeen years after the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie.4 This history of dictatorship has rendered Ethiopians suspicious of any strong leader. The Evangelical / Protestant Movement Prior to the 1974 Revolution, the five processes of culture change were occurring, including (1) acculturation, (2) nationalization, (3) Amharanization (4) secularization, and (5) evangelization (Tippett 1970:282-283). Concerning the readiness of the people to embrace a new religion, Tippet has observed the following: When the people start complaining about their witchdoctors because of the economic strain of their extortion and the impotence of their magic, it is quite apparent that religious void has developed in their lives. This is a natural time of change for religion. It is the appropriate time for the presentation of a new attitude to religion without too much dislocation. Barriers are lowered and there is readiness to respond with acceptance and openness for instruction, for the old gods have failed and the people are disposed to reject them. They only retain them because they have no substitute and they fear the vulnerability of being godless. If Christianity cannot win converts under these conditions then there must surely be something wrong with her methods of communication, for to use the biblical imaginary, “the fields are ripe unto harvest” (1970:85).

Since the 1960s the charismatic churches have evangelized both nominal and undecided people. The Ethiopian Pentecostals used this period of transition to their advantage. They provided for the spiritual needs of both the elite and the common people, despite bitter opposition from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and some officials in the Haile Selassie government. Due to the spontaneous nature and the spiritual principles of their work, however, no accurate statistical data exist. Counting converts was considered unspiritual among Pentecostals. We consequently do not know exactly how many people came to the knowledge of Christ in the early Ethiopian Pentecostal Movement. We do know, however, that the Charismatic/Pentecostal churches have multiplied. Moreover, mainline churches like the Baptists, Mennonites, Mekane Eyesus, and Kale Hiewet (Word of Life) churches have felt the impact from the movement.5 C. Peter Wagner summarized: There are places in the world where the most rapidly growing churches would not be listed as Pentecostal, but which exhibit Pentecostal characteristics such as 4

For detailed accounts of Mengistu’s regime see Dawit Wolde Giorgis (1989), Milkias 2006, and Ottaway (1978). 5 For further reading and detail account of the Evangelical movement in Ethiopia see Eshete (2009) and Michael (1993), for the Pentecostal movement see Engelsviken (1975).

Establishing the Context

15

healing the sick, casting out demons, miracles and signs. The Lutheran churches of Ethiopia would be an example. In recent years they have been the fastest growing churches in the world. When a Norwegian research team studied the reasons for such phenomenal growth they discovered that, depending on the location, from 60 to 80 percent of the new believers had been drawn to the gospel through firsthand contact with supernatural signs and wonders (1986:12-13).

This phenomenal Pentecostal growth had both strength and weaknesses. Charismatics in Ethiopia are strong and effective in evangelism. However, there remain theological, missiological, and leadership issues that need to be addressed (Engelsviken 1975). Most denominational leaders have been seriously concerned about the impact of culture change on church leadership. Sensing the crucial need for leadership training and theological education, denominational Bible schools have been started, such as the ones led by Mulu Wongel (Full Gospel) and Meserete Kristos. Moreover, a series of one or two weeks’ leadership training seminars and symposia are conducted by the Evangelical Churches Fellowship of Ethiopia (ECFE). Efforts have thus been made to enhance the quality of leadership and address the theological and missiological issues at hand. The results, however, have been marked only by sporadic breakthroughs, not by profound impact upon the leadership in the seventies and eighties. It seems evident that there remain factors of resistance that hinder progress in a broad-based development of well-rounded leaders. This book examines possible factors of resistance. Personal Experience My interest in culture change, leadership and the Evangelical Movement in Ethiopia started in my mid-teens. As a young man I aspired for higher education and a better life. With no psychological and intellectual preparation, Ethiopia changed from monarchy to rule by a Marxist government. The traditional values were rapidly changed by the Marxist revolution. Though we were a society in which everything had to do with religion, we were told by the Marxists that religion is “an opiate of the masses.” There was new Marxist terminology, the mushrooming of political parties, and class and ideological struggle characterized by bloodshed, torture, and the unjust treatments of all kinds of people. It was overwhelming to cope with the change. Life was uncertain. The revolution was unpredictable. Lifelong friends became untrustworthy because of the political line they chose, and all the infrastructures we were familiar with were uprooted. One wonders where to turn when centuries of history, culture, value, ethos and norms that hold together the society are instantly becoming an evil that needs to be eliminated.

Culture and Cultural Change

In order to describe or introduce the culture change in Ethiopia, it is logical and essential that one understands culture and society from an anthropological perspective. “Culture is not just an open-ended way of life. Rather, it is a plan, map, or blueprint for living that is always in the process of formation and adjustment. It is a code for action, for survival, and for success in life” (Luzbetak 1989:156). Culture change includes a change of information, attitude and ideas about behavior. As Ethiopia evolved from feudalism into modernization through Western education during the Haile Selassie era, modern farming, health service, surface and air transportation systems, and communication structures improved enormously. However, most people looked at the improvements and only noticed that the country was still not as advanced as she could be. Unlike in most Western capitalist countries, the majority of the factories, transportation systems, newspapers, radio and TV stations, and modern farms such as that in Chilalo were controlled by the government. The monarchical system was not conducive to the growth of individual entrepreneurs. Under the Marxist revolution, private properties were nationalized through the indoctrination of Marxist ideology, coercion, and lifethreatening actions. Even the best thinkers were expected to live like a robot. Every time I go back to visit Ethiopia, I notice how dramatically the norms, values, customs, and behaviors of the Ethiopians have changed in the last thirty-two years. Even though culture is always “in the process of transformation,” in the Ethiopian cultural context during the Haile Selassie, Mengistu, and Meles eras, the process of transformation was either controlled or enforced by leaders who led the country with an iron fist. When cultural transformation is controlled or resisted by the government, as was the case during Haile Selassie’s rule, the intelligentsia feels suffocated by outdated government systems, religious traditions, and backward economic and technological apparatus. The enforcement of cultural transformation by Mengistu and Meles was marked by human rights violations. After the 1974 Marxist revolution, Mengistu willingly placed his empire under the dominance of the then-Soviet Union, and to that end employed advisors from Eastern European countries. Without thorough knowledge or understanding, he imported the model of Eastern European Marxism-Leninism into the Ethiopian context (Holocomb and Ibssa 1990:354; Markakis and Ayele 1986:77-146). The new ideology caused a radical culture change, which impacted evangelical leadership (see Väisänen 1981). The implementation of policies, major

18

Culture Change in Ethiopia

constitutional laws, the ban on public worship, and the confiscation of church properties during the Mengistu era were not done in a democratic manner. As the past two decades have shown, the government that overthrew the Marxist leader, Mengistu, and the derg,1 has not been democratic either. The changes the current government brought on the issues of nationalism, the education system, and land and property ownership, including the secession of Eritrea, was not done by the involvement and choice of the people of Ethiopia. When it operates within a normal socio-political environment, culture is a “map” that can guide life. But when culture is dictated or imposed upon people with absolute leadership power, it can lead a nation to an unintended, undesired, and unplanned destination. Personally, I do not think Ethiopia today is where she wants to be by the democratic choice of her people. Even though many do not agree, there is no single individual leader, party, or ethnic group to blame for the conditions the country is in. All Ethiopians who participated in bringing change without taking into consideration the country’s long history, culture, tradition, and diverse ethnic groups and their languages bear responsibility for the enforced and unplanned cultural transformation in Ethiopia. Of course, the authoritarian leaders played a significant role. Even the well-educated, enlightened, and informed political Ethiopian leader, Meles, was not free from ethnocentrism and repression. As Jeffery Gettleman stated in his New York Times article, referring to the death of Meles, the late Ethiopian Prime minister, and his relationship with the U.S.: Mr. Meles, who died on Monday after more than 20 years in power, played the American battle against terrorism brilliantly, painting Ethiopia, a country with a long and storied Christian history, as being on the front lines against Islamist extremism. He extracted prized intelligence, serious diplomatic support and millions of dollars in aid from the United States in exchange for his cooperation against militants in the volatile Horn of Africa, an area of prime concern for Washington. But he was notoriously repressive, undermining President Obama’s maxim that ‘Africa doesn’t need strongmen, it needs strong institutions.’ Mr. Meles was undoubtedly a strongman. Despite being one of the United States’ closest allies on the continent, Mr. Meles repeatedly jailed dissidents and journalists, intimidated opponents and their supporters to win mind-bogglingly one-sided elections, and oversaw brutal campaigns in restive areas of the country where the Ethiopian military has raped and killed many civilians. No matter that Ethiopia receives more than $800 million in American aid annually. Mr. Meles even went as far as jamming the signal of Voice of America because he did not like its broadcasts. Human rights groups have been urging the United States to cut aid to Ethiopia for years.2

1

Meaning: Committee of Equals. It was the initial name of the military leaders. Ethiopian Leader’s Death Highlights Gap between U.S. Interests and Ideals, Jeffery Gettleman, New York Times, August 21, 2012. 2

Culture and Cultural Change

19

As an Ethiopian-American, I have struggled to understand why the U.S. often stands with African despots such as Haile Selassie, Mubarak, Mele Zenawi, Mobutu Sese Seko, and Museveni. The democracy at the home front hardly spills into the various nations of Africa where the U.S. has been involved. In Ethiopia, as the research in this book will show, America’s involvement in all major sectors of the country’s infrastructure has done more harm to the people than good. Whether it is a deliberate act of the U.S. or an unintended consequence of its foreign policy, I will leave the reader to make that judgment. In the context of such radical and polarized ideological and government changes, which significantly impacted the Ethiopian cultural context, the depth and style of preaching and teaching in many evangelical churches, as well as the tools and curricula of discipleship, are inadequate to help the Christians cope with the culture changes and be effective in the society. Nominalism and immature Christian behaviour are prevalent in the evangelical churches in Ethiopia today. The transcendental and transformational power of the gospel has not permeated the society, and it is not felt and manifested in the judicial, educational, economic, developmental, etc. sectors of the country. Conversion through evangelism and hope for the “not yet” aspect of the kingdom is high. The kingdom at hand is distorted by insufficient teaching and the inconsistent character and behaviour of “believers” who are not discipled. Concept of Culture The most significant accomplishment of anthropology in the first half of the twentieth century was the extension and clarification of the concept of culture (see Kroeber 1950:87). Cultural anthropology is one of the youngest social sciences. The discipline began to be taken seriously as missionaries and colonialists started reporting their encounters with unfamiliar people and customs during the eighteenth century. When the discipline of anthropology is applied from an emic perspective, that is, seeing the reality of life as the people within the culture would see it, it can provide insights to comprehend the worldview of the society and help to bring a healthy and lasting change. In a country such as Ethiopia, where between 77 and 80 ethnic groups exist and 83 different languages with up to 200 dialects are spoken, anthropology should have been given serious academic recognition and been taught in high school and higher education. “Anthropology inquires into the basic questions about who human beings are, how they came to be what they are, how they behave, and why they behave as they do. Because the mission of the Church is to human beings, and because anthropology is the systematic study of such beings, a basic knowledge of this science is a must for anyone engaged in mission. Anthropology is a coordinating type of science. It is composed, however, not just of bits and pieces of all sorts of sciences, but is rather science in its own right. It is such, first of all, because it has a very distinct object of

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Culture Change in Ethiopia

study – our humanness. The physical, biological, cultural, social, and psychological understanding of what it means to be human is examined with a view to arriving at as complete and integrated a picture as is possible of what we understand by antrόpos” (Luzbetak 1989:23). As I will show in the remaining chapters, all change agents, both secular and religious, have fallen short in implementing this discipline to bring culture change. We are all like unqualified chefs who mix the wrong ingredients and overcooked or half-baked the cultural transformations that happened in the last five centuries in Ethiopia. Ethiopian change agents became unqualified chefs because of Western education. That is where we learned how to mix ingredients that are irrelevant to the situation of our country. E. B. Tylor provided one of the earliest and best definitions of culture: “Culture or civilization is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man [woman] as a member of society” (1874:1). Keesing summed up culture as “the totality of man’s learned, accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or, more briefly the behavior patterns which are characteristic of the members of a society and which are not the result of biological inheritance” (cited by Hoebel 1954:6). Kluckhon further defined culture as a way of thinking, feeling, believing. It is the knowledge stored up (in memories of man, in books and objects) for future use – patterns for doing certain things in certain ways not the doing of them (1962: 25).3 Luzbetak summarily defined culture as, “a design for living. It is a plan according to which society adapts itself to its physical, social, and ideational environment in such matters as food production and all technological knowledge and skill” (1970: 61). The point that emerges from all these definitions and attending political observation is that concepts of power and authority, the place of gender, and patterns of communication in leadership must be understood with respect to culture. Consciously and unconsciously, directly or indirectly, we learn behavioral patterns from other people. These learned behaviors shape and influence our roles in the community in which we live. The environment of learning and exploring and the right to embrace or reject culture change was not present in Ethiopia. Culture Change Cultures are constantly changing because the individuals of the society – the architects of the culture – are constantly seeking to improve their underlying code of behavior in accord with the growth of their experience and their everchanging physical, social, and ideational environment and felt needs (Hiebert 1976:411-429; Kraft 1987:72-80; Luzbetak 1989:292-373). Anthropologists 3

See Kluckhohn (1962) for an exhaustive study of culture and behaviour.

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have long attempted to answer questions about how, at what rate, and why cultural elements are added, lost, substituted, and/or blended (Luzbetak 1989:293). The process of culture change, however, is explained by considering a number of socio-cultural models (Hiebert 1976:411). The answers to questions about where culture change originates, how it occurs, and how order and integration are maintained in the face of constant change reflect the different basic concerns anthropologists have had with their data. Despite culture’s intrigue and its profound relevance in the study of anthropology, no anthropologist has found a satisfactory model to explain it (Nida 1978:19). Hiebert (1976) is useful for understanding the major theories of change and the variety of approaches applied to this question. His emic and etic perspectives of culture change have been especially helpful during my research for gaining good insight, both as an insider of the Ethiopian culture and in understanding the outsider’s viewpoints of culture and change in Ethiopia. I have been careful not to limit the investigation of culture to the bonds of my own outlook filtered with subjective assessment. The work of Homer Barnett (1953) is also particularly helpful for unravelling my life’s puzzle, that is, why a country that has been free when the rest of Africa fell under European colonization could so lack innovation that her people languished in poverty. Barnett became interested in how the innovation of new ideas occurs and how people accept them. Innovation, he suggests, consists essentially of recombining previous ideas into new ones. Analysis, identification and substitution are the three basic stages in innovation. In many ways, acceptance of innovation follows the same process (1953:181225, 291-378). According to Barnett, the cultural background, particularly the way authority in leadership is implemented, is an important factor in innovation. Barnett writes: There is a positive correlation between individualism and innovative potential. The greater the freedom of the individual to explore his [her] world of experience and to organize its elements in accordance with his private interpretation of his sense impressions, the greater the likelihood of new ideas coming into being. Contrariwise, the more the reliance upon authoritative leaders dictates, the less the frequency of new conceptualizations. When individuals are taught to revere and fear authority as the ultimate sources of the good, the true, and the proper, they cannot be expected to have variant notions. When they are indoctrinated with the virtue of dependency, the ideas, of curiosity personal inquiry and evaluation are denigrated; and whole blocks and societies of individuals become nucleated into single ranges of possibilities (1953: 61).

In Ethiopian culture, restrictions upon individual inquiry are imposed at home, church, and school and in government structures. Dependence on authority is encouraged by parents, teachers, priests, and other agents of power. In traditional culture, innovation was a taboo (cf. Levine 1965). In this culture:

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Culture Change in Ethiopia The leader-elders know what is best for their spiritual children. Hence, the techniques of regimentation, obscurantism, and corrective punishment for the misguided or the willfully perverse are justified. As far as innovation is concerned, the result is negative. That is well organized in authoritarian regimes (Barnett 1953:67).

The leadership values and leadership patterns of Ethiopian society are further probed in the following two chapters, and I attempt to show how authoritarian leadership limited the innovative potential of the people. Another useful work on culture change was that of Kraft (1979). He notes that the stimulus to change one’s cultural pattern, or one’s use of it, may be generated from within the culture, may be partially the result of exposure to another culture, or may come from a supracultural source (1979:74). These points shed light on the origin of culture change in Ethiopia. The supracultural reference point for change has particularly aided this study by laying a theoretical foundation to investigate the evangelical movement in Ethiopia. “The reference point for change may, however, be supracultural, lies outside any culture – in God or in Satan. The solution to the felt need is generated by the desire on the part of those seeking the solution to do (consciously or unconsciously) what they feel will be pleasing to their supracultural reference point. When people shift (convert) from a cultural to supracultural reference point, this concern becomes a part of their worldview” (1979:78). Even though the feudal Haile Selassie regime gave recognition to spiritual realities and their influence in life and history, its perception was erroneous. The latter two regime leaders were inclined toward science and philosophy. Therefore, when I discuss the experience, beliefs, values, and changes among the evangelical Christians in Ethiopia, I am referring to issues pertaining to the worldview of the people. It is a deep, not a superficial, change. Unless we try to approach change and leadership issues in Ethiopia from this angle, we’ll be unable to get a complete picture of the causes and effects of change in the country. Feudalism, modernization, the Marxist revolution, and religion have a limited ability to give us a good understanding of man’s origin, purpose of existence, and destiny. By focusing on worldview and its impact, this book is investigating the effects of change on the leadership of the evangelical movement in Ethiopia. Worldview Theory and Worldview Change This section is not an exhaustive study on worldview. Only limited matters related to culture change and leadership for the church will be discussed. Worldview is a complex subject because it deals with core values of people. As we will observe in chapter 3, core values are crucial because they give meaning to a people’s corporate culture. Worldview becomes even more “complex” in

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urban environment, because an urban center may present various ethnic groups who have different worldviews. Worldview is a term that seeks to define the “core” or “central assumption” of a culture. It falls within the discipline of cognitive anthropology. In the field of anthropology, Bronislaw Malinowski, a British social anthropologist is associated with the term “Weltanschauung”,4 which is used to describe “the native’s outlook on things…the breath of life by which he lives. Every human culture gives its members a definite vision of the world’s definite zest of life” (1953). People in every culture build reality and order for meaningful existence. And their meaningful existence is experienced through their worldview. “A worldview is not merely a philosophical product of each culture, like a shadow, but the very skeleton of concrete cognitive assumption on which the flesh of customary behavior is hung. Worldview accordingly may be expressed more or less systematically in cosmology, philosophy, ethnic, religious ritual, scientific beliefs, and so on but is implicit in almost every act” (Wallace 1970:143). Within American anthropology there are two principal traditions of worldview studies. The names of the individuals most frequently associated and credited with shaping worldview studies are Franz Boas and Robert Redfield. Boas’ impact on worldview studies is indirect. As the most influential individual in the formation of American anthropology, he established a perspective by which the study of worldview was an inevitable outcome (see Kearney 1984:25-360). Boas’ concepts were a reaction to the evolutionary theories of Lewis Henry Morgan, Karl Marx, E. B. Tylor, John F. McLeman, and other nineteenth century evolutionists. He constructed the cultural elements in each tradition. Edward Sapir defined culture as “the world outlook” (1949:11). In this view each culture is, in some sense, not a random assortment of traits, but an integrated, coherent constellation that manifests a distinct style. There was, in effect, some underlying “pattern” or “configuration” that orchestrated the individual traits. “Patterns are these arrangements or systems of internal relationships which give to any culture its coherence or plan, and keep it from being a mere accumulation of random bits” (Kroeber 1948:311). All cultural symbols – from simple ones, such as greeting another person, to complex ones, such as marriage or worship – are patterned so as to accord with rule and norms. Whether explicit or implicit, cultural patterns do underlie 4

One of the most important concepts in cognitive philosophy and cognitive sciences is the German concept of Weltanschauung. This expression has often been used to refer to the “wide worldview“ or “wide world perception” of a people, family, or person. The Weltanschauung of a people originates from the unique world experience of a people, which they experience over several millennia. ‘Weltanschauung’, used first by Kant and later popularized by Hegel, was always used in German and later used in English to refer more to philosophies, ideologies and cultural or religious perspectives, than to linguistic communities and their mode of apprehending reality – wikipedia.org/wiki/ World_view#Weltanschauung_and_cognitive_philosophy

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behavior, and they thereby make up the essential core of a given culture. Studying cultural patterns gives us insight into what sort of cultural cues are essential from those who reared us to live in a meaningful way in our society. As I studied the culture change, cultural leadership values, and cultural leadership patterns in Ethiopia, the cultural cues of the people drew the guidelines for my research. Malina differentiates six classes of cultural cues: 1. Perception: those cues defining how any person, thing, or event is to be perceived, the meaning they are said to bear relative to myself and others. These cues of perception make up the central frame of reference in the culture. 2. Feeling: those cues telling us what and how we must feel in a given situation. 3. Acting: those cues telling us what we must do or avoid doing both in general and in specific occasions. 4. Believing: those cues telling us what we must believe in and confess. 5. Admiring: those cues telling us what and who we must hold in awe, what and whom we are to admire and respect. 6. Striving: those cues telling us what are worthwhile goals in life, with the significant others legitimating our selection (1981:14-15). These cues seemed to correspond with the subject of my own investigation, the worldview, actions, beliefs, feeling and values of the evangelical Christians’ leadership in both the past and present. As we go further you will realize how much these cues have been helpful to uncover the cultural layers of the Ethiopian society. People do not perceive, act, feel, admire, or believe randomly. Our cultural patterns shape and influence our being, acts, and feelings. As Ethiopians unquestioningly sought the Western modernism and Marxist revolution, I don’t think the change agents had taken the cultural patterns of Ethiopia into consideration or as essential foundations of change. Boas’ student Ruth Benedict (1954) put forward her famous thesis that a people’s culture is an integral whole. This insight helps to hold culture in focus as an integrated whole throughout an investigation into culture change. Such was true for me in studying the culture change and its effect in Ethiopia. Benedict’s work has further illuminated my understanding of the emotional quality of socially patterned behaviour. The work of Robert Redfield (1897-1958) was largely independent of the Boas tradition and parallel to it (see Kearny 1984:37-40). It was he who used the term worldview (1953)5 to explain a people’s cultural core values. Redfield was concerned with one basic question: How do people characteristically look outward upon the universe? Redfield assumed that all people are conscious of the self within themselves. The self is the vantage point from which the “world” is observed; it “is the axis of worldview” (Kearney 1984: 38). Redfield also reasoned that, in relating to the universe, all people must take into account 5

See Redfield, 1953, chapter 4, for more detailed discussion of worldview.

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extension in space and duration and periodicity of time, and, therefore, he included space and time as worldview universals. Kraft further defined worldview as “the central systematization of reality to which the members of culture assent (largely unconsciously) and from which stems the value system. The worldview thus lies at the very heart of culture, touching, interacting with, and strongly influencing every other aspect of the culture” (1979:53). Kraft adds elsewhere that, “worldview forms the core of culture. It bridges the gap between the ‘objective’ reality outside people’s heads and the culturally agreed-upon perception of that reality inside their heads” (1981:83). Worldview serves as the organizer of conceptualization. With respect to cultural performance (behaviour), it governs the application of concepts. Cultural patterning, then, consists of surface-level behavior based upon the deeper assumptions we call worldview. Worldview is operative beneath the surface of observable culture, usually below the level of people’s awareness and often difficult for outsiders to discover (Kraft 1979:82). In the investigation of the worldview changes in Ethiopia, consideration of the function of worldview proved particularly helpful for this study. Kraft describes the following five major functions of worldview: (1) explanation, (2) evaluation, (3) psychological reinforcement, (4) integration, (5) adaptation (1979:54-57). Commenting on escaping from worldview captivity, Kraft suggests the will, knowledge and experience of people has to be involved (1989:95-96). The concept of worldview has been refined to refer to the “unconscious system of meaning” which resides at the center of a cultural system. Edward Hall captured this meaning when he succinctly defined worldview as “an underlying hidden level of culture that is highly patterned – a set of unspoken implicitly rules of behavior and thought that controls everything we do. This hidden cultural grammar defines the way people view the world, determines their values and establishes the basic tempo and rhythm of life” 1983:6). Worldview then is a people’s conceptual grid through which life experiences are filtered and given meaning. At this core level, different ethnicities and/or races find their commonality and/or differences. If worldview is such a deep-level conceptual issue in a cultural setting, it is mandatory that one appreciates and tries to observe its implications in a multiethnic society of Ethiopia. In Ethiopia the current ethnic issues, mother-tongue education, and identity can all be effectively addressed in the light of people’s worldviews. The intended result of understanding people’s worldviews is not to create a wall of partition that divides and polarizes any society. It is to build a bridge of communication between different ethnic groups and to enhance mutual understanding in one’s culture and beyond.

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Worldview and Religion Anthropological studies in the fields of religion and magic have had relevance to the mission of the church. Because of the significance of these disciplines, mission scholars have drawn on them and allowed them to contribute to the theory of missiology. Contributors include (Kiev 1964; Lussa and Vogt 1979; Lehman and Meyers 1985). Other anthropologists such as Turner (1967) have focused on the nature of religious rituals and symbols and the places those elements have had in the lives of people. Interest in and concern for religious change is demonstrated in the research and writing of (Lauternori 1963; Luzbetak 1963; Barrett 1968; Nida 1956). One approach of these authors is the revitalization theory (Wallace 1956). This study is the rise and growth of the animistic and messianic cults that make up one of the most widespread religious phenomena of the last three decades. Over six thousand are reported to exist in Africa alone (Barrett 1968). The focus of this statistic reflects the urgency people have to find a meaningful religion in their search for identity and stability in the midst of confusion created by rapid culture change. Some anthropologists (e.g. Hiebert 1975; Kraft 1979, 1989) have turned to the study of worldview – the basic existential normative assumptions people make about their worlds. What do people perceive to be the nature of reality, and what do they consider to be right or wrong (see Hiebert 1983:55)? A view of reality that people assume varies from culture to culture. For example, biblical Christians assume that an ultimate human goal is heaven, a realm in which an individual’s wholeness is fulfilled (1 Cor. 15). In contrast, the Hindu worldview assumes that human beings die and are reborn innumerable times; the goal of life is to merge back into the source of life and lose all individuality (Hiebert 1983: 174-176). For the Anuak of Ethiopia, death, burial, and the subsequent symbolic behavior – the whole configuration – is a mechanism for transition of power and blessing from the dead to the living. The purpose is not to draw on the resources of the world beyond, but rather to preserve the power already in this world, preventing it from being lost in the mysterious beyond. For this reason the grave and everything associated with it is taboo. No one will touch it, burn it or rob it. This would bring an accusation of society against the offender (see Tippet 1970:263-264). This taboo illustrates how the implicit meaning of our faith is embedded in and draws from a supernaturalistic worldview. It is this dimension of life and perspective that has been deliberately ignored in the name of modernism, science, and Marxist philosophy in Ethiopia. The few who deny the spiritual reality have been trying to lead the majority who embrace it. As we go further in this book, we’ll probe the consequences of this clash. Religion gives a deeper meaning to the life and existence of human beings (Kraft 1979; Oates 1982). Worldview, on the other hand, is deeper than religion and is expressed through every surface-level cultural structuring (Kraft

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1979: 383). Worldview and religion in a healthy culture are integrated with and supportive of each other. When a worldview and its religion get out of step, things fall apart (Kraft 1979:383). In Ethiopian society, where there is no sharp dichotomy between the secular and spiritual, the observation drawn from Kraft is relevant and valid. A supernaturalist worldview governs the thinking patterns, behaviour, and actions of Ethiopians. This worldview is expressed in folk religion and traditional religion (Levine 1965: 1974). Levine demonstrates how the traditional Ethiopian concepts of time, place, life, and death are influenced by religion. Pankhurst (1987) describes the place of religion in the economy and politics of the society. Elliston (1976) and Tippet (1970) illustrate the significance of religion in all dimensions of people’s lives. Religion permeates morals, work, relationships, marriage, birth, war, and peace. Furthermore, Atete, Adbar, Borentecha, Chelle, Zaar, Budda (evil eye) each maintain a significant place in the minds of Ethiopians (Mekonnen 1990). For effective culture change, people need to make a paradigm shift in their supernaturalist worldview level. With some recognition of this dynamic reality and principle, the Marxist revolution tried to undermine religion and introduce atheism to Ethiopians. Speaking of the inevitability of change in Ethiopia, Tippet wrote: “To leave people without a working religion is about as bad a thing as you can do to them. All kinds of social and psychological disturbances emerge in this kind of situation. The only thing the agent of change can do is to provide some alternative form of religion that can function in the new situation. The only currently reasonable options are the Orthodox religion, Roman Catholicism, Evangelical religion and Islam. These are four quite different answers to the current problem situation. Each has it advocates and each attempt to satisfy the felt needs. If one of these is not accepted the only option I see that remains is the negative religion of communism. Personally I do not believe a one-time animist will ever find religious satisfaction in communism” (1970:285-286). Truly, as Tippet believed, Ethiopians did not find religious satisfaction in Marxism. When radical ideological culture change happened in 1974, the supernaturalist worldview of the Ethiopian people firmly resisted the atheistic Marxist-Leninist propaganda. Väsiänen concurs: “Whether they are Muslims, Orthodox Christians or others, [Ethiopians] share a deep conviction that there is a God who is creator of the heaven and earth. This conviction is not rooted out even by intensified indoctrination. Therefore the anti-Christian campaign with slogans, like ‘there is no God,’ can hardly make a lasting impact of the Ethiopians (1981:194). One of the underlying purposes of this book is to find out why the evangelical Christians succeeded while other attempted changes failed. What should be the role of the mission of the church? If religion “permeates all the departments of the Ethiopian’s life,” how did the radical Marxist revolution affect the change? Was evangelical Christianity merely a timely alternative?

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The God of the Bible, from whom mission originates, is transcendent, sovereign, holy, omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. When he chose to reveal himself to mankind, he used the cultural context of people, their language and customs, without favoring one more than the other. “The characteristic pattern of Christianity’s engagement with the languages and cultures of the world had God at the center of the universe of cultures, implying equality among cultures and the necessarily relative status of cultures vis-a-vis the truth of God. No culture is so advanced and so superior that it can claim exclusive access or advantage to the truth of God, and none so marginal and remote that it can be excluded” (emphasis mine, Sanneh 2008:25). Through the prophets and the apostles and through all God’s witnesses until the twenty-first century, God has chosen to reveal Himself in many languages and many cultures. The incarnation of his son, Jesus Christ, who came in a human form, lived among people and used the Aramaic language as the prime medium of his message instead of Hebrew, is the climax of God’s manifestation and expression of mission. Tennent illuminates this thought, saying, “The incarnation is the ultimate example of what we call the translatability of the gospel…This should encourage us, for it demonstrates that the translatability of the Christian gospel is not just theoretical hope but a descriptive fact. The church is already the most ethnically, culturally, and linguistically diverse movement on the planet” (2010:325). Because of the translatability of the Christian faith, the unknown has become known, the overlooked tribal and ethnic groups are recognized, the languages limited to oral communication are developed into a written form and there is a filial sense of spiritual bond among diverse groups of Christians globally. The mission of God in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the West in the last three centuries and beyond, “proves that Christianity is unable to escape the cultural framework of the people it addresses” (Sanneh 1995:3). To this, Hill adds, “Christianity, more than Islam, has been more than happy to translate its Scriptures into other languages, and this has had the effect not simply of transmitting its own history and culture but also of transforming it and bolstering the cultures to which it is transmitted. In this way, Christianity has had a more dynamic and complex role in the transformation of culture than Islam” (2005:15). Change Agents In the culture change process, culture change agents play a vital role. The conventional role of the change agent is to advocate innovations among clients. To be effective the change agent must also provide linkage for the clients’ needs and problems. Accordingly, change agents (1) develop need for change; (2) establish an information-exchange relationship; (3) diagnose problems; (4) create in the client an intention to change; (5) translate intent into action; (6) stabilize adoption and prevent discountenance; (7) achieve a terminal

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relationship (Rogers 1983: 315-316). With respect to change in Ethiopia, Tippet concluded his research with the following warning: “The agents of change at work in the country: administrators, missionaries, teachers, doctors, peace corps workers, agriculturists, veterinarians, traders and so forth, be it noted all these are agents of change and will all be held responsible. My hope in this book is that all the agents of change will become aware of the societies in which they are operating. Only by such awareness can they understand the problem of incorporation into nation or church. Without this understanding there can be little empathy, no matter how much the devotion. Without the empathy their goals will be unachieved. It is important to understand the society (emphasis his) (1970: 275). Without going through the normal stages of innovation (Rogers 1962: 134268), change agents confronted the Ethiopian mind with Western civilization. The changes created an inadequate infrastructure to deliver satisfaction for felt needs of the people and thus led to the deluge of demonstration in the early 1970s, which resulted in a change of government. The two major errors of the change agents in Ethiopia – the expatriates, students, teachers, and military – were the introduction of unselective innovations and the lack of awareness about their society. Because of these errors change resulted in a radical Marxist revolution. The changes were introduced without verifying that they would appropriately meet that society’s need. Whether Western technology or education, they should have been contextualized before an attempt was made to introduce them. Kraft observes, “Change may take place in an apparently unguided manner or as the result of effective agency of some member(s) of the culture. Innovations are most likely to be accepted by others when they combine a felt need (i.e., a need that people feel they have) with a novel solution. The felt need always comes from within culture” (1981:77). He adds, “It is of paramount importance that advocates of change seek to understand the cultural element that they suspect ought to be changed from the point of view of the people” (1981:361). As we analyze the Western education’s implementation in Ethiopia, we’ll conclude, surprisingly, that it was done contrary to anthropological theories of change, innovation, and diffusion. Instead of bringing stability, peace, and development to their nation, “thousands of young educated men and women blindly cut each other down, in their homes, inside offices, in school and college campuses, and on the streets of Addis Ababa and other major cities” (Milkias 2006:259). In the Ethiopian context, changes were introduced in an unguided manner. Those in leadership positions imposed whatever ideology or technology they deemed important for the people. They failed to realize that a viable leadership cannot be adequately understood outside the leader’s cultural context. Elliston concurs: “The leadership effectiveness in the local situation will be conditioned by the broader context. It will be conditioned by the historical precedents. It will be conditioned by the surrounding culture. It will be affected by the current political, cultural, economic, sociological, and religious context. When one

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crosses even subcultural boundaries, the complexities of worldview differences demand attention” (1992:16). Given the significance of the culture concept, it would be a mistake to dismiss the impact of culture change as being significant when we discuss leadership within a culture. The course of history fashions the value, power, authority and roles in leadership. In Ethiopia’s case, the event of the Cold War and the ensuing struggle between the two superpowers, the conflict in the Middle East, and the geopolitics of the country are crucial in understanding the poverty and backwardness of the people. The frustration and confusion of Ethiopian intelligentsia also has to do with the outside influence that is fighting for the soul and mind of the people who can bring change for their own interest to Ethiopians. Leaders cannot be fully understood or explained apart from their organizational and cultural environment. There is always a relationship between a leader and his or her environment. Hersey and Blanchard comment, “The key for managers and leaders is learning to diagnose their environment” (1988: 145). I would add that a critical key to understanding leaders is to know their organizational and cultural context. Without understanding the intermediate factors, it will be difficult to have effective Christian leadership. Kraft cautions that, “Non-Western societies with a supernaturalistic perspective tend to focus only on ultimate causes, often ignoring important intermediate factors” (1989: 89). This step is a narrow approach to reality. This book adopts the vantage point that affords a broader perspective on understanding the leadership of evangelical churches in Ethiopia. The distinctive characteristics of people – their concepts of work and leisure, power and authority, employer and employee, time and space, life and death, punishment and reward – have great influence on the leaders. Thus, as this chapter has demonstrated, in order to understand political and religious leadership in Ethiopia, an anthropological perspective is essential. Anthropology not only helps us to understand the process of culture change and its effect on leadership. It also lends us insight into the leadership values of a society. “The worldview of a people serves an evaluational – a judging and validating function” (Kraft 1979:55). Summary In the sense that culture embodies an underlying code of behaviour (a set of ideas or norms), it must first of all be viewed as being in the mind. The locus of culture change is in the minds of the individual members of society. Culture change, secondly, may happen through innovation (i.e., it may be generated from within the culture, or it may be partially the result of exposure to another culture, or it may come from a supracultural source). Third, when we describe culture change, it is important to distinguish between etic and emic approaches. Recently, culture changes mainly have been studied from emic perspectives. Fourth, when culture changes, there is often a corresponding paradigm shift in

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worldview. Consequently, without probing into the current worldview of Ethiopians, it would be difficult to have a fair understanding of culture change and its impact on the evangelical Christians in Ethiopia.

Cultural Leadership Values

Proceeding with a broad basis of understanding culture, a discussion about leadership naturally leads to a discussion of values.1 The term “value” and “value oriented” are used by anthropologists and others to refer to any “conception of the good or the desirable which influences the action of thinking of people” (Nida and Wonderly 1978:55). Like culture, the locus of values is in the mind of the people. “All human experience seems to be stored within the memory with some sort of value tag,” said Galanter, Miller, and Pribram in Plans and the Structure of Behavior (1960). In leadership, the study of values is important; “no person or society exists without them” (Smalley 1978:26). Values people hold determine to some extent their motives for action and, as such, constitute much of the dynamic of their society. For Christian leaders, studying the values of people is not optional. Nida and Wonderly observe: “The study of people’s values, the ideas and emotions which form their outlook on life and motivate their behavior, is of fundamental importance to an understanding of that people. Nothing is more basic to a relevant Christian witness than insight into value systems (1978:55). Our value of time, relationship, honor, money, property, technology, family, spiritual matters, etc. shapes our perception of life and the people around us. People who emerge as leaders are also a product of the value system they grew up in. “We assimilate the meanings and values of our culture much as we have assimilated our shared language” (Malina 1973:14). Values are not isolated entities easily changed or restructured. They are subtle and complex and exist within in a structured system. “Values provide the shared roadways on which leaders exercise their influence (Elliston 1992:43). Values for Christian leaders come from at least two critically important perspectives: “1) Revealed values found in scripture provide the normative base for and equipping of the selection and employment of power for the selection leaders; 2) Cultural values found in the broader culture and the immediate subculture of the church, agency or community provide the initial guideline” (Elliston 1992:44). It is therefore important to understand the traditional cultural leadership values in Ethiopia in order to clearly understand the conflict and tension between the traditionalists and the modernists. Along the same lines, in order to comprehend the present, it is imperative to grasp the full meaning of the past. 1

Relevant works stressing the important of values include Badaraco and Ellsworth (1989), Hersey and Blanchard (1988), Hall (1986), Walton (1988), Koestenbaum (1991), Covey (1991), Clinton (1994), and Bennis (1989, 1991).

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Culture Change in Ethiopia

Girma writes, “Present day conflict of values in Ethiopia can hardly be understood unless examined in the light of conditions that have given rise to such conflicts. This is because the conflict of today goes deeper than what is externally observed. It is a conflict that arises out of the meeting of two minds, the traditional and the modern,” (1964:1) that led to the Marxist revolution. An accurate emic perspective can help us to probe further to understand the cause of the radical Marxist revolution in semi-feudal and semi-modern Ethiopia. Feudalism and modernity co-existed during Haile Selassie’s era, but their similarity was skin deep. We will investigate this matter in depth in the coming chapters. The change in cultural leadership values gives us insight into people’s motives for action, from their likes and dislikes to their needs and aspirations. Wallace observes: “In ‘value’ of a thing or a state of affairs is, somewhat comparably, its positive or negative valence, that is, its relative potency as a goal (“reward”, “punishment”, “pleasure”, “pain”, and so on toward which or away from which the organism strives)” (1970:144). Our knowledge of cultural values is essential for leadership effectiveness. For, with proper steps of leadership development, “local values can naturally be incorporated into the formation of ‘home grown’ leaders” (Elliston 1992:44), who can effectively and creatively face challenges that emerge within the cultural context. The following are some important values to investigate as we try to understand leadership and the Ethiopian society. Supernatural Power In Ethiopian culture, both in the pre-revolution and post-revolution eras, spiritual power has functioned as a significant factor in the structure, efficiency, and legitimacy of leadership. The use of biblical allusions in Ethiopian historical literature depicts the place of God in leadership. Richard Pankhurst observes the following: Ethiopian court histories which were written to describe, and praise, individual emperors or, in the period of the Mesafent, important governors abound in scriptural allusions to the state. They indicate that Ethiopia, according to the Kebre Nagast, the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant, was thought to have been especially blessed of God; its rulers who claimed descent from the biblical kings of Israel and were said to be of from the tribe of Judah, were likened to both God and Christ, as well as to the Good shepherd of the Holy Writ. Monarchs were moreover considered instrument of the almighty endowed by the Lord with almost invincible power. They were supposed to have been chosen by God and, later, anointed in his name, for which reason they were, perhaps scarcely

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surprisingly, endowed with many well-nigh divine qualities. Their enemies were seen as resembling the ungodly children of Israel had waged war (1987:25).2

Thus in the traditional culture of Ethiopia, emperors, empresses, and rulers were identified with God, the Virgin Mary, and the Good Shepherd. “The role of Christian imperial leadership in Ethiopian history, supported by dynastic tradition and tempered by moral, spiritual and political forces of the church, was also to Ethiopia’s survival, in the state-church alliance the emperor (Haile Selassie) was the dominant partner” (Shenk 1972:364). Imperial Christian leadership fused the church and state. Orthodox Christian values held the highest place in the traditional value sets of Ethiopia. While these values were unquestionably embraced by the adherents of the faith, they were also explicitly and implicitly imposed throughout the nation. Of the extensive scriptural quotations, especially from the New Testament, used to sanction the principle of obedience, Romans 13:1-2 proved to be the strongest means of control. To obey rulers was to fulfil the commandment of God. Through anointing the king, the Orthodox Church gave religious backing to the king’s authority. For example, during the coronation in the church, the emperor’s status was transformed. This transformation was even symbolized by giving a new name. In the most recent case, “Haile Selassie” meant “the power of the Trinity” (Shenk 1972:329). Thus, in the case of Ethiopia, Kraft’s contention holds: “The basic institutions, values, and goals of a society are ethnocentrically evaluated as best and therefore, sanctioned by worldview of their culture. Other people’s customs are judged to be inferior at least inappropriate. And for most of the culture of the world the ultimate ground for these sanctions is supernatural. It is by their God or gods that most people understand their worldview and their culture as a whole to be validated (emphasis mine 1979:55). Supernatural values in leadership are not limited to the Amharas or Tigres, who often have had close ties to the Orthodox Church and the imperial government in the past centuries. The Oromos, who constitute an estimated fifty percent of the Ethiopian population, also understand leadership from a supernaturalistic perspective. Huntingtonford describes the supernaturalistic worldview of this ethnic group: The Abba Muda, “father of anointing,” who lives near Wolabo on the western edge of the Arsi country, is supposed to be the elder son of Orma or Oromo, the ancestor of the Galla, and to possess superhuman qualities. He is the center of Galla religious life and the rallying point of the nation, though he has no civil or

2

For further reading, see Richard Pankhurst, Northeast African Studies v. 9, no.1 (1987), 25-79.

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Culture Change in Ethiopia executive authority. In him are personified and centralized the law and tradition of the Gallas, and Waqa is said to speak through him (emphasis his 1985:83).3

In other words, leadership in Ethiopia is not free from the influence of perceived otherworldly realities. Whether in public or private, diviners, magicians, good spirits, and evil spirits are frequently sought by leaders for conquering enemies or solving crises. Such an environment allows for openness to the Pentecostal movement, and such was the case in Ethiopia. However, without a strong theological foundation, a supernaturalistic worldview can easily change from a dynamic spiritual movement into relativism or syncretism. As the current situation of the Charismatic churches depicts, the churches’ theology, preaching and teaching are obviously inadequate to equip believers for the opportunities and challenges they face. As though the Lord had asked us to abandon our mind like he asked us to abandon our sin, a lack of rationalism and clear theological thinking is crippling the church, and the integrity of the biblical truth is in question in the eyes of many. Heredity The Ethiopian social structure is made up of several ethnic groups. Usually the politically, economically, and militarily dominant group claims superiority (Lipsky 1962:62).4 During my lifetime, I have seen three major political system – the imperial government, the Marxist government, and the current government. Each one is accused of ethnocentrism by its opponents. During the transition between systems, the ethnic backgrounds of leaders often became an issue. Either, in the form of ridicule or serious political argument, people used derogatory or disparaging remarks against the ethnic backgrounds of leaders to disqualify them for the position they held. One might thus have favoured or disliked, promoted or demoted them because of their ethnic background (see Taddesse 1993, Schwab 1972, Ottaway 1978). Recent political and cultural shifts have escalated the ethnic tensions. Although ethnic issues have never been a major issue for the evangelical churches, in the past two decades, ethnic conflict has caused church splits, leadership squabbles, divorces among Christians, and damage to years of fellowship and relationships among individual believers of different ethnic background. A biblical and anthropological understanding of ethnicity is essential in the context of the contemporary Ethiopian church. To educate the people to accept and utilize their ethnic identity for the glory of God is essential. Paul was “all things to all people” (1 Cor. 9:22), but he never forgot or denied that he was an Israelite from the tribe of Benjamin (Phil. 3:5). The value that the community gives to 3

For further reading on the leadership patterns and values of the Oromo people, see Knutsson (1967). 4 For a good analysis of the Ethiopian people see Levine (1974).

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the one’s ethnic group, color or race influences the selection of leaders. Leadership in such a context requires communication and ethnic sensitivity. Leaders send messages by means of certain culturally recognized channels to receiving individuals, thereby enhancing the efficacy and legitimacy of the message. In traditional Ethiopian culture, orality is one such type of social communication. Orality The activities related to the mouth (the so-called oral zone) are objects of special attention and sources both of behavioral models and expressive symbolism in this culture as well as others (Levine 1986; Erikson 1985). Hostility is expressed by a number of oral gestures, such as sticking out the tongue or spitting on the ground in front of someone. Biting the lower lip is an indication of anger. While seldom used for romantic purposes in public, kissing serves a number of other expressive purposes, such as in greetings, in worship, and in showing respect or gratitude. Skilful speaking is highly valued. There is a saying in Amharic: Kalemenager Dejazemachenet Ykeral (From lack of speaking one can miss a leadership promotion/opportunity). According to another saying, Afu kollo yikollal (his mouth can cook a snack/food). In addition, camaraderie consists to a large extent in eating from the same injera (basket), and the word for “friend,” balinjera, refers to someone with whom one has shared bread. In traditional Ethiopian culture, the status of a great man depends upon the number of persons who customarily live at his expense: the more dependents the higher the status in the society. Higher status often involves a leadership position. Leader figures during Haile Selasie’s time were depicted as a bountiful father–figure who promotes oral dependence by sending gifts, food, champagne, tej and tela (local drinks). In doing so, leaders frequently reminded their subjects that everything they had they owed to their leaders (see Dinke 1979; Spencer 1987, and Levine 1965). In the same way, a person’s Christian faith (at least within the Orthodox Christian tradition) is judged by one’s generosity in feeding others and by the regularity and scale with which one prepares memorial feasts for departed kin. Eating and drinking for its own sake, beyond what is required for nutrition, is the most obvious medium for orality. Feasting is called on for every possible occasion – christenings, funerals, memorial services, engagements, weddings, annual holidays, and the celebration of a promotion or the dedication of a house or building. In the Amhara culture, which was the dominant culture in most regions of the country during Haile Selassie’s reign, preoccupation with orality is projected at the cultural level in the form of two contrasting human ideals. “The secular masculine ideal in Amhara culture is a hero of oral gratification and powers. He is a man who eats much and drinks much, and who excels in litigation, in declining the martial chants, and in composing veiled insults. The religious ideal, on the other hand, is to be a hero of oral renunciation. The most

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devout Amhara are considered those who keep all of the fasts, even esoteric ones; or even as monks and ascetics, live on a fasting diet the year round-in extreme case, feed on leaves as hermits (Levine 1965:235). The exposure to Western education and civilization did not significantly change Ethiopians’ attitudes towards orality. Levine comments, “The preoccupation with orality which appears in their traditional orientations has not disappeared among those Abyssinians who have acquired a modern education. In some respects, the experience has tended to intensify it (1965:236). According to Levine (1965) and Spencer (1987), orality was intensified in the following ways: (1) A state of prolonged dependence was institutionalized in the government school system. (2) The hiring of most educated Ethiopians has meant that most of them live in a position of waiting to receive their salary (injera) from the central authority, and the image of a bountiful father figure has thus become even more firmly established as the normative leadership pattern. (3) Among the modern educated Ethiopians there is an attitude of passive receptivity with regards to their motivational orientation, which can hinder them from asserting creative leadership. (4) As the modern educated Ethiopians moved to take a more active approach to their situation, their effectiveness was blocked by a tendency to fall into the traditional, oral, aggressive pattern of behavior, and their manner of criticizing the government, or certain officials, was frequently one of wholesale insult. Spencer, commenting on the revolt of the Ethiopian students, said, “It was surprising that despite their resentment, they had not developed an ideological tinge” (1987: 328). (5) The modern educated Ethiopians are experts in debating, but they are unaccustomed to the arts of creative discussion. Whenever democracy is exercised, it is marked with virulent insult and provocative or veiled derogatory remarks. Levine further suggests, “Many aspects of Amhara orality are not in the least inconsistent with the demands of a modernizing culture. Many aspects of Amhara orality would appear to be of enduring value for creative leadership to be effective” (1986:236-237). Many aspects of Amhara orality can be utilized by regenerated and Spirit-filled Christian leaders for effective teaching, preaching, and discipling.5 As the new change facilitates the empowering of all ethnic groups in Ethiopia, this is a golden opportunity for anthropologists, missiologists, and leaders in the country to further investigate the place of orality within Ethiopian culture. Proper knowledge of other people groups 5

For helpful insighst in verbal and non-verbal communication and leadership see Kraft (1991), Engel (1979:265-288), Hubbard (1989:266-379). For Ethiopians who are fond of orality and character, whose culture is influenced by the Old Testament culture, Hubbard’s book will be helpful. The wisdom of Proverbs is timeless. Its moral and ethical instructions address the full range of attitudes, conduct, and interpersonal relationships that face every generation in every culture. Proverbs puts wisdom to work in those areas. It is a modern “learning resource centre” that communicates truths that stand up not only to logic, but also to experience.

