Today’s guest is Professor K. Mathews.
He is a lecturer of international relations at Addis Ababa University. He has been working there since 2003. Prior to that he was professor of African studies and chair of the department at the university of Delhi,India(1991-2003). He has taught at other reputed universities including the Jawaharlal Nehru Universiy (JNU), New Delhi, university of Dar es-Selam,Tanzania, university of Nigeria, Nsukka, Besides, he has held visiting Research Fellowships at the university of Oxford, England Centre for Foreign Relations, Ottawa, Canada, Africa Inistitute of South Africa , Pretoria, East China Normal University, Shanghi, China among others.
Prof. Mathews has authored over 100 publications including two edited books. His Research interests and publications focus on African Politics and International Relations, India Africa Relations, China Africa Relations, the Organization of African Unity, The African Union, conflict and Pease in Africa , Pan –Africanism, Regional Integration in Africa, BRICS and Emerging Powers in Africa.
He also been editor of the Africa Quarterly Published by the ICCR, the African Review published from university of Dar es- Selam. Tanzania. Among others, Prof . Mathews is also the founder President of the African Studies Association of India(ASA) and he is currently writing a book on Africa in Global Affairs.
The Ethiopian Herald had a moment of togetherness with Professor K. Mathews to let esteemed readers some insights and about him. Excerpts
Ethiopian Herald: Tell us a little more about India-Africa long-standing relations?
Professor K. Mathews There is a huge gap in the understanding of the historic and contemporary relations between India and Africa and more particularly between India and Ethiopia, including Ethiopia’s contribution to Indian history. India-Africa relationship has deep roots in history. Linked across the Indian Ocean Indians have been neighbors and partners of East Africans for thousands of years.
There was regular interaction between communities and traders, especially from the West Coast of Gujarat, and parts of South India with Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), Somalia, Mombasa, Zanzibar and even as far as Mozambique. These communities and groups played significant roles in the histories of both India and Africa. Groups of African descent still populate parts of Deccan and Western India, especially the island of Janjira, some 45 kilometers south of Mumbai.
The advent of the Europeans and the era of colonial rule disturbed these interactions. India has always been willing to share her diverse development experiences with Africa. It was felt that transfer of knowledge, human skills, going beyond government-to-government interactions and embracing civil society, would strengthen mutual capabilities. India has always been open to sharing its strengths, its widely welcomed democratic model of development and its appropriate technologies, which many in Africa found low cost, resource efficient, adaptive and suitable to help identify local solutions to local problems. In the first few decades of India’s independence in 1947, Africa became the largest beneficiary of India’s technical assistance and capacity building programmes. These cooperation programmes laid the foundation of the close political and economic partnership between India and Africa in the 20th century. It was against this background that India sought to re-engage with Africa in the 21st century, by redrawing the framework of cooperation and devising new parameters for enhanced and enlarged relationship commensurate with India’s new role in a changing world. The challenge of globalization and the need to identify new opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation led to a renewed vigor in India-Africa relationship.
As noted earlier, the 21st Century witnesses accelerated development of India Africa relations. On the old foundations, a new architecture for a structured engagement and cooperation for the 21st century was designed and launched at the first India- Africa Forum Summit (IAFS-I)in April 2008 in New Delhi. The summit provided an occasion for the leaderships of India and Africa to come together to chart out new roadmap for a systematic engagement. Also in 2008, the Indian Government rightly designated Africa as an “emerging priority” in its foreign policy and since then Africa has been treated as one of India’s key priorities.
Among others, the 2008 Summit also received a commitment by the Government of India for USD 5.4 billion in new lines of credit in a five
Time-old, multifaceted…
year period – a quantum leap in governmental commitment to support the economic growth of Africa, which helped act as a stimulus package when the global financial crisis erupted shortly thereafter. Under this programme, India has committed about USD 1 billion every year, mainly in the form of soft loans at extremely low interest rates. The lines of credit led to asset creation in Africa and help crystalize confidence in the Indian economic partnership. The model of cooperation emerging from the first India-Africa Forum Summit has governed India’s approach since. I have already discussed something about the second and Third India Africa Forum summits earlier on. The fourth India- Africa Forum Summit is scheduled to be held, in 2020 and elaborate preparations are underway.
TAs noted earlier, areas of human resource development and capacity building have been at the forefront of India’s partnership with Africa. Tens of thousands of African students have received education and training in Indian Universities and Institutions. At any time there are at least 10,000 to 15,000 African students studying in various parts of India. This number has largely increased in more recent years. The number of slots under the well-known Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC) has increased from 1100 to 1600 every year. This partnership in human resource development is in addition to the tele-education component of the Indian Pan-African e-Network project which was inaugurated in Ethiopia in 2007, which is visionary in its appeal and impact. The role of ICT, science and technology, research and development has greatly contributed to the enhancement of India’s engagement with Africa in this important area of human resource development. India is also in the process of establishing 19 joint institutions on African soil jointly with the African Union Commission and the member states, including an India- Africa Institute of Foreign Trade, and India-Africa Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, an India-Africa Diamond Institute, ten Vocational Training Centres and five Human Settlement Institutes in Africa to contribute to capacity building.
Another significant aspect of India’s Africa policy has been the efforts to cultivate good relations with the 2.5- 3 million Indian diaspora in view of their role as a bridge between their host countries in Africa and India. Many have argued that cultural and economic links through historical presence of Indian communities in Africa give India a head start. The multi-dimensional partnership between India and Africa will help to ensure that India’s long term ambition to play a role as a major global economic power will lead to an ever-growing engagement with Africa. Clearly, India’s ability to engage, with Africa will be defined by the opportunities and risks that India faces in the global system.
