BY MULUGETA GUDETA
Foreign writers often point at what they call the “paradoxes of Ethiopia’s development and underdevelopment” by pointing at the contrasts between the abundant natural resources the country is naturally endowed with and the inability of its people to turn these resources into the motors of economic development for the benefit of all. A case in point was the many famines that have visited Ethiopia in the past in the middle lush vegetations, overflowing rivers and green landscapes. Famines caused by natural calamities such as droughts, floods, wars and other natural and man-made crises are understandable. It however difficult to understand are the famines that occurred in the midst of natural abundance.
Many sociologists and anthropologists converge on the causes of “poverty in the middle of plenty”. Some of the researchers point at the income inequalities and or a disproportionate allocations of resources to some areas as potential causes for famine and poverty in general. Others see a very weak work culture or work ethics as a possible cause of poverty among communities that live in naturally abundant communities that often get what they want relatively easily and lose the incentive to work harder.
This view is corroborated at the global level by the success of some countries that are resource-deprived but hard working and imaginative enough to turn the negatives into pluses and transform their communities into wealthier ones. The classic example of this is Japan which is considered generally “resource-poor” in mineral raw materials in particular but has developed its industrial base by importing minerals from other countries while the exporting nations remained as poor as they were since the creation of the world. How Japan developed is a huge topic in its own rights and requires volumes of reading to grasp the essence of its past dilemma and present wealth.
To go back to the issue of Ethiopia’s development paradoxes, we can perhaps say that poor work ethics is and was always the cause of poverty or food shortages in Ethiopia. There are also other political, economic, social and cultural factors behind high levels of poverty and food crisis among the other communities of Ethiopia such as those living in the northern parts of the country where land shortages and low productivity combined with ecological crises has led to catastrophic famines in the past. However the Gurage people have rarely witnessed such large scale famine crises that led to massive human displacements or ecological breakdowns.
The Gurage are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group inhabiting Ethiopia. They inhabit the Gurage Zone, a fertile, semi-mountainous region in central Ethiopia, about 125 kilometers southwest of Addis Ababa, bordering the Awash River in the north, the Gibe River, a tributary of the Omo River, to the southwest, and Hora-Dambal in the east. According to the 2007 Ethiopian national census the Gurage can also be found in large numbers in Addis Ababa, Oromia, Dire Dawa, Harari, Somali, Amhara, Gambela and Tigray Regions. Since the last national census is relatively old, it is assumed that the Gurage are now present in all of Ethiopia’s regions and towns in greater numbers and are engaged in various activities the chief one being small and large-scale trading.
The Gurage are first and foremost very able, creative, resilient and smart business people. However this is true for Gurage who leave their native villages and migrate to other areas. Those who stay behind in the villages are no less enterprising and hard working. In fact, the migrating Gurage inherit the culture of hard work from their parents and grandparents who built those village communities.
Encyclopedia Encarta says that “According to the historian Paul B. Henze, The Gurage origin is explained by traditions of a military expedition to the south during the last years of the Kingdom of Aksum, which left military colonies that eventually became isolated from both northern Ethiopia and each other” This is not however the whole explanation of the origins of the Gurage people. Many historians and anthropologists have written extensively about it.
Since our focus here is on Gurage culture, we can start by saying that “The Gurage are mainly Christian—members largely of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church—and Muslim. Settled agriculturalists, the Gurage centre their lives on the cultivation of their staple crop, the Ethiopian, or false, banana (Enseteventricosum), prized not for its “false” (or inedible) fruit but for its roots.”
According to William A. Schack’s book entitled, “The Gurage, a People of the Enset Culture” “The Gurage socio-ecological production landscape in Ethiopia is characterized by a mosaic of different ecosystem types such as forests, home garden agroforestry system, cereal crops, grasslands, woodlots, wetlands, surface water, and roads, as well as human settlements. The Gurage people are a group in Ethiopia that formed village settlements based on the ecological conditions linked to Jefoure roads and Enset culture.”
Schack further noted that, “They assimilated with the local people and developed diverse tribes and languages/dialects. Although the Gurage people adopt various languages/dialects and religions, they share a similar set of artifacts, technologies, modes of production, house building designs, settlement patterns, and economic and social organization”. They adapted Enset crop cultivation mechanisms, producing the root crop in abundance as an indigenous staple/co-staple harvest in the region”
Nevertheless, the availability of fertile soil and Enset may not fully explain the success of the Gurage people in warding off major famines or food shortages. The Gurage, as they are known throughout Ethiopia, are hardworking people and women in particular play a leading role in the cultivation and preparation of the crop. This is basically why food crisis is something alien to the people although demographic explosion of recent years has contributed to pressure on the land and decline in average production of the food crop.
As we said above the Gurage are migrant people dispersed throughout Ethiopia in search of better opportunities. Addis Ababa is particularly the mainstay of the Gurage who congregate around big markets such as the historic Mercato, dubbed the “biggest open-air market in Africa.” Tens of thousands of people animate the market every day and the presence and importance of the Gurage for the capital’s economy can be seen during religious holidays when the people go back en masse to their native villages, leaving behind a city deprived of its vibrancy and animation. Addis Ababa regains its vitality once the Gurage return from their villages after enjoy holidays of abundance and happiness.
It may be difficult for other communities to emulate the culture and lifestyles of the Gurage but it is not impossible to spread the cultivation Enset as a drought resistant crop that could be cultivated in other famine-prone parts of the country. One may not also imitate the work ethics of the Gurage because it is rooted in their culture and handed over from generation to generation. A Gurage boy usually leaves his native village early in his life and travels near and far to make a living, starting from shoe shining and going up the ladder of success to become an entrepreneur and then an investor and house builder or hotel manager. The biographies of many Gurage people are filled with amazing stories of success through hard work. Their examples are also inspiring other people from different communities to work harder and achieve more. This is of course a culture worth emulating throughout Ethiopia because it can serve as one of the basis of a truly and genuinely home-based development model.
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 27 JULY 2022