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reduces uncertainty, suspicion, offense, and conflict and enhances mutual understanding. “The search for leadership in Ethiopia today is partly a search for a new ego ideal. It is a search for persons and images embodying a more productive and procreative type of orientation, capable of inspiring a creative minority of Ethiopians to build on, not abandon orality, and to move beyond (Levine 1986:237).6 Developing the positive side of orality has to start at home in the nature and pattern of communication between parents and children, between spouses, and among siblings. Using right words, exhibiting proper manners and behaviour, and persuading others and expressing ideas and issues in a civil way should start in the family. Schools and religious and social organizations that play a role in developing the personality of the citizens have to reinforce the proper use of words, both in written and oral communication, for constructive purposes. Both in the Christian and non-Christian circles, there is a long way to go to improve communication and to differentiate the issue from the person. Bravery To protect their self-esteem and their self-worth, leaders are expected to be brave. Patriotic, adventurous performance paves the way to leadership and social acknowledgment. For example, Theodros and Mengistu were considered jegena (brave, hero) for killing their opponents. “Such a conception conveniently matches a notion prevalent in [Ethiopian] culture that in order to be successful, a leader must be feared and must rule by terror. This characteristic symbolically represents strength in [Ethiopian] value system (Holcomb and Ibssa 1990:342). As the culture changes, the norms and mores of society also change. To rightly interpret the current cultural values I must describe highly regarded cultural values in traditional culture. Children, especially boys, are taught to defend their land, honour and religion. Hardiness and aggression are reinforced by the Amhara parents by using words of praise, such as gubaze (brave) and watader (soldier) (Levine 1965:40). Ethiopians’ personal onomastics7 depicts intricate leadership subjects. The names (secular and baptismal) that are characteristically given to children express power, domination, determination, aggression, and ruling. Secular names include Ahide (Trasher), Chabude (Squeezer), Asdangach (Frighten), Goshme (Shover), Atamanta (Don’t Hesitate), Latyebelu (Let them Bow), Belachew (Give it to them), Man Yazhal (Who orders You?), BelayMeta (Hit on the top), and Nadew (Wipe him out). Female names in Manze also sometimes reflect this emphasis on virility, for example, Hijibachew (go against them) and Asegedetch (She makes them bow). Baptismal names 6

For additional insights into “creative leadership” (see Covey 1989, 1991, Bennis 1994). 7 The study of the origin and history of proper names.

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Culture Change in Ethiopia

include: Haile Sellasie (Power of Trinity), Hail Gabriel (Power of Gabriel – the most venerated angel), Haile Eyesus (Power of Jesus) (cf. Levine 1986:39; Ullendorf 1973:174). Children are coached and told to live up to their names. For example, Nadew (Wipe him out) is expected to win in any confrontation. Otherwise, he will be labelled as Sem becha (in name only). The most inflammatory insult for Amhara, Oromo, and Tigre boys is ferei (in Amharic), Buke (Oromigna), Ferehu (Tigringa), that all mean “coward.” Hence, dominance and intimidation are respected qualities for the majority of the Ethiopian people. As history has shown, these qualities have been manifested in the leadership of Halie Selassie, Mengistu, and Meles. As children, most of our games and toys involved weapons, fighting, aggression, and revenge. We used to make bombs from mud and guns from sticks. It is this part of our upbringing that played a major role in the “red” and “white” terror during the Marxist revolution in Ethiopia (Giorgis 1989:31-34). Western education could not help Ethiopians solve their political, ideological, social, and economic problems rationally. Instead, they killed each other in broad daylight on the streets of metropolitan cities and in their places of residence, work, education and social gathering. Girma observes, “The Empire, as it stands today, is the creation of centuries of warfare. For the Ethiopian people fighting is a sport that they have always enjoyed” (1964:36). Even though Girma was reflecting on the past, his statement was a political prediction or a prophecy of what was to happen exactly ten years after his writing. During the “red” and “white” terror, seventeen years of civil war in the north, east, west, and south of the country, Ethiopians lost friends and relatives and saw the heartbreaking agony of parents who lost their children and children who lost their parents and their siblings. For Ethiopians who were tortured, imprisoned, starved, and impoverished, I do not think “war is a sport we enjoy” anymore. Unfortunately, the country has had no respite from this chronic cultural problem. The cultural emphasis on bravery can even prevent people from following Christ. I remember the struggle I went through to accept Christ as my personal saviour. The stumbling block was Jesus’ teaching, “Do not resist an evil-doer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek turn the other” (Mt. 5:39). From personal experience, observation, and research, I have become convinced that our background makes it difficult to be obedient followers and servant leaders. Leadership is perceived as a means to dominate people and not to influence them. For all who have been in the highest levels of political leadership in the country, being in that position is like catching a lion by its tail. If you let it go, you know it is the end of your destiny. In such a society, said Girma, “The value pertaining to warfare becomes the criteria against which the worth of the individual is measured. Hardiness and bravery, ruthlessness and masculinity become virtues highly esteemed by all. Those who manifest the virtues of warfare are appointed leaders of others” (emphasis mine 1964:3). For

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example, after the 1974 revolution, the military government attempted to arrest Dejazmatch (leader of the front guard) Tsehaye Enquselassie. He was governor of Gojam and Keffa during the imperial regime. He fought a pitched battle with security forces sent to arrest him, and he was killed in the fight. Mesfin and Merid Biru, sons of the late Ras (head) Biru, one of the Ethiopia’s largest landowners, died in the same manner in Manz. The reaction of these traditional elites has been “typical of a traditional Ethiopian concept of honour which considered death, even when futile, preferable to surrender (Otway 1978:86ff.). To exercise humility, patience, trust, and forgiveness with fellow workers or followers is not an easy thing to do for most Ethiopians. As Christian leaders we should set examples of humility, love, and respect. Our bravery needs to be moulded and geared to serve, not to attack or dominate. Cultural leadership values need to be adopted in light of values revealed in Scripture. “Values provide both the guidelines and constraints for making judgments at every juncture” (Elliston 1992:44). Therefore, it is important for Christian leaders to maintain normative values based on Scripture. Asserting the importance of values, Elliston comments, “Many variable affect leadership effectiveness, yet values provide the constraints for all of them. Leadership effectiveness depends on many influences, but values provide paths for these influences. Effective influence toward shared goals depends upon integrity to these values. Shared values provide the criteria for what ought to be done and what ought not to be done” (1992:44). The values of sincere Christian leaders should primarily come from the Scripture, which is inspired and inerrant. Our biblical values transcend our cultural values. In modelling, influencing, and exercising Christian leadership in Ethiopia, the end result of our labour and effort is peace and reconciliation among ethnic groups. In the light of given traditional cultural values, I have attempted to investigate the impact of the current culture changes on the Evangelical churches’ leadership. Findings are continued in the discussion to follow. Summary People’s values evolve from their beliefs about what is good and what is bad, and their beliefs about good and bad change as culture changes. A value is the belief that certain modes of behaviour are preferable to others. It is better to be brave than to be a coward. Feasting and fasting can maximize one’s happiness. Having more dependents as a leader, does not cause stress, but rather gives prestige and honour. In Western culture, for a leader to make his followers dependent may be seen as “exploiting their unconscious need for the godlike magic helper of their infancy” (Gardner 1990:68). In the traditional Ethiopia, the number of dependents is the measuring-stick of strong leadership. Furthermore, more than knowledge and wisdom, bravery is the most desirable leadership quality.

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Culture Change in Ethiopia

Ethiopian leadership values emphasize spiritual power, orality, and bravery. In light of these values, I will examine the current beliefs that people hold. I will compare and contrast the right and wrong of the past with the present. These values must be critically assessed by biblical standards and then integrated into models of Christian leadership. Cultural leadership values are encouraged and reinforced by different leadership patterns in society. The next chapter explores the leadership pattern in Ethiopia.

Cultural Leadership Patterns in Ethiopia

“Cultural patterning is that enormously complex cultural grid into which we are indoctrinated before we realize what is happening to us. This patterning provides for the members of a culture an extremely large number of rules, or boundaries, with reference to which they operate” (Kraft 1981:69-70). The rules and boundaries one learns are passed from one generation to another through family, secular and religious institutions, and the society at large. Every institution has its own leadership patterns that work to reinforce its rules in its members through rewards and punishments. The following discussion explores leadership patterns and their influence and impact in Ethiopia. The Family In the words of Alexander Mitscherlich, the “family is a social womb” (1993:18).1 At a very early age one’s values, affections, drives, and outlook on the world are established, shaped and influenced by one’s family. In Ethiopian culture each ethnic group has a different family ethos. In this discussion, I will focus on the family structures of the three major ehnic groups (Amhara, Tigre, and Oromo) whose influence was most dominant in Ethiopian society (Levine 1965, Lipsky 1962; Knutsson 1967). Within the family structure husbands have the ultimate authority. Wives and children are expected to fear and respect the head of the household, the husband and father. At the same time, though wives appear to be subordinate in the culture, they also effectively influence the direction of the family. Thus there is a saying in Amharic: Set yelakew mot ayeferam (A man who is advised or sent by a woman has no fear of death). To introduce effective change by approaching only the apparently dominant husband is, consequently, not enough to bring change in the society. The consent of the wife is also very important. In traditional culture: Women have secondary status within the family and in society, which why they get little credit for their productivity. Their status also limits their access to the 1

For more reading, see Mitscherlich (1993). Since the rise of industrial mass society, the authority structure based on the image of the father has broken down. No new model has risen to take its place, and as a result relations between fathers and sons are increasingly impersonal, in contrast to the traditional pattern in which fathers and sons lived and worked side by side with enriching results for the younger generation.

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Culture Change in Ethiopia economic resources which could enable them to promote their independence. Hence, women continue to be regarded as an appendage to the family, as helpers to the male head of household, as consumers but not producers (Hanna Kebede 1990:55).

The role of gender is set at an early age in the family. Boys are expected to go out in the field and do productive work. Girls often stay at home. “For women, more than men, tradition plays a predominant role in behaviour and action. In an androcentric society, change is captured by men and tends to work through them first, before reaching women” (Hellen Pankhurst 1990: 144). Access to resources for improving their work situation, their selfconsciousness, and their income and purchasing power was mainly available to men. Children are taught by their parents to identify differences between good and bad, what to do and not to do, what to believe and not to believe. The learning process in the family eventually affects their leadership competency. Enculturation is reinforced in various ways to keep the status quo. Innovation is discouraged. Asking parents difficult questions about life and society or confronting their mistakes causes punishment. In the authoritarian and hierarchical culture of the Haile Selassie period, not only the family, but also schools and churches emphasized unconditional obedience above standing up for one’s rights. Before modernization was introduced by Haile Selassie, the younger generation in Ethiopia was taught the following social norms and values. These norms and values set the background for our investigation of culture change since 1974. First, there was a widespread feeling that innovation is ineffectual. The traditional Amharas, Tigres and Oromos tended to feel that innovation is not only ineffectual, but also immoral. Since life patterns are handed down by fathers and forefathers (and by their spirits in some cases), to deviate from the familiar way of doing things is evil. Second, there is a strong concept of fate (edil), by which most Ethiopians, and particularly the Amharas, account for the ups and downs of their lives. Edil appears to signify the working of God’s will insofar as it affects human effort in attaining one’s goal (see Levine 1986: 8687). Third, there is a sceptical attitude towards people outside of the immediate family. This attitude has made it difficult for many Ethiopians to trust each other, although trusting people is an essential virtue of leadership. Both the traditionalists and the modernists are cautious about the intentions of others. They do not assume that they can count on others, despite promises that have been made. Sawen mamen kebro naw (trust people after you have buried them) was a common expression in response to betrayal. Fourth, transcendental values permeate and influence the actions and thoughts of the people. For example, the Oromo child is taught that to be kulkulu (pure, perfect), he must abide by the obligations of rituals and moral cleanliness. He must respect traditional taboos and ritual observances in all situations, and in all his dealings

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with other people he must follow the rules of duqa (honesty) and avoid the acts of chubu (treachery) (see Knutsson 1867:67ff.). Even the modernists, who assert the superiority of reason over mere custom, could not totally be free from the thoughts and beliefs implanted at an early age. The wrath of Yabat Weqabe or Ayana Abakiya (the spirit of my father) is still highly feared in rural areas, and it is not totally absent from the minds of most educated Ethiopians. Fifth, in the socializing process, the primary concern of parents to their male child was to impart to him “the virtue associated with gallantry and bravery. Mothers tell their children of heroes and the accomplishments of their male ancestors. The child is praised and rewarded for beating a neighboring child by whom he is challenged” (Girma 1964:38ff.; Levine 1965).2 Finally, blessing and cursing is used as the most effective means of control. Yete bareke lej (a blessed child) is a high compliment indicating a child’s good behaviour, obedience, and respect for elders. Yete tergeme lej or muchan abarama in Oromo (accursed child), on the other hand, reflects deviant behaviour and rebelliousness. An informant from Wellega told me about an abarma adolescent who used to be whipped by the elders of the village for his misconduct. “In such cultural environment the young Ethiopian grows up as a loyal conformist devoid of any personal initiative or leading or being ambitious” (Girma 1964:42). Raised in this kind of family environment, the younger generation prior to 1974 was exposed to a radically different value system without mental or psychological preparation for the abrupt changes. At home, we were raised to be dependent, but at school we learned to be independent. At home we were taught to be silent on many matters unless we were asked to give a response. At school, however, we were encouraged to be self-expressive and to confront or challenge our parents and other authority figures. At home, we were told to accommodate nature, while at school we were taught to conquer and exploit nature. Learning conflicting values caused intellectual confusion and encouraged disrespect for parents and leaders. Paulos Milkias captures the Western education that led to the so-called modernization in Ethiopia: The aim of education in Ethiopia continued to shift from domestic to external influences. Thus, for almost three decades teachers guide which were distributed in Ethiopian schools invariably written by British or U.S advisors contained cultural models culled from the Anglo-U.S. experience, which could not by any stretch of imagination be compared to the Ethiopian educational scene. As these texts were in English, primary school teachers were required to be bilingual so that they could force upon Ethiopian pupils in Amharic ideas distilled and packaged by “Anglo-centric” advisers or “Americanizers.”

2

Dishonesty in fighting, such as hitting someone from the back or cruelty to a person, is highly disapproved of.

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Culture Change in Ethiopia The curriculum of the 1940s and the 1950s dealt with cultural and historical experiences that were completely alien to Ethiopians...The same was true with the school manuals the Ethiopian youth were exposed to. Up to the day of Haile Selassie’s overthrow, Ethiopian children learned about the Boston Tea Party, Buffalo Bill, Davy Crocket, George Washington and the cherry tree, bears, snowstorms, ice cream, and Halloween, in a country where none of this had any significance (2006:94-95).

When the elites found out that their Western education was not helping them to answer the economic, political, cultural, and philosophical questions of their country, they turned to Marxism-Leninism. This turn was equivalent to jumping from a frying pan into a fire, and two wrongs were unable to make one right solution for the country. As one can see, the root causes of Ethiopia’s poverty and backwardness are deep and complex, internal and external. Modernists As a result of Haile Selassie’s centralization of government in Addis Ababa, a new group of men gained preeminent status at the national level.3 Levine calls them “new” because they have developed an urban lifestyle and because their influence as an elite is largely directed toward modernizing the infrastructure (1965:184). Leading this “transitional elite,” Haile Selassie revived and enlarged the ministerial system and expanded it into a complex bureaucratic structure. Levine writes, “In addition to some sixteen ministries, a number of specialized government agencies have been formed, and the military and judicial hierarchies and the diplomatic corps have been considerably expanded. The rapid growth of the central government in the past two decades is reflected in its budgetary expenditures, which went from about US $10 million in 1942 to an estimated US $110 million” (1965).4 The recruitment of members of the new elite of high government functionaries was not a creation of new dignitaries. It was “rather absorption of 3

For a detailed account see Spencer (1987). The fate of these dignitaries was shocking news to many Ethiopians and their allies. “Immediately after Aman had been dispatched, Mengistu ordered (November 23, 1974) the machine-gun execution under flashlights, with movie cameras rolling, of some sixty ministers, high officials, and military officers. Included among them were Aklilou, Endalkachew, the Emperor’s grandson, Iskinder Desta, and [two] Lieutenant generals. The prospective victims were first handcuffed and then told that they were being released. Ras Mesfin shouted: ‘Why are we being handcuffed if we are being released? You are going to kill us!’ As he saw Aklilou and his brother Akalework being marched out, their cousin, Mekbib Damte, broken down and wept. There are indications that the announced total of fifty-nine executions was incorrect, and that the figure was eightytwo. This massacre evoked formal protest at the United Nations from the securitygeneral, from the president of general assembly, from many delegations, and from several African heads of state” (Spencer 1987:342). 4

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members of the old nobility into the new political organization” (Levine 1965: 184). The criteria for the recruitment were based on “loyalty and ability, with loyalty clearly the more important of the two” (1965:185). Here is where Haile Selassie’s leadership flaws are first detectable. He wanted to modernize Ethiopia, but he preferred loyalty to competence in those around him and in those who worked for him. In most cases, loyalty paid better dividends than competence. “Some men from humble backgrounds have been raised to the highest governmental position through their ‘loyalty’ to the emperor, manifested in great part by their readiness to inform on the words and deeds of others” (Levine 1965:185). But people such as Berhanu Dinke, the political prophet of Ethiopia, who was competent, wise, and loyal, but also an honest critic of the emperor, had to go into exile, leaving his ambassadorial position in Washington D.C. (see Dinke 1979). Frustrated and disgusted by the whole situation in Ethiopia, Dinke wrote, “Nowhere in the world, including the United States, do the masses have political sophistication. They always have acted on impulse. But it is up to the political elites to prove their leadership ability, not of course by using the big stick – which nowadays many head of state find an easy and effortless device for ruling a country – but through the power of persuasion. I know the Ethiopian people are generally sensible, responsible, intelligent, and ready to respond to persuasion than the big stick. But the problem is solely of the so-called elites (emphasis mine 1972:20). The first elite, “first” in the sense of the primary positions in the modern bureaucracy, was later confronted by the radical, or Marxist oriented, elite. “Taking the lead in the attack against the old regime, the educated petty bourgeois sector prepared the ground for popular movement sometime before the crucial year of 1974. The radicals championed the cause of the oppressed proletariat, and linked the merciless exploitation of the Ethiopian worker for the dominance of foreign capital and its alliance with the domestic ruling classes” (Markakis and Ayele 1986:53-54). Milkias adds, “Haile Selassie had lost his alertness of the 1920s and the 1930s, and his Machiavellian capacity for containing developments detrimental to his throne had waned. His tactics were worn out and were no longer effective in the second half of the 20th century when instead of traditional feudal elements, he had to deal with a highly sophisticated youth who had received a dose of Marx, Lenin, and Mao and had a good understanding of the general mechanisms involved in mass consciousness, class struggle, and people’s revolution” (2006:183). With the imprisonment and death of the ministers and most of the royal families, including Emperor Haile Selassie, the monarchy ended. There followed a bloody revolution, which confirmed the perception of the peasants about the Ethiopian elite. The peasants regarded Ethiopians who had been educated by Westerners as “contaminated by alien norms and beliefs. They appear to the peasants as Ethiopians, but also as strangers ‘black pharange’- with their European clothes and unorthodox eating and smoking habits” (Levine 1965: 90). With an ambiguous image of leadership and a foreign political ideology,

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the elite attempted to lead Ethiopia. As facts show, however, politically, socially, and economically the country was in no better condition during the Marxist government than it was during Haile Selassie’s time. Students In many cultures “the educational system is expected to address and compensate for other institutions such as the church, the government, and so forth” (Covey 1991:302). However, education makes a profound contribution towards a person’s personal or leadership development. The values people learn from the family, society, and church have an important place for their personal and social development. The pitfall of the Ethiopian modern education system is to purposefully encourage students to disregard their traditional beliefs and their family and cultural values. The students were meant to achieve the goals of Western values rather than to understand themselves within the cultural context of Ethiopia and make positive contributions. The United States – presumably with good intentions – developed personnel trained to operate the modern state machinery. The primary function of the new type of educational institution was to produce an educated elite, who preferred to call themselves “intellectuals,” prepared to serve in every department of the state apparatus and ultimately to safeguard the interest of capital and the [Ethiopian] settlers. The state representatives believed that an educated class of experts, capable of taking over the state, could be developed by the end of the 1950s. Because of the existence of these groups, the United States believed that there was a critical mass from which a class could be developed to manage the already fashioned state structure. Just as Western institutions were basically organized by capitalist ideology, so were these Ethiopian institutions (Holcomb and Ibssa 1990:267-268). When the Ethiopian social system failed to accommodate a capitalistic ideology, the Ethiopian students, instead of “capital first,” put politics first. The transplanted educational philosophy was not able to take root in their minds and meet their needs. Frustrated by the conflicts of traditional and modern values, students engaged in political activities, hoping to be social saviours. The Ethiopian students at home and abroad, particularly in Europe and North America, thus played a significant role in the political change of the country (see Giorgis 1989; Taddesse 1993; Spencer 1987). Messay Kebede rightly captures the dilemma of African students: “…Unmistakably, the building of self-confidence is a necessary condition for producing achieving individuals. Western education’s downgrading of the legacy of Africans in favour of the normative West thus goes against the need to build up confidence. Such a method can produce neither self-reliance nor innovative capacity. It cannot even produce good copyists, since the loss of self-respect compels Africans to identify themselves with the faults of the model rather than its virtues. For depreciated people greatness cannot be a goal. The normative West so deeply

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depreciates Africans so they end up denying themselves the excellent qualities necessary to reproduce Western achievements. More than from the established socio-economic gap, Africans suffer from the internalization of Western discourse, which is all the more pernicious since it occurs in the early years of schooling” (2008:85). The students enrolled in the modern schools were from different social, economic, and ethnic backgrounds. “Although differentiated socially and educationally, they comprehended the world in terms of Western abstractions, whether learned in Paris, Oxford, New York, or even Addis Ababa” (Marcus 1983: 118). Upon entering the modern school, students naturally tended to identify at first with their ethnic group. However, Levine’s observation of ethnic and religious affiliations of Ethiopian secondary and college students revealed that “sixty percent of secondary school seniors and seventy-five percent of the college students questioned about political identification indicated that they considered themselves Ethiopians before they considered themselves members of tribes” (Levine 1965:115).5 In the current ethnically based government, which has ruled Ethiopia for the last two decades, the paradigm shift reflects the opposite. The students’ exposure to Western society and modern education made them more politically conscious than those in leadership positions. A common topic of students’ conversations was the political and economic condition of their country. In the history of Ethiopian politics, “the students remained in the forefront of the battle” (Markakis and Ayele 1986:168). This is quite true. For decades, “combining patriotic idealism with bookish theories, the students increasingly challenged the policies and personnel of imperial Ethiopian government” (Marcus 1983:180). Paulos Milkias observes, “In Haile Selassie’s Ethiopia where political parties or other legal political organization were unknown, the student movement was significant force. Two decades after the defeat of the Fascists, Ethiopian students who were largely drawn from the privileged classes of the country with a significant number also coming from peasant and working class background, had come to believe that the feudal system in Ethiopia which they considered anachronistic, had to go” (2006: 112113). Initially, the students advocated Western democracy and capitalism, but gradually, as they saw the U.S. supporting the imperial regime, they turned to Marxist-Leninist ideology. When the students saw the imbalance of economy and power in the society, the conditions of the peasants, the injustice, and the exploitation, they were outraged. They found the Marxist, humanist ideology very appealing. Padilla rightly observed, “One does not become a revolutionary through science but through indignation. In Latin America I believe very few 5

Currently, among educated Ethiopians both at home and abroad, the opposite is true. They first identify with their ethnic group. And the definition of what it means to be Ethiopian depends on the political orientation of the person (see Holcomb and Ibssa 1990).

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people become Marxist because it has intellectual appeal; rather they become Marxist because they see poverty and injustice, they are moved to indignation and they wanted to do something about it” (1978:359). Padilla’s observation captures the social condition of Ethiopian students. Due to unemployment and a need for food, shelter, and a better standard of living, there was growing dissatisfaction towards the whole imperial regime. For many years, “an increasingly large number of individuals were placed under what is to them intolerable stress by the failure of the system to accommodate the satisfaction of their needs” (Wallace 1970:1). The people were not only looking for change, they were demanding change. “If ever a social situation had been unjust, the Ethiopian situation certainly was. It called loudly for change” (Väsiänen 1981:177). Often the focus of the student demonstrations was on the plight of the poorest of Ethiopians: the orphans, the crippled, the lepers, and other outcasts who crowded Addis Ababa and begged for their livelihood. Normally, the poor had free run of the streets, only occasionally being swept away when the capital was spruced up for international gatherings. They were dumped in a camp, surrounded by barbed wire, at Shola, near Addis Ababa, where the poor, the sick, and the maimed milled about in conditions of infernal misery. The condition of the peasant who toiled for the gain of the landlords was the concern of the students. Students were the ones who, with the slogan “land for the tillers,” made the first demonstration (see Taddesse 1993, Milkias 2006:109-132). The cracks in Haile Selasie’s government began to be revealed for all to see during the early 1970s. Violent revolution or smooth transition was inevitable. For many students, the necessary change would come about through a class struggle, an idea based on Marxism-Leninism ideology. Georgis observes: “All Ethiopian students were under great pressure to study and profess Marxism; it became an obligation imposed by the student community. As a result, some sincerely adopted the Marxist philosophy, while others pretend to do so in order to avoid unpleasant run-ins with their peers. Those who expressed indifference or took opposing views were branded as reactionaries and sometimes physically harmed” (1989:10). For the radical Marxist students, school or college was not so much a place to imbibe knowledge and get a qualification as it was a forum for political agitation and mobilization. They joined the university with a desire to learn but with a compulsion to teach. They strove not to be accomplished in “bourgeois science,” but rather the infallible science of Marxism-Leninism (see Zewde 1994:497). According to Kiflu Taddesse (1993:75), “The National Question (‘Regionalism’) in Ethiopia” was publicly associated with Tilahun Takele, one of the ringleaders of the student movement. The paper was written in 1970, apparently by the Algerian-based group led by Berhane Masqal Redda. The piece remained the central focus of the student movement and the leftists. The current government expounds its principles with much passion and obstinacy.

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A policy concerning “nationality” rights, especially the rights to “selfdetermination” and cultural use of “nationality,” rests upon debates from the early twentieth century. According to Paulos Milkias, “It was in the early 1970s that the Ethiopian student leaders Walelign Makonnen, later killed as he tried to hijack an Ethiopian Airlines plane, advocated the right of secession of Ethiopian nationalities in the radical student paper Struggle” (2006:270). Lenin accepted the principle that coherent ethnic groups, or “nationalities,” had been conquered and suppressed by the Tsars, and they deserved a measure of cultural self-determination because they constitute part of the classes suppressed by the capitalist system. Stalin, while not directly contradicting this principle, nevertheless emphasized the primacy of class identity over national identity in the revolutionary struggle. In this way, he justified strengthening central control and allegiance to the then-Soviet Union, and he impressed it upon all of the peoples within the Soviets compass. He also mandated the use of the Russian language within the same sphere of influence (see Taddesse 1993:51-55; Hoben 1994:182-184). So, it seems the issue of secession was not initially propagated and supported by Isaias Afowrki, the current Eritrean president, or the late Meles Zenawi, the prime minister of Ethiopia. It was the Amahras, not the Eritrean or Tigrean elite, who were behind the present geographical and social condition of the country. Regardless of who was the primary proponent of secession, Ethiopia has become a land-locked country with huge economical and geo-political consequences. Was it really innovative to transplant the idea of the Bolshevik’s strategy as a solution for Ethiopia or Eritrea? Why did Eritreans have the most peaceful, prosperous and happiest time when Allula Aba Nega was the governor than when Italy, Britain, or Haile Selassie were involved? Neither our education nor personal inclination leads us to search for the root cause of our national problems and find a lasting and constructive solution for it. A broad account of the Ethiopian students’ role and the consequences of their political participation is given in the following chapter. Military Leaders As Perham has observed, “The army takes a major place in any description of Ethiopia, because it is the third element in a three-sided polity, the monarchical and ecclesiastical component” (Perham 1969:160). For centuries, Ethiopia had withstood external threats and internal fragmentation. Throughout these years military leadership played a vital part both in maintaining the country’s unity and in defending her against enemies. A constant leadership power struggle is apparent throughout Ethiopian history. Erlich states, “Ethiopia is always a place for political fluidity and dynamism characterized by constant power struggles and ups and downs in the relative importance of persons, dynasties, and regions. Indeed, behind the misleading curtain of fossilized, backward class-society, there existed the reality of socio-political dynamism. Titles and

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position in Ethiopia were hardly a matter of family inheritance, but rather of almost free competition. Long entrenched customs of land inheritance and titleenactment, as well as the country’s topography, were factors in the creation of political culture which offered even an ambitious son of an anonymous peasant a good chance at climbing to both legitimacy and power… Born leaders of deprived background could well make their way without necessarily restoring to new ideologie – ethnic, religious or social. The leading positions were grasped by those who stood the tough test of power struggle” (emphasis mine 1986:5-6). Military power is thus an underlying factor in the Ethiopian conceptualization of leadership. For centuries one of the central values of traditional Ethiopian society has been warfare (see Girma 1964:36ff.). Ambitious individuals who were motivated to rule usually obtained leadership positions. The strategy was to undermine one’s opponent – politically, militarily, and otherwise. The consent of the people was of minimal concern to these political leaders. Leadership by majority rule has never been practiced. This is true even of the leaders who graduated from the modern schools and who “fought” for democracy and the freedom of the oppressed and the exploited. If they allow an election at all, they may count the votes, but the vote does not count. As shown by the rise of Haile Selassie, Mengestu Haile Mariam, and Meles Zenawi to the power and position of national leadership, military power is an effective way to gain access into the palace. Democracy cannot be created only among the few in the top echelons of power. It must start at the grass-roots level and go all the way to the top. A limited, presidential term of service, the proper treatment of election losers, and a guarantee of safety and security for ex-presidents have to be legalized and protected by law. If those in power must contend with the possibility of indictment, prison and death, they will not be able to contribute their full capacity to society, and free elections will become a mere illusion. Bitterness, revenge, and a lack of good will and trust have hampered our progress and development as a nation. Modern Military As Ethiopia emerged from feudalism to take on a capitalistic socio-economic structure, various institutions had to be reorganized. One of the institutions that needed to be restructured was the army. After a humiliating defeat by Italy in 1935 (Spencer 1987:27-86), the country could no longer depend on a traditional army. It needed educated and trained officers in order to keep pace with the rest of the world. “The task required a military that was institutionalized in the Western mode” (emphasis mine Holcomb and Ibssa 1990:248). Realizing the need, Haile Selassie decided to replace the traditional military. For resources and expertise, he had to turn to one of the super-powers. The emperor requested his closest ally, the United States, to take charge of the

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training and financing of all matters related to Ethiopia and the armed forces. The United States responded favourably to the request (Spencer 1987:111). Ethiopian Army under the United States’ Patronage “With a vision to set up a strong armed force, Haile Selassie allocated 38 percent of the state budget of the fiscal year 1943-1944. Moreover, aside from a dozen Ethiopians whom he sent to Europe for military training, Haile Selassie had also invited Belgium, Swedish, Russian and Indian experts to train the army” (Perham 1969:160-175). However, the remarkable changes observed in the overall modernization of the Ethiopian army were predominantly the results of the military pact signed between Ethiopia and the U.S. in May 1953. Based on this agreement, the United States Military Assistance Group (MAG) came to train and equip the Ethiopian Army (Spencer 1987:261-282). As the result of this agreement, “Harer military academy was established in 1958 to train career officers mainly for the Ground Force. The schools for the Ethiopian Imperial, Ethiopian Air Force and the Ethiopian Naval Force were opened by 1960” (Spencer 1987:266-268). The air force academy, located at Debre Zeit since 1968, offers cadets a four-year course of study and training. Before entering the academy, officer candidates are sent to Asmara for four months of military training. Separate curricula for degrees in aeronautical engineering, electrical engineering, and administration are given. Graduates were commissioned as second lieutenants, and those selected to be pilots are sent to Dire Dawa for flight training (Nelson and Kaplan 1981:253; Ottaway 1978:150). Ethiopian pilots have always enjoyed a good reputation for intelligence and alertness, and they completely outclassed Somali pilots who went against them in 1972-1978. There was also friction between Soviet flying instructors and American trained Ethiopian pilots, who were said to regard the Soviets as inferior airmen (see Nelson and Kaplan 1981:249ff). Students at the Naval College pursue a fifty-two month course of instruction that leads to a degree in naval science and a commission as second lieutenant in the navy (Nelson and Kaplan 1981:252). Students in Harar Military Academy also go through three years’ academic programme that includes courses in foreign languages, physical and social science, and public administration, as well as general military subjects and political indoctrination. Graduates receive diplomas and a commission as second lieutenants in the army, and they are eligible to receive the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree after completing one year of additional study at the university level (Nelson and Kaplan 1981:53; Ottaway 1978; Spencer 1987). The implementation of an American military training programme was esteemed for combining modern education with martial virtues. The Americans provided an enviable opportunity to the young, able-bodied Ethiopian males who were looking for modern education, military leadership, and a good standard of living. Until 1974, the position of an officer in the navy, air force or

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army was a respected post. As a result, Ethiopia became one of the strongest countries in the Horn of Africa. Markakis and Ayele write, “The United States took the fledgling Ethiopian army under its wing and fostered its expansion until it became the largest military force in Sub-Sahara African in the mid1960s. The Ethiopian Air Force and to a lesser extent the Navy were also built up to respectable strength by generous doses of military aid” (1986:33-34). The modern army was the bulwark of Ethiopia. To maintain internal stability and to strengthen his power, Haile Selassie required military officials and other civilian workers to become ministers in his administration. Hence, a class of modernized military officers developed around the emperor. “The new modern military elite, given lands and high salaries assimilated into the upper administrative ruling elite created by Haile Selassie. In both its economic basis and its conceptual approach to the needed rate of change, this group was quite an integral part of the agrarian elite” (emphasis mine Erlich 1986:228). As Haile Selassie’s modernized military institution developed through the aid of the United States, it began to attract many young, educated Ethiopians (Markakis and Ayele 1986; Erlich 1986; Marcus 1983). The Western trained army became the core and dependable pillar of the imperial regime. “Its members were recruited initially from graduates returning abroad, subsequently from local graduates. The process of recruitment remained a personalized one involving the throne and its top retainers” (Markakis and Ayele 1986:35). The United States’ financial, technical, and expert aid contributed to the development of the modern army during the imperial regime. Through the 1950s and the 1960s, the Ethiopian state flourished under the patronage of the United States. During this period, “the United States supplied more military assistance to Ethiopia than the rest of Africa6 combined (Holcomb and Ibssa 1990: 271). By 1974, more than 2000 officers7 had received at least some training in the United States (Ottaway 1978:150ff.). However, the “generous aid” was not for free. Harold G. Marcus assesses this arrangement as follows: “The United States was less concerned with Ethiopia’s political soul than with geopolitics” (1983:181). Spencer concurs: “The United States had scant interest in seeing Ethiopia removed from regional pressures. The only foundation upon which the United States would construct a prod program of cooperation with 6

One might think Ethiopia was the most favoured country in Africa to receive such military aid from the United States. Even though there was good relationship between the two countries, one of the major factors contributing to Ethiopia’s astounding proportion of military aid compared to other African countries was that the majority of African countries were under colonialism until the early sixties. They were not autonomous to build diplomatic and other relationships with foreign countries such as the U.S. 7 One of the trainees was Mengistu Haile Mariam. The American Embassy in Addis Ababa has reported that Mengistu bore a grudge against the United States that stemmed from a racial incident that had occurred during one of his training stints there (1978:167).

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Ethiopia sufficient to free her from the toils of regionalism was the narrow one of Kangew installation. Even the program of military assistance was viewed by the United States as a rental – albeit at the very high price for the facility” (1987:265). It was not only the United States that had no interest in seeing Ethiopia free from internal and external pressure and that could care less if it ended up in fragmentation. Italy, Britain, France and the Arab League had the same position for different reasons. Italy always had a desire to colonize Ethiopia, and she knew a fragmented nation is easier to conquer. Britain was colonizing many of the neighbouring African countries and did not want to see an independent and powerful Ethiopia in the neighborhood. An island of a free black nation in the sea of British colonies was problematic for imperial Britain. France wanted to see Ethiopia as a landlocked country, forcing Ethiopia to pay to use the port at Djibouti, which was then a French colony. The Arabs viewed Ethiopia as black Israel, with the Emperor tracing his line of heritage to Judah. They saw Ethiopia, with its strong Christian emphasis, as an obstacle to their missionary endeavour to penetrate Africa through the Horn and Islamize the continent (for further details see Shumet Sishagne 2007). During the Cold War, the location of Radio Marina, later called Kangew Installation, was crucial for the United States. “The station possessed an inherent ability to transmit radio signals back to Washington from the Middle East, Europe, North Africa, the pacific theater, as well as to listen in on transmissions in the Middle East and Africa. At seven thousand feet, the station was ideally [situated] in latitude little affected by variations in weather or by seasonal changes, thus reducing the need for numerous frequency shifts. Indeed it functioned as a relay station, forwarding messages to and from naval vessels, and served as intelligence-gathering and beaming outpost of the Pentagon” (Kindie 1994:605). To this Holcomb and Ibssa add, “The training and equipping of the Ethiopian army was in large part a tradeoff for access to and utilization of Radio Marina” (1990:258).8 The global political situation and Ethiopia’s strategic location attracted the focus and interest of the United States. “According to the testimony delivered on U.S. Security Agreements and Commitment Abroad, the U.S. had provided Ethiopia with $147 million in military assistance since 1953. This represented nearly half the total U.S military assistance to all African nations in that period. The U.S. also supplied bombs and ammunition used in counterinsurgency operation in Eritrea and in the Ogaden region. Military teams to provide training in counterinsurgency were also sent to Ethiopia by the U.S.” (Schwab 1972:137). During the Cold War, Ethiopia, due to its strategic location, was a bone of contention for the two super-powers (the U.S. and the then-Union of Soviet 8

The communication and tracking facilities at Kangew Station [were] of major importance, if not actually vital, to U.S. national security” (Marcus 1983:185). For further details on the U.S interest in Ethiopia, see Holcomb and Ibssa 1990:259-260 and Milkias 2006).

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Socialist Republic, USSR). Both countries invested millions of dollars of military aid in Ethiopia. As one critic commented, Ethiopia was their “political chess board” (see Taddesse 1993; Marcus 1983; Kindie 1994:596-624). Ethiopia’s economic, social, and political condition had been shaped based on the ideologies, purposes, and values of her patrons. The patrons also often reinforced Ethiopia’s response by meeting her needs and by satisfying her core values.9 Ethiopia had been a warring society (see Spencer 1987; Erlich 1986; Holcomb and Ibssa 1990). Perham adds, “Ethiopians [are] before everything soldiers and their highest ambitions [are] military” (1969:160). To give military aid to this nation was like adding fuel on a fire. Girma observes, “A society that places a great value upon the virtue of war can hardly, if ever, achieve a high economic and cultural level. The energy of the people and resources of the land are often directed to the destruction of one another so that neither time nor resources, either human or natural, can be spared for the purpose of creating a high standard of living, intellectual or economic” (1964:39). The seventeenyear war between Ethiopia and Eritrea (it was considered a civil war then), the war in Ogaden, in Bale and the Sidamo region, the “red terror” and the “white terror” (Giorgis 1989) evidently demonstrated that “war is the Ethiopian’s necessary sport” (1964:36). Unfortunately, it is a game that always ends up with a huge loss and at a high cost for a country that has been languishing in poverty. Mutiny The middle class army, prior to the revolution, was composed of junior and intermediate officers. These officers in their twenties and thirties were, like members of the civil intelligence, making their way up the hierarchy and the socio-economic ladder. “Promotion to the top of hierarchy was basically a matter of patronage, and depended mainly on a man’s connections and political trustworthiness” (Markakis and Ayele 1986:35). The officers were more educated, more politically conscious, and more open to change. They were also 9

My personal opinion refers to certain U.S. government policies, not to the people of the United States. Having had the opportunity to interact and participate with Americans for more than two decades, I have learned to know them in many positive ways. When I criticize any negative input of the U.S government in Ethiopia’s history, I also remember the healthy, noble, constructive, and scientific developments the U.S. offered. To be fair, the positive outweigh the negative. I am saying this for the integrity of my Christian stand rather than any political view. I read and heard many irrational and negative criticisms against Americans during the Marxist era. The sweeping generalizations have hurt the feelings of many innocent American expatriates and missionaries. I appreciate the SIM missionaries in Addis Ababa who have borne insult and emotional abuse and yet have remained a source of hope and inspiration to the national Christians who talk about them with great respect and admiration.

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sceptical of the political system. Many members of this new class were bitterly disappointed with Haile Selassie and the existing order. To understand this group’s disappointment, one must understand the socio-political environment of Ethiopia in the early seventies. For example, when “in 1971 the first Harar graduate reached the rank of major these young commanders were regarded by a Western observer as representing a distinctly modern element whose recruitment, training and professional experience provided the basis for great solidarity and social and political orientation, which they share with the young generation of the Ethiopian intelligentsia” (Erlich 1986:130). The views and ideas of the young and educated army officers seemed radical to the emperor and a threat to his throne. Therefore, the monarch was not ready to accommodate their ideas. In the early sixties, W. D. Fisher, the U.S. embassy’s highly competent economic officer, predicted the downfall of the imperial regime. In his “Politic-Economic Assessment,” he said, “The present political order would not survive. If this is true, we run the risk that our assistance programs, especially military assistance have identified us to a disturbing degree as supporters of an archaic regime” (emphasis mine 1961:4). Fisher’s prophecy proved accurate with the 1974 political change in Ethiopia. American “imperialism” and “capitalism” became two of the four enemies of the revolution. American visibility was thus diminished by the phasing out of the large Kangew air base in Asmara and the removal of several other missions, as well as the drastic reduction of the Peace Corps (Makarkis and Ayele 1986:122, 156). The army’s solution to their disappointment was to abolish the monarchy by force, align with the Soviet Union, and oppose American imperialism. Paulos Milkias assesses the gradual radical decision and position of the military leaders toward the United States in this way: Initially, the foreign policy of the Derg was almost the same as that of the emperor. Thus, neither the Soviets nor the Americans had openly targeted them for the attack. Nor did the superpowers jump to support them in times of trouble. Following Somalia’s invasion Brezhnev was, for example reluctant to support Mengistu but gave a hint that if he took actions that would reveal him not simply a radical nationalist but a genuine believer in Marxism-Leninism, he would come to his aid. In the meantime the leaders of Ethiopian Student Movement kept on prodding Mengistu to move towards the left. So, the Derg’s strongman complied. He immediately expelled the Americans. This was easy to do because, angry at the radical path the Derg has taken under Mengistu’s leadership, they had already refused to release the weapons they promised to send to Addis Ababa. The now undisputed Ethiopian dictator ejected the Americans from their major communication base in Asmara as well as weeding them out of all civilian and military activities of the country. He declared some of their personnel persona non grata and evicted them within 24 hours. He also ordered the number of their embassy staff to be reduced to a bare minimum (2006:257).

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In Ethiopia, change in political leadership has never been free from armed struggle and bloodshed. In 1974, the young military officers overthrew the emperor and seized government leadership. Mengistu Haile Mariam, from the Harar division, became the president. Unlike Haile Selassie, Mengistu established the third largest military force in Africa and did so with Soviet support. He spent $10 billion to purchase arms so that the military budget exceeded seventy percent of the country’s operating budget by the late 1980s (see Gebre Mariam 1991:9; Webeneh and Abate 1988:55-155). The Ethiopian Army under the U.S.S.R.’s Patronage The Ethiopian army began to be trained and supplied by the Soviet Union and its allies. “There were 1,000 Soviet military advisors stationed in Ethiopia in 1980, and about 400 from the German Democratic Republic. From 13,000 to 15,000 Cuban troops were engaged in training, construction and garrison duties” (Nelson and Kaplan 1981:248). The shift to the Soviet-bloc and the adoption of a socialist ideology also necessitated the structuring of the military after the Eastern European model. Commitment to the socialist precepts was required of the soldiers in the army (see Luleseged 1994). Under the financial support and training of the Soviet Union and the Marxist countries, “the Derg made one of the largest military buildups in the Third World. The national army, which numbered 40,000 in 1974, had swelled to 400,000 and was equipped with a loan of more than U.S. $4 billion worth of Soviet Arms. As if this was not enough, the government had announced a compulsory military draft for all able-bodied males between the ages of 18 and 30, and a training session for all men between 30 and 50 years of age who would serve as the country’s reserve force. The immediate result of this policy was to drive more and more of the country’s youth into draft dodging which made them refugees in almost any imaginable state in the world except the Eastern Bloc countries” (Milkias 2006:256, Lulseged 1994:664). With such impetuous leadership action, Mengistu turned the U.S. into an enemy and presumptuously fought the U.S-supported Somali forces, as well as other factions, with a new ally who barely knew Ethiopians and the logistics of the country. As the U.S. was building up the Ethiopian military for about four decades, Russia was also doing the same thing in Somalia. The super-powers then switched positions to continue their war by proxy. The partnership with outside powers was not imposed; it was always the national leaders who invited it as if they were building a life-changing economic and technological sector. When the will is there, it was easy for the U.S. and Russia to condition Haile Selassie or Mengistu to bend towards the interest of the patrons. In such a political climate, famine, hunger, disease, poverty, and malnutrition take its toll. In the economy, education, and national literacy, Ethiopia has lagged behind most formerly colonized African countries. Her centuries of freedom and independence are not yet translated into the well-being of her people.

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Recruitment and Training Unlike during Haile Selassie’s time, military recruitment was obligatory. Institutions involved in recruitment were “abducting youngsters without any moral or legal considerations. It was not uncommon practice for parents to look for hide-outs to protect their children during the time of recruitment” (Luleseged 1994:666). In the traditional culture, as well as that of Haile Selassie’s reign, “soldiering has been regarded as the surest path to social advancement, economic reward and political appointment” (Nelson and Kaplan 1981: 241). But during Mengistu’s time, to be in the army was the worst thing that could happen to a young person. After being recruited, soldiers did not look for the fruit of victory in the battle. They were shouting Memelmel Gidetaye New, Memark Gin Mebte New (“To be recruited is my obligation, but to surrender is my right”) (1994:666). The main characteristic of the Soviets was their military training en masse. “Ethiopia had an army of 40,000 by 1974 after nearly three decades since its establishment” (Lulseged 1994:664). However, the number of soldiers in the Ethiopian army after the revolution was astronomically high. Nelson and Kaplan observed: “In the 1980s the Ethiopian Military had more than 220,000 personnel in uniform and was one of the largest and best equipped armed force in black Africa” (1981:245ff). Including the militia the figure is the same as Milkias’, which is 400,000 (2006:256). Compared to that of the U.S., the training programme and facilities of the U.S.S.R. and its allies were very poor. Luleseged outlines the following points: (1) The trainees were ill-fed. There was insufficient drinking water. There was a dire shortage of medicine. Trainees had no extra uniform to change into. (2) Most office corps, post-1974, were trained en masse. It is said that 6,000 officers were trained at once at the old Harar Military Academy for six months.10 (3) Many training centres did not have enough space for demonstration. Much of the training was conducted through lectures. (4) The absence of a common medium of instruction was a problem. The recruits were from all corners of the country, and it was not possible to use Amharic as a common language of instruction. Instruction was given through translators. (5) Excessive politicization of the curriculum was also an obstacle both in terms of relevance and time optimization. About 75% of the training consisted in political education (1994:660-677). The largest “revolutionary army,” which was poorly trained and underfed by the Soviets, collapsed in 1990. During the transitional period, that is, from Mengistu to Meles, Ethiopia was without a national army. Luleseged writes, “Any endeavor to set up an army which is qualitatively different from the previous two must begin with the establishment of a political system which has successfully made a distinct break with the past” (1994:676). 10

Compare to the elaborate and rigorous four years’ training during Haile Selassie’s time.

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The Prelates For most of Ethiopia’s history, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church was close to the seat of political authority, anointing kings and dispensing blessings on the royal family. Many kings succeeded or failed because of the relationship they had with the church.11 Perham asserts, “Emperor and church, working together as senior and junior partners, provided the unifying elements which continually countered the centrifugal forces of geography, tribalism and aristocracy” (1962:104). The close relationship of church and state was evident in the custom of the Abuna (pope) sitting at the emperor’s right hand on public occasions. It was also apparent in the fact that the church reviewed a draft of the 1955 constitution before it became official. In this constitution, the Ethiopian church was declared the established Church of the Empire (Schwab 1972:59-770). The close relationship of church and state has led Haile Gabriel Dange, in his presentation “Proceeding of International Symposium on the Centenary of Addis Ababa,” to write, “The study of the history of Addis Ababa of the last 100 years will not be completed without a look at its churches which have played a significant role in the cultural economic and political life of the state. The Addis Ababa churches were mostly founded by the feudal nobility that was gradually settling around the emperor in the new capital. The central church authority or the bishop of the Ethiopian church did not play a significant role in the founding of the churches. It was the emperors, their families and the nobility who took the initiative in establishing the various churches across Ethiopia, to unreservedly support their throne” (1987:57). Unlike today’s world leaders, who promise their people political stability, technological advancement, and social and economic development, the Ethiopian leaders were mainly concerned in building churches. Thus, over half a century, the main focus in Addis Ababa was founding and strengthening the religious structure. It was Haile Selassie who attempted to separate the Ethiopian Orthodox church from the state’s modernization programmes and to do so without being regarded as a threat by the church leaders. Since the church leaders had access to the emperor and the nobility, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church played a significant role in shaping the political and social life of the nation. Churches were administered by the nobility with the gebez. The spiritual leader was a clergyman and was known as aleqa. The overall head of the church was a lay administrator, or gebez, who was responsible for the material well-being of the church. He ensured that the church was supplied with the material needed for ceremonies and organized banquets on the days of the saint. The gebez was usually a member of the nobility and daily administration of the church was not handled by him but by his counterpart, the priest administrator called qese gebez. The lay administrator kept for himself many gasha of land or gebez land, which could 11

For further reading, see Shenk (1972).