It may also be noted that one way of compensating the deficiencies of the governmental sector in this model of cooperation is India’s increased reliance on the private sector investment in Africa. This has been more manifest ever since India liberalized its own economic system in 1991. In the 21st century private Indian investment in Africa is giving this relationship a new vigor and impetus. Indian private companies have made large investments in Africa running into several billion dollars in industry, agriculture, infrastructure and human resource development.
Could you relate to us Ethiopia’s Contribution to Indian History and Role of Malik Ambar?
As noted earlier, there are multiple bonds that bind India and Ethiopia together –civilizational, historical, cultural, commercial, economic, social, political, diplomatic etc. Both India and Ethiopia are ancient civilizations of at least 5,000 and 3,000 years respectively. The Indian Ocean served as a connecting link between India, the Middle East and Africa. A number of scholars of ancient Indian history has noted that in olden times large numbers of people migrated from the West coast of India in search of new lands and settled in Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. In those historic days the famous Nile Valley and Indus Valley civilizations interacted with each other. Mass migrations of Hamitic people from Asia to Ethiopia are generally believed to have reached its zenith around 3,000 B.C. Semitic migrations followed 2,000 years later. Some classical historians have also pointed out that Ethiopians were originally an Indian race.
Flourishing trade relations between India and Ethiopia which began during the ancient period continued in the subsequent centuries with the added dimension of slave trade. The coming of Ethiopian and East African slaves to India a millennium or so later is well documented in various historical records. From 13th to 17th century Western India witnessed massive forced migration of Ethiopians and other East African slaves, known as ‘Habshis’, ‘Sidis’ or ‘Kaffirs’. ‘Habshis’ (Ethiopian slaves), are known to have arrived in India from the 13th century and many of them subsequently rose to very high positions. ‘Habshis’, during this period were prominent at several kingdoms and places in Western India, particularly the island fort of Janjira, Deccan, Delhi, Bengal , Hyderabad, among others. They were primarily brought as slaves by Arab and Portuguese traders. In Gujrat, people of African origin also claim to have come with Baba Gor, an Ethiopian saint of medieval times.
Pertaining to Brief Story of Malik Ambar I can say the following.
Many ‘Habshis’, or ‘Sidis’, Ethiopian slaves, in India also came to occupy very high positions, thus contributing to Indian history. Among others, the story of Malik Ambar is well known. He was an Ethiopian and the most successful military general of the Ahmednagar (in Gujrat) Sultanate in medieval India. Malik Ambar was an Ethiopian born in Harar, Ethiopia in 1550. His original name was Shambu. He was sold as a slave in his childhood to one Mr. Mir Qasim from Baghdad, who educated him. Later Malik Ambar was sold to Changez Khan who trained him in military strategies and administration. Changez Khan’s widow freed Malik Ambar after the formers death. Later the two got married. Malik Ambar soon became a great strategist and warrior and also fought against the Mughals. His importance increased as he registered successive victories. He later became the Prime Minister of Nizamshahi, (Ahmednagar). Malik Ambar regained various territories for his King and brought Ahmednagar back to glory. He was regarded as the father of the guerrilla technique of warfare. Malik Ambar was also a very successful diplomat, who among others, established diplomatic relations with the Portuguese. Malik Ambar died on 14 May 1626, at the age of 78, at Amberpur.
Herald: What Lessons could Ethiopia Learn from India in various political, economic, cultural aspects?
Professor K. Mathews: This is a difficult question. Like individuals, nations can also learn from each other. As Nelson Mandela once said: “It is in the communion of ideas that nations express their greatest affinities”. Ethiopia and India have much to learn from each other, culturally, economically, politically and in other areas. There are multiple bonds that bind India and Ethiopia together-civilizational, historical, cultural, economic, commercials social, political diplomatic etc. Close cultural affinities and complementarities of their economies provided the bed-rock of socio-cultural and commercial links between the two peoples. With its own alphabet, calendar, and clock Ethiopia is a unique ancient African country, one of the oldest states in the world. The name Ethiopia is also the only country mentioned in the Bible several times. Throughout centuries, Ethiopia has also been the symbol of ancient civilization and statehood, one that can boast the most remarkable achievements and glorious past from long bygone times. Ethiopia is also the only country in Africa which has never been colonized by a European power and thus it remains a symbol of African independence and freedom.
Despite the divergence in size, population and power, India and Ethiopia, have much in common and much to learn from each other. Their economies are complementary. Both are multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-ethnic, multi-religious and face identical problems and challenges of nation-building in all of which both can learn lessons from each other. Both are also engaged in the struggle for democracy, and development. While India is the largest democracy in the world, Ethiopia is in the process of consolidating its democratic institutions particularly since the overthrow of the Derg regime in 1991.
During the brief period of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s emergency rule in India in 1975-77, when democracy was suspended, the country became the poster-child of the ‘Bread versus Freedom’ debate: the question of whether democracy can literally ‘deliver the goods’ in a country of poverty, scarcity, or whether its inbuilt inefficiencies only impede rapid growth?. The emergency was sought to be justified in the name of development. Democracy in India, it was argued had detracted from the focus on development that was the nation’s duty. That debate was clearly resolved in India by the elections of 1977 which utterly defeated the Emergency regime and restored democracy!.
In that context the ongoing peace and democracy reforms being introduced and experimented by the new Abiy Ahmed Government in Ethiopia since April 2018 is particularly encouraging and deserve universal support. However, the recent (June 22, 2019) failed coup attempt in Ethiopia, illustrate the fragility of democracy in the country. Being the largest and functioning democracy in the world, the lessons from the Indian experiment in democracy and federalism could be particularly useful to Ethiopia. Democracy gives all citizens effective political and civil rights while having the ability to deliver welfare to the poor.
The Ethiopian Herald July 21, 2019
BY NAOL GIRMA
