Coffee, Colonialism and Capitalism; Introduction to African Crisis

Presenting a young Sidama Intellectual’s standpoint over Africa’s economic and political crisis is a real intellectual adventure; seeing Africa through African eyes offers an extraordinary advantage in terms of accuracy, veracity and clutter elimination.

I am most pleased to present the first part of an insightful paper sent to me by the Sidama Intellectual Side Goodo, who is an acclaimed economist and a free thinker, well exposed to ideas and theoretical systems in 3 (three) continents.

After stating and commenting on key figures pertaining to the overall African economy, Mr. Goodo focalizes on the Sidama Nation’s underdevelopment which is the result of the Colonial Amhara invasions and annexation before 130 years.

As coffee consists in one of the most valuable natural resources, and the main export commodity of the occupied by alien Amhara Abyssinians Sidama Land, the expropriation of the indigenous Sidamas from their rich in coffee trees lands opened the gates of the underdevelopment, poverty and starvation. In a forthcoming article, we will publish the rest of Mr. Side Goodo’s paper.

Sidama Land - Coffee Economics, Politics and Poverty

By Side Goodo, Sidama Intellectual

Part 1. Poverty, Hunger and Underdevelopment in Africa

Over the last two centuries many countries of the world have developed at a breakneck speed. However, after half a century of decolonization, Africa still remains the darkest continent and the majority of its people still live under abject poverty.

Half of the 800 million people on the African continent live on less than US$1 per day while the mortality rate of children under five years of age is 140 per 1000. Only 58 percent of the population had access to safe water. The rate of illiteracy for people over 15 is 41 percent and there are only 18 mainline telephones per 1000 people compared with 146 for the world and 567 for developed countries (NEPAD, 2001).

Thus, in Africa, at present, poverty defined in terms of both lack of ownership of economic resources and lack of access to social and economic services which refer to the broader livelihoods is rampant. Poverty is also about lack of power. The poor is the most vulnerable and the most powerless group of society.

Among the 49 Least Developed Countries (LDC) of the world as of 2007, 33 are in Africa. These are: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo Democratic Republic, Djibouti, Eritrea, ‘Ethiopia’, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda and Zambia.

The LDCs or the fourth world countries are characterized by low income, Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of less than US$750, low level of human resources development, and economic vulnerability. A country must achieve GNI per capital of over US$ 900 to leave the forth world. About five of these African LDCs are characterized by a very low level of economic progress measured by a very low level of GNI per capita of less than US$ 200. These are: ‘Ethiopia’, Somalia, Seira Leon, Burundi, and Guinea Bissau.

Only two countries in Africa have shown remarkable economic performances during the past 20 years and were able to graduate from the LDC category. These were Botswana which moved up the ladder in 1994 and Cape Verde Island which graduated from LDCs just in 2007.

The poverty and backwardness of Africa stands in stark contrast to the prosperity of the developed world. The continued marginalization of Africa from the globalization process and the social exclusion of the vast majority of its peoples constitute a serious threat to global stability (NEPAD, 2001). The continued influx of Africans seeking better living conditions in Europe has already caused a great alarm among the EU member states but no concrete actions have been taken by this block of wealthy nations to bring sustainable development in the African continent.

The UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) adopted in 2000 are not likely to be achieved in many of the African countries because of such dismal economic performances in most of these countries. The 2015 targets for most indicators are already accepted as unachievable. Thus many of African countries are trapped in a vicious circle of underdevelopment, poverty, hunger and famine. The world has the resources and the technology to eradicate poverty in Africa and globally, but it does not have the will.

Part 2. Poverty and Underdevelopment in ‘Ethiopia’

The dismal economic performance of ‘Ethiopia’ with GNI per capita of about US$152 in 2005 puts the country at the bottom of the Least Developed Countries of the world (the fourth world). As a result, poverty in ‘Ethiopia’ is rampant. According to BBC World Service (Feb 2007), 81% of ‘Ethiopian’ population is living below the poverty line of US $2 a day. With the ‘Ethiopian’ current population being about 78 million, this means that over 63 million ‘Ethiopians’ live below poverty line.

At the beginning of the 21st century, we witness an increase in global poverty and hunger along side unprecedented affluence among nations and individuals implying an ever increasing disparity between nations and with in various regions of a nation. The fact that the Microsoft tycoon Bill Gate’s net worth is 5 times as big as ‘Ethiopian’ 2005 annual Gross National Income (GNI) of $11.1 billion US dollars at current prices (World Bank, 2005) is a vivid depiction of not only how the country has failed in terms of economic achievement during the past century but also the alarming disparity between individuals and countries in the developed world and individuals and countries in the LDCs.

The rest of the African countries blame colonialism for their underdevelopment. However, ‘Ethiopia’ has been praised as the only African country that resisted western colonialism. Then why is ‘Ethiopia’ at the bottom of the fourth world? ‘Ethiopia’ has no one to blame for its unprecedented development disaster except for successive archaic feudal and totalitarian political leaderships.

Archaic monarchical rule and rapacious feudalism that lasted for over half a century kept the country under perpetual darkness while the rest of the world was moving forward with lightening speed. Neither the 1974 revolution nor the 1991 TPLF take over of the political power in the country brought any fundamental changes on political organizations and economic management in the country. The socialist regime wasted 17 years of opportunity for economic revival of the country. Like its predecessors, the current regime managed to cling to political power for over 16 years with out any improvement in economic lives of the majority of the peoples in the country. In fact poverty, hunger and famine are now embodied into the very structure of the ‘Ethiopian’ economy.

A decade and a half is not a short time to harness the resources of the country towards the path of sustainable growth and development. On the contrary, the current leadership is preoccupied with maintaining its political power at the cost of economic nightmare. Time and resources are wasted on repressions of democratic freedom and human rights.

Dictatorial and predatory regimes, lack of democratic freedom and human rights, lack of recognition of the rights of various ethnic groups in the country, inappropriate value systems of the societies’ of the ruling elites, absence of the rule of law, absence of property rights and institutions that support free enterprise under the current and previous ‘Ethiopian’ regimes are solely responsible for continued underdevelopment and abject poverty of the majority of the citizens of this country.

The Sidama province located in the southern part of the country is endowed with abundant natural resources. However, under the current ‘Ethiopian’ political organization, the Sidama region has deteriorated from self sustained traditional economic system into an economic disaster where hunger and famine have become the order of the day.

Note
Sidama Land's Black Gold (coffee) is still in 2007 exploited by foreign invaders and cruel tyrants.