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be inherited by his family (Dange 1987:58). Close observation of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church leadership gives a good insight into the leadership background of the evangelical churches. The concepts of Gebez (administrator) and Aleqa (professor) have had a subtle but significant influence on the Protestant churches. The lay leaders would like to control the administrative aspects of the church and supervise the full-time ministers, who would perform only the spiritual aspects of ministry. Under Haile Selassie’s government, religious freedom was guaranteed. At the same time, Orthodoxy was guarded against domination by other religions. The archbishop was appointed to the Council of Regency and to the Crown Council. Bishops and other churchmen were representatives in the Senate (Paul and Clapham 1971, II, 765). In addition to objectives of social welfare, education, and health, the private cabinet, established by imperial decree in 1959, had the goal of promoting the Ethiopian Orthodox faith. Churchmen had also served on various boards for Haile Selassie I, such as Education, the National Literacy Advisory Council, and the National Commission for Education. The church sometimes even became identified with the state in foreign relations. The church entertained foreign ambassadors and was represented along with the state at the Montreal World’s Fair. (See Zena Bete Christian 1959:4; Yetiopia Bete Christian 1960). The Holy Synod of Ethiopian Orthodoxy comprises the entire body of bishops. Participating bishops express their opinions on matters presented for review and decision before the Holy Synod. A final decision on matters presented for review is always made by the Patriarch. Aba Melekesadek states, “According to the established canon of the church, a bishop who instigates schism, i.e. divides the church, is anathematized and excommunicated. Anathema arises not only from heresy but also from digression from established or prescribed church procedures and for fomenting division in the church (1992:29). Due to fear of anathematization or excommunication, decisions made by the Synod effectively maintain the status quo. Individual or group ideas are accepted so long as the ideas are in line with the established church pattern. Just like the political structure, the church was authoritarian, paternalistic, and centralized. Due to its unwillingness to change, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church failed to meet the emergent and dynamic spiritual, intellectual, and theological needs of the younger generation. Mbiti comments: For many centuries the church in Ethiopia was cut off from constant contact from the rest of the Christendom, which partly helped it to acquire a uniquely African expression, but which reduced its spirituality and left it with a conservatism extremely difficult to overcome in adjusting itself to modern times (1986:230, cf. Schwab 1972:6).

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The Ethiopian Orthodox Church was one of the most powerful institutions representing tradition in Ethiopia. Resistant to change, the church was one of the major countervailing political powers that the forces of modernization contended with. “The aristocracy and the ecclesiastical hierarchy comprised the traditional ruling class. They engaged in no productive activity, and were maintained through the medium of the gult”12 (Makarkis and Ayele 1986:220). This observation is true. “The Orthodox Church allied itself with the feudal power structure, and the priests were powerful and oppressive land owners in their own rights (Druce and Hammond 1990:102). The church also claimed vast estates of land during the imperial regime. “Somewhere between 18% and 30% of the land in Ethiopia was owned by the church, which pays no land taxes” (Schwab 1972:6). If the peasant worked land owned by the church, a considerable part of his produce was transmitted automatically to individual priests, or gifts were offered to the church symbolizing for him the integrity of his moral order and providing moral support during personal crisis (see Levine 1965:58). Until 1974, the political and economic power of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church had made her a close ally of the emperor. “Under the imperial regime, Orthodox Christianity was the state religion, the culture supporting and legitimating the power of rule” (Helen Pankhurst 1990:150). But the year 1974 radically altered this pattern. The church’s close identification with Haile Selassie’s regime crumbled, making it very vulnerable, and it was soon stripped of its former prestige and wealth (see Väsiänen 1981). In this situation, Helen Pankhurst (1990:150) adds, “In the socialist Ethiopia, Christianity has been down-graded at the national level and given a status equal to Islam. Early in the revolution there were attempts to discourage fasting and the honoring of saints’ days through work prohibitions.” Furthermore, “besides ending the dominance of the Christian church and depriving of its vast landholding, the government redressed an ancient wrong by recognizing Islam” (Makarkis and Ayele 1986:123). A current result is the increasingly open and active strategy by Muslims in Ethiopia to convert nominal Orthodox Christians and animists. I will look at this matter in depth under a different sub-topic. The church was not only downgraded, but it also went through the purging of the Marxist leaders. In 1977 the military government moved against the Ethiopian Orthodox Church by arresting the patriarch, Abuna Teophilos. He was subsequently charged with crimes against the Ethiopian people and was later believed to have been killed (see Webeneh and Abate 1988:127ff). This was a radical move on the government’s part. The church that had possessed 12

“Gult is a device similar to the medieval fief, the gult conveyed right over land, the cultivators, who worked it and their produce. Gult rights were acquired through a formal grant from the monarch, or from provincial rulers who were empowered to make such grants. The value of land as an instrument of production has always ranked very highly, and possession of it has always been a factor of paramount of socioeconomic significance” (Makarkis and Ayele 1986:21-22).

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power to anoint kings and to dethrone them was belittled by the Marxist regime. Her most honourable spiritual leader was imprisoned as an alleged criminal. Both the temple and the palace became vulnerable as the revolutionaries opened their doors. “When the head of the state had to go, the head of the church had to follow him” said Getachew Haile, referring to the Patriarch’s arrest (1978:58). The removal of the “two heads” signified a removal of a formidable power of leadership, the traditional norms and values that the “two heads” represented. Referring to the effect of the revolution, Ottaway said, “The three pillars of the old order – monarchy, church, and land aristocracy – had been swept away in torrent of reforms” (1978:172). The church’s corrupt administration, its exploitation of the peasants, and its oppression of the poor and suppression of justice over-shadowed its “many great contributions to the music, education, philosophy, civilization and the unity of the country” (Tolosa 1992:24-26). However, like other social forces, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church was instrumental as part of a “reservoir of tension” (Kraft 1979:371) that endured for decades. The chaos in the church was clearly seen when the Marxist government extended their heinous persecution to the Orthodox Church. “Between 1977 and 1982, a number of church leaders disappeared; some left the country out of fear for their lives, and others were forcibly retired. The policy of the Marxist government vis-â-vis religion includes a broad attack on the authority and role of religious forces. This attack is designed to weaken the influence of religion in the country as the provisional military Administrative Committee (PMAC) proceeds to shape the Ethiopian society according to in socialist ideology” (Wubeneh and Abate 1998:127). The prelates were suppressing the ideas of the people and innovative concepts of individuals. The ideas of people thus had little influence on the leadership or the course of history. Meanwhile, violence was exceedingly destructive. Such radical culture change can have a potentially negative influence on church leaders. My concern is to see that the same mistakes are not repeated in the evangelical churches. Great leaders should always facilitate conditions for the development of emerging leaders. The flaws of the political and religious leaders in Ethiopia should forewarn the Protestant leaders to set good examples of leadership. The Emergence of Pentecostal / Charismatic Leadership Pentecostal/Charismatic leadership emerged under the leadership patterns and within the context described in this chapter. Like the younger generation, Pentecostals/Charismatics grew up keeping the norms and values of the society as inculcated by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church was one of the important sources of traditional values in Ethiopian life. Just as the names of the people (as mentioned in chapter 3) reflect deep-level values associated with bravery and masculinity, so also they signify the great impact the church had upon the lives of Ethiopians. However discontented a person

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might be, the code of morality, as encouraged and taught by the church, was endorsed by parents and political authorities. Such imposition was a means of enlisting the willing subservience and loyalty of the emerging, young Orthodox Christians. When the young generation became exposed to modern schools, the religious and traditional values the Ethiopian Orthodox Church taught – such as blind obedience to authorities, parents, and teachers, fasting, praying, venerating saints and angels, and the fear of God – were questioned (Levine 1965; Girma 1964; Taddesse 1993). Traditional modes of behaviour and religious allegiance were replaced by acceptable norms of peers and teachers in modern schools. Girma comments, “Eating the traditionally most objectionable ‘Moslems meat’ that is, meat of an animal that is slain by Muslim, is to the modern Ethiopian, an act of religious liberalism. Traditionally, smoking [was] considered as practice most unbecoming of a Christian. However, for today’s adolescent, smoking is a mark of modernity” (1964:131). Messay Kebede adds, “Another side of this destructive trend was the generation of a crisis of identity and meaning. The rejection of traditional beliefs and values as a result of modern education brought about by an ideological void, which in turn activated the longing for substitute beliefs. Consequently, many young Ethiopians joined new religious sects” (emphasis mine 2008:192). Like their peers, the Pentecostals/Charismatics refused to share the superstitions and beliefs, values and norms of the masses as they emerged in modern culture. The change in traditional and religious values created a spiritual void in their lives. Like their contemporaries, they lived with conflicting value systems. In certain spheres modern values predominated, while in others traditional ways were preferred; and in between these two ways there existed a wide “no-man’s land,” a gap characterized by uncertainty and scepticism. In the words of Turnbull, the youth were “in loneliness of mind that wanted desperately to believe, but that did not know what to believe” (1962:64). Eventually the vacuum was filled with agnosticism, Marxism-Leninism, and the Protestant faith. As we will see in chapter 7, Pentecostal/Charismatic faith developed as a combined effect of traditional values, culture change, modern education and modern mission – with a supracultural message. Summary This chapter has noted how parents, students, modernists, military leaders and the prelates influenced people in many ways. Parents traditionally were respected for laying the foundation for their children. Students and the modernists served in the 1970s as change agents. Military leaders were symbols of unity, integrity and freedom. The prelates used to set the ethical tone for society in Addis Ababa until they were disregarded in the socialist system. All the leadership patterns had certain degrees of impact on the Pentecostal/Charismatic leadership. Accordingly, today it is observed that

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“effective leaders deal not only with the explicit decisions of the day – to approve a budget, announce a policy, discipline a subordinate – but also with that partly conscious, partly buried world of needs and hopes, ideals and symbols. They serve as models; they symbolize the group’s unity and identity; they retell stories that carry shared meanings. Their exemplary impact is great. There are messages for followers in what leaders pay attention to, in the correspondence between their words and actions, in the ethical tone of their behavior” (Gardner 1990:29). In order to understand the causes of change in cultural leadership, values and leadership patterns in recent years, an investigation of Haile Selassie’s modernization programme is important. The next chapter thus examines how Haile Selassie’s modernization programme affected the nature of culture change in Ethiopia. The influence of the modernists has recently waned, and the impact of the prelates and the military leaders hardly exists. The students, who were once the political voice of the community, are now under extreme government pressure not to raise political issues either in writing or demonstrations. The declining influence of these leadership patterns leaves room for emerging religious, political, and military leadership patterns. If the current state of religious freedom continues, the change in the leadership patterns might provide an opportunity for Pentecostal/Charismatic leaders to influence the society significantly. Using this opportunity largely will depend on the attitude and belief of the Pentecostal/Charismatic leaders towards the issues and concerns of this world. If there is passivity or policy of noninvolvement in social or cultural matters, their impact outside the church will be minimal.

The Impact of Haile Selassie’s Modernization Program

The preceding two chapters addressed traditional leadership values and leadership patterns. I have, however, said little about the main factor of culture change. Here, I will discuss the impact of Western education – which was the main instrument of Haile Selassie’s modernization programme. Change in traditional culture is slow but inevitable. As Ethiopia was exposed to modern education, technology, and capitalistic economic pressure, the move towards modernization escalated. The prime mover was Emperor Haile Selassie. His key method of modernizing Ethiopia was Western education. Modern Education under U.S. Tutelage Significant in terms of Ethiopia’s technical and educational development was the Point Four Agreement,1 which became USAID (Agency for International Development) on May 15, 1952. Haile Selassie’s modern educational programme benefitted immensely from USAID. Point Four, together with the Ministry of Education, financed the opening of a number of schools in Ethiopia. The teacher training schools in Debre Berhan, Harar, Addis Ababa, and Asmara and the nursing school at Asmara was largely funded by the USAID (Spencer 1987:175-176). With the help of a U.S. grant of $12,220,000, Haile Selassie I University was formally founded in Addis Ababa on December 18, 1961. The study and recommendation of seven faculty members from the University of Utah led to the establishment of the educational centre (Schwab 1972:110; Ahmed 1994:459ff). USAID also granted Ethiopia Eth. Birr 4,710,800 for the construction cost of the Central University Library, which was dedicated to John F. Kennedy. This library had a two-storey concrete, aluminum, and glass structure covering an area of 5000 square metres (see Ritta Pankhurst 1972:12; Ahmed 1994:460). The vice-president of the University was American. American Peace Corps professors taught in the University (Taddesse 1993:45-46). As we observed earlier, and as we will continue to perceive, the United States government played a significant role in all aspects of Haile Selassie’s modernization programme, particularly in the area of education. Americans had 1

The concept of Point Four was to make the benefit of scientific and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of developing countries. The legislation, known as Point Four, was passed on June 5, 1950 (1969:5).

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“an invaluable impact in imparting new ideas and techniques into Ethiopians’ educational system. Americans tried or deliberately intended to relate the U.S. system of education to the Ethiopian cultural milieu” (Ahmed 1994:461). As history has shown and as those who have gone through the system attest, “U.S. involvement in Ethiopian education which had started in 1945 with the appointment of U.S officials in key positions of the ministry of education and fine arts, and which later continued with the opening of Haile Selassie I University thus paved a way for the ‘Americanization’ of the Ethiopian school system” (Milkias 2006:93). The education was not meant to deal with the realities of life that both the Ethiopian students and teachers faced on a daily basis. The books were written in English, a foreign language. The stories and the characters in the books were about a land and a people that Ethiopian students could hardly relate to. The required texts in all Ethiopian schools of the 1940s and early 1950s were published in Britain. They were entitled Kings, Queens and Heroes. Mighty Men and Mighty Deeds, Makers of Our Modern World, and the March of Time, Book I, which began with the story of Queen Boadicea of England. Then, U.S. educators came in with Little Stories of a Big Country (i.e. the United States) and Little Stories of Well-Known Americans. One basic manual of instruction for the eighth grade, a huge volume entitled The Old World – Past and Present, subtitled the section of Africa as “The Dark Continent” and mentioned Ethiopia as “Abyssinia” in one paragraph, referring to it as an “Italian Colony.” This text was still in use, unrevised, in the late 1960s. The syllabus in which these books were based was so irrelevant that they rarely dealt with the history of the continent of Africa, let alone that of the Ethiopian nation (Milkias 2006:96).

Markakis and Ayele further comment, “Since the late sixties, the United States government agencies established themselves in the country, and their funds and influence permeated all sectors of Ethiopian society. Particularly conspicuous was their presence in the educational sector. The country’s sole University was completely dominated by United States funds and personnel. And generous scholarship and travel funds brought hundreds of Ethiopians to the United States each year” (1986:34). Unfortunately, as Fisher rightly predicted, their close identification with Haile Selassie’s government and the irrelevance of the U.S. curriculum to the Ethiopian students gave them a bad image in the face of the modern intelligentsia during the cold war (Marcus 1983; Spencer 1987; Schwab 1972). Haile Selassie’s Role Commenting on Haile Selassie’s zeal and dedication to advance modern education, Ullendorf wrote:

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Education in fact was key to most achievements, and the Emperor has always been profoundly conscious of the overwhelming need of a properly integrated educational system. Until 1960 he was his own Minster of Education, so as to underline the paramount importance attached to those endeavors (1973:183-184).

Ullendorf added: At the apex of education system stands Haile Selassie I University which confers its own degrees and which consists of ten colleges (University College, including the faculties of Arts, Science, and Education, College of Law, Business Administration, Public Health, Agriculture, Theology, Engineering, Building, Medicine, and Social Work). The Emperor is a chancellor, and the University is run by an Ethiopian President and two Vice-presidents, one academic and the other administrative. The University was officially inaugurated in 1961 on the premise of former imperial palace (1973:195-196).

With personal dedication and vision, Haile Selassie was determined to run a modern government. Many students were sent abroad to Western schools for education. Whether trained in the United States, Europe, or the Horn of Africa, students were similarly equipped to function with the state administration at the completion of the training process (Holcomb and Ibssa 1990:269). Haile Selassie made sure that distributions of duties were assigned to educated Ethiopians based on their loyalty to him rather than to expatriates. In doing so, he captured the mind and interest of the young generation looking for a change. Coming from a restricted traditional background, the younger generation embraced Haile Selassie’s modernization programme with enthusiasm. Any kind of modern education that enhanced the economic and social freedom of the young people was accepted unquestionably as a means for progress. Modernization became a norm. The values of the old tradition became despised by the elite and were considered a sign of backwardness. “These developments marked the beginning of the kind of business group that the United States had expected to develop. In addition, the Western-educated group was emerging from the schools and coming into political power, conversant with concepts and the skills created by the international capitalist class” (Holcomb and Ibssa 1990:267). Both the Ethiopian government and the American educators did not take seriously the importance of academic relevance to the cultural and socioeconomic context of the country. Western education was taken as the only workable prescription for centuries of undiagnosed illness in Ethiopia. Apart from modernizing Ethiopia, Haile Selassie’s purpose in introducing Western education to the country was to produce future leaders (Levine 1972; Lipsky 1962; Spencer 1987). However, the very leaders he groomed turned against him and became the prime instigators of his downfall. “As the goal of creating persons with the ability to interpret, enrich, and adapt the heritage to new need and changing conditions did not inspire the educational system, the system naturally encouraged the formation of a revolutionary ethos by fostering

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the desire to discard whatever was not in conformity with the Western norms. The rise of radical intellectuals is thus a fall-out of countries entering late into the process of modernization: the contrast of their society with those of the West produces a characteristic disenchantment and dissociation that mold them into demolishers. The disenchantment, be it noted, does not support the emergence of a creative mind: being decentered and yoked to the West, such a mind harbors the tendency to imitate the model rather than to deviate” (Messaye Kebede 2008: 192). It is against this background that this book both analyzes the role of modern education in introducing change in Ethiopian society and assesses the rightful place of education in developing effective leadership. Modern Education and Culture Change Education is an essential tool of cultural continuity. It is also an important means of co-operating intelligently with cultural change. Thus, one way in which a society seeks to keep abreast of changes is by modifying the heritage taught in the schools in each generation. To this end, educators reinterpret old knowledge and values to meet new situations (Kneller 1965:80-95). In addition, education may be a source of cultural change. Each culture conditions its members to act, think, and perceive in what one anthropologist has called “a culturally delimited universe” (Kneller 1965:81). This universe consists of the world the culture has created and those aspects of the physical universe that it has chosen to find significant. “We may speculate,” writes Jules Henry, “that every stable culture has perfected, or nearly perfected, the process of narrowing the child’s perceptual field – of training the child to dismiss from his mind anything not selected for perceptions by the culture” (1960:275). However, not even the most extreme totalitarianism can completely limit the child’s understanding. The discrepancies between what children are supposed to learn and what, in fact, they do learn is an important source of conflict and change within a culture. For example, many an authoritarian school is breeding rebellious spirits who will later reform the educational and cultural system that offended them (Wallace 1961:25-54). In Ethiopia’s case, Wallace’s observation is true, as will be seen by progressively following the Ethiopian students’ movement. Transferred Education From an early age, Haile Selassie grew up with a notion that “European education was a key to modernization” (Holcomb and Ibssa 1990:246). His experience in exile and the performance of educated Ethiopians before the Italian invasion had convinced him that Ethiopians needed people who were capable of performing what might be termed mental labour (Marcus 1995). To produce an indigenous elite he sent Ethiopians to Western schools. These

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schools were built on European ideology, not on Ethiopian values. Holcomb and Ibssa observe, “Graduates of the European-inspired educational institution were as much products of the European system as they would have been had they trained in Europe. The ideas that had shaped the institutions were the ideas that shaped its intellectuals. Even the motivation to build the system itself was rounded in the ideology of a class largely resident in Europe. The products of these schools were in a real sense the products of the ideology of an absentee capitalist class. The Ethiopian petit-bourgeoisie was, and is still the direct product of finance capital” (emphasis mine 1990:269). A capitalistic ideology introduced the value of time and money. The modernized generation disregarded the sacred holidays observed by its parents and began to use them for work. Earning more money, building capital, purchasing property, cars, and Western clothes, became their primary objective. Despite the educational and material achievements, the Western-educated Ethiopians were feeling an invisible aloofness from their customs and beliefs (Levine 1965:148-218; Girma 1964; Dinke 1979). When Emperor Haile Selassie considered Western education to be the main means of modernizing Ethiopia, no one seemed concerned about whether the Euro-American curricula and philosophy of education fitted in with the Ethiopians’ worldview. For example, the United States government, from 1952-1954, planned and implemented a wide variety of schemes. In the area of agricultural education, a high school in Jimma, the college in Alemaya, and a crop improvement centre in the Cobbo-Alamata area were established.2 There were various educational programmes, the largest of which was an intensive survey of almost every aspect of Ethiopia’s academic needs. Most importantly, however, were the establishment of the Public Health College and paramedical training centre in Gondar and the founding of a nurse and a midwife training school in Asmara. Also established were the empress’ handicraft school in the capital, rural vocational and industrial arts in provincial centres, a commerce and industry development centre, health advisory services, an institute of public administration, and a programme providing scholarships abroad (Marcus 1983:79-116). The implication of the educational programmes, the needs of the people, the impact of education on the younger generation, the cultural gap between the old and the new, and the readiness or uneasiness of the society for such change was not taken into reflection. The general outlook of the people towards change, their attitudes towards the change agents, and the compatibility of Western education with Ethiopian culture were not thoroughly studied. For example, the Manze people were not willing to send their children to modern schools. Supported by traditional practitioners, who were in danger of losing 2

Oklahoma State University in Ethiopia: Terminal Report 1952-1968. The general agreement for technical co-operation between the U.S. and the Imperial Government was signed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on June 16, 1951 (1969:5).

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their clientele, if modern-trained health workers came to win their allegiance, there was a general posture of resistance to change in the field of health. The supernaturalistic worldview of the society was not taken seriously (Levine 1986:147).3 As much as the Americans invested millions of dollars to implement their education system on Ethiopian soil, the objective was to Americanize Ethiopians, not to help them find the problems of their country and enable them to contribute to the nation. The social, economic, and political questions of Ethiopians, both young and old, could not be answered by the educational curricula built in the West. The educated Ethiopians felt alienated, devoid of the norms and values that built their personality, and they desperately wanted to create a social system that could give them meaning for existence. Both through education and other media, Americans impacted the minds and lifestyles of younger generations in Ethiopia in the fifties and sixties. Milkias concurs: U.S. influence was not limited to the Ethiopian school system. U.S. values and the U.S. way of life were widely disseminated through the government-controlled mass media. Television programs were mostly Westerns, such as “Bonanza” and “Gunsmoke,” and U.S. style music band were spontaneously springing up all over the major cities. Many vocalists sang U.S. country songs. In fact, in the city of Addis Ababa, it was not uncommon to encounter Ethiopian adolescents dressed like U.S. cowboys who proudly called themselves “the Texans.” Names of nightclubs frequented by educated Ethiopian system included Hollywood, Arizona, Texas, and Apollo 13. Even children were named Kennedy and Armstrong. At the same time, almost 90% of the Ethiopian people were still untouched by modern education and the ever-expanding currents of the 20th century. The new development soon hurled the Ethiopian society into cultural confusion and political limbo. A hyphenated intelligentsia that was to shake the traditional political structure at its very seams was born and in its wake had arrived a haunting death for the old Abyssinian feudal era (2006:98). 3

Levine stated, “The students are regarded by the teachers, not as members of tribes, but as Ethiopians. The school authorities thus act as a countervailing force in behalf of national symbols, and their effect is considerable. While entering students naturally tend to identify in the first instances with their tribes, sixty percent of the secondary school seniors and seventy-five percent of the college students questioned about political identifications indicated that they considered themselves members of tribes. The teachers also provide practical information of various sorts to assist the acculturation of their changes. They teach the etiquette of modernity, including the importance of punctuality and keeping of promises. The total accomplishment of teachers, however, falls short of giving the modern adolescent a coherent orientation to life. The cultural lessons they transmit are neither consistent among the various schools nor closely related to the situation of changing Ethiopia. The organization of education, as of everything else in Ethiopia, reflects the abiding anxiety of the government about permitting any one foreign nation to gain a monopoly in any sphere of activity” (1986:115).

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Modern education also intensified inter-generational conflict. In the name of revolution, it led to a bloody struggle in the country. The elite raised more questions than they could answer. Instead of making a bridge between the past and the present, they created discontinuity and social chaos. Instead of a promising future, they enhanced uncertainty and anxiety in the minds of the modern Ethiopians. The discontented and disoriented elite attempted to take leadership positions. They thought their education could solve social problems, such as poverty, joblessness, injustice, and ethnic conflict. To the dismay of many, however, their Western education served to alienate them rather than to help them identify with the people. In lifestyle and thinking, the few educated Ethiopians expected the mass to be like them. The intention of the educated Ethiopians was to create a better Ethiopia. However, the process of change was so radical that the result was moral, economic, and social deterioration. In short, Western education did not help the Ethiopian elite to demonstrate creative leadership. As Levine comments, “Modern educated Ethiopians, particularly those who were educated abroad, acquired knowledge, skills, patriotic motivation, and social position with which they might conceivably have made substantial reforms and innovation in Ethiopia’s institutions. And yet, in their own eyes and in the eyes of some high government officials and foreign observers, they have done relatively little. Their behavior has been marked by a conspicuous absence of creative leadership and solidarity of action” (emphasis added 1987:218). The Impact of Modern Education More than anything else, Western education intensified the opposition between the modernists and the traditionalists (see Marcus 1983; Ulendorf 1973; Schwab 1972; Giorgis 1989). With capitalistic ideology and modern management principles, the young generation was assigned to work in a government system that promoted traditional values. A degree of disappointment, discontent, and frustration was expected with respect to the given situation, which forced the “educated person to perform modern roles within a system governed by traditional norms” (Makarkis and Ayele 1986:49ff). Describing the tension of the educated Ethiopians, Levine said; “the more fundamental problem has been that the institutional system has been insufficiently modernized to make proper use of individuals who had acquired specialized training abroad” (1965:200).4 While they were abroad for studies, 4

Many of the technically skilled have found suitable positions, especially those in the fields of medicine and engineering, and have led productive and satisfying work lives since shortly after their return. Many others, however, have been demoralized by the experience of having to occupy simple administrative positions that anyone with a little common sense could handle, or by being saddled with purely administrative responsibilities even when initially placed in a technical job. In such circumstances they

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the Ethiopian students were looking forward to finishing their studies and returning to serve their country. They had ambitions and dreams to put their education into practice. Instead of doing what they anticipated, they ended up fighting with the system that stood in their way. Seeing the multiple warnings that point to the impending social and political crisis, one of the emperor’s advisors, Donald E. Paradis, wrote a memo to Haile Selassie saying, “Unless Ethiopia changes fundamentally, the educated class would inevitably turn to revolution against which has created obstacles and frustration at every turn, which has inhibited and prevented progress” (1961:2). With regard to Haile Selassie’s leadership, Paradis argued that, “the empire is now too modern and too complex for one man to govern.” Therefore, “modernity requires the monarch to refrain from direct interventions in government operations, even when they are going badly, and to make the imperial will felt through the intermediary of the prime minister” (1960:1). Yet, the emperor did the opposite. He was involved in the details of the national and international issues. “Preoccupied with the superficial and the tactical, he was ultimately caught up by fundamentals” (Spencer 1987:329). “Since the negus [emperor] did not move along with the changes in motion and ignored many of the challenges associated with modernization, he was ultimately swamped by it” (Milkias 2006:239). Thanks to the National Archive Librarians in Washington D.C., I was able to obtain the confidential documents of the Paradis memo. I cannot help but admire Paradis’ straightforward American critique. In my opinion, his advice was worth the millions of dollars Haile Selassie received from the United State government. Had Haile Selassie listened to Paradis’ advice and reformed his government, he could have spared Ethiopia from bloodshed, chaos, poverty, starvation, suffering and humiliation in refugee camps, and hardships in exile, which millions of Ethiopians went through in the seventies and eighties. Instead of the irreparable damage done to his name, the Ethiopian people and history could have honoured him (see Paradis 1961; Fisher1961; Holmes 1961).5 Ethiopian students’ experiences of the racial tension in the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s led them to question the authenticity of American democracy and eventually, out of disgust at the duplicity of the American political system, they rejected everything American and embraced Marxism. have found themselves forgetting most of what they learned while abroad and have felt themselves not being used (Levine 1965:200). 5 These confidential documents were written four to nine months after the 1961 attempted coup d’etat (Marcus 1983; Spencer 1987). For Americans, this was a wake-up call. In the attempted coup d’etat, Girmame Neway, a graduate of Columbia University, was involved. Later, he was sentenced to death by Haile Selassie. Girmamme was loved and respected by his contemporaries and his American colleagues. Many candid Americans like Paradis ardently believed that the future of Ethiopia rested in the hands of the educated class, not with Haile Selassie. Girmamme’s death was a blow to all the well-wishers of Ethiopia.

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The disproportionate investment plan and the condition of the peasants under the landlords created a wide economic gap between the masses and the ruling class. The radical intelligentsia, who rightly analyzed the situation, had neither the power nor the means to bring change. “In the capital and other urban centers, modernity appeared as sharp contrast, a contradiction, to the experience of the great Ethiopian mass” (Marcus 1983:100). Nowhere is the paradox better demonstrated than in the revised constitution of 1945. The constitution lays down that, “by the virtue of His imperial blood, as well as by the anointing which he has received, the person of Emperor is sacred. His dignity is inviolable and his power is indisputable” (emphasis mine, as quoted in Ullendorf 1973:187). Under article 21 of the constitution, the emperor must be the defender of the “Holy Orthodox Faith based on the doctrine of St. Mark of Alexandria” (cited by Ullendorf 1973:187). As two later writers suggest, “the document, taken as a whole, is a monarchical constitution than attempt to create a constitutional monarchy” (Scholler and Brietzke 1976:39). Haile Selassie does not seem aware of the rapid change. Edward Holmes, the United States embassy’s political officer was right when he said; “Ethiopia would not change under Haile Selassie” (1961:5).6 The contradiction was increasingly demonstrated by a full-scale military mutiny, student protest, teachers’ strike, and employees of the civil aviation’s strike (see Makarkis and Ayele 1986:77-123, Milkias 2006: 171-239). The joint protest in the empire began on the first day of February 1974 and lasted until September 12, when the old regime was deposed and a new regime was begun. This period is characterized in many different ways, one of which is as follows: “Many participants remember it as a pure anarchy, the most chaotic period in the life of the empire. Others call it the only period in which every social category that existed within the empire did exercise the opportunity to express itself freely” (1990:132). The impact on and direction taken by the demonstration was closely watched by the super-powers. “After the 1974 revolution, the [then] Soviet Union and its allies could not fail to be impressed by the zeal and determination of the military government to create a socialist state” (Wubeneh and Abate 1988:182). Just like the United States and her Western allies, “Soviet interest in Ethiopia transcended ideological considerations and was based mainly on Ethiopia’s proximity to the Middle East and to the Red Sea, as well as on the emergency of Ethiopia as a major center of inter-African politics, with Addis Ababa serving as headquarters for both the Organization of African Unity and the Economic Commission for Africa” (Wubeneh and Abate 1988:182). The impressive revolution to the East was, however, a disappointment to the West. Therefore, the former close Ethiopian ally, the U.S., took a major action.

6

For detailed information on the economic and political situation of Ethiopia in the early sixties, see Holmes (1961a and 1961b).

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“During the period of growing military political involvement, Washington made ready to abandon Ethiopia” (Marcus 1983:188). Since 1941, when the United States took Ethiopia under her wing, America made every effort to prevent the 1974 bloody revolution. “The estimated cost of keeping Ethiopia in the Western camp during 1959-1962 was $33 million in military aid, $11.5 million in economic support programs, $20.4 million in technical assistance, and $1.4 million in informational and educational activities, for a total of $66 million” (Marcus 1983:111). Unless insiders bring a change that can meet their needs, outsiders’ donations result in nothing more than superficial progress. In building modern military, hospitals and schools, Haile Selassie’s government put public relations over human needs. While the few among the elite obtained a lavish Western lifestyle, the masses were languishing in famine and joblessness. All the investments the U.S. applied in Ethiopia were not purely to keep the country from the Soviet-bloc. They were to advance the interests of the United States in the region. Paulos Milkias unravels the intentions of the U.S. in building the American education system and other development plans in Ethiopia in this way: Washington’s decision to become heavily involved in the establishment of Haile Selassie University was aimed first at shaping future Ethiopian elite who would be oriented toward the United States and would take a leading role in the country; the other goal was to establish an African center for disseminating U.S. culture and political ideology. Its function was to fulfill what the American university in Cairo was already doing in the North Africa and Maghreb countries and the American University of Beirut in the Middle East. In a sense, the aim went even beyond that. Haile Selassie University was to be a counterpart to Lumumba University in Moscow, an institution that placed particular emphasis on ideological training for African students. The only difference was that the U.S. oriented university was not going to be in Washington D.C. It was going to be in Addis Ababa, the headquarters for the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and a city chosen by all independent African nations as the headquarters of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). In other words, the university that the United States was planning to invest in heavily was going to be established in the continent diplomatic metropolis… The United States had also a long-standing interest in shoring up pro-Western regimes in the Middle East and North Africa. They have tried to counter Marxist revolution from spreading into not only Eastern and Central Africa but also the strategically and economically important countries of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, and the Sudan. Internal stability and a military and economic foothold in Ethiopia were considered the sine qua none of frustrating such developments (2006:89-90,138).

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Lack of trust in the U.S. in the eyes of the educated elite, questionable motives and actions of the United States in Ethiopia, and the unchanging, rigid, and obsolete way of governance by Haile Selassie brought undesirable consequences to Ethiopia. The unintended result for the U.S. and Haile Selassie was the interest of the Ethiopian intelligentsia in Marxism and Leninism. The American universities in the U.S., where many Ethiopians were granted academic scholarships, and Haile Selassie I University turned out to be a cauldron that brewed the most radical revolutionaries in the Horn of Africa. Turning its back on the West, Ethiopia took a lonely revolutionary road in East Africa. Due to its inherent distaste for a radical change, “the United State is no longer willing to protect Ethiopia from aggression and dismemberment. The new government realized that a new savior [was] required. A star was perceived in the East, new religion was received, and with it, totems powerful enough to shield both state and revolution” (emphasis mine) (Marcus 1983:189-190).7 The “new saviour” with a “new religion” led Ethiopia to a worse economic, social, and educational condition. A majority of the educated class, who were skilled in various academic and professional disciplines, were killed or imprisoned. All the development plans, economic structures, and educational programmes established and funded by the United States and its allies came to a halt. Some of it was nationalized (Schwab 1972). Many left the country and experienced unpleasant conditions in refugee camps in Sudan, Djibouti, and Kenya. Those who remained in the country and did not participate in the revolution were harassed, tortured, and imprisoned. “Haile Selassie’s Ethiopia was held together not so much by the coherence of its society, but rather by the strength of central government, which allowed neither dissent nor general participation in its rule” (Abate and Wubeneh 1988:23). To this observation Ottaway adds, “With Haile Selassie’s removal, the whole political fabric of the empire began to unravel. What remained was a physical entity known as Ethiopia seeking a new ideological justification for its existence and trying to establish the political administrative structure of modern nation-state” (1978:149ff). 7

After the United States terminated its aid to Ethiopia in February 1977, the PMAC (which had been sounding in the socialist world for military aid) and the Kremlin signed a Declaration of the Basic Principles of Friendly Mutual Relations and Cooperation, which included a $500 million arms deal. Shortly afterwards, arms began to arrive in Ethiopia from the Soviet Union, East Germany and Czechoslovakia, together with Soviet and Cuban Advisors to keep training Ethiopia’s armed forces. To the U.S.S.R., Ethiopia [was] a much larger country in size, population, and resources and of greater political importance in Africa than Somalia. Ideologically, the Soviets considered the Ethiopian revolution as the most promising experiment to create a socialist state in Africa, and they were determined to use their power to salvage it. Because of massive Soviet military aid, estimated at over 2 billion, Ethiopia asserted military dominance in both Ogaden and Eritrea* (Abate and Wubeneh 1988:182ff.). *This was true until 1990.

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It was not only the strong central government, but also Haile Selassie’s Amharanization – the enforcing of the Amharic language as the national language – the strong army, and the continuous financial support from the West, mainly from the U.S, that were factors that kept the country together. Even with all these things smoothly operating, there was discontent among enlightened Ethiopians. This dissatisfaction was manifested in the 1960 coup d’etat organized by the two brothers Girmame and Mengistu Neway. The Americans played a key role in reversing the overthrow of Haile Selassie’s government. More than anything, that action proved to the Ethiopian intelligentsia that no matter how rogue and corrupt the Ethiopian government, it will be shielded by the U.S., that champions the cause of democracy in the world. The plight of the masses was deliberately ignored by the U.S. and the Emperor’s leadership (cf. Milkias 2006: 99-109, 138). Church in a Changing Culture In order to achieve a healthy culture change, a contextually relevant educational system is crucial. A major cause for the radical culture change in Ethiopia was the direct transfer of Western education into the Ethiopian context. The imperial government did not fully realize that education is one institution among many. It could not push through a programme of reform against a coalition of other interests, such as labour, business, and the church. More importantly, formal education could not scratch the surface of social and cultural change, for the real spring lay much deeper in such events as war and invasion, revolution, class antagonism, technological innovation, and mass migration (Brameld 1961:1, 1956, 1957).8 When the government failed to bring about healthy culture change, students in various institutions transformed their schools into reforming agencies. The political environment among the educated groups delivered the schools into the hands of competing interest groups. Russia, the United States, and Great Britain had significant roles in campaigning and agitating for their political agendas and global interests among university and college students. Constantly under pressure to provide a hearing for all kinds of programmes and policies, constantly pestered by critics and fanatics, the schools degenerated into something little better than political lobbies. Thus Hutchins writes: “If one admits the possibility of obtaining through schools social reforms that one likes, one must also admit the possibility of obtaining social reforms that one dislikes. What happens will depend on the popularity of various reforms, the 8

Brameld argues that education must be adapted to a given social structure. Otherwise it will produce a generation of maladjusted children and unhappy adults. However, Brameld believes that a healthy alienation from much of modern society by intellectually and psychologically capable individuals would be a desirable countermove against unexamined collectivization.

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plausibility of their causes, the pressures they are able to exert on the educational system” (1952:52-53). The Ethiopian Student Movement inside and outside of the country led Ethiopia from an imperial government to a Marxist government.9 The schools became reforming bodies instead of institutions of learning. Ethiopian students, who had neither the experience nor the sophistication to weigh questions of social, cultural, national, and international issues, were involved in a central way in the ideological and armed struggle of Ethiopian politics. The students under-estimated the extent to which deeply entrenched cultural patterns mould the ways in which people conceive of and implement change. Furthermore, by letting students accept or promote a programme of social reforms that the society had not yet approved, education alienated them from their culture, from their elders, and even from those of their own generation who had not attended modern schools. To use education to create a new social order, it must be integrated within the cultural context of the society. The change also has to be geared to the worldview level. “Innovations are most likely to be accepted by others when they combine a felt need (i.e. a need that people felt they have) with a novel solution. The felt need always comes from within the culture” (Kraft 1981:77). If we wish to redirect society, we must control and influence the rate and direction of technology and the economy and the development of religious values. This is clearly beyond the unaided capacity of education and inexperienced students. The centre of “diffusion” for most of the political, economic, and religious changes in Ethiopia was in “the restless city of Addis Ababa” (see Markakis and Ayele 1986:48ff.). The trends of change that we have observed, as well as the significance of the country in the eyes of the West and the East, rightly urge Christian leaders to have a broad perspective of the world. Jørgensen comments, “It is the main function of Christian leadership today to be out in front in order to redefine the problems and transform negative leadership, instead of our traditional inward-outward pattern. The demands and felt needs 9

Whereas most of the educated group of the 1950s was absorbed into the bureaucracy and rose to senior positions working through the traditional system, students of the 1960s adopted a critical stance toward the Haile Selassie government. They were not prepared to accept the legitimacy of the imperial rule, which they held accountable for Ethiopia’s under-development. Their modern education had not only alienated them from traditional authority but also had led them to view some of its values as obstacles to change and modernization. But more threatening to the government was class struggle. Purging the feudal legacy was imperative. This ideological bent found fertile ground among Ethiopian University students in North America and Europe, where freedom of association and expression permitted them to voice their contempt for the imperial rule. The Ethiopian Students of Association in North America (ESANA) in its journal, Challenge, published a Marxist interpretation of the Ethiopian condition (cf. Wubeneh and Abate 1988:36-37).

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of my surrounding world must govern my leadership, more than the desire and needs within my own organization and church” (1995:12). In order to raise relevant contextual issues for leadership selection and development for the Evangelical churches in Ethiopia, an analysis of the different and unique entities of the entire context is necessary. These entities include the ethnic and racial groups represented in different parts of the country, general socioeconomic classes, political and religious pluralism (in concert with the existing heterogeneity of the urbanites), and a close relationship between the city and its agricultural hinterland (issues of rural-urban interdependence). As Postman rightly said, “Too many different things need to be done, and then undone, by education as the condition of living change…Education is the culture’s answer to the question of a particular era” (1979:16). As indicated in this book, Addis Ababa is a city of strategic importance for Ethiopia, in particular, and East Africa, Middle East, Europe, United States, and Russia, in general (cf. Marcus 1983; Erlich 1986). It is a city that has great potential for ministry in East Africa and the Middle East. However, many evangelical leaders have not yet recognized the strategic importance of the city, in particular, and the country, in general, and the potential of their churches. Therefore, it is all the more important for them to uncover some of the deeplevel and surface-level complexities discussed in this study. The next focus of this book is to describe some of the complexities that can inhibit effective communication of the gospel if not understood in the proper context. One cannot minister effectively without a thorough understanding of the multi-faceted philosophical, social, religious, and economic milieu in which the people of Ethiopia operate. Neither can a curriculum for church leadership be developed with a merely superficial understanding of the country. Any attempt to understand human interaction in a socially heterogeneous context presents a special problem. Social scientists demonstrate the fact that one must understand the people’s worldview in order to understand their complexity. In bringing about cultural transformation, and for effective Christian leadership, the worldview of the receptors is a factor that needs to be considered. Kraft writes, “The worldview of the receptor pervasively influences any attempt to advocate change. This is true whether the advocate is regarded as an outsider or insider, for it is the worldview of the culture, subculture, or individual that will specify which, if any areas are closed to change [transformation] and which are open. And for those areas specified as open, the worldview determines just how open and on what conditions” (1981:366). The most neglected aspects of the Ethiopians’ worldview by Ethiopian scholars so far are the place of faith and the role that evangelical churches can play for the good of mankind and for the glory of God. Assuming that the Christian community is not affected by the wave of economic, cultural, and political changes or treating Christians as unproductive and non-essential for the development of the country is wrong and unhelpful in light of the activities

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of other religions in the region. Christianity had made a significant contribution in the areas of science, education, art, music, economy, innovation, etc. in the history of Scandinavian countries, Europe, and the United States. With the right leadership and healthy Christian intention, the church can rise to the occasion and impact the Ethiopian society in the areas where people hurt the most. The Ethiopian evangelical churches now have the long awaited freedom given to them by the current government. If we look back and learn from the past, there is much to learn from others: Christianity revitalized in Greco-Roman cities by providing new norms and new kinds of social relationships able to cope with many urgent urban problems. To the cities filled with the homeless and impoverished, Christianity offered charity as well as hope. To cities filled with newcomers and strangers, Christianity offered an immediate basis for attachment. To cities filled with orphans and widows, Christianity provided a new and expanded sense of family. To cities torn by violent ethnic strife, Christianity offered a new basis for social solidarity. And to cities faced with epidemic fires and earthquakes, Christianity offered effective nursing services (Stark 1996).

A Call for Christian Transformation Evangelical Church in Ethiopia, even though it is an indirect product of Western education and Western mission, can learn valuable lessons from events involving the Ethiopian school system. Leaders should ask why Western education did not bring the desired change. What kind of role should teachers have played? What steps should have been taken to integrate Western knowledge into the Ethiopian context? Why did the Marxist revolution fail? Our task as Christians is to help people who have been transformed for a better (eternal and abundant) life to come and to be “salt and light” here and now. Paul writes, “Do not be confirmed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – His, pleasing and perfect will” (Rom. 12:2). Conforming to the pattern of this world is the common acculturation process that we all go through. We feel comfortable to continue with our learned values and behaviour. But the Scripture challenges us to be transformed. How? By the “renewing of our mind.” To me, this passage suggests a paradigm shift at the worldview level. It is only then that we will be able to test and approve what God’s will is– His good, pleasing and perfect will. Paul did not derive this truth from research in the Athens library. He himself was transformed from being a persecutor of the church to serving as an apostle of Jesus Christ. He had tested and approved what God’s will for his life was. With certainty he could say, for me “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:2). Unless we dig deep into the well of Christian truth and allow the everlasting message to change us first, it is difficult or impossible to transform society.

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How can the church in Ethiopia bring this kind of change to society? What educational method should pastors, teachers, and evangelists implement? In the first place, an awareness of the concept of transformation is necessary. Lingenfelter defines it as follows: “Transformation is neither bridging from one system to another nor transferring a ‘Christian’ system to another place and people. Rather, transformation means a new hermeneutic – a redefinition, a reintegration of the lives of God’s people (the church) within the system in which they find themselves living and working” (1992:19). To do so, the church needs a biblical philosophy of education relevant to the cultural contexts. Instead of conforming to the pattern of this world, people must be enabled to seek God’s will in their lives. The aim is to nurture Christians so that they “will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and craftiness of [people] in their deceitful scheming. Instead, [they] will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ” (Eph. 4:4-15). Our theological reflection, faith, and ministry practice ought to be the outcome of our engagement with the realities of day-to-day societal and cultural issues. The Christ of Ethiopia needs to be the Christ of the poor and the oppressed and a reconciler of ethnic, tribal, social, economic, political and religious divisions. In word and deed, the church is expected to incarnate this Christ if she wants to be prophetic and bring a lasting change. Summary Haile Selassie’s key method of modernization was Western education. With personal dedication and vision he determined to run a modern government by modernized Ethiopians. Americans had a vital role in implementing his vision. The country’s sole university was completely dominated by the United States’ funding and personnel. Generous scholarship and travel funds brought hundreds of Ethiopians to the United States. Instead of embracing the American democracy, the North American universities became an incubator of the Marxist ideology for these Ethiopian students. The sexual revolution in the sixties, the racial segregation in the leading democratic country in the world, and the Vietnam War, were among the many things that caused doubt in the minds of Ethiopian students in the U.S. about Western democracy. With capitalistic ideology and modern management principles, the younger generation was assigned to work in a government system that promoted traditional values. The conflicts of values between the modern and traditional cultures, the incompatibility of the Western education to meet the needs of the people, and the autocratic leadership style of the emperor led to the most radical Marxist revolution in East Africa.

Change in the Area of Christian Faith

“We should not have been where we are had it not been the tens of thousands who have preceded us” (Bosch 1980: 87). These words of Bosch convey a simple and yet profound meaning. They tell of the important yet often overlooked fact of the continuity of history. Without an understanding of history we cannot fully comprehend the background of the Pentecostal movement in Ethiopia. Before we describe who the Pentecostals/Charismatics in Ethiopia are, we need to know who they were. This chapter focuses on the background of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement. As Bosch has observed, “All efforts to understand the past are, therefore, indirectly efforts to understand the present and the future” (1980:88). As human beings advance scientifically and technologically, they grow detached from nature and from spiritual phenomena. Advancement in science and technology is increasingly leading to an emphasis on the natural rather than the supernatural. The race to conquer the celestial and terrestrial universe is never-ending in the West. Meanwhile, the awareness of and reverence for the supernatural are often forsaken. Materialism and naturalism in theology threaten to eliminate the supernatural from everyday thought and life. The fact that the supernatural embraces not only a morally good God and his elect angels, but also the morally evil Satan and the fallen angels or demons, simply aggravates modern unbelief (Unger 1971:7). Despite growing up in a culture embedded with religious beliefs and superstition, the Western-educated Ethiopians, particularly those who had Marxist inclinations, initiated change by denying the existence of a supernatural being. Man in his wisdom has been trying to destroy both the vertical and the horizontal relationships of human beings. Such wisdom has drastic consequences for the church and its mission. Let me outline the Kantian definition of autonomy and its effect on mission. The word autonomy is derived from two Greek words: autos, meaning “self,” and nomos, meaning “law.” Autonomy means being a law to oneself. The law is not outside of us, but rather inside our own being. The fundamental principle of the Enlightenment is the autonomy of reason in every individual human being. The effect on our pattern of thinking is as follows (Tillich 1968:320-431): 1. God does not interfere in human life anymore. Any interference by the divine would mean a loss of calculability. No such interference is accepted and all special revelation has to be denied. 2. All the boundary-line concepts of life are denied because they disturb the calculating and controlling activities of man in relation to reality.

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For instance death is removed as an interfering power in the progressive thought of controlling reality. 3. The classical understanding of death in the vertical line, which views man’s life as coming from eternity and going back to it, had to disappear. In modern American society, one does not die; one just passes way. 4. A strange attack is done on the idea of original sin. Sin is a shortcoming. It is not “no” but a “not yet.” Sin is the “not yet” of man’s spiritual development within an already developed bodily organism. The distance of the gap between these two processes is what we call sin. 5. The fear of hell is also dismissed. The fear of judgment is the fear of hell. Therefore, this concept is removed. 6. The consequence of this was that its opposite was also removed. Not only the idea of heaven, but also the idea of grace. Since grace comes from outside of man, it undercuts the autonomous power of man. 7. Jesus is merely an example for man, not a saviour. Christ is thus an anticipation of a state that lies ahead for all mankind. The fall was swallowed up by the idea of the evolutionary necessity of estrangement or sin. 8. Prayer was also removed because prayer relates one to that which transcends oneself. Kant said that, “if someone is caught by surprise while praying he would feel ashamed.” He felt that it is not dignified for autonomous men who control the world and possess the power of reason to be found in the situation of prayer. 9. Salvation is not a matter of immortal life after death; it is not a matter of accepting a heavenly lawgiver; instead it is a matter of present participation in eternal life. Eternal life is here and now, not a continuation of life after death. In everything finite, the infinite is present. 10. Progress is based on immorality, on the negation of ethical principles. The only principle by which man acts is that of self-love. The conscience is the result of punishment. Remorse begins where impunity ends. Since you are a law unto yourself, do whatever you want with your body. There is no doubt that the Enlightenment philosophy has brought many positive things, such as scientific discoveries in the area of medicine and astronomy. Modern democracy and technological development flourished during this period. However, this period also had a negative impact on Christian thought and mission. The God-killers like Friedrich Nietzsche were attacking the light of Christianity and were introducing the darkness of a godless society. As we observed earlier, the wisdom of this world negates the essence of commitment to an absolute and sovereign God. We are nurtured to believe that we are meant to rule, dominate, control, exploit, and conquer, not surrender.

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Since we are autonomous, our life should revolve around self-rule and selflove. Our life quenches her thirst through self-gratification, our security is based on self-empowerment, and our freedom is manifested through selfreliance. By all means external interferences must be discouraged, if not eliminated. Growing up within such a worldview and operating our life by its principles keeps us distant from God’s agenda, which is mission, the spiritual transformation of people to be witnesses of the living God in both word and action. As I stated earlier, the Ethiopian intelligentsia, while attempting to escape from the chain of traditional beliefs, got caught up in the unbelief of Western academics injected by the needle of the Enlightenment. Referring to this phenomenon, Ravi Zacharias said; “Our hard-core, materialistically driven society, living with the myopia of scientific single vision, seems determined to live under the illusion that science alone is our consummate deity, delivering us from all ills – our new champion in the arena that has filled God with its random punch. Any legitimate understanding of the disciplines cannot reasonably arrive at such indefensible conclusion. When the sharp edges of reality are exposed – from infancy to maturity – the “whys” of life proliferate, silencing the scientific voice and stumping the philosophical mind” (1994:6869). As Ethiopian students pursued this path either in the form of atheistic view or materialistic persuasion, the science/philosophy that they hoped would deliver them ended up in need of a deliverer. Turnbull, in The Lonely Africans, succinctly states the frustration and confusion of the modernized Africans: In all the various situations in which the African has to choose between the old and the new he [she] is in a dilemma, because he can accept neither with his whole heart and being. Where he is forced into the new, with no choice, he is still in dilemma because of the difficulty of reconciling one way of life with a different kind of thought. In the cities, with better educational facilities and more opportunities for the two worlds to meet and mingle, there can at least be a common intellectual level at which there is some chance of mutual comprehension; but despite the sophistication of the townsfolk the tribal past with its tribal attitude is frequently still too close to be forgotten or ignored, and the new is still to be much more than a flimsy veneer (1962:203).

In religion, indeed, more than other aspects of their lives, the Westerneducated Ethiopians were torn between their intense nationalism and conservatism on the one hand and science and modernization on the other. The dichotomy between secular and religious, between material and spiritual, was uncommon among the majority of Ethiopians in traditional culture. A few among the Ethiopian elite who went through the Western schools attempted to replace their traditional religion with different ideologies. But their final cry and yearning was for a genuine relationship with God. Girma was right when he said, “Unresolved conflict leads to frustration, despair and uncertainties, while commitment to an opposing set of values creates a dilemma” (1964:153).

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The dilemma created a constant tension in the lives of the educated. It formed a void that made them crave something foundational and lasting to fill it. It raised more questions than science or philosophy could answer. About four-and-a-half decades ago, while Marxism was considered the sole and unquestionable ideology, the words “religion” or “God” were not mentioned among academicians for fear of being labelled as reactionary or unscientific. Today, however, not only Pentecostals and Charismatics, but also their once hostile opponents, agree that it is not atheism but a “working religion” (i.e. a religion that meets the felt need of the people) that the society is looking for (see Peace Initiative 1991). With a contextualized biblical message, with open-minded leaders, and with the gifts of the Holy Spirit functioning among believers, Pentecostals/Charismatics will have more work to do in the future Ethiopia. In this light, I discuss the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement in terms of its impact on culture change in Ethiopia. The Religious Environment The beginning of the Pentecostal movement cannot be comprehended with any degree of adequacy unless we examine the supernaturalistic worldview and the religious environment of Ethiopians. “The traditional mindset has its roots deep in the past, and the modern mind is authenticated from the old. In the traditional culture we observe two important aspects of values. The pivots around which the traditional Ethiopian society has revolved for centuries have been religion and warfare. Hardly is it ever possible to divorce these two elements from the Ethiopian character. From these two aspects of their lives, most of the Ethiopians’ values find their ultimate source” (Girma 1964: 36ff; cf. Levine 1965 and Spencer 1987). In chapters 3 and 4, we explored how religion and warfare dominated traditional culture. Here, I will further investigate the religious environment, particularly the impact of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the foreign missions (Evangelical and Pentecostal) on the younger generation. This observation may be the most complex, mysterious, and dynamic of all the encounters presented thus far. In view of the nature of religion, this should not be surprising. Religion, in its broader perspective, encompasses various aspects of physical and spiritual realities. Peters observes, “Religion involves the totality of personality and its relationships. It implicates in principle at least three realms – the human, the divine, the demonic; the natural and the supernatural” (1976:191). When we are looking at the identity of Pentecostals, these are the dimensions we will be studying. Their religious environment will answer our question as to why Pentecostalism took its root in the life of modern, young, and educated Ethiopians.

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Ethiopians and the Spirit World Ethiopians are very aware of the existence of both good and evil spirits. As Kraft (1989) and Wagner (1986:36-38) explain, the worldview of Ethiopians has helped them to be open to the work of the Holy Spirit. Ethiopians are not secularized, as most North Americans and Europeans are. They do not picture the world as a merely organic entity, constantly in motion due to the cause and effect of atoms and molecules. Their worldview includes the everyday activity of hosts of angels and demons, God and Satan. Kuntsson’s research on the kallu institution among the Macha Galla (now called Oromo) of Ethiopia (1967) needs to be cited here. This is the leastacculturated sub-unit of the Oromo tribe, the largest ethnic component of the country. For the Macha, the pan-Oromo God, Waka, is the guardian of morality and punishes those who do wrong by withdrawing his support and exposing them to disaster and sickness. Waka is the central deity with cosmological dimensions. His religious practitioners, although hereditary officials, nevertheless compete for power and leadership in the local assemblies of kinsmen. They demonstrate their power through trance and possession, and they depend on public recognition of their achievements – through the drama and the performance and the skill of the divination and so on. This is different from an ancestral cult, but it is, nevertheless, also a possession cult. Among the same people one meets with peripheral cults that concentrate on demons or evil spirits (zar or seitan) (Knutson 1967; cf. Mekonnen 1990): During the regular kallu ceremony, after an hour or so drumming and singing, some participants may be possessed and with somewhat violent results. When this happens the drummers surround the possessed and intensify the rhythm. When the possessed falls exhausted in the floor, the kallu intervenes to exorcise the possessing spirit. These spontaneous possessions are regarded by the kallu as negative and destructive in that they bring sickness and suffering. In confrontation with the zar or seitan the kallu acts as an exorcist (Knutsson 1967; 91-92).

Here there is a power encounter between ayana and the zar or seitan. Levine further explains: Throughout greater Ethiopia there are beliefs that certain physical symptoms are caused by named spirits which take possession of a victim. Among the Mensa a demon called waddegenni enters young women and makes them sick. Among the Gurage zitena refers to a form of spirit possession that produces serious and often fatal illness. The term zar, already mentioned, is the most widely used name for this intrusive spirit: belief in zar possession appears among the Amhara, Tigreans, Falasha, Kimant, Arsi, Galla, and, in cognate from, among the Somali (sar) and, Hadiya (jara). Often associated with this concept is shamanistic practitioner who exorcises the spirit or performs special services by entering into a trance brought on by possession. Zar cult shamans and their counterparts are widespread in Ethiopia; among the Sheko, for example, kai spirits take possession of the shaman

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Culture Change in Ethiopia and enable him to serve as medium between his clients and the kai (emphasis his 1974:48ff.; see also Tippet 1970).

Wearing amulets, paying tribute to different spirits, visiting traditional doctors, practising witchcraft, and interacting with debteras (theologically trained Orthodox Church leaders who practice white and black magic) reflect the Ethiopians’ belief in the existence of spirits and the vulnerability of humankind to the spirits’ attacks. The Ethiopian peasants believe that, like the human social order, the spirits exist within a hierarchy. Nelson and Kaplan explain: “The world of Zar is a world of hierarchy. Each arch Zar oversees a pyramidally structured group of lesser spirits, and each such group has a specific task: some cause toothache, others infertility, still others serious diseases. The high ranking Zar deals with the lives of lords, government officials, and others who have power and status in the secular order; the lesser spirits deal with ordinary people” (1981:116). It was in this society, where good and evil spirits pervaded the daily lives of the people, affecting and influencing their lives here and beyond, that modernism and Marxism tried to find a home with little regard to the supernatural. It is true that people were taken out of the traditional culture and were exposed to the Western thinking and lifestyle. But the traditional culture was not totally removed from the hearts and minds of the advocates of change. It was still manifested in their understanding of humanity and freedom, handling conflict, managing time, raising a family, building an economy, and building a nation. The alien ideology was like a new piece of cloth patched on an old garment. The longer we tried to wear it in a rapidly and radically changing culture, the more it became tattered and showed the nakedness of the country. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church As we observed earlier, until 1974, “the church had been the most conservative institution in a conservative society” (Perham 1969:101). While some members of the conservative society became open to change and engaged in the race of modernism, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church took the lonely road of tradition. Sheltered from the Protestant influence, modern philosophy, and science, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church had grown very dogmatic and uncompromising. Despite the modernization programme that was going on in the fifties and sixties, the church was conducting services in an archaic language, Ge’ez. To most of the modern generation, the language is unintelligible. Adherents were expected to observe fasting and holidays. Of the 365 days in a year, 200 were fasting days during which all Orthodox Christians are supposed to abstain from certain foods like meat, milk, and eggs” (Girma 1964; Levine 1965). Among the educated Ethiopians there was a marked discontent with the church, which had failed to accommodate itself to the changing conditions of the time and which remained excessively superstitious and ritualistic. Girma

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observed: “While the traditional mind submissively accepts the teaching of the church, however inconsistent, the mind of the newly educated, which has more or less a scientific beat quickly recognizes such inconsistencies; certain demonstrable truth. The fantastic and grotesque that appeal to the illiterate mind fail to draw his attention” (Girma 1964:206). With all such shortcomings, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church failed to attract the educated class. Thus, the combined challenges arising from the difficulties of adjusting to the culture change contributed to making the younger generation disillusioned and frustrated. In the sixties, the “majority of the educated Ethiopians,” said Girma, were “perplexed in regard to their spiritual commitment” (1964:21). Coincidentally, however, this period marks the beginning of the Pentecostal movement in Ethiopia (see Englsviken 1975, Tibebe Eshete 2009). Tibebe, an Ethiopian scholar, has written a more detailed and comprehensive book on the evangelical movement than Englsviken and my attempt in this book about the Pentecostal movement, its history and impact in the country, and the contribution of foreign missions. The Christian religion has impacted the ruling class, the elites, and the common people. It has influenced the music, arts, politics, and economics of the country in many ways. To enter into the lives of Ethiopians and to understand their worldview, religion is the main gateway. Tibebe concurs: “Religion has always constituted a vital part of Ethiopian society” (2009:1). However, Ethiopists, both foreign and national, have given scant scholarly attention to this major aspect of the society. Tibebe Eshete’s work, both in its content and scope, is exceptional and a breakthrough. It is overdue, much better late than not at all. For the first time, the work of a native scholar put the evangelical movement in Ethiopia in the academic orbit. As the bulk of his research indicates, the movement was limited to the grass-roots level and was contained in the oral tradition. Even though Eshete’s main focus was on the history of Evangelical Christianity, he has given significant attention to church history and the history of missions. As an academic discipline, these three subjects are different. In Tibebe’s work, they come in one volume. Whenever the gospel is preached and received at a high cost, there is often an enormous growth and expansion. Not only that, when Christianity dresses in the cloth of the local culture, is spoken in the heart language of the recipients, and pervades the values and norms of the nationals to transform them into the people of God, the impact is deep and lasting. Tibebe tells us that resistance and resilience is a manifestation of encountering Christ within one’s cultural context and accepting Him as the only Truth, Life, and Way, for the life here and the one to come. Hence, we can conclude from the book that Christianity is more effective when it is translated than when it is transplanted. Later, we will cover the issue of contextualization in depth. The book aims to understand the innovations of the insiders in a given culture, to grasp the impact of ill-planned or enforced culture change on

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society, to rethink the idea that Western education is the sole solution to the problems of the Majority World, to orient ourselves and understand the “new” Evangelicalism in Africa, to realize the importance of theological education and leadership training in the Majority World, and to have hope in God in the post-Christendom and postmodern West where resistance to the gospel is high and Christianity is declining. The book is a source of inspiration, has valuable information, and is a historical mine. It is thrilling to read the action of God in human history in a country that is known for poverty and calamity. The paradox of Christianity – that is, strength in weakness, richness in poverty, growth in persecution, wisdom in foolishness, comes to life. The Book of Acts is played out on African soil. I have found Tibebe’s book to be a seminal and timely volume that fits within the context of historical global Christianity. It is no wonder the book was listed in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research (IBMR) as one of the fifteen outstanding books for mission studies for 2009. The Evangelical movement in Ethiopia that Tibebe meticulously presents to us did not happen in a vacuum. It concurrently developed with modernity, Western education, Western capitalism, modern military build-up, Marxism, and the class and ideology struggle that happened in Ethiopia in the last 40-60 years. Even though the Evangelical movement went unnoticed by Ethiopian intellectuals, it deserves proper investigation and analysis. The prime mover is God himself, and he is non-partisan and beyond culture and human history. That which God is involved in lasts forever. In 1998, after eighteen years of life in exile, I decided to take two of my American-born children, who were then six and eight, to the town their mother and I lived in, the high school we attended, and the church I served in Bale, Goba. When I left the country, there was a fledgling, two-hundred-person church that had gone underground. Eighteen years later, that local church had grown to one thousand adults and about five hundred children. And through that local church, eight other churches were planted, each with more than one thousand believers. Today in Bale, there are more than thirty-five churches that have mushroomed out of one local congregation. The churches have spread and grown through all kinds of hardships. What struck me the most was my visit to the prison. I asked the church elders to talk to the officers in the prison to request permission for me to go and show my two children the prison I was in. The officer said that I could come in on one condition: I must preach to prisoners. On short notice, there were more than sixty people ready to listen to my sermon. I asked myself how an atheistic mind could explain this. For the very reason I had been treated as a criminal, eighteen years later I was being treated as a guest of honour. The Marxists, who had power, money, positions, and weapons, were gone – most of them dead or languishing in prison. The fledgling church, without strong finance and solid organizational structure, was blossoming.

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Whether we like it or not, whether we believe it or deny it, God has an interest in the lives of Ethiopians. Since the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch in the first century (Acts 8:26-39), his gracious visit upon our people is not hidden from historians. In the Old Testament, few countries are mentioned as frequently as Ethiopia. Christ did not change the world through a radical revolution, but like yeast in dough, one person or group at a time, he transformed lives, brought the Roman Empire to its knees, and captured the best minds of those immersed in Greek philosophy. If they continue to be grounded in the Scripture and remain faithful to Jesus, Ethiopian evangelicals can offer enormous contributions to Ethiopian society and beyond. Foreign Missions Despite the long history of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Christianity in Ethiopia is also marked by the activities of Protestant and Catholic missionaries (Crummy 1972; Aren 1978; Cotterell 1973). It has been estimated that in 1935 there were some 180 foreign missionaries in the country. During the Italian invasion, the non-Italian mission was under extreme political and religious pressure; of the 189 missionaries present in 1935, only eight remained in 1940 (Perham 1969:133ff.). Some were expelled, and others left due to the unfavourable circumstances (Cotterell 1973). Many were grieved when they left the fledgling churches they had planted. However, few of them believed that God was not abandoning Ethiopia; he was simply changing his workers (Cotterell 1973:96). The missionaries were allowed to return in 1942. “Among the Protestant groups are the Sudan Interior Mission (SIM), the Bible Church Men’s Missionary Society, the American United Presbyterian’s mission, the Swedish Lutherans’ National Evangelical Mission, The Bible Stronger Vanner Mission (Swedish) and the Seventh Day Adventist Mission” (Perham 1969:133). Although the missionaries were allowed to return, the method and range of their operations were restricted. The Italians’ attempt to destroy the Orthodox Church added scepticism and national doubt among Ethiopians who were reluctant to trust foreigners on such crucial matters as religion and education. Furthermore, “the experience of the 1920s and 1930s, when Italian missionaries served as advance agents for the Fascists, had convinced all Ethiopians that most missionaries were up to no good” (Spencer 1987:169). The main opposition came from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the ministers. Most of the patriots who fought for five years and who had key positions in the government, were always sceptical of the foreigner’s intentions and were also against the coming of foreign missionaries. One of the first tasks assigned to Spencer, upon his returning to Ethiopia in 1943, was to draft legislation controlling missionary activities (1987:169). In August 1944, the Ethiopian Government pronounced its policy by a decree. The preamble of this important measure states: “Whereas it is the desire of the

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government that missions should not direct their activities towards converting Ethiopian nationals from their own form of Christianity which has existed from the beginning of the Christian era, but rather they should concentrate on nonChristian elements of their population” (cited by Perham 1969:134). The areas dominated by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church were closed to missionaries, except in Addis Ababa, the capital city, where the society is heterogeneous and where the international diplomats reside. Amharic was to be the general language of instruction, and missionaries were required to learn it, even if their service was to a non-Amharic-speaking people. The overall content of the decree was not in favour of missionary work in the country. Spencer writes: “In drafting the legislation on missionary activity, I sought to proceed as far as possible along liberal lines, but encountered firm resistance from established Church and from Dedjazmatch Mekonnen Desta,1 and had little positive support from His majesty” (1987:170). Against all the odds, without being free from their own pitfalls, Protestant missionaries made great contributions to the expansion of the kingdom of God in Ethiopia. Their role in social development and in education was extremely important. Prior to the revolution there were roughly “900 missionaries, an estimated 350,000 to 400,000 Protestants and Roman Catholics, roughly, 1.5 percent of the population [of Ethiopia]” (Nelson and Kaplan 1981:122). Among the foreign missionaries, two Scandinavian Pentecostal missions, the Sweden Philadelphia Church Mission and the Finnish Pentecostal Mission, were both recognized missions in Ethiopia and worked as other missions, under a permit issued by the Ethiopian Ministry of Education (Engelsviken 1975:17ff.). According to Engelsviken it was these missionaries who were the sole instruments of the Pentecostal movement in Ethiopia.2 He writes, “The Ethiopian Pentecostal movement is in a unique way was the result of mission work. It did not originate in a religious vacuum but in prayer and sacrifices of a people called to mission, and in the dedication and faithfulness of the missionaries who were willing to follow the call of Christ” (1975:17). The Rise of Ethiopian Pentecostalism It remains a matter of debate as to whether Ethiopian Pentecostalism is the “result of a missionary work” (Engelsviken 1975:17). McGavran rightly asserts that, “revival is God’s gift. Man [woman] can neither command nor make God grant it. God sovereignly gives revival when and where he wills. It ‘breaks out,’ ‘strikes,’ ‘quickens a church,’ ‘comes with the suddenness of a summer 1

Mekonnen Desta was an American-trained Ethiopian, whom Haile Selassie set over the educational institution. Sometime later Haile Selassie stepped in to serve as his own Minster of Education (see Holcomb and Ibssa 1990:247). 2 Tibebe has a different and broader view about the beginning and agents of the Pentecostal movement in Ethiopia (2009).

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storm,’ ‘makes its appearances,’ inaugurates a work of grace, and blesses His people. But God responds to sincere continued prayer” (1980:189). If revival is God’s gift, and neither man nor woman can command it nor make God grant it, the ultimate credit for the Pentecostal movement in Ethiopia should go to the sovereign Lord. The Mulu Wongel church leaders argue that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is the ultimate work of Christ, who is “exalted to the right hand of God, has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit, and has poured it out” (Acts 2:33-34). However, the role of the missionaries of the Swedish and Finnish Pentecostal missions should not be overlooked or neglected. Like Paul in Ephesus (Acts 19:2), they had prepared young Ethiopians to seek and pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit. For this, “the Ethiopian Pentecostal churches heavily underscore the debt of gratitude they owe to the Finnish missionaries” (Engelsviken 1975:32). Addis Ababa, as I said earlier, was one of the open areas for missionaries. It was a city where urban elite, along with international and national experts, lived. International organizations such as the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and Organization of African Unity (OAU) were located in Addis Ababa. The Haile Selassie I University (HISU), now called Addis Ababa University, and other academic and training centres were also there. God in his unsearchable wisdom and perfect plan started the Pentecostal movement in this important metropolitan place. Engelsviken writes: It was in Addis Ababa in the geographical and political center of the country that the Finish Pentecostal Mission in the late 1950s and early 1960s experienced an increased receptivity among young Ethiopians for the gospel message. In a tiny house, a ‘garage’ in the center of busy and crowded area, most often called ‘Merkato,’ the missionaries gathered a group of young students around the word of God. With modest means and simple methods mainly consisting of Gospel preaching, Bible teaching and distribution of tracts, the work grew (1975:23).

The starting point of the movement, in the sovereign wisdom of God, was amazingly strategic. Addis Ababa, particularly the Merkato, was a central meeting place for merchants from all over Ethiopia. Market places in Ethiopia served various purposes in addition to being places for the exchange of goods. They provided a distribution point for information, and they functioned as a sort of social glue for the people (Games 1969:83). Market places were also centres of diffusion and places where change agents could feel the pulse of the populace (Levine 1965:41-42). As Tippet observed, “Market in Ethiopia can be described as a film strip of the country. For the change agent the market is an important index. It indicates the social groups, the resources, the relationship, the values, the capacity for innovation, and the lines of diffusion, how societies meet their felt needs and the degree of their social change: because the market is a microcosm of the community” (1970:114). Tsegaye G. Medhin accurately described the Merkato as “a place of gain for some, loss for others. The

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Merkato is place where people from different tribes, tongues and religions meet. It is a place where people exchange goods, ideas, the latest information and fashion” (translated from Esat way Abeba (Fire or Flower)) (1966:30). Merkato provided a heterogeneous location of the city in which the Pentecostal movement could begin. The Need for Religious Change The Pentecostal movement started in 1960. During this time many people, especially those in the urban areas, were ready for a change in religion. They had lost trust in the power of the shamans. They were tired of the empty rituals and the liturgical worship of the Orthodox Church. What the people were looking for was a spiritual power that met their needs. An existential theology geared to the needs of the people was the need of the hour. As Lowen explains: The willingness to change religion will often depend upon how well the present religion meets the daily needs. Because religion is so thoroughly integrated into total fabric of life there will be motivation for change only when a system frustrates an individual or a whole society at some rather crucial point (1975:7).

Education in the field of medicine and the social sciences enlightened the mind of the younger generation and enabled them to see life from different perspectives. The enlightened Ethiopians began to question the established role and function of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church leaders. They resisted the traditional values handed down to them by their forefathers. The new generation developed a sense of yearning for a genuine relationship with God as they advanced toward the Western-oriented culture. Tippet, commenting on the religious change in Ethiopia, writes: If you educate a people you change its religion. If you introduce medicine you change religion. If you modify the economy you change religion. If you build, roads or establish air-trips, or set up a Movie Theater, where Hollywood movies demonstrate new marriage patterns you undermine religious structure. The moment a country has contact with outside world, the moment it accepts Peace Corps workers, the moment it sets up a radio station or accepts technical aid, its religion begins to change. I mean it becomes inadequate (1970:285).

It was at this crucial point (the modernization period) that the Pentecostal movement started among the young people. The movement met the deep spiritual, psychological and social needs of its adherents. The Pentecostal movement introduced God to the daily life of the people. Healing, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, and genuine conversions evidenced the reality of the Gospel. The Lord revealed himself to the Ethiopians in a way in which they could relate to him within their cultural context. Through Christ, believers found genuine peace and reconciliation with God. At a time of social unrest

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and political upheaval, when many could hardly find a direction for their future, the younger generation encountered the Messiah who said, “I am the way.” Through the storm of change, when cultural values and patterns were uprooted, the young people found a peace in Christ that transcended their comprehension. Hope at the moment of hopelessness, security during the most vulnerable time of the society, and a solid community when every fabric of the social system was fragmenting were the marks of true converts for the first two decades of the revival. However, as both insiders and outsiders observed, the positive contribution of the Pentecostal movement in the five decades in Ethiopia was not without flaws. I will address the weaknesses of the movement later. Focus among Students Differing from most revivals in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the Ethiopian Pentecostal movement did not originate in the economically and socially deprived classes of the population. It was from the beginning a student movement,3 and although relatively poor, the students were a privileged class in Ethiopia. Students, especially those in the universities, colleges, and training centers, were being groomed for various enviable positions at that time. While they were at school they were much wealthier, having advanced scientific, technological, economic, social, and political information than the majority of the people, including those in leadership positions. When traditional beliefs are disrupted by rapid culture change, people 1) cling with increased tenacity to some of the old-fashioned beliefs which are closely identified with traditional culture (Levine 1965:131) or 2) look for an equal substitute that helps “the modern world to be understandable and bearable” (Jacobs 1976:185). As Jacob further comments; “In times of extraordinary social change, when conflict situations are multiplied in culture, healing and exorcism make it possible to cohere. This is true for Christians as well as non-Christian people” (1976:184). Whether people cling to traditional beliefs or look for an equal substitute, the process of culture change will disrupt belief and create uncertainty and insecurity. People will have much conflict to resolve. In Ethiopia, the younger generation attempted to make science the solution to their problem of culture change. Levine comments, “Of all the aspects of Western culture to which they have been exposed Ethiopian students have been most receptive to the teachings of natural science.4 They tend to regard it as the most important 3

For a comparative study, see Orr (1971). And for detailed information on the impact of the Ethiopian students in Addis Ababa, see Engelsviken (1975) and Eshete (2009). 4 I would like to remind the reader that even if the Ethiopian students were appreciative of Western science, the curriculum or the courses of science were very irrelevant to the Ethiopian cultural context. “The science syllabus which was also irrelevant to the country’s needs was locked with misplaced priorities and contradictory goals in its

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single benefit which Ethiopia can gain from Western civilization” (1965:129). However, it is wrong to assume that Ethiopian adolescents have developed a completely scientific mentality as a result of modern education. On the contrary, marks of traditional belief and superstitions persist in their minds. This fact was shown in two interesting studies conducted by Lord (1958) and by Levine (1965). Both studies show that good high school and first-year college students still believed in the power of demons, the evil eye, shamans, and rainmakers (see Table 1). Item No. 53

Certain mineral waters can cure stomach trouble by causing a person to vomit worms, sometimes frogs or toads

35

There are some skilful persons who can summon the devil at will Too much charity leads to madness A child will grow better if the nerves are removed from his [her] back teeth If you go into a room which had been closed for a long time, you will be attacked by Satan A man who has a skill in stopping rains must not eat or drink while he is performing the ceremony to stop rain, or he will be unsuccessful

102 58 84 78

Percentage of Secondary students holding the belief 88

87 74 68 57 64 451

Table 1 Unscientific Beliefs Accepted By Secondary Students (Adapted from Levine 1965:130). The most workable alternative to the educated Ethiopians’ needs was the dynamic work of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Engelsviken observes, “When Ethiopian Pentecostalism emerged it had all the character traits of classical Pentecostalism and still the form of Christianity the Pentecostal movement stands for was not felt something foreign and ‘imported’5 but a doctrine and an focus. In a country like Ethiopia, where average life expectancy was 37 years, and infant mortality more than 50%, where the climatic, geographic, and physical conditions are vastly different than those in the United States, U.S.-made science manuals were used. These books covered everything except questions that were fundamental to Ethiopians: questions dealing with conservation, health, nutrition, hygiene, and sanitation. By contrast, pages were devoted to explaining the nature of the solar system, the Bunsen burner, blow pipes, and of course their renowned discoveries” (Milkias 2006:97). 5 The reader needs to note that this understanding is represented among those who experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Marxist and the Ethiopian Orthodox

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experience which in a very real way felt to be genuinely Ethiopian and biblical at the same time” (1975:22). Reaction to Pentecostalism and the ensuing movement should not be surprising. Given the religious environment in which the participants were reared, and given the conflicting values they were living with, the movement was a timely, supernatural answer. The students felt Pentecostalism to be “genuinely Ethiopian” for several reasons. First, the movement required a “simple faith” 1975:37), that is, for God’s power to be demonstrated through them, Ethiopians need not be theologically sophisticated and astute. It was not the case, however, that they were intellectually incompetent to study at higher level of theology. As Engelsviken observes, the university students were “the brightest, most hard working” (1975:35). Their inclination towards simple faith developed because “Abyssinians view God above all as mystery” (1965:67). In Greater Ethiopia, Levine noted that “the supreme deity of various religions of Ethiopia is conceived as remote and inaccessible, and having relatively little direct importance for human problems” (1974:48). Therefore, to relate to the mysterious, remote, and inaccessible deity, the Ethiopians needed simple faith and the manifestation of God’s power. In the traditional culture, the “simple faith” was demonstrated in the form of worshipping “saints, angels, beliefs in a number of active spirits which are localized in certain trees, water places, and hilltops” (1974:48). In today’s Ethiopia, for high school and college students, simple faith means the manifestation of the power of God despite their lack of thorough theological knowledge. Even now, the majority of Ethiopian Pentecostal/Charismatic Christians have little interest in understanding exorcism and healing from an anthropological, psychological, sociological or theological perspective. The key to exercising the power of God, they say, is faith and prayer, not intellectual pursuit. However, a lack of contextualized biblical teaching and inadequate theology has caused spiritual malnutrition, which is manifested in all aspects of these Christians’ lives and the ministry of the church in Ethiopia. Second, “the expulsion of evil spirits attracted many people” (Engelsviken 1975:38). The phenomena of demon possession and exorcism were not new to the Ethiopian students. What was new to them was the fact that the Lord changed their lives and made them his instruments to reveal his gracious work to those who were victims of the devil. This subject of demon possession and exorcism is too broad and complex to deal with in detail in this section. For further understanding of demon possession and exorcism, see (Unger 1971; Montgomery 1973; 1976; Wagner and Pennoyer 1990; Kraft 1992). In the midst of modern education, the minds of Ethiopian students remained receptive to supernatural phenomenon. Jacobs rightly observed this orientation: Christians who oppose Pentecostals consider the religion as imported, the believers as propagators of imperialism, and the preachers as agents of the CIA (cf. Vâsiänen 1981; Engelsviken 1975:53-73, 142-211).

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Culture Change in Ethiopia The essential worldview of the vast majority of East Africans remains very much unaltered. The change one sees is not the withering of the traditional rites but the addition of new possession spirits whose presence makes the modern world understandable and bearable. I do not envision that the situation will be altered very much in the foreseeable future. The possession, trance, state, and exorcism rites will be with us for a long time to come” (1976:185).

As long as the power of the kingdom of God is working in Ethiopia, the activities of evil spirits will be continually encountered. Demonic activity takes various forms, as indicated in Scripture and as illustrated in modern literature. According to Kehl, demonic activity takes the following forms: (1) Demonic impression, often through expression; (2) demonic repression, both the putting down and the hindering of good, and the forcing of ideas or impulses into the subconscious; (3) demonic obsession, whereby the victim is greatly preoccupied with the unholy and/or unwholesome and, in some cases, with the Evil One himself; (4) demonic depression; (5) demonic oppression, just short of (6) demonic possession. These stages of demonic activity involve all the faculties of man, but each is directed toward particular facilities (emphasis his 1976:121ff.). All of the above forms of demonic activities have played a role in Ethiopian society. Modern science and Marxist philosophy have no explanation: they avoid the entire issue of the supernatural by blunt denial, unsubstantiated allegations, and character assassinations of the Christian leaders. Persecution, torture and imprisonment were their defence mechanisms to numb their conscience and to silence the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement. Traditional religious (Orthodox or Muslim) magicians were not able to free their adherents from demonic powers. Exorcism requires the work of God (Mt. 12:27-28; Lk. 11:19-20). These verses reinforce the fact that Jesus’ exorcisms are a sign that the kingdom of God is already at work. Christ still works through his church. Accordingly, when God’s power was manifested in Addis Ababa, it shook both the Orthodox Church and the imperial regime. Engelsviken comments, “It was the genuinely religious power of the revival which in a few years’ time made it a serious threat to the position of the Orthodox Church among the young educated people of Ethiopia. This did not only apply to Addis Ababa but almost to every administration and education center throughout the empire” (1975:71). There is no doubt in the Ethiopian mind that the power of the supernatural evil is real. And the only way to encounter or confront evil spirits is by the supernatural power of God. The group of people that soon assumed leadership in the movement consisted mainly of university students. Some of them had previously come into contact with missions and missionaries, but many were new converts who had no contact with anybody outside the country (Engelsviken 1975:42). Most of the leaders of the movement had a good command of English, the language of higher education. Their language skills enabled them to keep informed about

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the Christian life in other countries and receive valuable information from abroad. It also put them in contact with the literature of famous Pentecostal preachers in the United States (Engelsviken 1975:112). The fact that in the beginning the movement was propagated by students gave the message a certain weight on the one hand and suspicion on the other. Ytemare yigdelenge (“let an educated person sentence me to death”) expresses Ethiopians’ value of education and their confidence in and respect for the educated people at that time. They believed that insight from education made people wise and helped them to make the right decision. On the other hand, the traditional culture did not put much trust in the youth, who lack life experience. They said, lej yabokaw le erat aybekam (“dough prepared by a child6 will not give enough bread for dinner”). While the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and conservative traditionalists exploited the latter weak point of the Pentecostals, the majority of the society inclined towards the potency and advantage of educated people of that time. As Engelsviken put it: The strength of the Pentecostals in this situation was on the one hand it was an indigenous Ethiopian movement independent of foreign money and personnel. It could rightly claim that it is led by Ethiopians only on behalf of Ethiopians. It thus avoided what could be seen a weakness of the mission related churches. On the other hand the Pentecostal movement also represented modern education, social progress and religion not linked with the corrupt government. The student revival seemed to many young Ethiopians to be the Ethiopian church of the future” (emphasis added 1975:71).

The students in Addis Ababa, who had been affected by the revival, were increasingly used by other evangelical churches in their meetings and youth programmes. Both the youth centre of SIM in Addis Ababa and the Mekane Yesus Youth Hostel and student centre close to campus benefitted from the active, willing service of the Pentecostal Christians (1997:82ff). The students also became instrumental in the Charismatic movement in the evangelical churches. During their time of service in non-Pentecostal churches, “the students were able and willing to work according to the guidance of the denominations involved and played down the emphasis of tongues and other special manifestations of the spirit in the meetings” (1975: 82). Their presence allowed them to gain a clearer understanding and built up their credibility. “For many years students who had been renewed through contact with revival remained among the most faithful and dependable in many of the churches in Addis Ababa” (1975:82). The students at the university and the others, who had been converted, continued in their leisure time and vacations to go to towns and villages to testify and share the Good News of the gospel. Their zeal for preaching did not diminish even after they finished their studies and were assigned to work in 6

Young college and university students were considered children (lejoch).

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different sectors of government and private organizations. “It was specially jobs within the medical field as health officers and nurses, within the educational field as teachers and school directors, and within government administration as lawyers, bankers, soldiers, and administrators that gave opportunities for Christian service in the provinces” (1975:81). Many of the pioneers of the Pentecostal movement, who were university students at that time, are now holding high government positions. They are also serving the Lord in various capacities. In contrast to their peers, who once were political activists, the Pentecostals have a stable and happy life (Taddesse 1993). Most of them have families. They are very productive in their professions and ministries. The Pentecostal/Charismatic elite is one of the few remnants of the political upheaval in Ethiopia. Neither modern, Western education nor Marxism-Leninism was able to explain the spirit world of Ethiopians. Spiritual realities and dynamics cannot be explained in the equations that explain atoms and molecules. The paradigms of Immanuel Kant, Karl Marx, and Charles Darwin cannot comprehend it. The famous dictum of René Descartes, “Cogito ergo sum” (I think therefore I am), cannot rationalize the black and white magic, palm and trail reading, demon possession, or the spiritual warfare between the Spirit of God and the evil one in Ethiopian culture. To deny or ignore this phenomenon will not only make us aliens to our people. It closes channels of communication to the core of their being. Any change we attempt to bring on the worldview level to transform the society from inside out will be superficial. The main reason why Christianity in any form is still flourishing while other changes, such as Marxism and Western education, are losing ground in Ethiopian culture is that the latter did not address the issues and questions that come out of the spiritual worldview of Ethiopians. Worship Style Pentecostal worship itself attracted people to the meetings. It differed from the traditional worship of the Orthodox Church. It was also different from what was common in other Evangelical churches (Aren 1978). In the Pentecostal assembly, everybody is allowed to participate. Preaching was not restricted to the pastor. In fact, up until recently, the Pentecostal and Charismatic churches had no pastor. Members were encouraged to exercise their spiritual gifts during worship services. The individual’s personal encounter with the living God was an eloquent testimony to the truth and power of the gospel message. Life begets life, and many were attracted by the genuine conversion of sinners and by seeing the manifestations of gifts of the Holy Spirit (Engelsviken 1975:113). The Mulu Wengel (Full Gospel) Church has been especially instrumental in the

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creation of a genuinely Ethiopian treasure of Christian hymns and songs.7 Previously, most of the songs used in the evangelical churches had been translated from European languages. Both the text and the tunes were foreign to the Ethiopian Christians. Through the work of the Mulu Wengel Church choir, many Ethiopian tunes were employed. Throughout Ethiopia, young and talented Christians began to compose their melodies and write their own texts. Many of the new songs were sung all over the country. In the early 1970, other Evangelical churches began inviting the choir to serve their congregations, a practice unprecedented at that time but which served a critical role in building relationships between churches and denominations. Other church choirs were encouraged to use indigenous musical tunes, which became increasingly acceptable to the listeners. The climax of the choir’s popularity came after the Ethiopian National Radio and Radio Voice of the Gospel (RVOG), a Lutheran-sponsored radio station in Addis Ababa, broadcast the songs to the whole nation. Through these media, the gospel penetrated the religious and political establishment (see Engelsviken 1975:92-94). It is reported that Emperor Haile Selassie was so impressed that he summoned a young solo singer, Addisu Worku, to his palace. The emperor was very complimentary to the young man and remarked that his desire was that the future Ethiopia would be filled with God-fearing, Bible-believing leaders. He then offered Addisu a scholarship for overseas studies. This allowed the young man, who was at that time an accountant working for Ethiopian Airlines, an opportunity to witness to the emperor about the saving power of Jesus Christ. The gospel songs were very appealing to the daily life of the people. Musical instruments were European: the words, the philosophy of the message, and the singers were all Ethiopian. The singers were educated people who were sensitive to the trends of the younger generation, which had been torn apart by the battle between change and tradition. The music ministry also proved that songs could be very effective in reaching the Ethiopian youth. However, the choir, despite its popularity, was not spared from persecution. On numerous occasions, its members were beaten and imprisoned, and its properties were confiscated. Nevertheless, it continued to press on even during the time when the church was closed by the government and declared non-existent. By carrying the name Mulu Wengel, it helped keep the light of the gospel burning, however dimly. It brought comfort to the dispersed members and served as a symbol of perseverance for many years. The Full Gospel choir still performs, and the Mulu Wengel Chruch is open and growing.

7

This section is mainly based on my conversation with former Mulu Wengel choir leader, Getachew Mekre, and the famous solo singer Addisu Worku, who live in Southern California. See also Engelsviken (1975) and Eshete (2009).

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The Involvement of Women The importance of women in many aspects of social life was not recognized in Ethiopian culture from the beginning of the Pentecostal Movement. However, women in Pentecostal groups participated more than most women in other social and religious organizations in the country at that time (Engelsviken 1975:138ff.). They also had a role in evangelism, teaching, singing, and leading group discussions. The expanded roles of women were a radical move by Pentecostals. Young women were allowed to appear with their male friends in schools and work places. Pentecostals went further. They met in public places and in homes to have fellowship and prayer meetings. Of course, they were badly misunderstood and faced severe persecution. In their contribution to expand the kingdom of God, the Pentecostal women paid a sacrificial price. Against the cultural norms and the traditions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, Pentecostal women proclaimed Christ side by side with their Pentecostal brothers. The women’s role in Christian ministry has not been settled theologically; however, church leaders are still discussing and researching into it. Homogeneity in the Heterogeneous Context In the early Pentecostal movement, the church’s membership was composed of basically one kind of people. In church growth terminology this is called the “Homogenous Unit Principle” (HUP). Its classic expression is found in Donald A. McGavran’s Understanding of Church Growth (1980). He asserts that, “people like to become Christian without crossing racial, linguistic, or class barriers” (1980:223). A “homogenous unit” is simply a group of people who consider each other to be “our kind of people.” They have many areas of mutual interest. They share the same culture. They socialize freely. When they are together they are comfortable, and they all feel at home (see Wagner 1989:128, 136-140). Basically, the Pentecostal movement consisted of students of the modern school. They were exposed to the modern thinking, and their lifestyles crossed the ethnic, linguistic and cultural barriers that had separated their parents. Hence, the movement embraced people from the Oromo tribe with an Islamic religious background. The Tigres, Amahras, Gurages, and Sidamos and people who were searching for a deep spiritual experience from the Orthodox, Catholic, and Islamic backgrounds were included. Ethiopia consists of various ethnic groups, dialects, and religions. Addis Ababa is a cosmopolitan city. Due to differences in language, custom, and religion, the relationship between ethnic groups has never been smooth. The tension between the haves and the have-nots has been tense. The Pentecostal movement provided a community where members had a sense of belonging. The criterion for membership was not language, nor social status, nor tribal background, unlike in other social and some religious organizations.

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Membership was established on the basis of the genuine relationship of an individual with the Lord that led to the acceptance of others. Especially for those who moved to the capital from different regions of the country, the Pentecostal community was a safe haven. The sense of belonging, and the love and care of the community provided a strong bond. This cohesive community was tested, and some failed because of the current ethnocentric political system. The church was not immune to splitting, and some Christian families went through divorce because of ethnic conflict. Commenting on the severity of the ethnic conflict in Ethiopia, Professor Mesfin Wolde-Mariam, in his book The Horn of Africa: Conflict and Poverty, said, “The seriousness of the growing ethnic conflict in Ethiopia has not spared even the Houses of God. Nearly all Christian denominations have been adversely affected. Some churches have already been closed as a result” (1999:173). Costly Faith Moreover, Pentecostals refused to lower the cost of Christianity. Repentance, a fundamental change in behaviour, and sacrificial Christian service were necessary for one to become Pentecostal. There was no “cheap grace.” Religion was not allowed to be merely a pleasant tradition. Christ was preached as the most important value in life. People were encouraged and persuaded “to go and sell” all they had in order to buy the pearl of great price. Nida’s comment seems to fit a demonstrated principle of Pentecostalism: “it is not without significance that those groups which make large demands of their followers are precisely those which tend to grow most rapidly and retain their adherents most firmly” (1978:25). The rapid numerical growth of the Pentecostal/Charismatic churches in Ethiopia affirms Nida’s observation. Of course, some people dropped out due to the high cost of Christian values, but, in general, the high cost contributed to tremendous growth. “Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We’re fighting today for costly grace,” said Bonheoffer (1961:45). In the initial stage, that is exactly what the Pentecostals fought for. Forgiveness of sin was not something that priests gave to their adherents, as was the teaching of the Orthodox Church. The recommendation of the Pentecostal faith to other religious practices (mainly Ethiopian Orthodox Church rituals) was not tolerated. The leaders of the movement emphasized the New Testament standard for discipling the new converts. An inward change was expected to show itself in the fruit of righteousness, outward actions. This was a costly grace as opposed to the cheap grace. According to Bonhoeffer, “Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner” (1961:46). The Pentecostals demanded that their members be different from worldly people. A sanctified life was the mark of separation from life under sin. Engelsviken observed: “One may safely say that in the eyes of most foreign missionaries and Ethiopian observers, the Pentecostal believers were

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outstanding among Ethiopian Christians for their zeal for Christ, courage in persecution, love, for one another, and Christian living” (1975:138). The Pitfalls of the Pentecostal Movement The movement was not so much a set of doctrines as it was a spiritual experience. Personal testimony had an integral part in the message of the Pentecostal movement. Scripture was used as a proof text to their existence. “The testimonies are concrete and personal, drawn from everyday life and existence. They reflect better than anything else the deep problems and high experience of young Ethiopian Christians” (Engelsviken 1975:133). This trend of practising faith has not changed much and it is negatively affecting the depth and maturity of the believers today. From the start, partly because of a lack of biblical knowledge and partly because of theologically untrained pastors and teachers, the Scripture was used as a proof text. Experience and exercising spiritual gifts dictated the decisions of the church and the direction of the believers. As much as conversion was taken as a turning point for sinners, the biblical and cultural meaning of conversion was not fully comprehended. Irrelevant thinking and action are not only the marks of the secularist Ethiopians. Evangelical Christians cannot be free from blame. Since God is mysterious, Ethiopians think the finite cannot fathom the infinite. Up until recently, theological studies have been discouraged among the Pentecostal/Charismatic churches. Even now, theologically well-educated Ethiopians are viewed with suspicion and kept at a distance from church ministries. If there is an unused and unutilized part of the human body in advancing the cause of the kingdom in word and deed in Ethiopia, it is the Christian’s mind. Reasoning within the boundary of the Scriptures, developing theology that helps us to know God better, addressing social and economic issues, ethnocentrism, peace and reconciliation, development, justice, and contextualized education, are all lacking. Even among the brightest in the secular academic circles, engineers, economists, agronomists, artists, and medical researchers, Ethiopian Christians have not yet shown innovation that could transform the life of society. For centuries, Christians were known for their intellectual, artistic, and spiritual contributions to society. The C.S Lewis, Francis Shafer, Bach, Dostoevsky, Newton, Pascal, Mendelssohn, or Dante of Ethiopia has not been born yet. After years of rejection and persecution, the current government has given religious freedom in its true sense of the word; the season is ripe for the Evangelical churches to engage in all aspects of the society’s life to make a lasting and positive impact. Two decades of freedom has passed, but Evangelicals have yet to show leadership and influence in the areas mentioned above.

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Summary As we have seen in this and the preceding chapters, Ethiopians grew up with a supernaturalistic worldview. When they were exposed to Western education, some of them became less interested in the ultimate mystery of life and more interested in pragmatic solutions to socio-political problems. They began to view the world not in terms of some other world but in terms of the world itself. Sooner or later, many who followed this line of thought turned to Pentecostal belief. It seems, in reflecting on this history, that Pentecostalism must have provided a meaningful life in the otherwise meaningless world of the Ethiopians. People were intellectually crossing the boundary of reason, women were breaking gender taboos, and different ethnic groups were coming together in the Pentecostal movement. God performed undeniable miracles among this group. Through preaching and singing, their voices were heard from Merkato to the palace and throughout the country and beyond. From the common people to the elite, the movement provided revival and renewal. Without going beyond this level, it seems the church is facing the standardization of charisma and is in desperate need of solid organizational/denominational structural changes that allow for creative and innovative leadership. Deep spirituality, good knowledge of the Scripture, integrity, vision, broad-mindedness, and a biblical understanding of human beings and their culture are desperately needed among the Christian leaders. Christian philosophers, good theologians, innovative educators, good historians – both secular and religious – and able pastors who can shepherd the educated and complex metropolitan areas are also needed. Numerical growth without discipleship is a liability, not an asset, for the kingdom’s work.

The Challenge of Marxism in the Economic Structure

Marxism is a revolutionary theory. The most comprehensive analysis is developed in the works of Karl Marx, written in reaction to the philosophical idealism that dominated German academic life in the nineteenth century (see Marx 1975; Marx and Engels 1976). The basic concept of this theory is historical materialism. By “historical” Marx means: Social relations are closely bound with productive forces. In acquiring new productive forces men change all their social relations. The hand-mill gives you society with feudal lord, the steam-mill, society with individual capitalist (1975:45).

Kearny summarizes the core of Marx’s analysis as follows: [It is] the recognition that before people can engage in such ‘higher’ activities of the mind as philosophy, religion, and the arts they must feed and shelter themselves. Material needs are primary, and if they are not fulfilled there can be no human society and culture (1984:2).

How people organize themselves into social relationships depends on the economy. In this system of thought, people do not exist as autonomous individuals. They are a part of a system where there is injustice and exploitation. Marx’s concern was the “fate of [mankind] in a dehumanizing system of social relationships” (Lochman 1975:48). In his economic and philosophical manuscripts, Marx described the political, economic and human misery of his contemporaries (1975). Despite the United States’ efforts to keep Ethiopia in harmony with the West, Marxist ideology found great acceptance among the Ethiopian intelligentsia. Marx’s emphasis on the social dimension of human life found a fertile ground in the socio-economic structure of the imperial government. Like the founders (i.e. Marx, Engels, and Lenin) the Ethiopian Marxists concerned themselves with the problem of human labour and economic needs. Economy under Haile Selassie: The Role of the U.S. Since the main cause of the revolution was economic (Abate and Wubeneh 1987; Markakis and Ayele 1986; Giorgis 1989), an overview of the past and present economic conditions is necessary. Prior to the revolution, as with

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Ethiopia’s new, modern education, its capitalistic economy was designed and funded by the United States government. The main factor that caused the United States to adopt a reciprocally favourable attitude towards Ethiopia was the consideration that “Ethiopia had become one of the states opposing Axis aggression to be freed from its domination” (Spencer 1987:103). After World War II, with various economic assistance aids and loans, the United States anxiously embarked on a rehabilitation programme in Ethiopia. “On the first anniversary of Pearl Harbor 7 December 1942, the United States found Ethiopia eligible for Lend-Lease assistance and later arranged for Ethiopia to become a beneficiary of UNRRA (UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) endowments” (1987:103). In that same year, the United States began to implement its programme in Ethiopia (1987:144ff.). Before many bilateral and co-operative efforts were launched, an American technical mission studied Ethiopia’s economy in 1945 (Marcus 1983:5). The mission’s primary suggestion for improvement of the country’s economy was the intensification of modernized agriculture (Holocmb and Ibssa 1990:262). With a series of five-year plans, Ethiopia embarked on a modernized programme aimed at increasing production and moving the country towards capitalist development (1990:263ff.; Schwab 1972:94-144). The USAID sent five faculty members of Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, now Oklahoma State University, to Ethiopia in order to introduce a school of agriculture, a countrywide system of agricultural expansion services to the people of rural areas, and an agricultural and research experiment station. In Jimma and Harer, the Oklahoma team helped the government of Ethiopia to establish the Jimma Agricultural and Technical School, which was opened on 13 October 1952, and the Alemaya Agricultural University. The college began to function on 1 October 1955 (Erlich 1986; Ahmed 1994:453ff.). Besides teaching in the college, the Oklahomans worked with the surrounding farmers of Almaya on small irrigation pumps, research stations, and demonstration centres. As a result farmers in the vicinity of the college began to produce vegetables, which were marketed through a vegetable marketing cooperative. Farmers also received technical and practical assistance in raising poultry to produce high quality eggs for export to Djibouti (Ahmed 1994:444445). The United States’ ally, Sweden, had the same programme in Arsi. Chilalo Agricultural Development Unit (CADU), which later came to be known as Arsi Rural Development Unit (ARDU) had similar success. CADU raised the standard of living for the peasant population in the region. The change it brought about impacted the whole rural community and beyond. Several areas benefitted from innovation and dissemination of agricultural inputs, such as improved seeds, fertilizers, appropriate farm implements, animal breeding, production and health, road construction, water development, women’s welfare, youth welfare, co-operatives, farm management, marketing network and services for the peasants’ agricultural products, post-harvest facilities,

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credit system, and small and rural industrialization. Its innovative programmes can be exemplified by its successful development of the first barley variety for the beer breweries of the country, which previously had to be imported (Abate and Wubeneh 1987; Habte G. Selassie 1994). However, the peasants who settled on the land and owned the land had to be evicted by force, and with no compensation they were asked to forfeit their rights. Behind this great success story, there was injustice, pain, and mistreatment by the government. Paulos Milkias summarizes: In the Chilalo district of Arsi with the advent of mechanized agriculture owned either by traditional landlords or the rising urban bourgeoisie, 20% of the tenant farmers were forcibly evicted from the land on which their forefathers have lived for hundreds of years. Many of these people had no employment opportunities not only because of a lack of education and modern skills but also because no jobs were available for them. They were thus reduced to petty thievery, vandalism, prostitution, and pauperism (2006:69)

Prior to 1974, a commercial farm helped Ethiopia to be self-sufficient in sugar and cotton production (Teffera 1992:28). A major success in Ethiopia’s economic programme was the growth of the coffee industry, which accounted for about half of the nation’s exports. “Ethiopia’s coffee export rose from 36,670 tons in the 1958-1959 season to 52,885 in 1959-60, to 55,160 in 19601961, to 59,885 in 1961-1962, to 68,535, in 1962-1963 and a record 75,642 in 1963-1964” (Schwab 1972:94). The United States was the chief destination for Ethiopia’s coffee, and hence the vital player in the country’s economy. Ethiopia also became the only country in northeastern Africa that had a dollarbased currency (Ahmed 1994:463). Furthermore: In the early sixties the national product rose from E$2,351,800,000 in 1961 to E$2,430,100,000 in 1962, E$2,538,600,000 in 1963, E$2,891,900,000 in 1964, E$3,307,800,000 in 1965 and E$3,484,500,000 in 1966” (Schwab 1972:94-95).

Ethiopia’s economic growth was mainly due to external donors and lenders. If it was a superficial economic prosperity, it certainly reinforced the dependency of the people on those who have resources, which was learned during the feudal system and the paternalistic, imperial government of Emperor Haile Selassie. Building the economy of the country with the dollars of donors and lenders, it was customary for Haile Selassie to distribute birr (Ethiopian currency) to the residents and students of towns and schools he visited in different regions of the country. The following table shows the vital role the United States played in changing Ethiopia from a feudalistic state to a semicapitalistic state.

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1

Alemaya College of Agriculture & Mechanical Arts and Jimma Agriculture and Technical School

9,060,000

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Agricultural Department Blue Nile River Basin Investigation Water Resources Development Community Water Supply Industrial Development Regional Public Works National Airline Training Programme Air Transportation Development Public Health Malaria Eradication Education Haile Selassie I University Public Administration and Safety Low-cost Urban Housing Community Development Radio Communication Mapping and Geography Communication Media Centre Other Economic programmes Surplus Agricultural Community Assistance Sec. 402 a. Locust Control b. Makalle and Dessie Public Health Centre c. Radio Communication d. Army Technical Training Centre e. Highway Development

4,937,000 3,100,000 1,273,000 2,076,000 502,000 1,040,000 1,160,00 433,000 4,643,000 1,158,000 6,241,000 1,100,000 818,000 230,000 178,000 178,000 1,114,000 439,000 2,371,00

Total

178,000 80,000 294,000 596,000 1,500,000 2,600,000 44,993,000

Table 2 United States Economic Grant Assistance To Ethiopia (Adapted From Ahmed 1994:458) Figures released by the U.S. in April 1962 revealed that U.S. assistance to Ethiopia between 1952-1961 totalled US $99 million; economic aid amounted to $44 million, loans to $47.2 million and agricultural commodities to $6.9 million (Schwab 1972:110). 1

2

Export Import Bank Loans a. Air transportation development b. Jet airlines Development loan fund a. Development construction b. Jet aircraft facilities c. Highway maintenance equipment d. Forest products

$8,5000.000 $9,900,000 $18,400,000 $19,500,000 $3,100,000 $3,600,000 $180,000

The Challenge of Marxism in the Economic Structure e. f.

Cotton textile facilities Development Bank of Ethiopia

Total

111 $500,000 2,000,000 28,880,00 $47,280,000

Table 3 United States Loans to Ethiopia F.Y. 1956-1961 (Adapted from Ahmed 1994:464) 1. 2.

Title II-Emergency Relief $6,300,000 Title III-Voluntary Relief Agencies $ 600,000 Total

$6,900,000

Table 4 Agricultural Community Grants (Adapted from Ahmed 1994:464) USAID announced in September 1966 a $21.7 million loan to Ethiopia for the construction of a hydro-electric power station on the Fincha River, 100 miles from Addis Ababa. A $17,000 USAID grant announced at the same time was made available to establish a livestock breeding centre in the south, and an additional grant of $170,000 was negotiated to provide water for this project (Schwab 1972:110ff.). Other aid, loans, and foreign partners also had a part in Haile Selassie’s economic programme, including: the then-Soviet Union, Israel, Britain, France, India, Japan, the Scandinavian countries, Italy, the World Bank, International Finance Corp (IFC) (see Schwab 1972:94-114). Reflecting on the prosperity and productivity of Ethiopia, Ahmed writes, “Mainly due to the assistance of USAID, Ethiopia of the 1950, and the 1960 was thought of as the bread basket of the Middle East” (1994:462). Paradoxically, however, Ethiopia did not have enough bread in her basket to feed her own citizens during the 1973-1974 famine in Wallo (Giorgis 1989). The famine was one of the factors that triggered the 1974 political change and brought the centuries-old monarchy to its knees. For this reason, the economic prosperity was superficial. As David Bosch, rightly said: “The best I can give somebody is to enable him to become a giver” (1979:71). The fact that Ethiopians are still languishing in grinding poverty and the country is always on the receiving end indicates the need to re-evaluate the donors/lenders relationship with Ethiopia and their principles of financial assistance to the country. Obviously, something is wrong. People in the IMF, World Bank, including Christian agencies like World Vision and Compassion International are good in describing Ethiopian poverty. What is needed is to address the causes of poverty and empower the nation to be self-sufficient. Unless the country is free from external intervention and internal instability, it is hard to make economic progress.

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Socialist Revolt Despite the USAID, and other foreign loans and grants, and despite the tremendous success in agricultural products, workers were living under strenuous economic conditions. The 17,000 teachers, who constituted more than half of the country’s professional stratum, the army, the Confederation of Ethiopian Labor Unions (CELU), and employees of the civil aviation all demanded satisfaction of economic grievances on different days in the early months of 1974. They also demanded fundamental change in the socioeconomic and political structures, which were deemed the cause of the country’s problems (Makarkis and Ayele 1986:77-102; Giorgis 1989, and Milkias 2006). The change in the structure of economy during the modernization period was not associated with an improvement in the economic standing of various sectors of Ethiopian society. Economic grants enriched individuals at the expense of mass participation (Ahmed 1994; Marcus 1983). The leadership did not commit its energies to backing aid programmes that would enable communities to achieve the kind of success that would foster further success (Ahmed 1994:463). Marcus observed, “The disproportionate investment was natural enough but also stemmed from Haile Selassie’s penchant for showmanship and his desire to be associated with every outward aspect of change in Ethiopia. It was government policy to attribute every development to the emperor, sustaining his claim to be the sole innovator on the Ethiopian scene. Regrettably his vision was myopic, his edifices and monuments testified to bad planning and insubstantial formalism, revealing only the appearance of progress” (1983:98). The “appearance of progress” the emperor built, having his stamp of approval on every development sector, made him the lynchpin of the country for fifty years. He was seen as a fatherly figure in Africa and a progressive king in the rest of the world. It was all about him. Haile Selassie’s economic structure did not lay a basis for the evolution of social and political democracy. Neither did it demonstrate recognition of the importance in the balance of trade. Abate and Wubeneh comment: Ethiopia’s foreign trade was consistently in deficit from 1963 to 1974 with the exception of 1973, when a combination of unusually small rises in import values resulted in favorable surplus of $22 million. The unfavorable trade balance throughout the 1960s and early 1970s forced the country’s economy to need rescuing by foreign grants and loans. Thus it is hardly surprising that Ethiopia’s outstanding international debt was increasing at an alarming rate. Ethiopia’s debt in 1968 was $130 million; by 1973 it had jumped to $237 million, a rise of approximately $21 million per year (1987:83).

In 1975, the military regime proclaimed its commitment to righting the wrongs of the Haile Selassie government. It prepared the way for economic freedom, social justice, equal rights, and so on by “clipping the imperial wings

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– through nationalization of palaces, abolition of the crown council, the Ministry of the Imperial court (chilot), his special chief of staff – and directing his person through the disclosure and nationalization of his vast financial empire” (Markakis and Ayele 1986:112ff.). In order to implement the socialistic economy, the Derg nationalized urban and rural lands, urban houses, private and government companies, transportation, tractors, and personal capital. Despite these economic reforms, Ethiopia faced “severe economic difficulties, with soaring inflation, deepening dependency on foreign aid, a high unemployment rate, and a deteriorating balance of payments” (Abate and Wubeneh 1987:107ff.). The government owned everything and utterly mismanaged it. A third of the nearly 150 factories (by official estimates) were no longer in operation. The remaining active factories operated far below capacity. This was partly due to a shortage of raw materials and of foreign exchange reserves (Senbet 1992:12ff.; Teffera 1992:28ff.).1 Economic Consequences of Eritrea’s Secession “Few territories have been as intensely affected by foreign intervention as Eritrea” (Sishagne 2007:2). Without understanding the background of these interventions, it is difficult to clearly understand the 1990 Eritrean secession. Coastal Eritrea was occupied in 1520 by the Portuguese and later by the Turks and Egyptians (Milkias 2006:266). Shumet Sishagne adds, “A major gateway to the extensive commercial contacts of the Axumite kingdom in the first six centuries of Christian era, the Eritrean coastline came under increasing pressure first from Arab expansion and later from the Ottoman Empire, which culminated in the seizure of the port of Massawa in 1557” (2007:2).2 In the eighteenth century, Egypt had made two attempts to colonize or annex Eritrea that were repulsed by Emperor Yohannes IV. Eritrea existed as an Italian colony from 1890 to 1941. After the Second World War a British military administration took over in a temporary capacity and controlled Eritrea for another eleven years, until the proclamation of its autonomy and federation with Ethiopia (Erlich 1986:43-81, 213-225). During the 1942 negotiations with the British on the Eritrean issue, the acquisition of seaports remained the ultimate challenge: 1

From 1960 to 1974, private foreign investment averaged $18 million per year. By 1978, as state control was tightened, private foreign investment ceased completely. The state became the only borrower of foreign capital from multilateral agencies. This did not help expand the country’s production capabilities. It simply increased the debt service ratio from 7.4 in early 1978 to 16.8 percent in 1984 (compare to 11.4 percent in early 1970). Prior to 1974, private foreign investment encouraged domestic capital formation. For example, domestic entrepreneurs were able to own 52 percent of investment in joint venture manufacturing enterprises (Teffera 1992:29). 2 For an in-depth look on Eritrea see Unionists and Separatists: The Vagaries of EthioEritrean Relations, by Shumet Sishagne (2007).

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Without a seacoast, Ethiopia could not hope to achieve independence in commerce, communications, foreign trade, foreign exchange, fiscal and financial matters or national defense (Spencer 1987:141).

Before Eritrea became independent, in the late eighties and early nineties, it accounted for one-third of Ethiopia’s industrial output and most of Ethiopia’s cargo transits through the port of Asseb, which was developed as a major port only in the late 1950s. During Haile Selassie’s time there were insurgents who tried to create havoc in favor of an independent Eritrea. Because of the support of the U.S. and a strong central government, the separatists were unable to establish viable organizational and military power. The weakening of Haile Selassie’s government in the early 1970s, the famine, and the deluge of demonstrations against the regime fanned the flames of the issue of nationalism in Eritrea. Stating the cause of the descent into secession, Sishagne writes, “The secessionist war began as an exclusively Muslim affair, confined to the pastoral regions of the Western lowlands. Throughout the 1960s the forces of the Eritrean Liberation Front spent much of the time fighting Christian Eritrean peasants as they did the government forces (2007:9). The interest of the Muslims in seeing an independent Eritrea has deep roots. Since the Turks occupied Eritrea in the fifteenth century, the Arab world has been looking for an opportunity to achieve their dream. Describing the recent case, Sishagne says: Foreign influence and support played a decisive role in the creation and consolidation of the secessionist insurgency in Eritrea. The 1950s and early 1960s witnessed heightened political activity among Ethiopia’s neighbors Gamal Abdul Nasser’s takeover in Egypt (1952), the independence of the Sudan (1956) and Somalia (1960), the military coup in Iraq (1958), the civil war in Yemen (1962), and the growth of militant Arab nationalism and Islamic solidarity influenced development in Eritrea…New Strategic considerations combined with traditional suspicion towards what was considered as the predominantly Christian empire of Ethiopia, inspired Muslim and Arab states to take a special interest in the situation in Eritrea (2007:130).

The divide-and-rule method of Haile Selassie’s leadership and his incompetence in dealing with the real social and economic problems of Eritreans like other nationalities in Ethiopia contributed to the secessionist cause. The plunder, random execution, rape, and brutal treatment by the Derg’s soldiers caused many young Eritreans to join the EPLF and escalated the seventeen years of war. As the secession of Eritrea became real, Teffera predicted, “If Eritrea intended to use Asseb and Massawa for a negative impact on Ethiopia’s economy, and Ethiopia’s external trade will be hampered. The resource-rich, central and southern regions of Ethiopia will be landlocked” (1992). However, the best prospects for economic integration of the Horn/Red

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Sea region lie in enhanced Eritrean-Ethiopian relations, building on the experience and frameworks developed during the past fifty years. Geography, cultural affinities, and economic logic all argue for the closest co-operation between Ethiopia and Eritrea – for neither can lose; both can gain” said a friendly foreign observer at the dawn of the secession (Henze 1993:38, 41-42). Indeed, there was a peaceful and mutually beneficial agreement that could have given stability to the war-torn region and socio-economic development to the people who had been devastated by dictatorial leadership and war. Below is the selected agreement between Eritrea and Ethiopia: 1. The Agreement of Friendship and Cooperation between the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE) and the State of Eritrea signed in July 1993 is precisely a testimony to the spirit of friendship and cooperation that characterized, at the time, the relationship between the two states, governments, and peoples. It foresaw activities of “mutual advantage” in practically every field with the ultimate aim of “gradual evolution of the two economies and societies into a higher level of integration in accordance with “the commitment of both countries to bring about regional economic integration and political cooperation” (Art.1). The Agreement further called for the gradual elimination of all trade barriers between the two countries and the harmonization of customs policies, as well as the use by Ethiopia of Assab and Massawa as free ports (Art 4). The free movement of people and the harmonization of immigration laws was[sic] also agreed upon (Art.5). Cooperation in the financial and monetary fields (Art. 9), cooperation and consultations in “realizing common objectives” in matters of foreign policy (Art 10), and cooperation at the national and regional levels in border areas (Art. 12) were all important parts of the Agreement. 2. Subsequent to this, several agreements were signed by respective joint ministerial committees set up in accordance with the July Agreement. One of these dealt with the harmonization of economic policies, signed on September 1993. This is where it was agreed that the birr continue as the common currency until Eritrea issued its own currency (Art. 1). Here too, the agreements were wideranging and quite forward-looking. The harmonization of “exchange rate policies…with the aim of establishing uniform exchange rates” (Art. 1.1.), the harmonization of interest rate structures (Art. 1.2.), the creation of common inflation-control mechanisms (1.3), and the synchronization of policies related to foreign exchange (1.4) were all laid down. 3. In the field of trade (Art. 3), the free movement of goods and services for local consumption in both countries was agreed upon, with the exception “of those goods in short supply whose movement depends on their supply availability and related trade policies” (Art. 3.1). Goods imported from third countries were to move freely (Art. 3.2), but there was to be no re-exportation of goods and services originating from one contracting party to a third country (Art. 3.3). 4. In the area of investment, besides the call for joint-investments, there was an agreement, in principle, that national investors of both countries have the same and equal treatment in both countries (Art. 4). Another Protocol Agreement on

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Co-operation in the Field of Planning and Economic Development was signed on 27 September 1993, where the two parties agreed to “endeavour to co-ordinate planning in social policies and the usage of human, material and financial resources” (Art. 2.3) and “the planning of strategic industries, railway, roads, ports, air transport, major financial institutions,” including the exchange of “social and economic statistics to coordinate their planning and development endeavours were all important” (Art. 4.5). 5. The Protocol Agreement on the Free Movement of people and Establishment of Residence of 23 September 1993 is another important document. Here, it was agreed that visas would not be required for nationals of both countries to enter or leave Eritrea and Ethiopia. A valid passport or ID card was all that was required (Art.1). Unlimited residence to nationals of both countries was granted without the requirement of work permits (Art. 2). Each country was to “allow citizens of the other to engage in commercial, business, and other similar gainful activities in its territory. In furtherance of this objective, each contracting party undertakes to grant no less favourable[sic] treatment than that accorded to its own nationals” (Art.3). The only restriction appears in Article 4 where it was provided that “each country reserves the right of refusal to enter or remain in its territory to (sic) any citizen of the other country where it considers the entry or presence of such citizen undesirable.”3

Despite such an agreement, disagreeable implementations of trades, a port tax, the free movement of people, citizenship issues, currency issues, and issues surrounding farming and grazing land in the Badme area, resulted in an escalation in the conflict and led to the 1999 war that caused thousands of deaths on both sides. For these two poor African countries, the cost of war was enormous. Both sides had increased the size of their armies from 50-80,000 to their present 300,000. In December 1998 alone, Ethiopia spent at least 150 million on eight Sukhoi 27 fighters while Eritrea paid the same amount for up to eight MiG 29 interceptors, probably not including technical support. Both sides are estimated to have spent $1 million a day since the conflict broke out in May 1998. Eritrea had obtained funds from the Gulf states, particularly Qatar and Libya. This latter source has caused considerable concern in Washington and Tel Aviv. The main weapon suppliers were: Russia and Bulgaria to both sides, Italy to Eritrea, China and France to Ethiopia. When the UN tried to impose an arms embargo on both countries, it was blocked by France, Russia, and China. They were making good profit from these poor countries, who perceived “war as sport.”4 The conflict resulted in the deportation of 52-75,000 ethnic Eritreans from Ethiopia and 42-50,000 Tigreans and other ethnic groups from Eritrea. More than 1.2 million people were displaced. Ethiopia had to look for a port in 3

See The Cause of the Eritrean-Ethiopian Border Conflict, by Alemseged Tesfaye: http://www.dehai.org/conflict/analysis/alemsghed1.html 4 Africa BBC News, Thursday 18 May 2000 10:46 GMT 11:46 UK and The Independent by Nicole Winfield, Saturday 13 May 2000.

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Djibouti for imports and exports. Obviously, it cost the country more than what she used to pay for Asseb during the agreement. At the height of the conflict, according to UNICEF, women and children were waiting for food rations in Ethiopia’s famine-threatened Tigray region. More than 11 million people in Ethiopia (including 1,920,000 children less than five years of age and 960,000 pregnant or lactating women) continue to be at risk. The UN World Food programme estimated that there were 16 million people at risk of starvation in the Horn of Africa at that time. Responding to the accusation of the UN for spending money on a senseless war while people were starving, Meles rejected the accusation, saying that, “poor countries like his should not be asked to put a full stomach before protecting their homeland.” When the war ended, a UN force of 4,200 was deployed along the border to supervise the ceasefire.5 For a country perceived as a symbol of hope and freedom by the black race globally, to be losing Eritrea and be policed by the UN soldiers is a scar on a national pride and a huge disappointment to all who look at Ethiopia and Ethiopians as freedom lovers. The Issue of Poverty After going through modernization and the Marxist revolution, Ethiopia continues to be “the sick child of the international economy” (Senghor 1989:24). Ethiopia, “which has earned the unhappy honor of being rated the globe’s poorest country in the World Bank (average annual per capita income: $110; infant mortality rate: 16:8%)” (Serill 1987:35) has been on the brink of disaster time and again. Describing Ethiopia’s economic condition after the Marxist revolution, Demeksa writes, “The poverty level in Ethiopia is unacceptably low even by African standards. Among the group of countries categorized as ‘least developed countries’ by the United Nations, Ethiopia stands out as an absolutely impoverished economy with a population of 50 million continuously living on the verge of starvation” (1992:25). Many factors may explain Ethiopia’s poor economy, including a war on various fronts with Somalia (Ottaway 1978; Giorgis 1989). As we saw earlier in this book: Because of its strategic significance, the Horn has been a zone of superpowers conflict by proxy. The Warsaw pact on the one hand, and NATO and its allies on the other, have actively sought clients in the region and, by arming these clients and promoting disputes, have turned this part of Africa into a dangerous and unstable powder keg. The Horn [was] more militarized in per capita terms than almost anywhere else in the Third World and its militarization had contributed to 5

Background to the border dispute between Eritrea and Ethiopia, by Hans van der Splinter, http://www.eritrea.be/old/eritrea-ethiopia.htm. BBC News, Friday 14 April 2000 09:02 GMT 10:22 UK. The Independent, by Nicole Winfield, Saturday 13 May 2000.

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the regions poverty. The main beneficiaries of the militarization of the Horn of Africa [were] the Russians and the Americans (emphasis mine Hancock 1986:52).

In the period from 1963 to 1973, the USSR provided $181 million of arms to Somalia, as compared with $190 million worth of total arms transferred to Ethiopia from Western countries, much of it from the U.S. (Hoffman 1980:135, 159). Arms trade was an investment for the super-powers but a great financial pain for Ethiopians. “The iniquities of the arms trade reflect a broader trading system that consistently takes more than it gives” (Hancock 1986:57). For example, when famine struck the country in 1984-85, it killed 800,000 people. Another 7 million, who were doomed to die, were saved with relief food donated through international aid (Gamachu 1990:162; Hareide 1990:199-201). Ethiopia, which desperately needs to concentrate most of her resources on development, spent some $440 million each year during that period on its military forces. Because of the war with Ogaden, Eritrea, and the TPLF (Tigre People’s Liberation Front), Ethiopia’s dependence on her then-ally the Soviet Union deepened. Ethiopia ended up with a staggering $3 billion debt, with an estimated annual payment of $200 million. Total external debt to the West in 1986 stood at around one billion dollars and, according to International Monetary Fund (IMF), this figure stood to double in 1990 (Hancock 1986:5258; Holcomb and Clay 1986). Supposedly, both the U.S. and Russia are two super-powers who claim to fight injustice, exploitation, suppression, and poverty and claimed to be a voice for the voiceless and hope for the desperate people or nations in this world. As history and facts indicate, Ethiopia’s flirtation with and allegiance to capitalism or Marxism left her people with an empty stomach and a beggar’s bowl. Both Haile Selassie and Mengistu were too myopic to be aware the so-called development they tried to implement was built on “a dangerous and unstable powder keg,” created by the very donors, patrons, and lenders with which they engaged. The political chess game in the Horn of Africa was beyond the skill of the Ethiopian leaders. Instead of participating in the game, they always end up being a pawn in the hands of an International Grandmasters, who always outsmarted its clients during the opening, middle, and endgame of the global, political chess game. I have lived in the United States on and off for about three decades. Having read the history of this nation and having interacted with many American friends, eating, laughing and crying with them, it is against my conscience to give a statement that sounds stereotypical of the American people. What I discovered instead is that the Americans I have come to know and the foreign policies of the U.S. towards Ethiopia are very different. I am compelled to mention the magnanimous virtue of Americans that made a tremendous difference in the history, economy, and even existence of some nations in our world. After World War II, Europe was crippled by poverty, disease, unemployment, and severe winter weather. Factories were not operating, the

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railways were nonfunctional, the means of transportation were hampered, and people could hardly afford extra clothing and food on the table. The continent was on the verge of collapse and prone to fall under the heavy hand of the Marxist Soviet Union. At this critical and vulnerable time, the United States intervened through the Marshall Plan and granted over 12.5 billion dollars to Europe. The Europe Recovery Program (ERP) was passed by Congress, and it was as uncontroversial as social security. The response of Europe is worth mentioning here in order to understand the other face of Americans: Churchill hailed ERP as ‘the most unsordid act in human history.’ The London Economist described it as ‘the most straightforward, generous thing that any country has ever done for others.’ Thirty months later, when England was back on its feet, the Manchester Guardian said, ‘Ordinary thanks are inadequate. Here is one of the most brilliant successes in the history of international relations.’ Hugh Gaitskell, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, added, ‘We are not an emotional people…and not very articulate, but these characteristics should…not hide the real and profound sense of gratitude toward the American people.’ Across the channel from England, the continent was transformed. Malnutrition vanished, people would dress warmly in winter, raw material moved swiftly, pulled by new diesel locomotives on new railroad tracks; the Saar and the Ruhr sprang to life, and factories were busier than they had been before the war. In 1951 the Marshall Plan would lead directly to Jean Monnet’s Coal and Steel Company. Six years after the Coal and the Steel Community would lead to the treaty of Rome and the European Economic Community, or Common Market, which would grow in power until it would compete with the United States and the Soviet Union as equals (William Manchester 1974:444).

This is just one of the United States’ many generous and upright interventions for the good of others in world history. Because of its recovery act, within a few years of the end of the war, Japan was enjoying a balanced budget and a relatively small public debt. Though its economy was flattened to the ground after World War II, it became the most prosperous nation in Asia. Through the effective leadership and influence of General MacArthur, land reform was implemented, women gained the right to vote and own a property, the Emperor was reduced to a symbol, and the Diet (the assembly) was empowered to make laws. The feudal industry was abolished, and civil rights were guaranteed (James C. Humes 1998: 126-132). Today, Japan is one of the seven economic powers in the world competing with the United States, the very country that pulled her out of the mire. The American psyche enjoys competition and detests perpetual dependency. It is an enigma why the U.S is more tolerant with Ethiopia than most Americans would be with their own children. Had it not been for U.S intervention and its financial and material support, Israel would not be where it is today. To cite one example, in the Yom Kippur War of October 1973, Nixon’s intervention and support of Israel, despite even

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the hesitation of Henry Kissinger, who is a Jew, saved Israel from destruction. While the Soviets were steadily supporting their allies, Nixon’s airlift to Israel exceeded what the USSR had given to Syria and Egypt. This magnanimous act had a huge implication on the Horn of Africa, particularly Ethiopia. Why did the U.S. money and intervention not bring the same results in Ethiopia as it did in Europe, Japan, or Israel? Is the problem from the donor, the recipient, or from both? This is a good subject that needs a separate study than the one I am dealing with now. But it is crucial both for the U.S. and Ethiopian leaders to engage in soul-searching to stop the perpetual dependency, poverty, and instability in the region. As I will show later, Americans became highly involved in Ethiopia from the first day that the current government took a position on the country. Has the United States’ approach changed since the time of Haile Selassie? Is it listening to the Ethiopian intelligentsia at home and abroad? Does it still have the same attitude towards Ethiopia, using her as a means to an end? Is there a better accountability system for the funds the U.S. is pouring into the country? Will Ethiopia be another political chessboard for the U.S. and China to show their muscle in the Horn of Africa? Are Ethiopians living a better life today than they did during Haile Selassie’s or Mengistu’s time because of the U.S involvement and funding? The root cause of Ethiopia’s poverty goes beyond the conflict and interest of the super-powers in the region. Like other sub-Saharan African countries, Ethiopia’s economy and development suffer from demography, desertification, dependency, disequilibrium, and debt (Senghor 1989; Hancock 1986). These are the fundamental factors underlying the Ethiopian development problems, which consist of not one crisis but of a multitude of debilitating crises.6 The issue of poverty is one of the challenges facing the Evangelical church and para-church leaders. Famine, drought, and war have been devastating the people. During the mid-eighties and early nineties, one was immediately struck by semi-starved and painful looks of many pedestrians on the streets of Addis Ababa. The role of the church of Jesus Christ in Ethiopian society is crucial. Christians are called to be salt and light to the community they serve (Mt. 5:1314). The gospel commands us to love our neighbour (Mt. 5:43; Jas 2:3). Such love requires not only evangelism but also social service (Mt.5:16; James 2:1425). If we truly love our neighbours, we will be concerned for their total welfare. For “our neighbour is neither a bodiless soul, nor a soulless body that we should care for its welfare alone, nor even a body-soul isolated from society. God created man [woman], who is my neighbour, a body-soul-in community” (Stott 1975:29). By discovering the felt needs of the community and designing church programmes that will meet those needs, churches can use social services as an evangelistic means (Wagner 1981:38ff.). Furthermore, Wagner argues that 6

See also Teffera (1992), Demeksa (1992), Aria (1992), Senbet (1991, 1993), Selassie (1994), Belay (1994), Ahmed (1994).

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social ministry can be a means toward the end of winning souls, or it can be an end in itself. The church’s involvement in social ministry can be “a straightforward demonstration of God’s justice in the world” (1981:30). Love expresses itself in service where it sees need” (Stott 1975:30). John 5:1-8 gives us a biblical justification for doing good whether or not men and women are brought to faith in Christ as the result of it (Wagner 1981:39). The most effective way of doing social service is to encourage people to go through “the process by which God reshapes persons into newness and intention for them” (Elliston 1989:130). Christian service, if properly implemented, can bring peace, justice, and freedom. For “development is based on relationships, but its goal is transformation – the creation of new communities in which people live in harmony under God and enjoy the basic necessities of life” (Elliston 1989:85; Escobar and Driver 1970:8-9; Nicholas 1986; Costas 1989; Tonna 1985). The new community of the redeemed has a responsibility, if not a mandate, to show a radically transformed economic relationship. As Sider observes, “The present quality of life among the people of God is to be a sign of a coming perfection and justice which will be revealed when the kingdoms of this world finally and completely become the kingdom of our Lord at his second coming” (1974:79). To this, Kraybill adds, “Persons who have their heart in the kingdom won’t be tantalized by excessive profits. When the kingdom is our treasure, we switch from hoarding to giving. When we focus completely on the kingdom and liberally share wealth, we not only restore and liberate the poor also ourselves! We are freed from fretful anxiety. We are released from the bondage of wrong” (1973:116). Even Haile Selassie, a professing Christian, was not guided by kingdom principles, let alone Mengistu and Meles, who did not make a public declaration of an allegiance to God. While Haile Selassie and his family were hoarding their wealth, the masses were living with hunger pangs. The church can play a significant role in this aspect. Changing life and transforming the society through the kingdom principles is something that neither the modernists nor the Marxists achieved. When the EPRDF (Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front) took power in 1991, an economic crisis of high magnitude was one of the problems they inherited, which was partly and indirectly caused by them. During the seventeen years of civil war, Ethiopia lost enormous human and natural resources, and the country had no respite to be economically productive. On top of that, in the name of the Marxist revolution, the nationalization of industrial and commercial enterprises severely affected the urban community. In losing urban land, extra houses, transportation and farming vehicles, and savings and investments, the Ethiopians who were economically well-off were hit the hardest. The economic situation of the country went from bad to worse. Describing the situation, Abate and Wubeneh comment, “Severe shortage in housing, food supply, and imported items; the soaring inflation; and the continuing unemployment have affected the urban areas the most” (1988:103).

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All of the informants I interviewed related the economic problems to Mengistu’s militarization programme and the seventeen years of civil war. Crisis and disillusionment among the urban youth was prevalent. With a sense of despair and discouragement, they wandered aimlessly in the city of Addis Ababa. The generation that was supposed to be productive was economically dependent. The soaring economic problems after the revolution caused family disintegration and resulted in an escalation of prostitution and crime. The economic and social problems are of concern to the denominational leaders, pastors, evangelists, and all Christians. Mengistu left the country wrecked by civil war, starvation, malnourished children, orphans, and dysfunctional families. After the collapse of the Marxist government and for the foreseeable future, the mission field of the church presumably will look extremely demanding and complicated. Wallace commented, “Once severe distortion has occurred, the society can with difficulty return to a steady state without the institution of a revitalization process. Without revitalization, indeed, the society is apt to disintegrate as a system: the population will die off, splinter into autonomous groups, or be absorbed into another more stable society” (1970:148). In the light of Wallace’s comment, I will give a candid assessment of the EPRDF’s role of leadership in Ethiopia in the last two decades in a different chapter. After eleven years of exile, I had the opportunity to visit my country during the summer of 1990. It was very difficult for me to believe the degrading standard of living, the violation of human rights, and the insecurity and fear that people were going through. The Marxist government who had the unreserved support of the Soviet Union and other communist countries, treated Ethiopians like King Leopold II treated the Congolese, all in the name of freedom, equality and justice. Paulos Milkias described the picture of Mengistu’s Ethiopia succinctly: Others who disappeared from the streets were herded into jails and detention centers where they languished without even knowing the crimes they were accused of. In some cases, streets were made for personal vendetta, having nothing whatsoever to do with the political activity of the individual in question. And in most cases, people were either killed or arrested and sent to torture chambers because their opinion differed from that of the Derg. Of the tens of thousands who simply vanished during the reign of terror, most were murdered by the Derg’s secret police or one of the bands of Urban Dwellers’ vigilante who routinely terrorized the cities and towns of Ethiopia. Funerals were strictly forbidden, and Kebelle’s policy (Urban Dwellers’ Associations that unleashed trigger happy vigilantes throughout the neighborhoods) even went so far as to force relatives of the slain men and women to pay for the bullets used to kill their loved ones. Secret police of the regime arrested and tortured men, women, and children regardless of age, profession, religion, or social class. Within the free months of

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the “Free Action” proclamation, prison and detention centers were filled to capacity. The conditions in these dungeons and urban dwellers penitentiaries were appalling. Scores of inmates were confined 24 hours a day in tiny cells originally constructed to hold only two to four people with only a very brief toilet break and exercise period. Meals were scarce if available at all; in many cases, those who did not have relatives to bring them food were simply left to starve to death. There were long interrogations and torture sessions. The torture involved tying and beating the soles of victims’ feet. One common torture method was dubbed “Wofé La La!” in which detainees were hung upside down with their hands and feet tied together. In other cases, bottles filled with water were suspended from the scrotums of male victims; foreign objects such as broomsticks were plunged into women’s genitals. The rape of female prisoners, some no older than 11 years of age, was routine. Children were also forced to witness the torture of their mothers (2006:259-260).

The barbaric mentality and torture, which was worse than a primitive society could do to its own people, was a product of Ethiopian culture, Western education, and Marxist orientation. The psychologist or psychoanalyst who could figure how and why people can inflict such inhumanity on other people deserves a Nobel Peace prize. The prevalence of such behaviour on both a small and large scale in the history of the country has made the people prone to poverty. A self-destructive society can hardly make economic and technological progress. Rather than continuing to look for a scapegoat in imperialism, communism, colonialism, ethnicity, or tribalism, Africa needs to wake up and find the roots of its evil. If we are honest, without going too far, each one of us can find the roots of the problem in our own hearts. Because of this, we need not only a scientific law that would make everybody accountable and transparent in his/her duties but also genuine spiritual transformation. So far, our leaders make laws according to what suits them. They live and act as if they were above the law, intervening in and dictating the justice system, making themselves a lynchpin in the existence of the society and its organizational structures. Still, hopelessness, joblessness, depression, abortion, and other such social problems continue for the people living in Addis Ababa and elsewhere in the country. Every person who is interested in sharing the saving gospel of Jesus Christ with the people of this destitute nation will be faced with the apostle’s question: “If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?” (Jas. 2:15-16). Without answering this question, trying to win the souls of Ethiopians and disciple them is like giving them a half-baked gospel. With impartial truth and unmet needs, it is impossible to build a mature Christian community that can turn people into responsible citizens who can make positive contributions to the society and bring healthy and lasting transformation.

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Evangelical missiologists and theologians have different perspectives on evangelism, with some emphasizing evangelism and others emphasizing social concern (cf. Nicholls 1986). Adeyemo has made an attempt to show an evangelical consensus on the subject. He said; “Social action is implied in evangelism. To answer the question, which comes first? I will say the reality of life does not usually present itself to us in either/or. More often we are engaged in both/and. And like our Lord Jesus Christ our witness must be in word and deed. However, if a hair-splitting choice has to be made, the Holy Spirit, our paracletos will guide us. In my opinion, the eternal is more important than the temporal” (1986:59). In the case of Ethiopia, there is no “hair-splitting choice to make.” The physical need of the people is a naked truth. It would be unethical and unbiblical for the church or any mission organization simply to focus on the conversion of souls to the neglect of the physical, social, and psychological need of the people. Though conversion addresses some of these needs, the complex nature of human beings requires other aspects of ministry – namely, social service. “Passion for the coming of God’s reign goes hand in hand with compassion for a needy world” (Bosch 1991:150). Through social service, church leaders can advocate bringing Christ’s righteousness to bear on every aspect of life – the social, economic, religious, and political. The people’s response to the spiritual aspect of the gospel will be influenced by the concern and care the church demonstrates for their immediate and basic needs. Biological threats cripple people from being mentally and physically productive. Under endless suffering and life-threatening situations, one can hardly enjoy his/her relationship with the Lord. The church has an opportunity to be an instrument of shalom and blessing that Christ has promised in his kingdom, in our present life and the one to come. Freedom from biological necessity is essential for a contemplative mind. The threat of physical extermination, whether from war, pestilence, or hunger, constrains the free flight of fancy (cf. Barrett 1953:82). Leaders with longlasting solutions and a well-rounded approach can thus bring positive change both to the spiritual and physical aspects of the people. Despite the diversity of ethnic groups, languages, customs, and beliefs, visionary leaders can change the period of uncertainty in the past into a historic moment. Among evangelical Christians, there are many financially successful members. Christians own factories, institutions, private clinics, import and export businesses, restaurants, hotels and various other kinds of businesses, both small and large. Some of them have established Christian Business Men Fellowship (CBMF). Leaders can organize their resources and create projects to alleviate the economic pain of the community; they will be able to introduce an alternative model for development and progress to the society. The potential is there.

The Challenge of Marxism in the Economic Structure

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Summary During Haile Selassie’s time, Ethiopia’s capitalistic economy was mainly designed and funded by the United States government. The U.S. government donated money, technology, and capitalistic ideas to bring Ethiopia from a feudalistic to a semi-capitalistic system. In the fifties and sixties, commercial farming helped increase the supply of grains and raw materials. The country was self-sufficient in sugar and cotton production. And Ethiopia’s coffee exports accounted for about half of the nation’s exports. Haile Selassie’s economic structure did not lay the basis for the revolution of social and political democracy. Lack of improvement on the balance of trade, economic grievances of various sectors of the working force and the 1974-1975 famine triggered the radical Marxist revolution.

Current Contextual Factors

Contextual factors often influence the type of leaders a church needs. Leaders are shaped by the economic, political, and religious systems of the societies in which they live. Therefore, churches in diverse contexts need leaders that suit the situation and meet the challenge. Elliston writes, “Different contexts will require somewhat different specific descriptions of different kinds of leaders. Differences in the context also make a difference in terms of the number of the ‘types’ of Christian leaders. Some of the variables which will affect the ways these leader types will be defined include the age, size and polity of the church, and the culture(s) in which the church functions (broader culture and specific ‘corporate’ culture)” (1992:25). The background of Ethiopia’s civilization, the geographical location of the cities, the population, family structure, economy, and ethnic and religious backgrounds of the people are essential contextual factors to consider when discussing church leadership in Ethiopia. To gain a complete understanding of appropriate leadership styles and of the context in which leaders and followers interact, it is important to have a general overview of the country. The impact of Marxism and the EPRDF on the economy, population characteristics, language, politics, and religious composition of Ethiopia are particularly important in this regard. Population Characteristics The following description of the population is based on data collected for the 2007 census and is included as an observation of the current population of the country under a different political leadership. According to the results of the 2007 census, 39,355,621 people in the country are between the ages of 10-39 years. The remaining 34,572,884 are either less than ten years or greater than 39 years. Out of the total population, 11,956,170 live in an urban setting and 61,962,335 live in a rural setting. The age structure of the country’s population is typical of a society with a youthful population. AGE 10-14 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39

Male 5,437,318 4,474,378 3,110,675 2,631,202 2,091,932 1,825,390

Female 5,020,863 4,313,362 3,314,489 3,049,367 2,137,536 1,949,109

Total 10,458,181 8,787,740 6,425,164 5,680,569 4,229,468 3,774,499

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Table 5 Population Size of Regions by Sex and Place of Residence 2007 The fact that the majority of Ethiopia’s population belongs to a younger age bracket has a direct impact on culture change and leadership. Both churches and the society at large are facing the task of providing leadership by offering a promising future to the younger generations. The current church leaders have the task of giving proper attention to the spiritual, social, and economic needs of the young people. The government’s responsibility is to create educational, vocational, and job opportunities for the youth who have and will have a great role in building the nation. An idle-minded youth who is not challenged to engage in a purposeful and goal-oriented life, who is not given an opportunity to be creative and innovative, and who has no bright future can easily develop destructive behaviour that can cause problems in the family and in the larger society. Having a higher number of young people in a society is both an opportunity and a problem. It is the duty of the leaders to turn the situation in a positive and productive direction. Religious Composition According to the census, religion is defined as an affiliation with an organized group having specific religious or spiritual tenets. Every member of the household was asked about his or her religious affiliation. According to the instruction manual of the census, the religion of a person could be Orthodox Christian, Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Other, Pagan, or Atheist. The results of the survey are reflected in Table 6. Religion Orthodox Protestant Catholic Muslim Traditional Others

Number & Percentage 32,138 43% 13,746,787 18.6% 536,827 0.7% 25,045,550 33.9% 1,957,944 2.6% 471,861 0.6%

Urban

Rural

7,070,932

25,067,194

1,614,145

12,132,642

66,468

470,359

3,096,275

21,947,275

39,252

1,918,692

67,098

404,763

Table 6 Population by Religion for Year 2007

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Protestant Christian Growth The number of evangelical Christians after the overthrow of the Marxist government is overwhelmingly more than the number in 1974. Furthermore, Väisänen’s (1981:165-195) research shows that there was both quantitative and qualitative growth among evangelical Christians in Ethiopia. He stated (1981:196) that the two main factors that contributed to the growth of the church were 1) people movements and 2) the collapse of the previous [imperial regime] structure. Väisänen comments that with the old system a vacuum and inner turmoil were created in the country as a result of the increasing insecurity. At that point in time, many were open in a new way to the gospel or any other ideology offering them security and a meaning for their lives (1981:192). The latter factor was also a major contributing factor to other Pentecostal and Charismatic churches in Addis Ababa. In 1993, 70,000 Christians gathered in a stadium for a conference. From my field observations in 1994, the number of Protestant Christians in Addis Ababa was likely close to half a million. The late Berhanu Habte, the former chairman of the Evangelical Churches Fellowship of Ethiopia, verified my approximation when I interviewed him. Currently, Protestants are 18.5% of the total population. The number of Protestants is rapidly increasing, and the main reason for high Protestant church growth is freedom from control. As McGavran contends, “Control inhibits responsiveness to the Christian gospel. Relaxing control encourages it. Most of the three billion who yield no allegiance to Jesus Christ live under rigid controls. When these controls disintegrate, men [women] become free to consider the claims of Christ” (1980:254). McGavran points to three different kinds of controls: (1) family and immediate relatives, (2) village, rancho, tribe and caste, and (3) ecclesiastical organization and hierarchy (1980:254-255). Due to culture change all of these controls have been loosened. “The most obvious freedom from these controls is that which emerges when the state guarantees real freedom of conscience. When the national constitution declares that all citizens follow it, ecclesiastical control is greatly relaxed” (McGavran 1980:255). In the current situation, since the EPRDF took over the country’s political leadership, all religious sectors have benefitted from the freedom to propagate their faith, expand, and grow. The occasional threats, persecutions, and resistance that the evangelical churches have faced are from the Orthodox Church and the Muslims. When such incidents do occur, the government intervenes and takes immediate and right action. In July 1994, in Addis Ababa, I was interviewed by the widely circulated Christian magazine Heiwet (Life). A number of the questions had to do with the persecution and opposition that the Orthodox Church was inflicting on the Protestant Christians (see Alemayehu MeKonnen 1987 E.C. [1994]:2225). Despite the opposition from the Orthodox leaders, an encouraging renewal movement is taking place in the Orthodox Church. Unlike people of my

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generation, those who embraced the evangelical faith are remaining in the Orthodox Church and continuing to serve the community without causing ill feelings to the adherents by leaving or preaching antagonistic messages. The Spread of Islam Muslims were one of the groups of Ethiopian society who expressed their grievances toward Haile Selassie’s government when the foundation of his empire started shaking in the early 1970s. “On April 20, 1974 with the organizational help of the student radicals, one of the largest demonstrations in the country – 100,000 Moslems and their supporters – marched through the capital demanding equal rights with the Christians, rights denied them for 500 years. The mayor of Addis Ababa was forced out of his office when a huge mass demonstration stormed the municipal building” (Milkias 2006:211). Ayele Mohamed Ali explains how the rights of the Muslims were denied: Ethiopia has depended on the assistance of foreign religious organizations for decades to alleviate hunger, famine and disease, and improve education. Ethiopia continues to receive assistance from the World Council of Churches, World Lutheran Organization, Catholic Charities and the Catholic Relief Organization, World Vision and so on. Before 1974, the country was infested by the Christian missions who operated schools, churches and health institutions with the aim of converting Muslims and animists. During this period not a single Muslim country was ever permitted to counter balance this wave of assaults on the cultural and religious rights of Ethiopian Muslims. Assistance by Christian organizations was called humanitarian, whereas any contribution by the World Muslim League of African Muslim Assistance Fund from Kuwait or Saudi Arabia during the period of hunger would be suspected as a pretext for subversion and interference” (1992:28).

One of the major changes, which I observed during my field research in Addis Ababa in 1994 and to this day, is the growth of Islam in Ethiopia. “During the Imperial regime; Islam as religion was not persecuted in Ethiopia; it was simply ignored. Despite its vast following, no official notice was taken of it in a state where Christianity was the official religion. Its adherents were similarly isolated from national life (Markakis and Ayele 1986:53).1 1

On 20 April [1974], 100,000 people, many of them Christian [Orthodox] sympathizers, marched through the streets of Addis Ababa demanding an end to the traditional and official discrimination practiced against Islam in Ethiopia. The day before, a Muslim delegation had presented a list of demands to the prime minister. They sought redress for age-old wrongs suffered by Islam in the Christian empire. They asked that this faith be recognized by the state and given financial support, Muslim courts be recognized by law, and Muslim holidays be nationally celebrated. They demanded also that Muslims be allowed freedom to form an association to broadcast over the radio and television and to be given equal opportunities of employment in civil, military and

Current Contextual Factors

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Since 1974, Ethiopian Muslims have enjoyed the new freedom and have used it effectively to spread their faith. They have built mosques and schools not only in Addis Ababa but also in unexpected regions like Gondar and Gojam, where Orthodox Christianity used to dominate and Western missionaries were not allowed to evangelize. Some of their publications reflect their past grievances and their hopes for the future. While I agree with the granting of religious rights to Ethiopian Muslims, I am greatly concerned about the future impact of radical Islam in Ethiopia. At this juncture, the evangelical churches in Ethiopia seem less engaged in the evangelistic battle with Islam. Financially and organizationally, the Muslims are better equipped. Through offering money and opening businesses, they are converting many Ethiopians to Islam. The greatest challenge to the church of Jesus Christ in Ethiopia may well be the rapid spread of Islam and their control or dominance of the economic and political sector. With the unequivocal commitment of Islamic nations and the support of Islamic leaders in Africa and many Arabic countries to convert Ethiopia into an Islamic nation, the greatest battle of faith for the church is yet to come. It is not only the West and the East that have an interest in Ethiopia; the Arab world would also like to have a stronghold in the country. Ottaway observes, “The Arab interest in Ethiopia in the mid-20th century no longer stemmed from Muslim-Christian antagonism or from territorial expansion. It was above all a strategic consideration – controlling the Red Sea has been a part of the Arab effort to cut Israel off from its sea routes” (1978:164; cf. Erlich 1986:249ff., 1994:631). To this end, the Muslims have already had much success as a result of arming and training Eritrea’s secessionist forces, and they maintain a strong presence and influence in that country. Of the Protestant churches, only the Lutheran churches there have not closed, and Christians are going through unparalleled suffering, persecution, and imprisonment in Eritrea. My concern is not based on prejudice but on the reality of the political and religious practices in the surrounding nations like Sudan, Egypt, and Eritrea. William Stark in his article “Eritrea: Africa’s Most Repressive Regime”2 describes the plight of Christians in Eritrea this way: Many have called Eritrea the “North Korea of Africa” because of its repressive policies. Unfortunately, Christians find themselves on the wrong side of these policies and are frequently imprisoned and killed for believing in Jesus Christ. Human rights organizations estimate there are more than 2,000 Christians who are currently imprisoned in Eritrea for their faith… At first, traffickers who abducted diplomatic services. Furthermore, Muslims asked to be given land like all other Ethiopians. Finally, a plea was made that the term “Ethiopian Muslims” be used in public, instead of the regime’s invidious favorite “Muslims in Ethiopia (19886:94). For the current development of Islam see Ahmed (1994). 2 Eritrea: Africa’s Most Repressive Regime, by William Stark – 12/12/2012 Washington, D.C. (International Christian Concern).

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Christians fleeing Eritrea were demanding a ransom between $3,000 and $8,000. Now that they have discovered the value of illegally harvested organs, ransoms have skyrocketed. When payments are not forthcoming, vital organs are harvested in unsanitary conditions. The result of these operations is often death.

Eritrea is internationally recognized as being among the worst abusers of religious freedom. Christians living in Eritrea are often the victims of this abuse. Thousands have been arrested, imprisoned and tortured. An untold number have been killed. This systematic repression has created such a desperate situation for Christians in Eritrea that they have become easy targets for traffickers in East Africa. The choices faced by Eritrean Christians are bleak; they either continue to live under an extremely repressive regime, risk life and limb to cross a heavily defended border or run the risk of being trafficked by smugglers. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Christians living in Eritrea are an everdwindling population. Without change, soon there will be no Christians living in Eritrea save those being held in the country’s prisons.” My concern is not unfounded as it is based on the reality of the political and religious practices in the surrounding nations like Sudan, Egypt, and Eretria. It is utterly foolish or short-sighted to assume that the trend of Islam in the Horn of Africa will not affect the church in Ethiopia, particularly the Evangelical churches, in one way or the other. The most important factor that will give equal religious freedom to every Ethiopian citizen with identical accountability and responsibility is a constitution that needs to be enforced by law. I hope the government has worked on this issue and is ready to apply it with justice when religious freedom is violated. The easy access of the Middle East enables ready penetration into Ethiopian culture. Already, Arabs are strengthening their institutions through funding and offering scholarships. Hussein Ahmed observes: “During the twenty years or so between the disintegration of imperial rule and the second anniversary of the fall of the military regime in Ethiopia, Islam passed through a process of transformation, revival and internal tension unprecedented in its long history. This transformation was to a large extent an outcome of development which unfolded within the country, although external events did not contribute to the intensity of such transformation” (1974:775). Ahmed adds, “Since 1991 Islam has made substantial gains and benefited from the policy of political democratization and economic liberalization of ethnic and cultural identities” (see Ahmed 1994:775-798). In its endeavour to evangelize and to bring converts to Christian maturity, the church needs to enter the race with Islam. The Lordship of Jesus Christ in the lives of Ethiopians will save the country from becoming a member of the Arab Commonwealth and from a religious war that could bring untold bloodshed. Due to its geographical location, Ethiopia

Current Contextual Factors

133

has always been a target of its Islamic neighbours.3 Most North African countries, who are now Islamic nations, have conducted several jihads “to subdue the Christian Empire. One, led by Adal Imam (king) Ahmed Ibn Ibrahim el Ghazi, known in Ethiopia as Gragn (the left handed), had temporarily succeeded in 1527 in taking over virtually all parts of Christian Abyssinia; as a result, nine out of ten Ethiopians were said to have been converted to Islam, though most of them only nominally” (Milkias 2006:3). Jenkins add, “The Christian state of Nubia succumbed to Muslim pressure around 1450, and Ethiopia was almost wiped out in a deadly jihad in the early sixteenth century, a systemic campaign of cultural and national genocide. Although the church and kingdom survived, Ethiopian culture was all but annihilated” (2002:26). We have a lot to learn from history. The scarcity of the Scripture in the vernacular language of many Christians, inadequate discipleship training, teaching and preaching that mainly focuses on emotion rather than on the mind and heart, and poverty will make the Christians of today extremely vulnerable to another jihad. Leaders with foresight and insight who can assess the internal and regional political, economic, and religious situations, and who are keen with history are very much needed in the evangelical churches of Ethiopia today and on the national and political leadership. I strongly believe that Ethiopian Muslims should have the same rights as any other religious citizen of the country. But the overt and covert persecution that the Muslims are inflicting on Christians in Arsi, Shashemane, and Jimma, causes great concern and leads one to wonder what potential danger awaits Christians if the Muslims were to take control of political power. Ethiopia cannot afford to be another Egypt, Iraq, Pakistan, or Iran, where Christians are fleeing for their lives or living in torment and repression in their own country. Ethnic Composition Due to the negative political agitation of the transitional government against the Amharas and the Amharic language and the long-time resentment at Haile Selassie’s Amharanization of the rest of Ethiopians, the percentage of the Amharic speaking population in some regions has been significantly reduced. For example, the Oromos have developed their own orthography using a Latin base. National television programming runs in Amharic, Tigringa, and Oromifa. During my seven weeks of field research in 1994 and frequent visits after that, I saw people in big hotels, markets, restaurants, hospitals, public transportation, and in some churches clustering in their ethnic groups and speaking their languages. From my observation, the ethnic tension among the non-believers was far worse than such tensions among Christians. However, the multi-ethnic nature of the Ethiopian society should compel church leaders 3

For the challenge of Islam in the Horn of Africa see Josiah (1994/1995).

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to surface ethnic issues and address them theologically, missiologically, and anthropologically. The ethnic issues in Ethiopia demand the attention of experts in the disciplines mentioned above. The subject was supposed to be addressed a long time ago. The concern and tension of worshipping and preaching in a mother tongue, particularly among the Oromos, was there long before the TPLF existed. It is unfair to place all the blame on the TPLF as the reason for church splits and ethnic problems in Ethiopia. Because of zeal without wisdom and a lack of leadership experience, the EPRDF made a mistake in down-playing nationalism and promoting ethnocentrism. But the issue of ethnicity requires a scholarly approach that will be for the good of the whole and not only the few. As we have seen before, Amharanization is not a solution for Ethiopians, who are of various ethnic groups and tongues: Haile Selassie and his feudal paladins had always dreamed of the creation of AndHezb (national integration) the ultimate Amharization of the Ethiopian population despite the fact that Amharic is the mother tongue for only about 35% of the population in a country comprised of over 80 distinct language groups with over 200 dialects. At the time the policy was drawn up, Afan-Oromo was spoken by more than 40% of the total inhabitants of the country and was a wide spread medium of communication in at least 12 of the 14 provinces of Ethiopia (Milkias 2006:53).

From the start, this approach was not welcomed by all Ethiopians. It was imposed on everybody without the possibility of voting and participating in the decision on their national language. “That the domination of the Amharic might frustrate and alienate various ethnic groups was ignored by many nationalists, especially by the Young Ethiopians, who stared fixedly at a vision of a modern nation gleaned from Western textbooks” (Marcus 1995:137). As time went by, the frustration and resentment created all kinds of liberation fronts. One of them was the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF). After years of armed struggle, they took power and started to make the past wrongs right. Initially, their action was full of more vengeance and revolutionary zeal than mature leadership. Again, there was no involvement of the intelligentsia or participation and discussion by the people when they developed and implemented ethnic/region-based leadership. According to Mesfin WoldeMariam: The regime in Ethiopia has introduced a policy of regionalization ostensibly based on language. This is called ethnic federalism. Outside the prescribed language group, the individual does not exist…. In the breakaway of the Ethiopian region of Eritrea, the policy is diametrically opposed to that in Ethiopia. It is absolutely forbidden to form a group on the basis of language, or religion, or regionalism. A new Eritrean nationalism has to be created. Therefore, no group formation was involuntary or voluntary is allowed.

Current Contextual Factors

135

In Eritrea neither group nor individual rights are recognized. Ultimately, the Eritrean policy is neither better nor worse than that of the Weyyane (1999:41).

As I said earlier, ethnic issues were tense and divisive in the first few years of the Transitional Government’s leadership in Ethiopia in the early 1990s. Hostility among ethnic groups, and in some cases among evangelical Christians, has increased. The pot of ethnic politics is still hot on different occasions and in different parts of the country. Makua Wa Mutua comments: Unlike Haile Selassie and Mengistu Haile Mariam, who practiced outright coercion and forcible acculturation of non Amhara groups, Meles Zenawi has sought the perfection of the British administration which imperial control over the “natives” would be exercised by their ‘kith and kin.’ The TPLF’s (Tigray People Liberation Front) policy of regionalization – an attempt to create ethnically pure regions – seeks above all to officially coalesce ethnic identities by heightening the narrow and chauvinistic group courteousness already prevalent in the country while at the same time pitting Oromo against the Amhara, the Tigrayan against the Somali, each group against every group and further polarizing political factors within each group on the basis of their collaboration with or rejection of TPLF’s domination” (1994:23).

The history of Ethiopian leadership is well characterized by the narration of ethnic politics, and from what I observed, read, and researched in the early 1990s, it seems that the EPRDF is making ethnicity its main political agenda (Ottaway 1978; Holocmb and Ibssa 1990). Personally, my concern is not why the issue of ethnicity, language and regionalism is given attention in Ethiopia. I feel it is stretched too far, to the point it can destroy the existence of Ethiopia as a nation. Paulos Milkias concurs: The TPLF leadership considered Ethiopia a prison house of nationalities. As such, their first action was to fulfill what they promised the EPLF – to give Eritrea sovereign independence. It was as priceless gift for the separatists since it saved Eritrea by the international community from being treated as Katanga, Biafra, Somaliland or Puntland were treated i.e., de jure, integral parts of the country they secede from. The TPLF set the stage to balkanize Ethiopia on the basis of ethnicity by enshrining in the consultation the right of every nationality to self-determination up to and including cessation. This is a right that no democratic nation on the globe has written in its constitution. The Americans, whose country is forged by uniting disparate states constituting the federal structure, went to war to stop any possibility of such a development. In India, the very suggestion of secession is high treason, an offense punishable by death. The right of secession which the Woyanes enshrined in the constitution puts to test the very existence of the Ethiopian nation-state. It is, indeed, a sword hanging over the wellbeing of Ethiopia. For Ethiopian nationalists, it seems that the Woyanes (the TPLF) hate Ethiopia so vehemently that they would wish to stamp

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it off the face of the earth. In this view, the leadership has earned the dubious notoriety of being the first political party in the history of the world to lead a government of a country they crave to eventually wipe out (2006:274-275).

The major responsibility of leadership is to bring unity among its citizens, to resolve conflict, not to enhance or cause it. Its responsibility is to maintain peace, build trust, encourage freedom of mobility, and promote security and entrepreneurship wherever its citizens want to live and feel at home. The current leaders of Ethiopia, both secular and religious, can evaluate themselves based on whether this has been emphasized and reinforced in the last two decades of the EPRDF’s leadership. If South Africans are able to work out their differences and build a strong rainbow nation, it is beyond my comprehension why Ethiopians feel the need to split like an atom. Ethnocentrism has become prevalent in all sectors of the Ethiopian society. It is pharisaical for the church to point her finger at politicians. The wall of partition that Jesus Christ has destroyed between the Gentiles and the Jews is rebuilt through the ethnically based politics and shallow theology of some church leaders. The country is vast, rich with resources and history. Leaders should be inviting those in exile to come and invest in their country, challenging all Ethiopians to be innovative and entrepreneurial, developing the economy, advancing the farming system, expanding industry, building hospitals, and improving the health care and education system. When politicians focus on something that will divide the people, it weakens the country and makes it vulnerable to those who are buying time to subdue Ethiopia. Jesus Christ rightly said, “If the kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand” (Mark 3:24-25). Seeing the volcanic political ground that Israel was sitting on, Jesus lamented over Jerusalem, saying, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you’re not willing. See your house is left to you desolate” (Matt. 23:37-38). About 37 years later, in 70 A.D., Jerusalem was captured, and the temple was destroyed by the Roman army, led by the future Emperor Titus, with Tiberius Julius Alexander as his second-in-command. Israel was not restored as a nation until 1948. The destruction of the Temple is still mourned annually during the Jewish fast Tisha B’AV. The holocaust, the purging of the Jews from Russia, and the degradation, discrimination, and rejection they bore in exile all happened because they were a people without land. They had no country to call home. There is much to learn from history; indeed, the constitution that embraces secession is “a sword hanging over the wellbeing of Ethiopia.” The best thing leaders can do is to make its citizens proud of their country and history. Despite being ill-equipped and impoverished, it was the love of their country that made our fathers and forefathers resist the aggression of colonial powers, enabling us to live without oppression and humiliation.

Current Contextual Factors

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Changes in the Area of Education As observed earlier, the curriculum during the imperial rule was developed according to the Western style. The United States had a leading role in influencing, shaping and funding the academic programmes during Haile Selassie’s time. As Ethiopia emerged into the modern school system, the imperial regime established a language policy. In 1955, Amharic in primary schools and English and French in secondary schools became the media of instruction throughout the country (Spencer 1987:243). These decisions, particularly the use of Amharic, might have been viewed as an agent of unification, a facilitation of economic development, and a symbol of nationhood (Marcus 1995:137; Bender et al. 1976:187). For Ethiopia, a multilingual nation, using Amharic as the only medium of instruction was offensive to other ethnic/linguistic groups. Since the non-Amharic speakers were not involved in the decision-making process, they felt that it was imposed on them. Thus the issue of nationality was one of the primary political agenda items of the student movement (Taddesse 1993). Education in the Mother Tongue Mother tongue education has been promoted for many reasons: pedagogical, psychological, and political – as a means of empowering minority ethnic groups in many parts of the world (Hoben 1994:182). Since the mother tongue is that in which the pupil best expresses himself/herself and best understands a given subject, it follows that it is the language in which learning can best take place. It thus a widely acknowledged pedagogic principle that instruction preferably should be provided in the pupil’s mother tongue (Miltofanova and Desheneva 1987; Szépe 1984; Pei 1965:281). Ethiopian intellectuals acknowledge that in the history of Ethiopian education, “Mother tongue education began by missionaries who made education an important weapon in the spread of Christianity. The contributions by the missionaries to education include the production of written religious materials and books, and the tradition starting education in the mother tongue” (Fisseha Mekonnen 1994:169). “Most of the missionary schools were placed in the country side, especially in the more remote parts of the empire…Missionaries were expected not only to teach academic subjects but also to indoctrinate the empire’s peoples with Addis Ababa’s view of national unity; otherwise they were deported” (Marcus 1995:137). The remote areas are where there is no Orthodox church or its influence is minimal. The Amharic language is the medium of teaching and a means of unification. The missionaries’ educational methodology was viewed as a threat to Haile Selassie’s Amharization programme and the conservative Ethiopian Orthodox Church, which favored the archaic language. Hence, in a 1945 proclamation, the missionaries were restricted to using Amharic for pedagogy and the local

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language for ordinary contact (Spencer 1987:245). The genesis of Amharization precedes Haile Selassie: Amharization was given prominence starting from the time of Menelik who planted Amhara Neftegnas (Colons) throughout his newly conquered territories in Southern Ethiopia. But it was during the reign of Haile Selassie that the policy was implemented with apparent ruthlessness. Since Haile Selassie came to power, no periodicals, magazines, or books were published except in Amharic or a few major European languages, such as English and French. Outside Eritrea, the printing of newspapers in Tigringa was banned. Affan Oromo Books written by such scholars as Anisimos Nesib (Aba Gamachis) were confiscated and burned by the government security department. Oromo place names were systematically changed; thus, Finifne, Bishoftu, Adama, and Ambo became Addis Ababa, Bishoftu, Nazreth, and Hagere-Hiywet, respectively (Milkias 2006:56-57).

The dominance and imposition of one tribe or ethnic group on others in Ethiopian history did not begin with the TPLF. The Amhara leaders are not free of chauvinism, discrimination, divide-and-rule policies, and the imposition of their language and religion on other ethnic groups. However, should we continue on a path that is sinister and endlessly divisive? Can two wrongs make a right? Great leaders like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela did not bring to their nation freedom and unity through retaliation or fragmentation. These leaders had a dream. The “I have a Dream” speech of Martin Luther King, Jr. made both whites and blacks cry as they listened. It touched the core of their conscience and reminded them of the foundation on which their country established. Indeed, they demonstrated and went to the capital city “to cash the check, a promissory note written by the architects of their republic.” Unfortunately, Ethiopia’s constitution is rewritten every time a new leader comes into a position of power. For many Ethiopians, it seems a government by the people for the people is far beyond their reach. The Impact of the Ethiopian National Literacy Campaign (ENLC) The 1974 revolution introduced a new direction into the education system. During the imperial rule the educational policy was chauvinistic and denigrating and denied the existence and development of diverse languages, imposing a policy that solicited and solemnized the use of the single language, Amharic (Sinhew 1994:229; Fisseha Mekonnen 1994:166ff.). Despite the unpopular educational policy, religious documents, as well as anthropological and trader’s accounts, all confirm Ethiopia’s wealth of indigenous literacy (Pankhurst 1069; Amare 1967; Wagaw 1979; Dange 1976). However, Ethiopia’s overall literacy rate and educational performance was found to lag behind newly emergent African countries in the early 1960s (Brooks 1976):

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During the academic year 1961-1962, for example, Ethiopia had one of the three lowest enrollment percentages of school age population in all of Africa. While enrollment per school age of population was 6.6% for Ethiopia, it was 41.9% for Uganda, 42% for Nigeria, 46.5% for Ghana, 61% for Kenya, 63% for Tunisia and 66% for Egypt (cited in Milkias 2006:62).

In 1979, the Derg attempted to give educational opportunities to different ethnic groups by employing fifteen languages in the national literacy programme. Table 9 shows the languages used in the literacy programme. Language Amharic Oromo Tigringa Wollayita Somali Sidamo Hadiya Gurage-Selit Kambatta Afar Tigre Gedeo Keffa-Mecha Shao Kunama *Less than 1%.

Language Family Semitic Cushitic Semitic Omotic Cushitic Cushitic Cushitic Semitic Cushitic Cushitic Semitic Cushitic Omotic Cushitic Nilo-Sharon

Percent of Population 30 30 16 4 4 3 3 2 1 * * * * * *

Script Ethiopic Latin/Ethiopic Ethiopic -------Latin -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Table 9 Languages of the Ethiopian Literacy Campaign (Adapted from Bender et al. 1976:12) Setbacks/Flaws of the ENLC Several flaws hampered the programme’s goals. First, the noticeable lack of personnel with expertise in linguistics, translation, sociology, and psychology of language in each vernacular was an obstacle during the writing of texts. Second, since the political, economic, social, educational, and legal realities in post-revolution Ethiopia demanded knowledge of the Amharic language, the pupils did not understand the use of learning in their vernacular. Third, the absence of opportunities to continue learning in one’s language in regular schools was a problem that discouraged people from attaining literacy in their vernacular. Fourth, the absence of literacy instructors who were skilled in pedagogy in each of the vernaculars was a major setback (Sinehaw 1994:220231, Hoben 1994:184-188).

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Achievements of the Literacy Campaign Despite setbacks, the ENLC programme made some remarkable achievements. First, it brought the enormous magnitude of the problem of illiteracy to national attention. Second, notwithstanding the absence of reliable numerical figures, a large number of adults were given an educational opportunity. Third, the ENLC sensitized people to continuing education. This fact seems particularly evident in urban centers where evening college classes have become overcrowded. Fourth, the contribution of the ENLC, through its mobilization of urban-based school youth, has been able to expose young people to Ethiopia’s rural realities. Fifth, languages that had never been put into print were, for the first time, used as a result of the ENLC (Sinehaw 1994:237-238; Fisseha Mekonnen 1994:166ff.; Hoben 1994:182ff.). These achievements are positive steps. The teachers, administrators, and linguists who were involved in the ENLC programme became aware of the culture and values of various ethnic groups in the country. Their introduction to rural life through the ENLC helped make them more realistic about the problems and issues that the country will have to deal with in the foreseeable future. These problems were first noticed by the missionaries and not the national evangelical churches. This line of thought is something that the church needs to participate in. Presenting the gospel in the vernacular language of the recipients makes a lasting impact in the life of the Christians and the society they belong to. The Law of Protection of Regional Languages In 1992, the Transitional Government of Ethiopia (TGE) passed a policy decision on the use of regional languages as the medium of instruction instead of Amharic. Therefore, today, in Ethiopia, regional languages enjoy the protection of the law (Fisseha Mekonnen 1994:166). The TGE claimed the policy as its own, not just as a derivative of the Derg’s policy. They chose three main ways of doing this: 1) they switched from promoting “nationality languages,” moving from a non-formal programme to a formal one in the education system; 2) they declared that Cushitic languages, Oromo first and foremost, were to be written in Latin, not Ethiopic, script; 3) They distrusted Amhara dominance and recognized the oppressiveness of centralized planning for other ethnic groups of Ethiopia (see table 10) (Hoben 1994:188). In the early 1990s, the change manifested itself on all the major street corners of Addis Ababa in the displays of journals, magazines, and placards in various languages and in both Ethiopic and Latin scripts. Despite these fundamental changes, formal education is still far from meeting the economic and social needs of the younger generation. The unemployment rate is still soaring. A large number of young men and women, mostly secondary school drop-outs, migrate into the city of Addis Ababa and other urban areas every

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year in search of employment only to realize that these are not jobs for unskilled job seekers (see Yimtatu 1994:287ff). Young men and women are migrating by the thousands to the Arab countries in search of labouring jobs. To alleviate such sources of frustrations, non-formal training programmes have started in and around Addis Ababa, including: “Home economics, beverage processing, sewing, and embroidery, mechanics and car deriving, shoe making, carpentry, metal works, weaving, carpet making, masonry, electric house wiring, brush making, an spectacle making, plumbing, bamboo technology food processing and leather works” (Yimtatu 1994:292). Yimtatu argues that schools by themselves cannot create jobs. Good economic management and a spirit of enterprise in the communities are essential if persons who have withdrawn from school are to gain employment (1994:285-303; Workneh 1994:239-254; Ingidayehu 1994:225-284). However, both the economic and the bureaucratic system of the current government are not conducive to good and innovative Ethiopian investors who can create job opportunities. Many who made an attempt to create companies ended up losing money, time, and energy, leaving the country out of frustration. Derg Used non-formal vehicle Temporary Used Ethiopic script Centralized

TGE Formal Permanent school system Latin script for non-Semitic languages Decentralized

Table 10 The Different Appraoches of the Derg and Tge to Regional Languages in the Ethiopian Education System (Based on Hoben 1994:182) If joblessness and the resulting feelings of insecurity persist over a period of time, there is the threat of juvenile petty crime, physical ill-health, and mental disturbance, of all of which may ruin the future of those who have withdrawn from school. Such a social challenge should not be left only for the government to solve. Churches and denominations can take part in creating job opportunities by being innovative and creative in the educational system to develop viable programmes for economic and social development. Unless the curriculum is contextualized, it cannot meet the needs of the society. Even though both the Derg and the EPRDF are known for advancing mother-tongue education, their record in the area of higher education is bleak. Mengistu Haile Mariam was a graduate of the Holleta Army Training Center, which does not require a high level of academic education for entry. Students were admitted before finishing high school. Meles Zenawi, in contrast, was a bright student who had a scholarship from Emperor Haile Selassie to attend Haile Selassie I University. He was known for being a voracious reader.

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However, for both of these leaders, when they took political leadership, one of their prime targets was to weaken or cripple the main university in the country. Mesfin Wolde-Mariam writes: The Derg was clearly afraid of higher education right from the beginning. It knew very well the part played by higher education institutions in the fall of Haile Selassie’s regime. It did two things to undermine higher education. On one hand, it slowly and meticulously seized Haile Selassie University by appointing its trusted cadres who paralyzed free thought and free expression; and, on the other, it created a political school in which its cadres, irrespective of educational background, could become all knowing experts on any field in three months. The idea was to make higher education irrelevant to administration and development. The Derg considered the University as a camp of reactionaries and bourgeois intellectuals. The Derg certainly weakened the University, but did not kill it. It is the Weyanne that killed it. No sooner did the Weyanne regime come to power that it, too, made the University its prime enemy and target. It took a draconian step to cripple the University for a very long time. It dismissed some forty highly trained and most experienced professors and lecturers at one go. As in many other areas in education, too, the Weyanne regime has followed the Derg in undermining the University and in creating parallel institutions for its cadres. Today only the shell of the former Haile Selassie University remains (1995:6-7).

The word “university” implies unity in diversity. The existence of these kinds of institutions and their valuable contributions could have been a positive symbol and model for a country with diverse languages, dialects and culture. Intellectuals in every field are great assets for a country. It takes years and enormous resources to develop them. To undermine them or dismiss them as worthless people is really denying the reality of the world we live in and causing a brain drain. Political Environment Since the fall of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974, policies and government structures have changed radically and rapidly. Political agendas and social and ethnic concerns are becoming more and more complex. For people of my generation who grew up in the semi-feudal and semi-modern culture of Haile Selassie’s time, the marks of change under the three political leaders – Haile Selassie, Mengistu Haile Mariam, and Meles Zenawi – are obvious. Each era of ruling, in its own way, has dressed the people with different values, norms, and social, economic, and religious agendas. Since the church is not an island, it is affected by the change just as other parts of society. It is appropriate for the church to rise to the occasion, have a constructive voice, and take action, guided by the Scripture that would enable the society at large to make them

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feel, once again, that Ethiopia is their motherland. If Christians cannot be messengers of peace and reconciliation and give hope to the hopeless – a meaningful and purposeful existence for the distraught, disoriented, and discouraged – how can we be called disciples of Jesus Christ? After the End of the Mengistu Era Spencer, commenting on the inevitability of change, said, “Revulsions against those intrusions and their constricting instruments of mass mobilization; against contempt for human rights and individual liberties; against imprisonment and tortures, along with the example of protest in the form of crowded churches and attended even by youthful non-believers, and defection by high-level officials can hasten the inevitable. Change, when it comes will once again be through the traditional military process” (emphasis mine 1987:380). As the result of living and serving in Ethiopia for about three decades, Spencer’s prediction proved accurate. It is this kind of astuteness that is often lacking both in the traditional and the educated Ethiopian’s leadership. When those who have great potential and promising leadership abilities begin to appear, they are quickly stymied. On 28 May 1990, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) took power in Addis Ababa. With the previous government presence now irrelevant, the United States’ sponsored peace talks in London ended the same day with an agreement by the three rebel groups present – the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF), the EPRDF and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) – to meet again in July (African Confidential, 1990:2-3). The United States government actively promoted the EPRDF’s campaign to take over Addis Ababa. Washington believed it could influence Meles (the leader of EPRDF), in spite of his Marxist outlook, through economic pressure. The U.S. was convinced that his ideological line had changed and that Meles would act pragmatically (African Confidential, 1991:4-5). The intervention of the United States in ousting Mengistu and replacing him with the EPRDF was not welcomed with enthusiasm either within Ethiopia or among the Ethiopian communities in the diaspora. A massive anti-American demonstration was reported in Addis Ababa the day after the peace talks failed. Apparently, demonstrators were angered at the United States government for recommending that the EPRDF enter Addis Ababa before the conclusion of the negotiations among the EPLF, EPRDF, OLF and representatives from the Mengistu regime. The intention of the meeting in London was to establish a coalition government. Eight people were reported killed during the demonstration in Addis Ababa. In Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., Ethiopians held demonstrations opposing Eritrea’s separation from Ethiopia (Girma 1991). I am by no means a politician. However, I do not believe that the coalition government between the EPLF, EPRDF, OLF, and the Derg could be possible.

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Was it good for the country to continue without the head of state for the unknown future? Even if I believe in the decency of Ethiopians, that is a big gamble. Was the United States supposed to intervene? I’ll leave that answer to an expert in the U.S. foreign relations or to politically minded Ethiopians. But for a nation who fought external aggression and can boast of centuries of freedom and autonomy, for a country that made so many positive contributions to the independence of various African countries from colonialism, for a country whose son helped draft the law of the League of Nations, the scenario was embarrassing and a regression from progress and civilization. The humbling experience was a self-imposed scar in the history of our country. When we choose “war as a sport,” our destiny is to be policed by outsiders. And that would be the best-case scenario. We could have become another Rwanda or Somalia. Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front The EPRDF included the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), the Ethiopian People’s Democratic Movement (EPDM), the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO), and the Ethiopian Democratic Officer Revolutionary Movement (EDORM). The latter two joined the EPRDF in May 1990 (cf. Holcomb and Ibssa 1990). It was a hasty marriage. Two other organizations, the Gambela People’s Liberation Front (GPLF) and Afar Liberation Front (ALF), are said to be affiliated to the EPRDF, though their status, and even their existence, remains shadowy. The ALF presumably operates in the Sudanese border regions. The ALF in the east has also had contacts with the EPRDF, but the relationship has been uneasy (Aklilu 1991:8ff.; Henze 1991:10-14). The most important element in the EPRDF is the TPLF, which until recently provided nearly all the leadership and over 80% of the fighters. Therefore, when the United States supported the EPRDF, the impression the Ethiopian people got was that the United States was strengthening the power of one ethnic group (Mekasha 1991:12ff.). Ethiopia’s rulers, often out of ignorance, have put ethnic interests over the rule of the law and have relied on ethnic politics for control. The ruling powers despised and intimidated other ethnic groups, often exploiting and subjugating them (Atreso 1991:22). This kind of past experience has created mistrust, fear, hatred, and grudges among different ethnic groups. To hand long-awaited freedom, opportunity, and power into the hands of one ethnic group created tension instead of stability in the first decade of the EPRDF’s leadership. The EPRDF is not the first to fall into ethnic-based leadership in Ethiopia, as I said earlier. In all likelihood, it will not be the last. In our culture, there is a tendency to believe that two wrongs will make a right, and we rarely learn from history. When Haile Selassie was a regent, he created a network with about three hundred progressive officers, and they were paradoxically called “Derg”. Marcus observes: “They dutifully organized a

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derg to present a certain demand to the empress. On 19 September 1928, at a meeting on the palace grounds, a small group of military men read a manifesto extolling the regents’ work on behalf of Ethiopia and asking the empress to make him king with full powers” (1995:91). Forty-six years later, “on the morning of September 12, 1974, a small group of junior Army Officers and NCO’s under the command of Major Dabela Dinsa were sent to the palace to announce the dethronement to the emperor” (Milkias 2006:236). For any perceptive leader, this history is not too long to forget. Whether it is in leadership or other aspects of our lives, we reap what we sow. Instead of continuing the vicious cycle of the style of leadership that we have seen in Ethiopia so far, which has been ineffective and non-constructive, this generation, if it is insightful, reasonable, wise, and far-sighted, should ask for better leadership and demand to be treated in a civil manner. A Call for Contextualization Describing the impact of cultural factors on the church, McGavran observes, “The structure of the church and its model of growth are heavily conditioned sociologically. Sociological factors affect it. The church always grows in a society. Its denomination and congregations, forms of worship and learning, its opportunities to grow, and the obstacles to its growth are conditioned by the innumerable soils in which it develops. Society is a vast mosaic with many languages, many races, many classes, and many cultures. The church takes on a different form, is established and matures in a different way, in each part of mosaic. The ethnicity of each piece affects the structure and spread of the church” (1979:11). As many ethnic groups seek their identity and promote their language and culture in Ethiopia, the issue of contextualization becomes crucial. Hence understanding this missiological concept is important. The term “contextualization” first surfaced publicly in 1972 with the publication of Ministry in Context by the Theological Education Fund (TEF). TEF is a funding agency related to the World Council of Churches (WCC). In the book, four areas were named as targets for contextualization: missiology, educational structures, theology, and pedagogy (Bromely 1972:18-19). Those who participated in the writing of this work were very much aware of the rapid social change occurring in cultures worldwide. The group was also sensitive to the declining influence of churches in Europe. They saw confessional and dogmatic theologies as irrelevant and outdated. The group envisioned a dialectic between theological insights gained from working in the culture and dogmatic and confessional theologies. The dialectic was to result in contextualized theology (see Anderson and Stransky 1974; Fleming 1980). The dialectic was viewed as the main element in a contextualization process, and the TEF labelled those who engage in this method “technical contextualizers” (Fleming 198:13-31). Others who do not contextualize in this line are classed

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“popular contextualizers” (Fleming 1980:33-35). Both supplement or supplant biblical teachings with insights gleaned from the context. The contextualization I advocate is an evangelical approach. This is the vigorous use of historical-grammatical exegesis and the related distinctions they make between special and natural revelation. This group has implemented the traditional practices advocated by Henry Venn, John Nevius, and Roland Allen (Allen 1960; Pierson 1985; Latourette 1975). Accepting the basic premises of the indigenizers, I also seek to implement insights from modern contextualizers, as discerned by anthropology and related social sciences and evangelical missiology (Gilliland 1984, 1989, Hiebert 1987; Nida 1960, 1954; Tippet 1987; Shaw 1988). As we apply contextualization, recognizing the evangelical and the WCC’s position is vital. Those who support the WCC’s view advocate a witness of praxis4 and dialogue and reject or play down talk of “saving souls” (Hoekstra 1979). Evangelical contextualizers seek communication, sowing, reaping, and nurturing (McGavran 1980, 1981). The WCC often mixes the church with the world (Glasser and McGavran 1983), whereas evangelicals specifically seek to plant, build, and strengthen the church (Wagner 1981; Stott 1973; Coggins and Frizen 1977; Gilliland 1989; Newbigin 1986, 1989). Evangelicals, although seeing the good in the world and in people, believe in the fallen nature of humanity and see this reflected in culture (Bosch 1980, 1991, Basham 1979; Van Engen 1991). The work of both thus turned out to be different. While representatives of either might be found feeding the hungry, the WCC is more likely to be engaged in dialogue or in arming revolutionaries, while the great majority of church planters may be found in evangelical circles. From within the evangelical theoretical framework, I ponder on the contemporary church context in Ethiopia. It has been observed that uprooted people are very open to the gospel message (Tippet 1970). Due to the radical culture change, traditional mores are affected and values come under inspection even as old patterns of belief and practice are called upon to help the displaced people to cope. People are open to something new, something that may help them to cope. Ethiopians, in large and small groupings, are being uprooted by forces such as war, famine, oppression, secularization, urbanization, and nationalism. In these contexts people are looking for answers especially suited to their current needs. Change in the education system is a good example and has already been discussed. The move to mother-tongue education and the emergence of “liberation fronts” in the early 1990s indicate dissatisfaction with previous educational and political systems. Today, various ethnic groups would like to preserve their 4

David Tracy (1975) defines praxis as “the critical relationship between theory and practice whereby each is dialectically influenced and transformed by other.” The result of the emphasis on praxis was a distinct turn from theological concerns to social and economic concerns as being paramount.

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language and cherish their ethnic values and identities. This is an innate desire of human beings, but it is not what the EPRDF used to gain political advantage. Currently education is geared to help people to express their culture. As Fisseha Mekonnen observes, “Education is believed to promote the study of people who are traditionally identified with language, and education is taken to constitute and serve as instrument of regional propaganda, which assume to promote moral and aesthetic values and distinctive clusters of social institutions, customs and codes of behavior. Each region is therefore seeking consciously or unconsciously to bring about fundamental change in the life of its members – changes which will extend from political to social and economic spheres” (1994:166). A social and political environment that consciously encourages people to express their culture and develop their language is conducive to contextualization. The legacy of contextualizing the gospel in ethnic culture in Ethiopia was left by missionaries. National Christian leaders can proudly follow the steps of their predecessors to evangelize and disciple various groups in the country without asking them to make a total divorce from their ethnic or tribal heritage. When Christ is incarnated in the villages and hamlets of Ethiopia and people begin to understand life both from a temporal and an eternal perspective, our rush to armed struggle for every conflict we encounter will be reduced immensely. And our love for peace, unity, and commitment for development will grow. Stability and tranquility with a strong economy can make people innovative in the process of tackling social, economic, and environmental problems that make millions of Ethiopians vulnerable to disease, sickness, and death every year. Again, as church history in Europe tells us, Christians who are rightly committed and divinely guided can play a tremendous role in restoring and building a nation. In order to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ as something that is truly good news to a people who are tired of hearing bad news, seeing conflict, walking through the valley of the shadow of death, contextualization is a crucial step. “Properly taught and modeled, contextualization takes us to the center of what God did in Christ. Reverently, we can speak of the humanization of the Son of God, the coming of God into the living context of people” (Gilliland 1989:23). To implement the task of contextualizing the gospel, Kraft suggests the following essential points: “(1) the centrality of worldview, (2) the necessity that cultural equilibrium be maintained (especially as it pertains to the worldview) if the change are to be properly constructive rather than destructive, (3) the superiority of slow transformational (yeast-like) change to revolutionary (dynamic-like) change, (4) the place of allegiance and paradigm shifts issuing in reinterpretation and rehabilitation within the culture in transformational change, and (5) the desirability of an informed use of all these processes to achieve Christian ends” (1981:355). Our main objective in contextualization is to introduce the saving Christ into the life of the people. Hence the changes we

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attempt to bring go beyond social or economic changes. It is a deep-level change that involves allegiance and paradigm shifts. “Cultures are held together not only by economic, social, and political organization, but also – at the deepest levels – by fundamental beliefs and values shared by the people” (Hiebert 1987:42). Unlike modernized education or the Marxist revolution, which attempted to bring a long-lasting change merely through superficial, external means, Christianity aims to make a person into “a new creature in Christ” (2 Cor. 5:17). It transforms people’s traditional beliefs and values to biblical norms and values. The new community is guided “to evaluate critically their own past customs in the light of their new biblical understandings and to make a decision regarding their use” (Hiebert 1987:187). Contextualization is not a mere academic task that a person can master by studying social sciences and theology. It involves living participants and agreeable decisions of the people. To involve the people in evaluating their own culture draws upon their strength, and there will be little likelihood that customs they reject will go underground (Hiebert 1987:187ff.). Once the gospel has been successfully implanted in a given culture and as individuals are converted and incorporated into a new, developing church, contextualization will assume an added dimension. The added dimension is the theological responsibility of the church embedded in the cultural matrix to which the gospel had been applied (Hesselgrave and Rommen 1989:170-180). Evangelical churches have the responsibility to develop a contextualized theology that addresses the issues of war, ethnicity, power-encounters, poverty, leadership, and so on. The churches may not be experts in economics and politics. However, as the Body of Christ, the church is “the authoritative teacher in what, in God’s mind, it really means to be human” (Luzbetak 1989:385). I think our identity in Christ is the best peaceful ground on which our society may be coalesced. As of now, the people are ethnically and politically fragmented. Ethnic conflict, poverty, war, immorality, hatred, and bitterness are symptoms of social and emotional sickness. The root cause is sin. The solution is to turn to biblical Christianity. Kato writes: “Oppression, tribalism, racism, and exploitation are definitely terrible crimes against humanity, God’s design for humanity (Acts 17:26). But is not the evil heart responsible for all these tensions and conflicts (James 4:1-7; Mark 7:15)? Unless the illness is properly diagnosed, the cure will ever remain elusive” (1975:158). I concur with Kato. This is where I mainly differ from the past and present politicians who tried and are still trying to understand and interpret Ethiopia and Ethiopians from a purely secular perspective. Contextualization helps us “to understand Christ through culture and interpret culture through Christ” (Neibuhr 1975:83). Through the workings of divine grace and human effort, evangelical leaders can bring about Christian transformational change. Such change “seeks to be guided by a supracultural point of reference as understood through the Bible and to involve the Holy Spirit in bringing about the reinterpretations and consequent transformations”

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(Kraft 1981:353). The EPRDF’s policy towards the church is extremely suitable for the Christians to engage in every aspect of constructive development so long as they operate within the rule of law. In my personal life and Ethiopian history, I do not know of a government who has given religious freedom in the true sense of the word to Ethiopians like the EPRDF. This government has broken the chain of suffering, persecution, imprisonment, and death that Ethiopian Protestant Christians went through during Haile Selassie and Mengistu’s time. The EPRDF has expectations of the church in exchange for this freedom, namely, to help rebuild the country. However, the modus operandi and modus vivendi of many churches today gives the picture of a physician who is himself in need of numerous prescriptions. Ethiopian evangelical Christianity, which initially set out to transform culture, is itself in need of transformation. The last two decades of the EPRDF’s policy are missed opportunities for the church to thrive and be a strong prophetic voice within the society. Time is an irreplaceable commodity. The past cannot be redeemed. However, to continue as we have been, abusing privileges and prospects, is absurd, and history will judge us. Summary Ethnic issues, current religious freedom, the spread of Islam, and the change in political leadership are all factors that affect evangelical Christian leadership in Ethiopia. My research has consequently been shaped according to these phenomena. Change involves a shift away from a known situation, with all its familiarity and possible advantages. The people concerned are exchanging the known for the unknown; certainty for uncertainty; stable, existing patterns of behaviour and adaptation for the need to evolve new patterns; tried rewards for untested ones. After going through rapid and radical socio-political change, Ethiopians are looking for a peaceful time of co-existence in the future. As the EPRDF was taking over, some resisted and detested the change while others spent a great deal of effort and psychological energy in getting to know the new situation. For the evangelical Christians, especially Pentecostals and Charismatics, the advantages of the new outweigh those of the old. There is freedom of worship. And the current government is supportive of their social development and evangelistic plans. Such kinds of encouragement and recognition by the government mark a new chapter in the history of Protestant Christians in Ethiopia. But little is done to alleviate the burden of the poor and give hope to millions of jobless young people.

An Important Question Every Leader Should Ask: What is Man?

Without a clear understanding of humanity and a good grasp of Christ’s attitude towards human beings, it is impossible to be effective in Christian leadership. So we ask, what is man? In his pursuit of the knowledge of God and of an understanding of his own nature and that of his fellow human beings, Pascal pondered: “Compared to the universe, man is nothing…Compared with nothing, man is a universe…A nothing compared to the infinite; a whole compared to nothing…What is man?” (Kửng 1980: 52-53). Our answer to this question will determine our comprehension of human beings, our soteriology, Imago Dei, Missio Dei, and our relationship with people within and outside of our race. Our concepts of justice, freedom, equality, and Christian leadership are heavily influenced not only by our theology but also our anthropology has a significant part in shaping our self-perception and our attitude towards others. Hence our focus in this chapter is to figure out what human beings are, how Christ views them, and what the Christian leader’s attitude should be. The origin of humanity is a broad subject and still an unresolved debate among philosophers and scientists, evolutionists and creationists. Without diving into the whirlpool of theories and views of man and assuming that the majority of my readers are evangelicals who believe they are created in the image of God, I launch from the biblical assertion of Gen. 1:26. However, cognitive knowledge of this biblical truth does not always automatically guarantee an effective knowledge of people. Whether we are Christians or just claim to be civilized people, from the earliest centuries until now, we often fall into a parochial and ethnocentric view of people. It takes a radical change both on the theological and anthropological level to say, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28). In the U.S., the astronauts have gone to the moon and come back several times. But the citizens have great difficulty in crossing the street to get to know their neighbours, especially, if the neighbours do not look like them and speak American English with a familiar accent. The churches are often more homogeneous than heterogeneous, despite the power of the gospel, which can help us to transcend racial, socio-economic, and cultural boundaries, as Paul stated. We tend to congregate with people of our own kind. Living in a fallen community, where we are supposed to be salt and light as we say “us” and “them.” We often tend to view our culture as good and others as less civilized

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or evil; our race or ethnic group is superior and others are inferior. We lead our people and neglect others, even becoming indifferent to “them.” Or, we lead others with a paternalistic attitude that will never bring followers to the point of maturity and responsibility. People have reached to the deepest depths of the ocean and climbed to the peak of the highest mountain on earth. They have made fascinating discoveries about plants, animals, and galaxies. Yet there are still many barriers between people. A clear biblical understanding of humanity is essential for effective Christian and national leadership. Paul G. Hiebert writes, “What is the biblical worldview of other and otherness? First, it affirms the common humanity of all people. The Scriptures lead us to a startling conclusion: at the deepest level of identity as humans, there are no others – there is only us. On the surface humans are male and female, blacks, browns, and whites, rich and poor, old and young; beneath these features, however, we are one humanity. This oneness of humanity is declared in the creation account (Gen. 1:26) and affirmed by the universalism implicit in the Old Testament (Gen. 12:3; Ps. 67; 72:17; Isa. 11:10; 19:23-25; Jer. 4:2; 31:1; Mic. 4:1-2)” (2008:289). Jesus set a good example for us in how to deal with human beings, whether they are Jews or Samaritans. The Scripture says, “A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’ For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, ‘How is it that you being a Jew ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?’ For Jews have no dealing with Samaritans” (John 4:7-9). The last place a typical Jewish Rabbi wanted to be found was in a Samaritan village. There was deep animosity between the Jews and Samaritans. In the eyes of a Jew, a Samaritan was non-human. If the shadow of a Samaritan fell on Jews when they walked on the road, the Jews had to be cleansed. Jesus broke five social rules in order to talk to the Samaritan woman: 1) Jesus violated turf rules. He had no business being in Samaria. This land was outside the Jewish box. He was aligned with a rival religion, and he wandered into enemy territory. 2) He talked to a woman. Men were not even to look at married women in public, let alone talk with them. 3) He associated with a morally disreputable person. This woman was going to bed with her sixth man. 4) Not only did he associate with a promiscuous woman, he associated with a Samaritan. 5) He deliberately defiled himself (Kraybill 1978:240-241).

Stepping outside of the Jewish worldview and culture and making himself vulnerable to the criticism, suspicion, and judgment of the Pharisees, as well as his own disciples, Jesus began the conversation from a common point of humanity – he asked for water. He did not display the mark of a Messiah to impress the Samaritan woman. In a previous chapter in the gospel of John, Jesus had changed water into wine. Here, he was “tired from the journey”; he

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was thirsty, and he asked for a drink. The creator of water was begging for help. His approach was unassuming, non-threatening, and engaging. The woman was startled not by the favour she was asked but by the one who asked the favour – he was a Jew. It is a very simple thing for her to get the water out of the well and give it to Jesus. She could have done that in a minute. Instead she responded with a question: “‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ For Jews do not associate with Samaritans” (John 4:9). Her question gave Jesus a wonderful opportunity to open up a spiritual discussion that allowed him to uncover her past and present situation without embarrassing her. She was more curious and interested in the conversation. In a healthy way, she was happy that her existence and her being, though marred by immorality, were known by the Messiah whom she was hoping would come. Unashamed and with boldness, she went back to her city to share the good news – she had met the Messiah. The One who uncovered her true self without condemning her was too precious to keep within her own walls. She became an instrument for evangelism and a catalyst for the conversion of her people. When a church historian writes about the genesis of Christianity in Samaria, he/she starts with this disreputable Samaritan woman and Christ, not with Philip the evangelist (Acts 8:5). Reflecting on this episode, Ravi Zacharias writes: “Jesus brought about an incredible life transformation, and she was never again to see herself – or anyone else – in the same way. God had done a work in her heart. Her inward look and her outward look were changed by first changing her upward look. That sequence is the only way to bring about real change in human intercourse. Our relationship to God dictates our relationship one to another” (1994:140). What do you know about people outside of your box? Do you think you have a common point and the same nature with people from different ethnic or racial background? Do you have any clue about the customs, norms and values of other ethnic groups or nationalities? Are you a bridge-builder between people through reconciliation, forgiveness, love, and effective communication? Or are you are a wall-builder that isolates and insulates people from each other? Have you conformed to the attitude of the majority in your society about “others,” or are you willing to break the norm like Jesus did with the Samaritan woman, at the risk of rejection and condemnation? Understanding human nature helps us to excel in our Christian leadership in many ways. It will keep us from pride when we succeed and from discouragement when we fail. When we understand the grace of God that enabled us to be who we are, we acknowledge the power, wisdom, mercy, and love of God manifested through us. We concur with the apostle Paul, saying, “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart…we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God not of us” (2 Cor. 4:1, 7). Paul was not saying “We do not lose heart” while sitting in a comfortable office, drinking Starbucks coffee,

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chatting on Facebook, and driving a nice car. Describing his situation, he said, “We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor. 4:8-9). In the face of such trials, without the help of God, no mortal human can come out mentally, physically, emotionally sound and still serve others. Because of the faithfulness of the One who called us to ministry when we received mercy, we can boldly say, “We do not lose heart.” Spurgeon reminds us about our “fainting fits” and mortality, saying, “Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy. There may be here and there men of iron, to whom wear and tear work no perceptible detriment, but surely the rust frets even these; and as to ordinary men, the Lord knows and makes them known, they are but dust” (1977:167). If you do not know this truth about yourself and others, and do not sincerely believe it as you are trying to lead people, then you are the wrong person for the task. Pascal did not find an answer to his question, “What is Man?” in mathematics or physics, despite his keen knowledge of the subjects and his status as a prominent scientist. “He was a mathematician of genius, he was a physicist of genius, he was an engineer of genius, he was a modern man of the world, he was a brilliant man of letters, and he was a profound thinker” (Kửng 1980: 43-45). None of these intellectual abilities enabled him to discover much about himself and his fellow human beings. He found the greatness and the wickedness of man in the revelation given through the gospels. And he said, “Knowing God without our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair. Knowing Jesus strikes the balance; he shows us both God and our own wretchedness” (cited in Kửng 1980: 58). The greatness and the wickedness of humans can only be understood according to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Why? Because Christ is the creator and redeemer of mankind and we are clay in the hands of the potter. That is why Christian leaders need to know their own nature and that of others as they try to lead people. Because of the interconnectedness and interdependence of the global community, the shrinking of time and space through the Internet and air travel, and the challenges and opportunities of the universal church of Jesus Christ, it is incumbent on Christian leaders to know about the nature of mankind, culture, values, norms, and worldviews. We cannot be leaders in a vacuum but only within a community.

The Way Forward

In short, I have tried to show the dynamic factors that have shaped the history and culture of Ethiopia for the last sixty years or so. The external and internal factors that have been impacting the country often go in line with the global political and economic trends. There has not been a world super-power that has not had an interest in Ethiopia. China considers Ethiopia one of the prime targets for laying a foundation for building political and economic muscle in Africa. Currently, it is estimated that there are 300,000 Chinese in Ethiopia. From day labourers to the top social strata, the Chinese presence is prevalent, and the country’s influence is felt and observed through minor and major projects they do in the country. With the same intensity and determination, the Middle Eastern countries are also investing in and controlling key natural resources of the country. Effectively and efficiently, they are doing good missionary work, through conversion, proselytizing, opening schools and clinics, and providing water. As I conclude my reflections on culture change in Ethiopia from an evangelical perspective, I would like to suggest the following ways of moving forward: 1. We need to begin with the “Ultimate Why?” The Christian philosopher Os Guinness, in his book The Calling, writes about a prominent businessman who spoke at Oxford University and left Guinness with an indelible memory about the search for a meaningful existence. The businessman said he went into business “to make money and hire people to do what he doesn’t like to do.” He achieved his financial goal, but his fundamental need was not met. “With a single tear rolling slowly down his well-tanned cheek, he said, ‘But there is one thing I’ve never been able to hire anyone to do for me: find my own sense of purpose and fulfilment. I’d give anything to discover that’” (2003:1). We all look for a purpose bigger than us for which to live and to die. Unless we discover the origin of our being, how we are here and why we are here, our attempt to change a nation is futile. That is why every religion and science and philosophical branch of thought addresses the question of our beginnings. The answer to the question “why?” “would have to come from a mind that transcends our material universe. The “what” gives us the stuff of existence; it is the “why” that provides the glue to all that we live for and the larger interpretation of why we are here in the first place” (Zacharias 1994:66). Since the essence of this book is not to argue the case for creation or faith, I am not going to engage in philosophical and scientific debates to prove my Christian

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faith. However, having observed sincere Marxists who shed their blood for Ethiopians hoping to bring a positive change, and having seen and encountered people globally who desperately seek a purpose for which to live, I strongly believe that if we truly love ourselves, our people, and our country, we need to begin with the ultimate “why?”. The ultimate “why?: is answered when one is discovered by his creator and receives his or her calling for life. “Calling is not only a matter of being and doing what we are but also of becoming what we are not yet but are called by God to be…Our primary calling as followers of Christ is by him, to him, and for him. First and foremost we are called to Someone (God), not to something (such as motherhood, politics, or teaching) or to somewhere (such as the inner city or Outer Mongolia)” (Guinness 2003:30-31). When we come to terms with who we are and why we are here, the journey toward making a positive contribution to humanity will start in the right direction. The power, money, glamour, and prestige we crave will never be able to change our mortality. We are finite beings who live on this earth between our birth and death. And yet, within the mortal body we carry an immortal being, which is our soul. We are not limited to the entrance and exit of our life on earth. To have a meaningful life, to live for a cause that is eternal, to know the mystery of our being, and to know why we were born, we need to listen to Jesus Christ. “In every instance, the purpose of life apart from God makes the ethical battleground a free-for-all. Time and again it was proven that it is not possible to establish a reasonable and coherent ethical theory without first establishing the telos, i.e. the purpose and destiny of human life. Even Kant concluded that without telos it all got wrongheaded. If life is purposeless, ethics falls into disarray” (his emphasis, Zacharias 1994:39). 2. We need to think globally and then lead nationally. As the history of Ethiopia shows, a good knowledge of the global political, cultural, and economic trends are important in order to effectively lead the country and its different institutions. Receiving grants and aids from allied countries is not sufficient to effectively lead Ethiopia. Unless we know the history of these other countries, their cultural values, their thinking and communication patterns, their people, their goal and purpose in donating or lending money, we can be like a rat trying to get food from a mousetrap. For contemporary African leaders, the legacies of Haile Selassie, Mobutu Sese Seko of Congo, and Mubarak of Egypt offer a valuable cautionary lesson. When they were in their prime, these leaders earned an “A” in diplomacy, superficial economic growth, popularity, and defeating their opponents. But they earned an “F” in life. They miserably failed their own families and their nations. During my experience in Kenya with different African people in the continent, I have realized that how little we Ethiopians know about the rest of Africa, let alone about Asians, Europeans, Americans and Latinos. Many Ethiopians who are in positions of leadership in the area of economics, politics, religion, foreign affairs, education and the like must strive to have a good grasp of the global trends in order to learn from others, to bring creative changes that

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will help Ethiopians, and to be an up-to-date and well-informed member of the global community. 3. Offer learning opportunities through diverse means. In today’s information technology era, when people are connected through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, My Space, and the like, a leader should not suffocate his or her people through poor internet connection and a highly controlled media communication. It is true that not all things that come through the Internet are constructive. But that should not be an excuse to block everything. The scope of our knowledge determines our level of contribution and understanding of the world, political systems, and economic opportunities. It also affects our ability to have a peaceful existence and a sense of belonging to the global community. The education that schools, parents, and religious centres provide should be cohesive in order to build a united nation. To come out of our parochial view of life and ethnic worldview, to understand and interpret national issues from different angles, and to give a workable solution, the scope of our learning requires diversity, breadth, and depth. Matters such as educational philosophy, curriculum, and the quality of teachers, the needs of students, and the short and long-term goals of education ought to be tackled by experts in the area of education, not by politicians or economists. So far, Ethiopians have been taught a transplanted ideology that has no relevance to their situation. Without abandoning the positive and universal truth of modern education, it is time to learn from our own history, saints, and political and religious leaders who made positive contributions to Ethiopia. Across different ethnic groups, there are many whom we can emulate, learning from their insights, convictions, and values and passing these gifts to the next generation. Japan, South Korea, and India are making tremendous progress in the areas of science, technology, and economics without becoming totally Western. Why should Ethiopia not be able to maintain her uniqueness and excel in her pursuit of healthy growth and the development of her people? 4. Let justice prevail. Even though Ethiopia boasts of having been a free country for centuries, the people hardly lived in freedom without their human rights being violated in one way or another. Without the freedom to think, speak, move from region to region without restrictions, and be creative and productive within the framework of the law, people can be walking dummies or mere echoes of those who are allowed to make noise. When the bank account of the few is fattened through theft while the majority is living on the verge of hunger; when citizens are languishing in prison or even killed without due process of the law; when a few are conversing in foreign languages such as English, French, German, and Mandarin and gain access to the global job market while the majority of Ethiopians are still groping in the darkness of illiteracy; when the privileged few have the best medical treatment nationally and internationally while most Ethiopians are dealing with the realities of high child mortality and low life expectancy; when the justice system itself is treating some as if they are above the law and punishing those who are in need

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of fair trial by twisting the law, how can we say there is justice? In such a cultural context and social system, a prophetic voice from preachers, teachers, and Christian scholars is expected. God hates injustice and oppression. When Israel violated God’s righteous acts, she was never left unpunished. She rejected the law of the Lord, did not keep his decrees, unjustly treated the poor, and worshipped idols. Through the prophet Amos, God confronted Israel, saying, “Seek the Lord and live, or he will sweep through the house of Joseph like a fire…You who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness into the ground…He who turns blackness into dawn and darkness day into night, he who calls for the water of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land – the Lord is his name – he flashes destruction on the stronghold and brings the fortified city into ruin. You hate the one who reproves in court and despise him who tells the truth. You trample on the poor and force him to give you bribe and you have built stone mansions, you will not live on them; though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine. For I know how many are your offenses and how great your sins. You oppress the righteous and take bribes and you deprive the poor of justice in the courts” (Amos 5:6-12). Evil and brutal treatment of the poor and the down-trodden will never go unpunished because God hates unrighteous acts. Advocating for justice should have been one of the major tasks of the evangelical churches in Ethiopia. “Politics deals with matters and interests of the world and they depend on passions natural to man and upon reason…without goodness, love and charity, all that is best in us – even divine faith, but passion and reason much more so – turns in our hand to unhappy use. The point is that right political experience cannot develop in people unless passion and reason are oriented by a solid basis of collective virtues, by faith and honor and thirst for justice” (Maritain 2011:39). 5. Allow innovation and encourage creativity. About ten years ago, I was doing research at the UCLA Library, which has the best collection of books and resources on Ethiopia. I came across the first Ethiopian traffic book written in Amharic during the reign of Menelik II about 100 years ago. One of the traffic laws says, “Menged yegara nẻw aheyanem chemir” (The road is for all, including donkeys”). I laughed out loud for a long time, to the point that some might have thought I was high on some drug. I was laughing at myself and the Ethiopians of my generation who criticize Menelik II on many issues and his modus operandi of ruling. But the traffic law that was written 100 years ago, during his leadership, is still in effect in the capital city, where international organizations like OAU and the UN are located and various embassies and diplomatic corps reside. The latest Mercedes Benzes and BMWs travel down the streets of Addis Ababa alongside donkeys, goats, and sheep. We have made little improvement on what Menelik II left us. Yet, we feel we have a right to criticize him. The repeated famine that caused millions of deaths, the deforestation that rapidly changes the climate, lack of good sanitation, poverty, sickness,

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joblessness, the rampant immorality, the increasing dysfunctional family, backward technology, and the inefficient means of communication and transportation are all preventable. So many things that can be improved and advanced instead deteriorate or stagnate over the course of years. The social and government system is not encouraging, empowering, and rewarding innovators, entrepreneurs, and those who think outside of the box. We have not been colonized so that we should think and lead ourselves this way. Even with no external imposition, we have chosen to colonize ourselves. If there is a nation that is a victim primarily of its own values, thinking and action, it is Ethiopia. Those leaders who have created a political system that subordinates and conditions the people should share the biggest blame.1 The intelligentsia, who echoed the Western and Eastern ideology and forced it on Ethiopians with no regard for the historical, political, cultural, and religious systems that made us a nation, is equally responsible for the secession of Eritrea and for the conditions the country is in today. We are good at pointing out the weaknesses of others and magnifying the wrongs they did. But we rarely own to our own mistakes. However, this does not mean that Ethiopia has no children of high scientific and technological calibre within many disciplines. Further research should be conducted to fully realize the positive intellectual, economic, and technological contributions Ethiopians have made in exile in the last 30-40 years in the U.S., Europe, and different countries in Africa. When the system allows them to unleash their potential and recognition, rewards, and incentives, there are many Ethiopians who can do incredible things and can transform the country to bring her where she ought to be in the twenty-first century. 6. Civility in all communications and decisions that pertain to the nation. Clear prophetic vision, sound reasoning, nation-building leaders, hardworking citizens, far-sighted and disciplined economists, peace-making religious leaders, people of honesty and integrity in the judicial system, and adept military leaders who use war only as a last resort are in dire need to take Ethiopians beyond the polarization of the ethnic culture wars to a fresh consideration of the good civil virtues and values that kept Ethiopia unified. It was civility that enabled us to fight external aggression alongside brave Ethiopian men and women who had different ethnic backgrounds and spoke different languages and dialects. A key to the national peace and regional cooperation and co-existence is in understanding different cultures and religions and teaching people to respect, have tolerance for, and appreciation of different views and lifestyles. Coherent and impassioned principles that advocate civility, demonstrated in words and actions by leaders, can bring a spiritual blaze to unite the people and restore their dignity.

1

For an in-depth understanding see The Evolution of Ethiopian Absolutism (2007) by Tsegaye Tegenu.

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In a country torn apart by ethnocentric ideology, crushed by the heavy burden of poverty, lack of jobs, shortages of food, and religious and political extremist actions, no issue is more important and urgent than how we live with our deepest differences – especially our religious, ethnic, ideological, and language differences. Be it Christianity or Islam, religion can be divisive and can cause bloodshed and enormous pain to people. Secularism can also be oppressive, exploitive, and dehumanizing to people. Endless pandemonium has caused millions of Ethiopians to leave their country, die, be imprisoned and tortured, and be unproductive. A key that would lock the gates and windows of chaos and make Ethiopians more humane to each other and have mutual respect is civility. To restore a “virtuous circle” and to offset the “vicious circle”, Guinness said, “The way forward lies in a vision of cosmopolitan society and a civil public square. The vision of a civil public square is one in which everyone people of all faiths, whether religious or naturalistic, are equally free to enter and engage public life on the basis of their faiths, as a matter of ‘‘free exercise” and as dictated by their own reason and conscience; but always within the double framework, first, of the Constitution, and second, of a freely and mutually agreed covenant, or common vision for the common good, of what each person understands to be just and free everyone else, and therefore of the duties involved and living with the deep differences of others” (emphasis his 2008:35). For civility to take place, two frameworks are important: “constitution and freely and mutually agreed covenant.” Since the Ethiopian constitution is changing with the coming of new leaders into power and trust is a scarce virtue among Ethiopians due to the social upheaval the country has gone through for the last 40 years, those who are in leadership ought to think of establishing the two essential frameworks before attempting to promote civility. “When cordiality is lost, truth is obscured. And it is truth, especially when trying to answer a question such as the one before us, that provides for us the very rationale and foundation for a civil existence” (Zacharias 1994:9). To this Os Guinness add; “We humans act politically, inspired not only by faith, virtue, courage, honor, excellence, justice, prudence, generosity and compassion, but also by – self-interest, self-preservation, power, greed, vanity, revenge and convenience – and wise governance must take both into account” (2012:102). Even if they try to present to us as messianic and men of good will for the people of Ethiopia, none of our past leaders in the last 80 years had pure political motive. The means they used to get to power does not justify their authority and governance. Their path to the palace is stained by the blood of their opponnents and they set unendless cyle of revenge. 7. Develop the natural resources and tourism sector. Even though Ethiopia is known for her poverty, the country is blessed with natural beauty, historical churches and buildings, rivers, and many colourful, breath-taking birds to watch. In order for eco-tourism to become a successful industry, quality MAPGUID, good hotels and food service, efficient Internet service, training in tourism and hospitality, and Ethiopians who are conversant in

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different international and national languages are necessary. Without going too far, Ethiopia can learn much from Kenya. “Revenues from tourism, a major source of income for the east African country, soared 32 percent in 2011 as high-spending arrivals from the United Arab Emirates, China and India made up for a fall in visitors from its traditional European markets…Tourism, one of Kenya’s major foreign earners alongside tea and horticulture raked in 98 billion shillings last year, shy of its 100 billion shilling target, and up from 74 billion shillings posted in 2010…Arrivals from the fast-growing new markets increasingly targeted by the region’s biggest economy climbed sharply, with 42 percent more visitors coming from the UAE, 31.4 percent more from China and Indian tourist numbers rising 24 percent” (Beatrice Gachenge 2012). Kenyans are not attracting tourists by sitting at home hoping, dreaming, and praying for tourists to come. They work hard in advertising their country, they travel to target countries and build healthy, mutually beneficial diplomatic relationships. They treat the tourists like princes and princesses. Most of all, they closely follow the global economic trends. During the good times, the majority of tourists to Kenya were from Europe, the U.S., and Australia. When their longtime clients were hit by the economic crisis, Kenyans did not sit and moan. They targeted other areas that might be profitable. This kind of hard work requires a well-informed and creative tourism minister and minister of foreign affairs, as well as an efficient staff. Ethiopia is also rich with mineral resources. The country produces diatomite, feldspar, gold, gypsum, hydraulic cement, industrial sand and gravel (silica), caoline, niobium and tantalum, pumice and related material, raw steel, silver, soda ash, and the like. The list of the minerals is impressive but the volume of the product by metric ton for each mineral is very disappointing. And as most of the geologists I interviewed told me, the income from these minerals is largely unaccounted for. Still, there are many areas rich with gold, gemstone minerals, underground waters good for making bottled water, that are untapped.2 Mobbs states, “The minerals industry was a minor contributor to Ethiopia’s economy in 1997. The Government, however, was seeking foreign investment and anticipated that mineral exports could significantly increase the nation’s foreign exchange earnings. Gold was the most significant Ethiopian mineral export, whereas fertilizer and petroleum products were the most significant mineral imports. Construction materials, including brick clay, limestone and shale mined for cement production, gypsum for cement and plaster, sand and gravel, and crushed and dimension stone, were also important Ethiopian mineral commodities. A variety of other minerals were also produced” (1997). However, despite the past and present flaws, the future of the Ethiopian mining sector is encouraging. According to the United Nations Commissions report, “The vision for the coming 15 to 20 years for the Mineral 2

For more extensive coverage of the mineral industry of Ethiopia, see the 1998 Minerals Yearbook, v.3, Mineral Industries of Africa and the Middle East.

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Sector is to establish a diverse, world class, competitive and environmentally sound private sector led mining industry, based on transparent free market principles, contributing not less than 10% of the GDP thereby enhancing the socioeconomic development and eradication of poverty in Ethiopia” (emphasis mine, 2009). If creatively and scientifically utilized, and if the income is managed with integrity, transparency and accountability, tapping into Ethiopian natural resources can feed the nation and pull the people out of poverty. Unfortunately, as the history of the country shows, the energy of the leadership so far has been consumed by war, which has forced the country to depend on foreign aid that dents the pride of the people and encourages dependency. The national debt is another additional burden that crushes the hopes and aspirations of Ethiopians. 8. Examine and evaluate our concept of time. In a simplistic way the concept of time can be divided between a polychronic and monochronic concept. “Monochronic time urges people to do one thing at a time. Time, for them, is like a long ribbon of highway that can be sliced into segments. Monochronics believe that accomplishment and tasks can and should be performed during each segment. Monochronics have a high need for closure – completing a task or coming to a conclusion in a relationship” (Dodd 1995:87). Monochronic people have no tolerance for ambiguity. Punctuality is important, relationships are egalitarian, their work or job is a vital part of their life, and their communication style is often direct. For polychronics, such as the African people, the concept of time is different. There is potential time, actual time, the concept of history and prehistory, and the concept of human life, death, and immortality. Space and time are perceived quite differently than they are in the West, and it is fascinating to study this subject in-depth.3 When it comes to the Ethiopian culture, especially for those in the Ethiopian Orthodox church, time is sacred. Each day of the month is designated to different saints and angels. Showing up on time is not important; procrastination in many circles is acceptable. Spending as many hours as is needed for weddings, funerals, christening and baptism celebrations and the like is not waste of time. Relationships are more highly valued than the demanding ticking of the hands of a clock. When monochronics and polychronics each live and function within their own cultural context, conflict and misunderstanding is minimal. The challenge arises when they find themselves in a different concept of time. Among the Ethiopian community in the United States, it is not uncommon to send two kinds of wedding invitations indicating different starting times for the wedding. If the wedding is to be performed at 2:00 pm, invitations sent to Ethiopians will instruct guests to arrive at 12:00 noon. Invitations sent to Americans instruct guests to arrive at 2:00 pm. Often the Americans arrive exactly on time and wait for Ethiopians for another 45 minutes or hour. Our concept of time has 3

For further study see John Mbiti (1984) and Levine (1965).

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become a major obstacle for us to plan effectively and be productive. We are ill equipped to manage our time and appreciate the value time has in our life. I strongly believe that one of the major factors for perpetual poverty, repeated crisis, unresolved problems, low productivity, and mismanagement of human and natural resources has to do with the mismanagement of time. As Peter E. Drucker, the guru of management, rightly said, “Time is totally irreplaceable. Within limits we can substitute one resource for another, copper for aluminum, for instance. We can substitute capital for human labor. We can use more knowledge or more brawn. But there is no substitute for time. Everything requires time. It is the only universal condition. All works takes place in time and uses up time. Yet most people take for granted this unique, irreplaceable and necessary resource. Nothing else, perhaps, distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender loving care of time” (emphasis mine 1985:26). The concept of time Drucker is trying to help us grasp is a universal truth about time. It is not an imposition of one’s cultural value of time on the other. When we understand the important place of time and its value, we often become more proactive and efficient. We can more fully enjoy our walk with Christ and other people. I am not advocating a concept of time that puts time above God, friends, and families. People should not end up being slaves to time. This position is one extreme of the monochronic culture. The African concept of time especially that of the Ethiopians, is neither healthy nor productive. “Time is the scarcest resource, and unless it is managed, nothing can be managed. The analysis of one’s time, moreover, is the one easily accessible and yet systematic way to analyze one’s work and to think through what really matters in it” (1985:51). This “scarcest resource” is given to all people equally. Bill Gates and I have different kinds of assets and accounts. But both of us are given the same 24 hours each day and the same 365 days each year. The difference lies in how each individual manages his/her time. If we utilize the time of our youth unwisely and waste it without laying a foundation for our remaining years, the last phase of our journey on this earth and the future of our children and the next generation will be burdensome and taxing. That is why the government transition from Haile Selassie to Mengistu and from Mengistu to Meles has not made a significant change in the quality of life for Ethiopians. How and where we invest and use our time determines the outcome of our plans and the result of our labour. This is true for everyone. 9. Uphold the essentiality of trust. Whether we are business leaders, political or religious leaders, in a community, at home, in the school system, or in religious centres, trust drives everything. In his insightful book Stephen M.R. Covey said, “Relationships of all kinds are built on and sustained by trust. They can also be broken and destroyed by lack of trust. Try to imagine and meaningful relationship without trust. In fact, low trust is the very definition of a bad relationship” (2006:12). If leaders would like to provide the best and greatest roadmap for success for the citizens they lead and would like to establish trust, teaching and demonstrating this virtue in word and action is

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vital. It is impossible to gain the dedication and commitment of employees and citizens without trust. If parents, religious and political leaders, teachers, and corporations lack trust, a climate of suspicion develops, people’s energies are sapped, second guessing becomes rampant, and team work is devastated. In his book Truth and Transformation: A Manifesto for Ailing Nations, Vishal Mangalwadi recounts the interesting story of his conversation with a fellow Indian during his flight from Delhi to London in 1980. Mr. Singh, who was sitting next to him, was conducting business in the U.K., and he found out that Manglawadi was an educated person who ran a Christian ministry but lived in a mud house in an unknown district. Mr. Singh made it his mission to persuade Manglawadi to change his career, move to England, and start a business. He went on about how easy it was to establish a successful business in England. Mr. Singh’s English was not very proficient, and Manglawadi wondered how this person was able to start a business and be successful in England. So he asked Mr. Singh, “Why is it so easy to do business in England?” Mr. Singh replied without pausing, “Because everyone trusts you over there.” Magalwadi did not understand the importance of trust in economics. He lost interest in the conversation and went to sleep. A few months later he happened to go to Holland to speak at a conference. One afternoon his host, Dr. Jan van Barneveld, asked him to go with him to get some milk. The two went to the dairy farm through a gorgeous Dutch country yard with moss-covered tress. The dairy had a hundred cows, and there was no staff on the site, but it was clean and orderly. It was a contrast to the two-cow dairy farms in India, which have two workers and are dirty and smelly. They walked into the milk room, and Magalawadi expected Jan to ring a bell to call the staff. Instead, Jan opened the tap, put his jug under it, and filled the jug. Then he reached up to a windowsill, took down a bowl full of cash, took out his wallet, put twenty guilders into the bowl, took some change, put the change in his pocket, put the bowl back, picked up his jug, and started walking. Magalwadi was stunned. He told Jan, “Man if you were an Indian, you would take the milk and the money.” Sometime back he told the story to an audience in Indonesia, and an Egyptian gentleman laughed the loudest. As all eyes turned to him he explained, “We are cleverer than Indians. We would take the milk, the money and the cows.” (2009:25-27). It was during his experience in Holland that Magalwadi understood the trust Mr. Singh was telling him about. He said, “My culture of distrust and dishonesty robs me of money that could be used to provide a better life for my children and productive employment for my neighbors” (28). Like the Indian culture, the Ethiopian culture is infected by distrust. In Ethiopia an individual is guilty until he is proven innocent. In most cases innocence has to do with dancing to the tune of the political system. Something that takes thirty minutes in the U.S., such as registering a non-profit or forprofit company, takes thirty to ninety days in Ethiopia. One is lucky if he or she succeeds.

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When trust is high, speed increases and cost decreases. When trust is low, creativity, business, development, and industrial and technological progress is slow to the point of frustration and discouragement. Before 9/11, whether it was for a national or international flight, I was able to run to the departure gate with my ticket and ID card in my hand to board a plane even 10 minutes before departure. Today, I have to be at the airport two hours before departure if I am taking an international flight and one hour for a domestic flight. Every handbag has to be checked. I have to take everything out of my pockets, remove my shoes and belt, and be screened. Air travel is slow, and it is becoming very costly to both passengers and the airline industry. “Last year, airlines and passengers contributed $2 billion in taxes and fees to the TSA. The federal government – in other words, taxpayers – picked up the rest of the organization’s $8 billion tab… Some people now choose to not fly at all. As a result, there has been a small, but noticeable, decline in air traffic, according to a Cornell study on ‘The Impact of Post-9/11 Airport Security Measures on the Demand for Air Travel.’ That decline in demand has cost the airline industry an estimated $1.1 billion, said Garrick Blalock, a professor of economics” (2011).4 Sometimes, I wonder how many job opportunities have been lost and how many are without jobs, depending on others for support? I wonder how many wealthy, creative, and industrious Ethiopians decided not to invest in their country because of a lack of trust and opportunity to make a contribution. If you have studied the lives of Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Carnegie, John Pierpont, “J.P.” Morgan, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Pierre Samuel du Pont, Walter Elias “Walt” Disney, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs and many others, it is not only because of their IQ that they became successful. The U.S. offers many opportunities through freedom, democracy and a culture of hard work and education that fosters growth and success. The glue holding all this together is trust. Americans are innocent until they are proven guilty. When you go to a government office or private corporation, you are promptly and cheerfully greeted with “What can I do for you today?” You receive unreservedly efficient assistance. If you achieve that which you came to achieve, the service provider is as happy for you as would be a shareholder in your income. If things go slowly you receive dozens of apologies. Employees do not question your motives, they do not communicate with you with suspicion, and they do not deliberately frustrate you or disappoint you so that you will give up. They co-operate with you and desire to see you succeed. Since I was not used to this kind of positive treatment during my first few years in the U.S., I used to think that every American is a Christian who treats others with godly character. Such cultural virtues are attracting high-calibre professional immigrants. In Silicon Valley, “Chinese and Indian computer scientists and engineers were running one-quarter of the region’s high-tech firms in 1998. In that year alone, these firms accounted for 4

For more information see: http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/08/pf/911_travel/index.htm

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nearly $17 billion in sales and over 58,000 jobs” (Saxenian 1999).5 Koreans, Vietnamese, Japanese, Filipinos, Europeans, and Africans are having great success in this country. I have lived for more than two decades in the U.S., and I can attest to the fact that, for a law abiding citizen who works hard, this country is a land of opportunity. It is not because the U.S. has better natural resources than Africa. It is because they have a better system of governance, and they operate with a high level of trust. Ethiopia cannot be like the U.S. overnight. But she can start turning towards success. Without trust the country will remain poor. 10. Know God and live for Him. As an evangelical Christian, I strongly argue that if the goal of one’s life is only to do every good thing possible, whether Westerners, Asians, Latinos, or Africans, but omit God, one is signing on for a miserable life where the deepest desires are not met. “Knowing about God is crucially important for the living of our lives…the world become a strange, mad, painful place, and life in it a disappointing and unpleasant business, for those who do not know about God. Disregard the study of God and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you. This way you can waste your life and lose your soul” (Packer 1993:19). Knowing God not only points to the door of ultimate purpose, it provides the key to unshakable truth, helps us open it, and prepares us for the Lord Jesus Christ, who is waiting for us on the other side. We cannot discover him fully until he discovers us. Knowing God gives you peace beyond comprehension and is a fountain of contentment. Knowing God first changes us before we rush to change others. And the genuine change that results from knowing God begins inside of us and moves outward. The hunger and desire to know God is not only the problem of the feebleminded, unlearned people who want to use religion as a crutch. As I indicated in the previous chapter, great thinkers and scientists, such as Pascal, went through periods of dissatisfaction and frustration without God. Pascal writes, “We burn with desire to find a firm footing, an ultimate, lasting base on which to build a tower rising up to infinity, but our whole foundation cracks and the earth opens up into the depth of the abyss. Let us seek neither assurance nor stability; our reason is always deceived by the inconsistency of appearances; nothing can fix the finite between the two infinites which enclose and evade it. So insecure is man, this ‘thinking reed,’ that ‘a vapor, a drop of water is enough to kill him. Nevertheless, if the universe were to crush him, man still would be nobler than his slayer, because he knows that he is dying and the advantage the universe has over him. The universe knows none of this” (Kὔng 1980:53). In Paris, Pascal had an opportunity to rub shoulders with worldly people talented in every way. They were magnanimous, wise, and tactful people who earned his respect. He observed their lives in close proximity that a theologian or 5

Read more: http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/R_699ASR.pdf

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preacher would not have. Because of that, “he caught sight of the concealed insecurities, doubts, weaknesses of these people who seemed so secure while being at once dependent and independent, unbelieving and believing, undaunted and frightened” (Kὔng 1960: 53-54). From his own personal experience and his encounters with others, he determined that life without God was empty and full of loneliness, boredom, gloom, chagrin, resentment, and despair. What mattered to him most was to believe in the Christian God, not the abstract, remote God of the philosophers and scholars. He did it with submission and the use of reason. For Pascal, “knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because he shows us both God and our own wretchedness” (Kὔng 1960:58). “He is the image of the invisible God, the first born over all creation. For by him all things are created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:15-17). So what is man to say that he is the center of the universe and that he is in control of his own destiny, the prime mover of human history? Kὔng argues that knowing God is “Yes beyond science actually it is the Yes of faith.” With the following long statement he explains God’s controlling action in the world: God operates in the world not in the fashion of the finite and relative but of the infinite in the finite and the absolute in the relative. God does not operate on the world from above or from outside as unmoved mover, but from within as the dynamic, most real reality in the process of the evolution of the world, which he makes possible, directs, and completes. He does not operate above the world process, but in the world process: in, with and among human beings and things. He is himself source, center and goal of the world process. God operates not only at particular, especially important points or gaps in the world process but as the creating and consummating primal support and thus as the world-immanent, world transcendent ruler of the world – ubiquitous (omnipresent) and all-powerful (omnipotent) – fully respecting the laws of nature, of which he is himself the source. He is himself the all-embracing and allcontrolling meaning and ground of the world process, who can of course be accepted only in faith. World or God – this is not an alternative: there is neither the world without God (atheism) nor God without the world (pantheism). There is God and the world, God and man, but not as two competing, finite casualties alongside each other, with one gaining what the other loses…God must be understood according to the Bible as absolute freedom, he is not threatened by man’s freedom; for God himself makes that freedom possible, authorizes and releases it” (1980:649).

Every philosophical and academic system has epistemological (thinking), existential (feeling) and pragmatic (functional) aspects. Its validity and reliability is evaluated and judged by these three facets. Christianity transcends

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all philosophical and religious systems because of the person Jesus Christ. He is the embodiment of the invisible God. You can have Buddhism without Buddha, Islam without Mohammed, and Marxism without Marx. But you cannot have Christianity without Christ. Pascal is right when he says, “Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because he shows us both God and our own wretchedness.” Therefore, it is very important for the church to proclaim a Christ-centered gospel. “Our responsibility in evangelism is neither to create a Christ of our own who is not in Scripture, nor to embroider or manipulate the Christ who is in Scripture, but to bear faithful witness to the one and only Christ there is as God has presented him to the world in the remarkably unified testimony of the Old and the New Testament” (Stott 1975:48). The apostle John described Jesus Christ this way: “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life and that life was the light of men” (John 1:1-3). Tennent summarizes the significance of Christ this way: “The life of Jesus models for all cultures what it means to fully realize our true humanity. The incarnation is, therefore, not only a revelation of God to humanity but also a revelation of humanity to humanity. In Jesus Christ we are learning what it means to be fully human…in Jesus Christ the Word and the world meet, time and eternity intersects, transcendence and immanence find a common ground. The Incarnation, therefore, represents God’s embrace of human culture” (emphasis his 2010:180-181). The Western intelligentsia through the influence of the Enlightenment and the Marxist-bent Ethiopians rejected the notion of a creator. By wanting to have a country without God, the Ethiopian atheists and Marxists uprooted the values and norms that held the nation together. Life became chaotic, injustice reigned, and killing became rampant. Mengistu Haile Mariam, the leader and supposed role model of the country, acted as if he were crazy. As he would if he were a cannibal, he used to say, “Le mesa siasubune kurse adregnachew” (“while they were planning to have us for lunch, we cooked them for breakfast”). By forcing us to abandon our faith and pushing the Marxist ideology down our throats, the Ethiopian Marxists violated our inalienable rights. In a nation where religion permeates almost in every phase of life, God became non-existent. Christ, who is the source of solace for many, was labelled as the “opium of the masses.” Churches were closed, the only Christian radio station was nationalized, many leaders were sent to prison without trial, thousands were tortured, and some were killed. For the first time in our history, a mass exodus of Ethiopians through Sudan, Kenya, Djibouti, Eritrea, and Somali occurred. Those who had the means to travel by air and had good connections left through Bole, the international airport. Parents, children, and siblings were forced to separate. Exile, imprisonment, and death brought about all kinds of family dysfunction that have not been fully healed, even to this day. Godless ideology is very costly.

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As Paul addressed the Athenians, “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in a temple made by hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:24-27). God is the reason for our existence. By his sovereign power and will, he decides where each one of us lives, and he has determined our times. No physician or medicine can give us extra seconds if God decides to call us to him. Knowing the creator of the universe can positively impact individuals, groups, and nations. It brings a sense of awe and gratitude and can make us good stewards of nature and respecters of people, who are created in his image. Most of all, it gives purpose to our lives and help us to understand how we are here and why. Those who know God have great energy for God, have great thoughts of God, show great boldness for God, and have great contentment in God (Packer 1993:26-32). The God of the Bible is knowable and relational. Several times in the Bible, to Israel and to all nations, we see him say, “Seek me and live.”

Conclusion

Why did I write this book? It has been thirty-two years now since I went into exile. For more than half of my life, I have lived outside of Ethiopia. When I crossed the Kenyan border to seek asylum, I was disgusted by the atrocities of the Marxist regime. I was discomfited by the evil nature of fellow Ethiopians who manifested the inhumanity of people to each other. I never thought I would turn my face to that country again, let alone write this book and cherish my Ethiopian origin. Paradoxically, my experiences with many Africans and my life in the United States caused me to take a second look at the root of my being and the factors that influenced me to be who I am today. Now, I can unashamedly say I am a debtor to the hundreds and thousands of Ethiopians who shaped me in various ways and gave me an unshakable self-esteem that carried me through many challenging moments in the past until this day. In a small way, by writing this book, I want to pay my dues and pass something on to the next generation. I am a debtor to my father-in-law, Kifle Delnesahu, whom I had no chance to meet. He was a fierce guerrilla fighter during the five years of Italian occupation and lost two of his sons. I am a debtor to my uncle, Endeshaw Negatu, whom I also had no chance to meet. He fought the Italians until his last bullet and died with honour, instead of surrendering. I am a debtor to my father and many uncles and relatives, who were self-made soldiers, whom I saw going to war to defend the borders of their country when it was violated by outside aggressors. They used their own weapons, ammunitions, food, and other supplies, and they fought at the cost of their lives with no salary and no fallback system for their families. And I am indebted to so many Ethiopian patriots from every ethnic background who sacrificed their lives so that I could live and develop the personality I have without the scar of colonialism. I strongly feel I am indebted to genius military generals like Alula Aba Nega, Aman Andom, and many others. To Ethiopian authors, who shaped me through their pens and wisdom, such as Hadis Alemayehu, Tsgaye Gebremedhin, Bealu Girma, Mammo Wideneh, Mengistu Lemma, Abbẻ Gubennya, Paulos Ngongo, and many more; to athletes such as Abebe Bikila, who won the 1960 marathon in Rome running barefoot. Simon Robinson describes him this way, “Bikila’s triumph was all the more stunning because it happened in the capital of Ethiopia’s former military occupier. Legend has it that he made his decisive move in the race just as he passed the Axum Obelisk, a towering stele that Mussolini had brought back from Ethiopia as war loot. Four years later in Tokyo, Bikila won gold again, the first man to defend his

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Olympic marathon title. This time he wore shoes” (2008).1 Bikila broke the previous world record in Rome, and the “newspapers the next day commented that it had taken an entire Italian army to conquer Ethiopia, but only one Ethiopian soldier to conquer Rome.”2 I am indebted to Mamo Wolde, Haile Gebreslassie, Kenenisa Bekele, Mengistu Worku, and many others who stunned the world with their athletic skills and made me proud to be Ethiopian. To my teacher from the Orthodox church, Yenta Abebe, who taught me Ha Hu (the ABC of the Amharic alphabet), Abugida and gbrẻ gẻb (ethics), to my third grade classroom teacher, Yosef Kidane, who instilled in me the value of education at my tender age, to Ethiopian artists and musicians like Yared, Tilahun Gessesse, Buzunesh Bekele, Kassa Tessema, and Afework Tekle, who developed my aesthetic taste. To those who translated the Bible in different Ethiopian languages beginning in the fourth century, to Christian leaders like Pastor Tsadiku Abdo, Pastor Teshome Worku, and Rev. Gudina Tumsa, Gash Regassa Feyissa, Aba Gole, Rev. Kedamo, who in word and deed taught me what loving Christ and sacrificial service mean. I feel enormously indebted to them. I was born out of the social womb of these and many more Ethiopians, whose generosity, gallantry, and love of their friends and their country and their God moulded my upbringing. The older I become, the more I appreciate my cultural background. It was in this cultural context that the almighty God, the God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaac, revealed his son Jesus Christ to me. By his amazing grace and unconditional love, Jesus transformed my life and enabled me to answer the “Ultimate Why.” Knowing Christ and being his follower for the last forty years has enabled me to accept a challenge that has been the integrating dynamic of my whole life. He has engaged my loftiest thoughts, my dedicated exertions, my deepest emotions, all my abilities and resources, to the last step I take and to the last breath I breathe. Christ did not ask me to be a Jew, an American, or a European in order to receive the abundant life now and the eternal life he promised in the future. His grace is bestowed upon me as an Ethiopian. I am at the stage of life where I start looking back and asking if it was worth it to go through the path I have gone through for the last forty years. Because of my encounter with Jesus Christ, I have no regrets about my past life, and I look forward to the future with faith, hope, and optimism. I know the author of human history, who will bring it to culmination. I have lived my life as a journey, I have known the “WAY,” and my deep desire to reach the goal of my life quest by large has been met. Willingly and obediently, I have lived an examined, transparent, and accountable life. I have travelled with those who use the same signposts, and I have associated with others who long for the same final destiny, people from all nationalities and 1

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1829863,00. html#ixzz28PfLJ17Z2008) 2 Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/abebe-bikila#ixzz28PjFwthR

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languages. Because the gospel message is anchored within my cultural context and is embedded in my worldview, it has called me to abandon the worthless and sinful aspects of my culture, and it has enriched the positive aspects. Hence, I have been and will remain being until I die, an Ethiopian Christian, not a Christian Ethiopian. I have no regrets or shame for being an Ethiopian. “Jesus was a Jew, a member of small, poor, politically powerless nation living at the periphery of the Roman Empire…From this basic fact we can conclude without more ado that without Judaism there would be no Christianity” (Hans Kὔng 1984:167). If this was true for the son of God how much more it is true for us mortals who are born and raised in different cultural contexts belonging to different races and ethnic groups not by our choice but by the sovereign will of God. It is no wonder then, that Paul who was the apostle of the Gentiles, a Roman citizen, without hesitation and contradiction, said, I am “…of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews” (Philippians 3:5). God does not reveal his marvellous grace through tabula rasa. Grace becomes amazing when it is manifested through humans in their own cultural limited context. That is when “time and eternity connect.” Jesus Christ, who was a Jew, was neither indifferent to nor silent about the social, political, economic, and religious issues of his time. The passive, submissive Jesus Christ who was depicted by the unidirectional absolutist writers and speakers of the Ethiopian Marxist movement and the intelligentsia was baseless. In the words of Küng, “Jesus…did not demand and still less did he set in motion a politico-social revolution. What he did set going was a decidedly non-violent revolution: a revolution emerging from man’s innermost and secret nature, from the personal center, from the heart of man, into society. There was to be no continuing in the old ways, but a radical change in man’s thinking, a conversion (Greek, metanoia) away from all forms of selfishness, toward God and his fellow men. The real alien powers, from which man has to be liberated, were not the hostile world powers, but the forces of evil: hatred, injustice, dissension, violence, all human selfishness, and also suffering, sickness and death. There had to be therefore a changed awareness, a new way of thinking, a new scale of values. The evil that had to be overcome lay not only in the system, in the structures, but in man. Inner freedom had to be established and this would lead to freedom from external powers. Society had to be transformed through the transformation of the individual” (emphasis mine 191). It was this fundamental principle that led Ethiopian evangelical Christians on a different path of life than the Ethiopian Marxist revolutionaries. This does not mean that Ethiopian Christians have no love for their country or their people, even though we were labelled as and identified with Western imperialists and CIA agents. A “my way is the high way” attitude or a bounded set mentality can hardly entertain other’s view and encourage tolerance, harmony, and peaceful co-existence. But by learning from each other, correcting each other, and working together for the good of Ethiopians and the global community, we can leave a better world for the next generation.

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I admit that we Christians have not always lived up to the biblical standards or to God’s expectations. We need to repent for our often contradictory lives, which are often an offence to non-believers. There is no one who can be an effective witness for Christ by preaching the gospel while embracing worldly values and committing sin. That is not the Christianity that Christ and the apostles preached and taught. People can contradict themselves. But God never does. It is against his nature. All who confess the Christian faith “must bring the whole of life, individual and social, under the sovereign lordship of Jesus. To be in his kingdom or under his rule brings both total blessing and total demand” (Stott 1975:50). I am eternally grateful to the almighty God for revealing Jesus Christ to me before the Marxist revolution in Ethiopia. In a historical and cultural context where life seems meaningless, Jesus Christ enabled me to see myself in the light of eternity and he gave me the purpose to live and to die for.

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Index abarama, 45 Abba Muda, 35 abiot, 3 acculturation, 14, 72, 81, 135 accursed, 45 adaptation, 25, 149 Adbar, 27 administrators, 29, 100, 140 African Muslim Assistance Fund, 130 Africans, 5, 11, 48, 85, 98, 136, 166, 171 agents of change, 29 Ahide, 39 Alemaya, 71, 108, 110 aleqa, 60 Alexander, 8, 43, 136 Amahras, 51, 102 Amare, 138 American, 4, 5, 12, 18, 23, 53, 54, 56, 57, 67, 69, 74, 76, 77, 82, 84, 91, 108, 118, 119, 151, 165, 172 American anthropology, 23 American people, 118, 119 Americans, xi, 9, 53, 56, 57, 67, 68, 72, 74, 78, 82, 118, 119, 120, 135, 156, 162, 165 Amhara, 37, 38, 39, 40, 43, 87, 135, 138, 140 Amhara culture, 37 Amharanization, 14, 78, 133 Amharas, 35, 44, 133 Amharic, 37, 40, 43, 45, 59, 78, 92, 133, 134, 137, 138, 139, 140, 158, 172 amulets, 88 animists, 62, 130 anthropology, 19, 21, 23, 146, 151 Arab Commonwealth, 132 Arab countries, 141 Arab League, 6, 55 archbishop, 61 ascetics, 38 Asdangach, 39

Asia, 28, 95, 119 Asmara, 13, 53, 57, 67, 71 Atete, 27 atheistic, 7, 27, 85, 90 atheists, 168 authoritarian leadership, 22 authoritarian regimes, 22 authority, 20, 21, 30, 35, 36, 38, 43, 45, 60, 63, 79, 160 Ayana Abakiya, 45 balinjera, 37 baptismal, 39 Baptists, 14 Barnett, 21, 22, 175 Bible schools, 15 biblical, 2, 5, 14, 26, 34, 36, 41, 42, 82, 86, 97, 104, 105, 121, 146, 148, 151, 152, 174 Bishops, 61 board, 56, 165 Bonanza, 72 Bonhoeffer, 103, 176 Borentecha, 27 Bosch, 83, 111, 124, 146 bountiful father figure, 38 Bravery, 39 Britain, 6, 11, 51, 55, 68, 78, 111 British, 23, 45, 55, 113, 135 Budda, 27 Buke, 40 Catholic, 91, 102, 128, 130 centralized planning, 140 Chabude, 39 change agents, 20, 24, 28, 29, 64, 71, 93 Chelle, 27 choir, 101 Christendom, 8, 61 Christian agencies, 111 Christian hymns and songs, 101 Christian leaders, 13, 30, 33, 35, 38, 41, 42, 79, 80, 98, 105, 127, 147, 149, 151, 153, 154, 172

194 Christian leadership, 30, 35, 41, 42, 79, 80, 149, 151, 153 chubu, 45 church leadership, 15, 80, 127 civility, 7, 159, 160 clergyman, 60 Cobbo-Alamata, 71 colonialism, 1, 54, 123, 144, 171 communism, 27, 123 context, 1, 4, 11, 17, 19, 29, 36, 63, 69, 78, 80, 81, 90, 127, 146, 147, 173 contexts, 127, 146, 173 Contextual factors, 127 contextually appropriate, 13 creative changes, 156 Crown Council, 61 Cultural Anthropology, 180, 184 cultural context, 1, 3, 17, 19, 28, 29, 30, 34, 48, 79, 82, 89, 94, 95, 158, 162, 172, 173, 174 cultural continuity., 70 cultural environment, 11, 30, 45 cultural patterns, 23, 24, 79 Cultural values, 33 cursing, 45 Dabre-Zeit, 13 deforestation, 2, 158 denominational leaders, 15, 122 development, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 15, 29, 34, 48, 52, 54, 60, 63, 67, 71, 72, 76, 77, 79, 80, 84, 92, 104, 108, 110, 112, 114, 115, 116, 118, 120, 121, 124, 131, 132, 135, 137, 138, 141, 142, 147, 149, 157, 162, 165 diffusion, 29, 79, 93 Dinke, 37, 47, 71 discipleship, 19, 105, 133 divine, 35, 83, 86, 148, 158 Division, 13 duqa, 45 dysfunctional families, 122 Economic Commission for Africa, 75, 76, 93 economic situation, 9, 121 economic support, 76 Edil, 44 educational system, 48, 68, 69, 78, 79, 141 effective leadership, 70, 119 Egypt, 6, 76, 113, 114, 120, 131, 132, 133, 139, 156

Culture Change in Ethiopia ehnic groups, 43 elders, 45, 79, 90 elite, 14, 46, 47, 48, 51, 54, 69, 70, 73, 76, 77, 93, 100, 105 emic perspective, 19, 30, 34 emperors, 34, 35, 60 empresses, 35 Enlightenment, 83, 84, 85, 168 Ephesus, 93 Eritrea, 6, 18, 51, 55, 56, 77, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 131, 132, 134, 135, 138, 143, 159, 168 Eritrean Secession, 189 Eritreans, 51, 114, 116 Ethiopian court histories, 34 Ethiopian culture, 21, 34, 37, 38, 43, 71, 100, 102, 123, 132, 162, 164 Ethiopian elite, 47, 73, 76, 85 Ethiopian government, 3, 5, 49, 69, 78 Ethiopian historical literature, 34 Ethiopian intellectuals, 90, 137 Ethiopian leadership, 42, 135 Ethiopian Muslims., 130 Ethiopian Orthodox Church, 14, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 86, 88, 89, 91, 92, 94, 99, 102, 103, 137 Ethiopian Orthodox faith, 61 Ethiopian Orthodoxy, 61 Ethiopian politics, 49, 79 Ethiopian population, 35, 134 Ethiopian Student Movement, 57, 79 Ethiopian students, 12, 38, 48, 49, 50, 51, 68, 70, 74, 79, 82, 85, 95, 97 ethnic backgrounds, 36, 49, 159 ethnic component, 87 ethnic conflict, 36, 73, 103 ethnic groups, 5, 18, 19, 23, 25, 28, 36, 38, 41, 51, 102, 105, 116, 124, 133, 134, 135, 137, 138, 139, 140, 144, 145, 146, 153, 157, 173 ethnic politics, 135, 144 ethnic problems, 134 ethnic tensions, 36 ethnicity, 4, 36, 123, 134, 135, 145, 148 ethnocentrism, 18, 36, 104, 134 Europe, 48, 53, 55, 69, 71, 79, 80, 81, 118, 120, 145, 147, 159, 161 European, 17, 21, 47, 58, 70, 87, 101, 119, 138, 156, 161, 166, 172

Index Evangelical, 5, 11, 14, 15, 27, 41, 80, 81, 86, 89, 90, 91, 100, 101, 104, 120, 124, 129, 132, 146, 148 evangelical churches, 5, 6, 11, 19, 30, 36, 61, 63, 80, 99, 101, 129, 131, 133, 140, 158 evangelicals, 5, 91, 146, 151 factors of culture, 11 Famine, 120 felt needs, 20, 27, 29, 79, 93, 120 Female names, 39 Ferehu, 40 field research, 130, 133 finance, 71, 90 Finnish Pentecostal Mission, 92 Full Gospel, 15, 100, 101 gasha, 60 gebez., 60 Gender Issues, 188 Generation Gap, 184 Gondar, 71, 131 government functionaries, 46 Great Commission, 11 Gurage, 7, 87 Gurages, 102 Haile Selassie’s foreign policy, 11 Haile Selassie’s modernization, 11, 13, 65, 67, 69 Haile Sellasie, 40, 184 handicraft school, 71 Heiwet, 129, 179, 180 Heredity, 36 Heterogeneous Context, 102 historical precedents, 29 historical process, 9 Homogeneity, 102 immediate family, 44 imperial decree, 61 imperial government, 35, 36, 78, 79, 107, 109 Imperial Guard, 13 indigenous, 70, 99, 101, 138 injera, 37, 38 Innovation, 21, 44 innovative, 1, 21, 22, 48, 51, 63, 105, 109, 128, 136, 141, 147 International organizations, 93 Islam, viii, 27, 28, 62, 130, 131, 132, 149, 160, 168 Islam in Ethiopia., 130, 131 Islamic backgrounds, 102

195 Israel, 4, 8, 34, 55, 111, 119, 120, 131, 136, 158, 169, 173 Israelite, 36 Jimma, 71, 108, 110, 133 justice, 63, 104, 112, 121, 122, 123, 132, 151, 157, 158, 160 Kalemenager Dejazemachenet Ykeral, 37 Kebre Nagast, 34 kingdom of God, 4, 92, 98, 102 Kneller, 70 Knutsson, 36, 43, 45, 87, 182 Kraft, 20, 22, 25, 26, 29, 30, 35, 38, 43, 63, 79, 80, 87, 97, 147, 149 Kroeber, 19, 23, 183 kulkulu, 44 Kuwait, 76, 130 Latin America, 28, 49, 95 leadership effectiveness, 29, 34, 41 leadership patterns, 22, 24, 36, 42, 43, 63, 64, 65, 67 leadership positions, 29, 49, 52, 73, 95 leadership values, 22, 24, 30, 33, 34, 41, 42, 67 locus of culture, 30 Lutheran churches, 15, 131 magic, 14, 26, 41, 88, 100 magicians, 36, 98 Manze, 39, 71 Manze people, 71 Market, 93, 119 Marxism, 3, 6, 9, 12, 13, 27, 50, 74, 77, 86, 88, 90, 100, 107, 118, 127, 168, 186 Marxist government, 1, 3, 15, 36, 48, 63, 79, 122, 129 Marxist ideology, 17, 82, 107, 168 Marxist regime., 63, 171 Marxist revolution, 5, 11, 15, 17, 22, 24, 27, 29, 34, 40, 76, 81, 82, 117, 121, 125, 148, 173, 174 membership in the League of Nations, 11 Mennonites, 14 Meserete Kristos, 15 military budget, 58 military leaders, 18, 51, 53, 57, 64, 65, 159 military power, 52, 114 minister of foreign affairs, 161 ministerial committees, 115

196 ministerial system, 46 Ministry of Education, 67, 92 missiologically, 133 mission, 3, 5, 19, 26, 27, 28, 64, 81, 83, 84, 85, 90, 91, 92, 99, 108, 122, 124, 164 missionaries, 3, 4, 19, 29, 56, 91, 92, 93, 98, 103, 131, 137, 140, 147 models, 21, 37, 42, 45, 65, 168 modern education, 38, 48, 49, 53, 64, 67, 68, 69, 70, 72, 79, 96, 97, 99, 108, 157 Modernists, 46 modernity, 5, 9, 34, 64, 72, 74, 75, 90 modernized Ethiopians, 82 modernized military, 54 monarchical system, 17 Monarchs, 34 monarchy, 2, 3, 15, 47, 57, 63, 75, 111 monks, 38 Mother Tongue, 137 Mulu Wengel Church, 101 Mulu Wongel, 15, 93 National Commission for Education, 61 National Literacy Advisory Council, 61 nationalities, 51, 114, 135, 153, 172 nationalization, 14, 113, 121 NATO, 117 new ideology, 17 New Testament, 1, 35, 103, 168 nobility, 47, 60 North America, 48, 79, 82, 87 northeastern Africa, 109 Norwegian, 15 Old Testament, 38, 91, 152 oral, 28, 37, 38, 39, 89 oral gestures, 37 oral renunciation, 37 orality., 37, 38 Organization of African Unity, 11, 75, 76, 93 organizational structure, 90, 123 Oromo, 7, 35, 36, 40, 43, 44, 87, 102, 135, 138, 139, 140, 143, 144 Oromos, 35, 44, 133 Orthodox Christians, 27, 62, 64, 88, 97 Orthodox Church, 35, 61, 62, 63, 88, 91, 94, 98, 100, 103, 129 Pagan, 128

Culture Change in Ethiopia paradigm shifts, 147 patriarch, 12, 62 peace corps, 29 Pentecostal, 14, 15, 36, 63, 64, 65, 83, 86, 89, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 102, 103, 104, 105, 129 Pentecostal movement, 14, 36, 83, 86, 89, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 99, 100, 102, 104, 105 philosophy, 22, 23, 26, 48, 50, 63, 71, 82, 84, 85, 86, 88, 91, 98, 101, 107, 157 Policy, 181, 189 political change, 48, 57, 80, 111 political elites, 47 political environment, 78, 147 political fabric, 77 political fluidity, 51 political ideology, 47, 76 political issues, 6, 65 political organization, 47, 49, 148 political participation, 12, 51 population, 77, 92, 95, 108, 117, 122, 127, 128, 129, 132, 133, 134, 139 poverty, xiv, 2, 3, 21, 30, 46, 50, 56, 58, 73, 74, 90, 111, 117, 118, 120, 123, 133, 148, 158, 160, 162, 163 powder keg, 117, 118 power, 5, 8, 9, 13, 18, 19, 20, 21, 26, 30, 33, 34, 35, 39, 44, 47, 49, 51, 52, 54, 62, 63, 69, 75, 77, 84, 87, 88, 90, 94, 96, 97, 98, 100, 101, 111, 119, 121, 133, 134, 138, 142, 143, 144, 151, 153, 156, 160, 169 power of God, 97, 98 Prelates, 60 professional, 57, 77, 112, 165 Protestant Christians, 129, 149 Protestant churches, 61, 131 psychological preparation, 45 psychological reinforcement, 25 Ras Tafarians, 11 red terror, 56 reforming agencies, 78 relativism, 36 religious composition, 127 religious freedom, 5, 61, 65, 104, 132, 149 Revealed values, 33 revival, 92, 93, 95, 98, 99, 105, 132 royal families, 47

Index Satan, 22, 83, 87, 96 school system, 38, 68, 72, 81, 137, 140, 163 scientific debates, 155 Secularism, 160 secularization, 14, 146 secularized, 87 Set yelakew mot ayeferam, 43 Shared values, 41 social norms, 44 social problems, 73, 122, 123 social reforms, 78, 79 socio-economic, 1, 49, 52, 56, 69, 107, 112, 115, 151 Sociological factors, 145 Somali, 53, 58, 87, 135, 139, 168 Somalis, 13 spiritual leader, 60, 63 spiritual needs, 14 spiritual power, 34, 42, 94 spiritual principles, 14 stages of innovation, 29 student movement, 4, 12, 49, 50, 95, 137 subcultural boundaries, 30 subculture, 33, 80 Sudan, 6, 76, 77, 91, 114, 131, 132, 168 Supernatural Power, 34 Swedish, 53, 91, 93 symbol of black freedom, 11 syncretism, 36 technology, 29, 33, 67, 79, 83, 125, 141, 157, 159 telos, 156 theology, 1, 8, 36, 83, 94, 97, 104, 136, 145, 148, 151, 177 Tigray, 117, 134, 135, 144 Tigre, 7, 40, 43, 118, 139 Tigres, 35, 44, 102 TPLF, 118, 134, 135, 138, 144 traditional values, 15, 63, 64, 73, 82, 94 traditionalists, 33, 44, 73, 99 traits, 23, 96 transcendental values, 44 transitional elite, 46 Transitional Government, 115, 135, 140 tribe of Judah, 34

197 United States, 1, 11, 12, 18, 47, 48, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 67, 68, 69, 71, 75, 76, 77, 78, 80, 81, 82, 96, 99, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 118, 119, 120, 125, 137, 143, 144, 162, 171 urban centers, 75, 140 USAID, 67, 108, 111, 112 USSR, 56, 118, 120 values, 9, 17, 22, 24, 25, 33, 34, 35, 36, 39, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 48, 52, 56, 63, 64, 65, 69, 70, 71, 72, 79, 81, 82, 85, 86, 89, 93, 95, 97, 103, 112, 140, 142, 146, 147, 148, 153, 154, 156, 157, 159, 168, 173, 174 victory, 59 Virgin Mary, 35 Waqa, 36 Washington, 18, 46, 47, 55, 74, 76, 116, 131, 143 watader, 39 Western church, 3 Western civilization, 29, 96 Western culture, 41, 95 Western discourse, 49 Western education, 3, 17, 20, 29, 38, 40, 45, 46, 48, 67, 69, 71, 73, 78, 81, 82, 90, 100, 105, 123 Western pedagogy, 3 Western science, 2, 95 Western World, 181 Westerners, 47, 166 white terror, 56 witchdoctors, 14 World Bank, 111, 117 World Muslim League, 130 World Vision, 111, 130 worldview, 9, 19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 30, 31, 35, 36, 71, 72, 79, 80, 81, 85, 86, 87, 89, 98, 100, 105, 147, 152, 157, 173 Yabat Weqabe, 45 Yete bareke, 45 Yete tergeme, 45 young generation, 7, 57, 64, 69, 73 young people, 69, 94, 128, 140, 149 youth, 46, 47, 58, 64, 99, 101, 108, 122, 128, 140, 163 zar, 87 zone, 37, 117

REGNUM EDINBURGH CENTENARY SERIES David A. Kerr, Kenneth R. Ross (Eds) Mission Then and Now 2009 / 978-1-870345-73-6 / 343pp (paperback) 2009 / 978-1-870345-76-7 / 343pp (hardback) No one can hope to fully understand the modern Christian missionary movement without engaging substantially with the World Missionary Conference, held at Edinburgh in 1910. This book is the first to systematically examine the eight Commissions which reported to Edinburgh 1910 and gave the conference much of its substance and enduring value. It will deepen and extend the reflection being stimulated by the upcoming centenary and will kindle the missionary imagination for 2010 and beyond. Daryl M. Balia, Kirsteen Kim (Eds) Witnessing to Christ Today 2010 / 978-1-870345-77-4 / 301pp (hardback) This volume, the second in the Edinburgh 2010 series, includes reports of the nine main study groups working on different themes for the celebration of the centenary of the World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh 1910. Their collaborative work brings together perspectives that are as inclusive as possible of contemporary world Christianity and helps readers to grasp what it means in different contexts to be ‘witnessing to Christ today’. Claudia Währisch-Oblau, Fidon Mwombeki (Eds) Mission Continues Global Impulses for the 21st Century 2010 / 978-1-870345-82-8 / 271pp (hardback) In May 2009, 35 theologians from Asia, Africa and Europe met in Wuppertal, Germany, for a consultation on mission theology organized by the United Evangelical Mission: Communion of 35 Churches in Three Continents. The aim was to participate in the 100th anniversary of the Edinburgh conference through a study process and reflect on the challenges for mission in the 21st century. This book brings together these papers written by experienced practitioners from around the world. Brian Woolnough and Wonsuk Ma (Eds) Holistic Mission God’s Plan for God’s People 2010 / 978-1-870345-85-9 / 268pp (hardback) Holistic mission, or integral mission, implies God is concerned with the whole person, the whole community, body, mind and spirit. This book discusses the meaning of the holistic gospel, how it has developed, and implications for the church. It takes a global, eclectic approach, with 19 writers, all of whom have much experience in, and commitment to, holistic mission. It addresses critically and honestly one of the most exciting, and challenging, issues facing the church today. To be part of God’s plan for God’s people, the church must take holistic mission to the world. Kirsteen Kim and Andrew Anderson (Eds) Mission Today and Tomorrow 2010 / 978-1-870345-91-0 / 450pp (hardback) There are moments in our lives when we come to realise that we are participating in the triune God’s mission. If we believe the church to be as sign and symbol of the reign of God in the world, then we are called to witness to Christ today by sharing in God’s mission of

love through the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. We can all participate in God’s transforming and reconciling mission of love to the whole creation. Tormod Engelsviken, Erling Lundeby and Dagfinn Solheim (Eds) The Church Going Glocal Mission and Globalisation 2011 / 978-1-870345-93-4 / 262pp (hardback) The New Testament church is… universal and local at the same time. The universal, one and holy apostolic church appears in local manifestations. Missiologically speaking… the church can take courage as she faces the increasing impact of globalisation on local communities today. Being universal and concrete, the church is geared for the simultaneous challenges of the glocal and local. Marina Ngurusangzeli Behera (Ed) Interfaith Relations after One Hundred Years Christian Mission among Other Faiths 2011 / 978-1-870345-96-5 / 338pp (hardback) The essays of this book reflect not only the acceptance and celebration of pluralism within India but also by extension an acceptance as well as a need for unity among Indian Christians of different denominations. The essays were presented and studied at a preparatory consultation on Study Theme II: Christian Mission Among Other Faiths at the United Theological College, India July 2009. Lalsangkima Pachuau and Knud Jørgensen (Eds) Witnessing to Christ in a Pluralistic Age Christian Mission among Other Faiths 2011 / 978-1-870345-95-8 / 277pp (hardback) In a world where plurality of faiths is increasingly becoming a norm of life, insights on the theology of religious plurality are needed to strengthen our understanding of our own faith and the faith of others. Even though religious diversity is not new, we are seeing an upsurge in interest on the theologies of religion among all Christian confessional traditions. It can be claimed that no other issue in Christian mission is more important and more difficult than the theologies of religions. Beth Snodderly and A Scott Moreau (Eds) Evangelical Frontier Mission Perspectives on the Global Progress of the Gospel 2011 / 978-1-870345-98-9 / 312pp (hardback) This important volume demonstrates that 100 years after the World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, Evangelism has become truly global. Twenty-first-century Evangelism continues to focus on frontier mission, but significantly, and in the spirit of Edinburgh 1910, it also has re-engaged social action. Rolv Olsen (Ed) Mission and Postmodernities 2011 / 978-1-870345-97-2 / 279pp (hardback) This volume takes on meaning because its authors honestly struggle with and debate how we should relate to postmodernities. Should our response be accommodation, relativizing or counter-culture? How do we strike a balance between listening and understanding, and at the same time exploring how postmodernities influence the interpretation and application of the Bible as the normative story of God’s mission in the world?

Cathy Ross (Ed) Life-Widening Mission 2012 / 978-1-908355-00-3 / 163pp (hardback) It is clear from the essays collected here that the experience of the 2010 World Mission Conference in Edinburgh was both affirming and frustrating for those taking part affirming because of its recognition of how the centre of gravity has moved in global Christianity; frustrating because of the relative slowness of so many global Christian bodies to catch up with this and to embody it in the way they do business and in the way they represent themselves. These reflections will - or should - provide plenty of food for thought in the various councils of the Communion in the coming years. Beate Fagerli, Knud Jørgensen, Rolv Olsen, Kari Storstein Haug and Knut Tveitereid (Eds) A Learning Missional Church Reflections from Young Missiologists 2012 / 978-1-908355-01-0 / 218pp (hardback) Cross-cultural mission has always been a primary learning experience for the church. It pulls us out of a mono-cultural understanding and helps us discover a legitimate theological pluralism which opens up for new perspectives in the Gospel. Translating the Gospel into new languages and cultures is a human and divine means of making us learn new ‘incarnations’ of the Good News. Emma Wild-Wood & Peniel Rajkumar (Eds) Foundations for Mission 2012 / 978-1-908355-12-6 / 309pp (hardback) This volume provides an important resource for those wishing to gain an overview of significant issues in contemporary missiology whilst understanding how they are applied in particular contexts. Wonsuk Ma & Kenneth R Ross (Eds) Mission Spirituality and Authentic Discipleship 2013 / 978-1-908355-24-9 / 248pp (hardback) This book argues for the primacy of spirituality in the practice of mission. Since God is the primary agent of mission and God works through the power of the Holy Spirit, it is through openness to the Spirit that mission finds its true character and has its authentic impact. Stephen B Bevans (Ed) A Century of Catholic Mission 2013 / 978-1-908355-14-0 / 337pp (hardback) A Century of Catholic Mission surveys the complex and rich history and theology of Roman Catholic Mission in the one hundred years since the 1910 Edinburgh World Mission Conference. Essays written by an international team of Catholic mission scholars focus on Catholic Mission in every region of the world, summarize church teaching on mission before and after the watershed event of the Second Vatican Council, and reflect on a wide variety of theological issues.

Robert Schreiter & Knud Jørgensen (Eds) Mission as Ministry of Reconcilation 2013 / 978-1-908355-26-3 / 382pp (hardback) There is hope – even if it is “Hope in a Fragile World”, as the concluding chapter of Mission as Ministry of Reconciliation puts it. At the very heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ is a message of hope and reconciliation. Nothing could be more relevant and more necessary in a broken world than this Christian message of hope and reconciliation. ... I would like to congratulate the editors of Mission as Ministry of Reconciliation, for they listened carefully and planned with farsightedness. … This rich book offers a valuable elucidation of the importance and the understanding of mission as ministry of reconciliation. REGNUM STUDIES IN GLOBAL CHRISTIANITY David Emmanuel Singh (Ed) Jesus and the Cross Reflections of Christians from Islamic Contexts 2008 / 978-1-870345-65-1 / 226pp The Cross reminds us that the sins of the world are not borne through the exercise of power but through Jesus Christ’s submission to the will of the Father. The papers in this volume are organised in three parts: scriptural, contextual and theological. The central question being addressed is: how do Christians living in contexts, where Islam is a majority or minority religion, experience, express or think of the Cross? Sung-wook Hong Naming God in Korea The Case of Protestant Christianity 2008 / 978-1-870345-66-8 / 170pp (hardback) Since Christianity was introduced to Korea more than a century ago, one of the most controversial issues has been the Korean term for the Christian ‘God’. This issue is not merely about naming the Christian God in Korean language, but it relates to the question of theological contextualization - the relationship between the gospel and culture - and the question of Korean Christian identity. This book demonstrates the nature of the gospel in relation to cultures, i.e., the universality of the gospel expressed in all human cultures. Hubert van Beek (Ed) Revisioning Christian Unity The Global Christian Forum 2009 / 978-1-870345-74-3 / 288pp (hardback) This book contains the records of the Global Christian Forum gathering held in Limuru near Nairobi, Kenya, on 6 – 9 November 2007 as well as the papers presented at that historic event. Also included are a summary of the Global Christian Forum process from its inception until the 2007 gathering and the reports of the evaluation of the process that was carried out in 2008. Young-hoon Lee The Holy Spirit Movement in Korea Its Historical and Theological Development 2009 / 978-1-870345-67-5 / 174pp (hardback) This book traces the historical and theological development of the Holy Spirit Movement in Korea through six successive periods (from 1900 to the present time). These periods are characterized by repentance and revival (1900-20), persecution and suffering under Japanese

occupation (1920-40), confusion and division (1940-60), explosive revival in which the Pentecostal movement played a major role in the rapid growth of Korean churches (196080), the movement reaching out to all denominations (1980-2000), and the new context demanding the Holy Spirit movement to open new horizons in its mission engagement (2000-). Paul Hang-Sik Cho Eschatology and Ecology Experiences of the Korean Church 2010 / 978-1-870345-75-0 / 260pp (hardback) This book raises the question of why Korean people, and Korean Protestant Christians in particular, pay so little attention to ecological issues. The author argues that there is an important connection (or elective affinity) between this lack of attention and the otherworldly eschatology that is so dominant within Korean Protestant Christianity. Dietrich Werner, David Esterline, Namsoon Kang, Joshva Raja (Eds) The Handbook of Theological Education in World Christianity Theological Perspectives, Ecumenical Trends, Regional Surveys 2010 / 978-1-870345-80-0 / 759pp This major reference work is the first ever comprehensive study of Theological Education in Christianity of its kind. With contributions from over 90 international scholars and church leaders, it aims to be easily accessible across denominational, cultural, educational, and geographic boundaries. The Handbook will aid international dialogue and networking among theological educators, institutions, and agencies. David Emmanuel Singh & Bernard C Farr (Eds) Christianity and Education Shaping of Christian Context in Thinking 2010 / 978-1-870345-81-1 / 374pp Christianity and Education is a collection of papers published in Transformation: An International Journal of Holistic Mission Studies over a period of 15 years. The articles represent a spectrum of Christian thinking addressing issues of institutional development for theological education, theological studies in the context of global mission, contextually aware/informed education, and academies which deliver such education, methodologies and personal reflections. J.Andrew Kirk Civilisations in Conflict? Islam, the West and Christian Faith 2011 / 978-1-870345-87-3 / 205pp Samuel Huntington’s thesis, which argues that there appear to be aspects of Islam that could be on a collision course with the politics and values of Western societies, has provoked much controversy. The purpose of this study is to offer a particular response to Huntington’s thesis by making a comparison between the origins of Islam and Christianity. David Emmanuel Singh (Ed) Jesus and the Incarnation Reflections of Christians from Islamic Contexts 2011 / 978-1-870345-90-3 / 245pp In the dialogues of Christians with Muslims nothing is more fundamental than the Cross, the Incarnation and the Resurrection of Jesus. Building on the Jesus and the Cross, this book contains voices of Christians living in various ‘Islamic contexts’ and reflecting on the Incarnation of Jesus. The aim and hope of these reflections is that the papers weaved around

the notion of ‘the Word’ will not only promote dialogue among Christians on the roles of the Person and the Book but, also, create a positive environment for their conversations with Muslim neighbours. Ivan M Satyavrata God Has Not left Himself Without Witness 2011 / 978-1-870345-79-8 / 264pp Since its earliest inception the Christian Church has had to address the question of what common ground exits between Christian faiths and other religions. This issue is not merely of academic interest but one with critical existential and socio-political consequences. This study presents a case for the revitalization of the fulfillment tradition based on a recovery and assessment of the fulfillment approaches of Indian Christian converts in the preindependence period. Bal Krishna Sharma From this World to the Next Christian Identity and Funerary Rites in Nepal 2013 / 978-1-908355-08-9 / 238pp This book explores and analyses funerary rite struggles in a nation where Christianity is a comparatively recent phenomenon, and many families have multi-faith, who go through traumatic experiences at the death of their family members. The author has used an applied theological approach to explore and analyse the findings in order to address the issue of funerary rites with which the Nepalese church is struggling. J Kwabena Asamoah-Gyada Contemporary Pentecostal Christianity Interpretations from an African Context 2013 / 978-1-908355-07-2 / 194pp Pentecostalism is the fastest growing stream of Christianity in the world. The real evidence for the significance of Pentecostalism lies in the actual churches they have built and the numbers they attract. This work interprets key theological and missiological themes in African Pentecostalism by using material from the live experiences of the movement itself. Isabel Apawo Phiri & Dietrich Werner (Eds) Handbook of Theological Education in Africa 2013 / 978-1-908355-19-5 / 1110pp (hardback) The Handbook of Theological Education in Africa is a wake-up call for African churches to give proper prominence to theological education institutions and their programmes which serve them. It is unique, comprehensive and ambitious in its aim and scope. Hope Antone, Wati Longchar, Hyunju Bae, Huang Po Ho, Dietrich Werner (Eds) Asian Handbook for Theological Education and Ecumenism 2013 / 978-1-908355-30-0 / 675pp (hardback) This impressive and comprehensive book focuses on key resources for teaching Christian unity and common witness in Asian contexts. It is a collection of articles that reflects the ongoing ‘double wrestle’ with the texts of biblical tradition as well as with contemporary contexts. It signals an investment towards the future of the ecumenical movement in Asia.

David Emmanuel Singh and Bernard C Farr (Eds) The Bible and Christian Ethics 2013 / 978-1-908355-20-1/ 217pp This book contains papers from the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies’ quarterly journal, Transformation, on the topic of Christian Ethics. Here, Mission Studies is understood in its widest sense to also encompass Christian Ethics. At the very hearts of it lies the Family as the basic unit of society. All the papers together seek to contribute to understanding how Christian thought is shaped in contexts each of which poses its own challenge to Christian living in family and in broader society. Martin Allaby Inequality, Corruption and the Church Challenges & Opportunities in the Global Church 2013 / 978-1-908355-16-4/ 228pp Why are economic inequalities greatest in the southern countries where most people are Christians? This book teases out the influences that have created this situation, and concludes that Christians could help reduce economic inequalities by opposing corruption. Interviews in the Philippines, Kenya, Zambia and Peru reveal opportunities and challenges for Christians as they face up to corruption. Paul Alexander and Al Tizon (Eds) Following Jesus Journeys in Radical Discipleship – Essays in Honor of Ronald J Sider 2013 / 978-1-908355-27-0/ 228pp Ronald J. Sider and the organization that he founded, Evangelicals for Social Action, are most respected for their pioneering work in the area of evangelical social concern. However, Sider’s great contribution to social justice is but a part of a larger vision – namely, biblical discipleship. His works, which span more than four decades, have guided the faithful to be authentic gospel-bearers in ecclesial, cultural and political arenas. This book honors Ron Sider, by bringing together a group of scholar-activists, old and young, to reflect upon the gospel and its radical implications for the 21st century. REGNUM STUDIES IN MISSION Kwame Bediako Theology and Identity The Impact of Culture upon Christian Thought in the Second Century and in Modern Africa 1992 / 978-1870345-10-1 / 507pp The author examines the question of Christian identity in the context of the Graeco–Roman culture of the early Roman Empire. He then addresses the modern African predicament of quests for identity and integration. Christopher Sugden Seeking the Asian Face of Jesus The Practice and Theology of Christian Social Witness in Indonesia and India 1974–1996 1997 / 1-870345-26-6 / 496pp This study focuses on contemporary holistic mission with the poor in India and Indonesia combined with the call to transformation of all life in Christ with micro-credit enterprise

schemes. ‘The literature on contextual theology now has a new standard to rise to’ – Lamin Sanneh (Yale University, USA). Hwa Yung Mangoes or Bananas? The Quest for an Authentic Asian Christian Theology 1997 / 1-870345-25-5 / 274pp Asian Christian thought remains largely captive to Greek dualism and Enlightenment rationalism because of the overwhelming dominance of Western culture. Authentic contextual Christian theologies will emerge within Asian Christianity with a dual recovery of confidence in culture and the gospel. Keith E. Eitel Paradigm Wars The Southern Baptist International Mission Board Faces the Third Millennium 1999 / 1-870345-12-6 / 140pp The International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest denominational mission agency in North America. This volume chronicles the historic and contemporary forces that led to the IMB’s recent extensive reorganization, providing the most comprehensive case study to date of a historic mission agency restructuring to continue its mission purpose into the twenty-first century more effectively. Samuel Jayakumar Dalit Consciousness and Christian Conversion Historical Resources for a Contemporary Debate 1999 / 81-7214-497-0 / 434pp (Published jointly with ISPCK) The main focus of this historical study is social change and transformation among the Dalit Christian communities in India. Historiography tests the evidence in the light of the conclusions of the modern Dalit liberation theologians. Vinay Samuel and Christopher Sugden (Eds) Mission as Transformation A Theology of the Whole Gospel 1999 / 978-18703455-13-2 / 522pp This book brings together in one volume twenty five years of biblical reflection on mission practice with the poor from around the world. This volume helps anyone understand how evangelicals, struggling to unite evangelism and social action, found their way in the last twenty five years to the biblical view of mission in which God calls all human beings to love God and their neighbour; never creating a separation between the two. Christopher Sugden Gospel, Culture and Transformation 2000 / 1-870345-32-3 / 152pp A Reprint, with a New Introduction, of Part Two of Seeking the Asian Face of Jesus Gospel, Culture and Transformation explores the practice of mission especially in relation to transforming cultures and communities. - ‘Transformation is to enable God’s vision of society to be actualised in all relationships: social, economic and spiritual, so that God’s will

may be reflected in human society and his love experienced by all communities, especially the poor.’ Bernhard Ott Beyond Fragmentation: Integrating Mission and Theological Education A Critical Assessment of some Recent Developments in Evangelical Theological Education 2001 / 1-870345-14-9 / 382pp Beyond Fragmentation is an enquiry into the development of Mission Studies in evangelical theological education in Germany and German-speaking Switzerland between 1960 and 1995. The author undertakes a detailed examination of the paradigm shifts which have taken place in recent years in both the theology of mission and the understanding of theological education. Gideon Githiga The Church as the Bulwark against Authoritarianism Development of Church and State Relations in Kenya, with Particular Reference to the Years after Political Independence 1963-1992 2002 / 1-870345-38-x / 218pp ‘All who care for love, peace and unity in Kenyan society will want to read this careful history by Bishop Githiga of how Kenyan Christians, drawing on the Bible, have sought to share the love of God, bring his peace and build up the unity of the nation, often in the face of great difficulties and opposition.’ Canon Dr Chris Sugden, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. Myung Sung-Hoon, Hong Young-Gi (Eds) Charis and Charisma David Yonggi Cho and the Growth of Yoido Full Gospel Church 2003 / 978-1870345-45-3 / 218pp This book discusses the factors responsible for the growth of the world’s largest church. It expounds the role of the Holy Spirit, the leadership, prayer, preaching, cell groups and creativity in promoting church growth. It focuses on God’s grace (charis) and inspiring leadership (charisma) as the two essential factors and the book’s purpose is to present a model for church growth worldwide. Samuel Jayakumar Mission Reader Historical Models for Wholistic Mission in the Indian Context 2003 / 1-870345-42-8 / 250pp (Published jointly with ISPCK) This book is written from an evangelical point of view revalidating and reaffirming the Christian commitment to wholistic mission. The roots of the ‘wholistic mission’ combining ‘evangelism and social concerns’ are to be located in the history and tradition of Christian evangelism in the past; and the civilizing purpose of evangelism is compatible with modernity as an instrument in nation building.

Bob Robinson Christians Meeting Hindus An Analysis and Theological Critique of the Hindu-Christian Encounter in India 2004 / 987-1870345-39-2 / 392pp This book focuses on the Hindu-Christian encounter, especially the intentional meeting called dialogue, mainly during the last four decades of the twentieth century, and specifically in India itself. Gene Early Leadership Expectations How Executive Expectations are Created and Used in a Non-Profit Setting 2005 / 1-870345-30-9 / 276pp The author creates an Expectation Enactment Analysis to study the role of the Chancellor of the University of the Nations-Kona, Hawaii. This study is grounded in the field of managerial work, jobs, and behaviour and draws on symbolic interactionism, role theory, role identity theory and enactment theory. The result is a conceptual framework for developing an understanding of managerial roles. Tharcisse Gatwa The Churches and Ethnic Ideology in the Rwandan Crises 1900-1994 2005 / 978-1870345-24-8 / 300pp (Reprinted 2011) Since the early years of the twentieth century Christianity has become a new factor in Rwandan society. This book investigates the role Christian churches played in the formulation and development of the racial ideology that culminated in the 1994 genocide. Julie Ma Mission Possible Biblical Strategies for Reaching the Lost 2005 / 978-1870345-37-8 / 142pp This is a missiology book for the church which liberates missiology from the specialists for the benefit of every believer. It also serves as a textbook that is simple and friendly, and yet solid in biblical interpretation. This book links the biblical teaching to the actual and contemporary missiological settings with examples, making the Bible come alive to the reader. I. Mark Beaumont Christology in Dialogue with Muslims A Critical Analysis of Christian Presentations of Christ for Muslims from the Ninth and Twentieth Centuries 2005 / 978-1870345-46-0 / 227pp This book analyses Christian presentations of Christ for Muslims in the most creative periods of Christian-Muslim dialogue, the first half of the ninth century and the second half of the twentieth century. In these two periods, Christians made serious attempts to present their faith in Christ in terms that take into account Muslim perceptions of him, with a view to bridging the gap between Muslim and Christian convictions.

Thomas Czövek, Three Seasons of Charismatic Leadership A Literary-Critical and Theological Interpretation of the Narrative of Saul, David and Solomon 2006 / 978-1870345-48-4 / 272pp This book investigates the charismatic leadership of Saul, David and Solomon. It suggests that charismatic leaders emerge in crisis situations in order to resolve the crisis by the charisma granted by God. Czovek argues that Saul proved himself as a charismatic leader as long as he acted resolutely and independently from his mentor Samuel. In the author’s eyes, Saul’s failure to establish himself as a charismatic leader is caused by his inability to step out from Samuel’s shadow. Richard Burgess Nigeria’s Christian Revolution The Civil War Revival and Its Pentecostal Progeny (1967-2006) 2008 / 978-1-870345-63-7 / 347pp This book describes the revival that occurred among the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria and the new Pentecostal churches it generated, and documents the changes that have occurred as the movement has responded to global flows and local demands. As such, it explores the nature of revivalist and Pentecostal experience, but does so against the backdrop of local socio-political and economic developments, such as decolonisation and civil war, as well as broader processes, such as modernisation and globalisation. David Emmanuel Singh & Bernard C Farr (Eds) Christianity and Cultures Shaping Christian Thinking in Context 2008 / 978-1-870345-69-9 / 271pp This volume marks an important milestone, the 25th anniversary of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies (OCMS). The papers here have been exclusively sourced from Transformation, a quarterly journal of OCMS, and seek to provide a tripartite view of Christianity’s engagement with cultures by focusing on the question: how is Christian thinking being formed or reformed through its interaction with the varied contexts it encounters? The subject matters include different strands of theological-missiological thinking, socio-political engagements and forms of family relationships in interaction with the host cultures. Tormod Engelsviken, Ernst Harbakk, Rolv Olsen, Thor Strandenæs (Eds) Mission to the World Communicating the Gospel in the 21st Century: Essays in Honour of Knud Jørgensen 2008 / 978-1-870345-64-4 / 472pp (hardback) Knud Jørgensen is Director of Areopagos and Associate Professor of Missiology at MF Norwegian School of Theology. This book reflects on the main areas of Jørgensen’s commitment to mission. At the same time it focuses on the main frontier of mission, the world, the content of mission, the Gospel, the fact that the Gospel has to be communicated, and the context of contemporary mission in the 21st century.

Al Tizon Transformation after Lausanne Radical Evangelical Mission in Global-Local Perspective 2008 / 978-1-870345-68-2 / 281pp After Lausanne '74, a worldwide network of radical evangelical mission theologians and practitioners use the notion of "Mission as Transformation" to integrate evangelism and social concern together, thus lifting theological voices from the Two Thirds World to places of prominence. This book documents the definitive gatherings, theological tensions, and social forces within and without evangelicalism that led up to Mission as Transformation. And it does so through a global-local grid that points the way toward greater holistic mission in the 21st century. Bambang Budijanto Values and Participation Development in Rural Indonesia 2009 / 978-1-870345-70-4 / 237pp Socio-religious values and socio-economic development are inter-dependant, inter-related and are constantly changing in the context of macro political structures, economic policy, religious organizations and globalization; and micro influences such as local affinities, identity, politics, leadership and beliefs. The book argues that the comprehensive approach in understanding the socio-religious values of each of the three local Lopait communities in Central Java is essential to accurately describing their respective identity. Alan R. Johnson Leadership in a Slum A Bangkok Case Study 2009 / 978-1-870345-71-2 / 238pp This book looks at leadership in the social context of a slum in Bangkok from a different perspective than traditional studies which measure well educated Thais on leadership scales derived in the West. Using both systematic data collection and participant observation, it develops a culturally preferred model as well as a set of models based in Thai concepts that reflect on-the-ground realities. It concludes by looking at the implications of the anthropological approach for those who are involved in leadership training in Thai settings and beyond. Titre Ande Leadership and Authority Bula Matari and Life - Community Ecclesiology in Congo 2010 / 978-1-870345-72-9 / 189pp Christian theology in Africa can make significant development if a critical understanding of the socio-political context in contemporary Africa is taken seriously, particularly as Africa’s post-colonial Christian leadership based its understanding and use of authority on the Bula Matari model. This has caused many problems and Titre proposes a Life-Community ecclesiology for liberating authority, here leadership is a function, not a status, and ‘apostolic succession’ belongs to all people of God. Frank Kwesi Adams Odwira and the Gospel A Study of the Asante Odwira Festival and its Significance for Christianity in Ghana 2010 /978-1-870345-59-0 / 232pp The study of the Odwira festival is the key to the understanding of Asante religious and political life in Ghana. The book explores the nature of the Odwira festival longitudinally -

in pre-colonial, colonial and post-independence Ghana - and examines the Odwira ideology and its implications for understanding the Asante self-identity. Also discussed is how some elements of faith portrayed in the Odwira festival can provide a framework for Christianity to engage with Asante culture at a greater depth. Bruce Carlton Strategy Coordinator Changing the Course of Southern Baptist Missions 2010 / 978-1-870345-78-1 / 273pp This is an outstanding, one-of-a-kind work addressing the influence of the non-residential missionary/strategy coordinator’s role in Southern Baptist missions. This scholarly text examines the twentieth century global missiological currents that influenced the leadership of the International Mission Board, resulting in a new paradigm to assist in taking the gospel to the nations. Julie Ma & Wonsuk Ma Mission in the Spirit: Towards a Pentecostal/Charismatic Missiology 2010 / 978-1-870345-84-2 / 312pp The book explores the unique contribution of Pentecostal/Charismatic mission from the beginning of the twentieth century. The first part considers the theological basis of Pentecostal/Charismatic mission thinking and practice. Special attention is paid to the Old Testament, which has been regularly overlooked by the modern Pentecostal/Charismatic movements. The second part discusses major mission topics with contributions and challenges unique to Pentecostal/Charismatic mission. The book concludes with a reflection on the future of this powerful missionary movement. As the authors served as Korean missionaries in Asia, often their missionary experiences in Asia are reflected in their discussions. Allan Anderson, Edmond Tang (Eds) Asian and Pentecostal The Charismatic Face of Christianity in Asia 2011 / 978-1870345-94-1 / 500pp (Revised Edition) This book provides a thematic discussion and pioneering case studies on the history and development of Pentecostal and Charismatic churches in the countries of South Asia, South East Asia and East Asia. S. Hun Kim & Wonsuk Ma (Eds) Korean Diaspora and Christian Mission 2011 / 978-1-870345-89-7 / 301pp (hardback) As a ‘divine conspiracy’ for Missio Dei, the global phenomenon of people on the move has shown itself to be invaluable. In 2004 two significant documents concerning Diaspora were introduced, one by the Filipino International Network and the other by the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. These have created awareness of the importance of people on the move for Christian mission. Since then, Korean Diaspora has conducted similar research among Korean missions, resulting in this book

Jin Huat Tan Planting an Indigenous Church The Case of the Borneo Evangelical Mission 2011 / 978-1-870345-99-6 / 343pp Dr Jin Huat Tan has written a pioneering study of the origins and development of Malaysia’s most significant indigenous church. This is an amazing story of revival, renewal and transformation of the entire region chronicling the powerful effect of it evident to date! What can we learn from this extensive and careful study of the Borneo Revival, so the global Christianity will become ever more dynamic? Bill Prevette Child, Church and Compassion Towards Child Theology in Romania 2012 / 978-1-908355-03-4 / 382pp Bill Prevett comments that ¨children are like ‘canaries in a mine shaft’; they provide a focal point for discovery and encounter of perilous aspects of our world that are often ignored.¨ True, but miners also carried a lamp to see into the subterranean darkness. This book is such a lamp. It lights up the subterranean world of children and youth in danger of exploitation, and as it does so travels deep into their lives and also into the activities of those who seek to help them. Samuel Cyuma Picking up the Pieces The Church and Conflict Resolution in South Africa and Rwanda 2012 / 978-1-908355-02-7 / 373pp In the last ten years of the 20th century, the world was twice confronted with unbelievable news from Africa. First, there was the end of Apartheid in South Africa, without bloodshed, due to responsible political and Church leaders. The second was the mass killings in Rwanda, which soon escalated into real genocide. Political and Church leaders had been unable to prevents this crime against humanity. In this book, the question is raised: can we compare the situation in South Africa with that in Rwanda? Can Rwandan leaders draw lessons from the peace process in South Africa? Peter Rowan Proclaiming the Peacemaker The Malaysian Church as an Agent of Reconciliation in a Multicultural Society 2012 / 978-1-908355-05-8 / 268pp With a history of racial violence and in recent years, low-level ethnic tensions, the themes of peaceful coexistence and social harmony are recurring ones in the discourse of Malaysian society. In such a context, this book looks at the role of the church as a reconciling agent, arguing that a reconciling presence within a divided society necessitates an ethos of peacemaking. Edward Ontita Resources and Opportunity The Architecture of Livelihoods in Rural Kenya 2012 / 978-1-908355-04-1 / 328pp Poor people in most rural areas of developing countries often improvise resources in unique ways to enable them make a living. Resources and Opportunity takes the view that resources are dynamic and fluid, arguing that villagers co-produce them through redefinition and renaming in everyday practice and use them in diverse ways. The book focuses on ordinary

social activities to bring out people’s creativity in locating, redesigning and embracing livelihood opportunities in processes. Kathryn Kraft Searching for Heaven in the Real World A Sociological Discussion of Conversion in the Arab World 2012 / 978-1-908355-15-7 / 142pp Kathryn Kraft explores the breadth of psychological and social issues faced by Arab Muslims after making a decision to adopt a faith in Christ or Christianity, investigating some of the most surprising and significant challenges new believers face. Wessley Lukose Contextual Missiology of the Spirit Pentecostalism in Rajasthan, India 2013 / 978-1-908355-09-6 / 256pp This book explores the identity, context and features of Pentecostalism in Rajasthan, India as well as the internal and external issues facing Pentecostals. It aims to suggest 'a contextual missiology of the Spirit,' as a new model of contextual missiology from a Pentecostal perspective. It is presented as a glocal, ecumenical, transformational, and public missiology. Paul M Miller Evangelical Mission in Co-operation with Catholics A Study of Evangelical Tensions 2013 / 978-1-908355-17-1 / 291pp This book brings the first thorough examination of the discussions going on within Evangelicalism about the viability of a good conscience dialogue with Roman Catholics. Those who are interested in evangelical world missions and Roman Catholic views of world missions will find this informative. REGNUM RESOURCES FOR MISSION Knud Jørgensen Equipping for Service Christian Leadership in Church and Society 2012 / 978-1-908355-06-5 / 150pp This book is written out of decades of experience of leading churches and missions in Ethiopia, Geneva, Norway and Hong Kong. Combining the teaching of Scripture with the insights of contemporary management philosophy, Jørgensen writes in a way which is practical and applicable to anyone in Christian service. “The intention has been to challenge towards a leadership relevant for work in church and mission, and in public and civil society, with special attention to leadership in Church and organisation.” Mary Miller What does Love have to do with Leadership? 2013 / 978-1-908355-10-2 / 100pp Leadership is a performing art, not a science. It is the art of influencing others, not just to accomplish something together, but to want to accomplish great things together. Mary Miller captures the art of servant leadership in her powerful book. She understands that servant leaders challenge existing processes without manipulating or overpowering people.

Mary Miller (Ed) Faces of Holistic Mission Stories of the OCMS Family 2013 / 978-1-908355-32-4 / 104pp There is a popular worship song that begins with the refrain, ‘look what the Lord has done, look what the Lord has done’. This book does exactly that; it seeks to show what the Lord has done. Fifteen authors from five different continents identify what the Lord has indeed been doing, and continues to do, in their lives. These are their stories. David Cranston and Ruth Padilla DeBorst (Eds) Mission as Transformation Learning from Catalysts 2013 / 978-1-908355-34-8 / 77pp This book is the product of the first Stott-Bediako Forum, held in 2012 with the title Portraits of Catalysts. Its aim was to learn from the stories of Christian leaders whose lives and work have served as catalysts for transformation as each, in his or her particular way, facilitated the intersection between the Good News of Jesus Christ and the context in which they lived, in particular amongst people who are suffering. Brian Woolnough (Ed) Good News from Africa Community Transformation Through the Church 2013 / 978-1-908355-33-1 / 123pp This book discusses how sustainable, holistic, community development can be, and is being, achieved through the work of the local church. Leading African development practitioners describe different aspects of development through their own experience. Makonen Getu (Ed) Transforming Microfinance A Christian Approach 2013 / 978-1-908355-31-7 / 264pp “This book highlights the important role that Christian-based organisations bring to the delivery of financial services for the poor. It is times, significant and important and deserves a wide circulation”. Lord Carey of Clifton, former Archbishop of Canterbury

GENERAL REGNUM TITLES Vinay Samuel, Chris Sugden (Eds) The Church in Response to Human Need 1987 / 1870345045 / xii+268pp Philip Sampson, Vinay Samuel, Chris Sugden (Eds) Faith and Modernity Essays in modernity and post-modernity 1994 / 1870345177 / 352pp

Klaus Fiedler The Story of Faith Missions 1994 / 0745926878 / 428pp Douglas Peterson Not by Might nor by Power A Pentecostal Theology of Social Concern in Latin America 1996 / 1870345207 / xvi+260pp David Gitari In Season and Out of Season Sermons to a Nation 1996 / 1870345118 / 155pp David. W. Virtue A Vision of Hope The Story of Samuel Habib 1996 / 1870345169 / xiv+137pp Everett A Wilson Strategy of the Spirit J.Philip Hogan and the Growth of the Assemblies of God Worldwide, 1960 - 1990 1997 /1870345231/214 Murray Dempster, Byron Klaus, Douglas Petersen (Eds) The Globalization of Pentecostalism A Religion Made to Travel 1999 / 1870345290 / xvii+406pp Peter Johnson, Chris Sugden (Eds) Markets, Fair Trade and the Kingdom of God Essays to Celebrate Traidcraft's 21st Birthday 2001 / 1870345193 / xii+155pp Robert Hillman, Coral Chamberlain, Linda Harding Healing & Wholeness Reflections on the Healing Ministry 2002 / 978-1- 870345-35- 4 / xvii+283pp David Bussau, Russell Mask Christian Microenterprise Development An Introduction 2003 / 1870345282 / xiii+142pp David Singh Sainthood and Revelatory Discourse An Examination of the Basis for the Authority of Bayan in Mahdawi Islam 2003 / 8172147285 / xxiv+485pp

For the up-to-date listing of the Regnum books visit www.ocms.ac.uk/regnum Regnum Books International Regnum is an Imprint of The Oxford Centre for Mission Studies St. Philip and St. James Church Woodstock Road Oxford, OX2 6HR

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Culture Change in Ethiopia This book addresses the causes and the consequences of culture change in Ethiopia, from Haile Selassie to the present, based on thorough academic research. Although the book is written from an evangelical perspective, it invites Ethiopians from all religious, ideological, and ethnic backgrounds to reflect on their past, analyze their present and to engage in unity with diversity to face the future. It also appeals to the conscience of global and regional powers who have been directly and indirectly involved in the affairs of Ethiopia. Alemayehu Mekonnen has brought a keen Christian perspective on the sweeping cultural change which has accompanied Ethiopia from Haile Selassie to the present. He is a keen observer of both leadership dynamics and culture change. With its ancient Christian history and its strategic placement as the bridge between N. Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, what happens in Ethiopia should interest all Christians everywhere. Dr Timothy Tennent, President Asbury Theological Seminary

Culture Change in Ethiopia

An Evangelical Perspective

What is Ethiopia like today and what is the role of the various branches of the Christian church there?What is the way forward? Ethiopian missiologist, Alemayehu Mekonnen, answers all these and related questions in a riveting account of key events of the last 70 years of his homeland’s history. Must reading for anyone who wants to be a truly global Christian! Craig L. Blomberg, Distinguished Professor of NT, Denver Seminary This is a book born out of the author’s deep love for his country and his people. The book is an informative and comprehensive introduction to Ethiopia that is laced with a passionate vision for authentic African Christian voices to be heard. M. Daniel Carroll R. (Rodas), Distinguished Professor of OT, Denver Seminary

Alex Mekonnen is Associate Professor of Missions at Denver Seminary and holds a PhD in Intercultural Studies, an MA in Missions, and an MA in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. From 1997-2007 he worked with the Evangelical Free Church of America International Mission (now called Reach Global). He also taught at Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology (now African International University). Mekonnen has published three theological books in the Amharic language, the national language of Ethiopia, and has coauthored one book in English. regnum

www.ocms.ac.uk/regnum

A Mekonnen

While sharing his fascinating journey from prison to freedom, Alemayehu Mekonnen exposes the chaotic history of Ethiopia pre-1974 under Emperor Haile Selassie and post-1974 under the MarxistLeninist regime. He concludes the book with significant recommendations for the Ethiopian Evangelical church today. Hélène Dallaire, Associate Professor of Old Testament and Director of Messianic Judaism Programs, Denver Seminary

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