These tenets drew the advocates of Ethiopianism, like a magnet, to the growing political movement. That political movement was to culminate in the formation of the ANC in 1912. It is in this sense that the ANC, we, trace the seeds of the formation of our organisation to the Ethiopian Movement of the 1890s.” Nelson Mandela, Nobel Laurent and Former President of South Africa.
On May 25, 2013, OAU will celebrate its Golden Jubilee. It is time to proudly reflect the role of Ethiopia and its leaders in the establishment and maintenance of first the OAU/AU and Ethiopia’s contribution to Pan-Africanism.
In the past five decades, Ethiopia has made major contributions in five areas. Firstly, Ethiopia’s historical background served as the ‘seedbed’ from which the Pan-African solidarity movement drew inspiration that culminated in the creation of the OAU in 1963. The OAU was and AU with the Diaspora as its six region is the continental institutionalization of Pan-Africanism. Secondly, Ethiopia extended enormous political support for various anti-colonial and anti-Apartheid struggles in Africa, including in military training, material and diplomatic support to liberation movements in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia to mention a few. As the first independent black African nation to be a member of the League of Nations and also as a founding member of the UN, Ethiopia promoted and defended the interest of Africa in various global forums of the UN. Together with Liberia, Ethiopia indicted the South African Apartheid Government at the International Court of Justice. Thirdly, since the 1950s in the Korean War and the Congo crisis, Ethiopia was and continues to be one of the top troop contributing African countries to the UN and AU peacekeeping missions. The recent peacekeeping mission in the disputed area of Abyei, entirely composed of Ethiopia’s troops, is unique in the history of peacekeeping for various reasons. Even if its UN mandated mission, UNISFA was initiated, designed and deployed with the full support of the Ethiopian government, the AU and its Mbeki High Level Implementation Panel. Ethiopia has also made significant contributions to mediation efforts since the 1960s, particularly in crises in Africa including in Nigeria (Biafra crisis), South Sudan, Sudan, and Somalia. Fourthly, as the host of the Headquarters of the AU and the seat of various multilaterally and bilaterally accredited missions, delegations and institutions, Addis Ababa is the diplomatic hub of Africa, which, in the words of the current foreign policy strategy document, enables Ethiopia to “carry a special responsibility for the organization [the AU].” Close to 500 embassies, diplomatic missions, international organizations, Pan-African think tanks and CSOs from all over the world are accredited to the AU. This makes Addis Ababa one of the five biggest diplomatic concentrations in the world.Fifthly, in addition to the assessed financial contributions to the AU annually, Ethiopia not only provided land and the old buildings where the AU is hosted, but also offered all the human and physical facilities that the OAU required in its earliest times.
The role and influence of Ethiopia in the OAU and later the AU was anchored in Ethiopia’s Pan-Africanist foreign policy rooted in its proud history of anti-colonial struggle and victimization under European colonial powers. Irrespective of the personalities of its leaders, Ethiopia’s Pan-Africa position in support of the OAU and the AU was maintained due to its history, large population, strategic geographic location, military strength as well as its promising economic performance. Leaders significantly augment the influence a country enjoys in these regional and global governance institutions through their intellectual competence, persuasion skills, Pan-African disposition, personal ambition and the trust a leader enjoys from his peers and the international community. These factors determined the role and influence Ethiopia have played in the OAU and the AU. The contribution of Ethiopia was alsoenhanced by Emperor Haile-Selassie, and the late Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, two Ethiopian leaders but with diametrically different attributes.
With one of the most ancient civilizations of the Axumite Empire, Ethiopia is known for being one of the very few nations in the world that has never been colonized. Coupled with an uninterrupted history of statehood, Ethiopia’s victory against repeated colonial invasion has given her a special place in the history of the World. It is the first country of black and African people that defeated the white European colonial Italy at the end of 19th Century at the Battle of Adwa. This victory on the Italian colonial power is a triumph not only for the black race but also all freedom loving people of the world. Ethiopia also inspired many famous African leaders including Nelson Mandela. Nelson Mandela, in his famous autobiography Long Walk to Freedom, speaks affectionately of the Pan-African inspirational power of Ethiopia and its leader Emperor Haile-Selassie:
Ethiopia has always held a special place in my own imagination and the prospect of visiting Ethiopia attracted me more strongly than a trip to France, England, and America combined. I felt I would be visiting my own genesis, unearthing the roots of what made me an African. Meeting His Highness, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, would be like shaking hands with history.
Ethiopia, with its historical legacy, the political will of the people, particularly its leader Emperor Haile-Selassie, became the natural leader of the anti-colonial struggle and the Pan Africa solidarity movement. In his April 1963 speech, Emperor Haile-Selassie called all colonial powers including the governments of Britain, Portugal and the Apartheid government of South Africa to grant self-determination of the people under their control. He also asserted Ethiopia’s unreserved support to all African people under colonial powers and apartheid.He added“[we] extend our good will greetings to all our African brethren who are still under the yoke of foreign rule, and wish that their struggle for freedom will bear fruit so that they would be masters of their own fate. Our help will also reach them.”
Despite the different internal policies of the three Ethiopian rulers, i.e., Emperor Haile-Selassie, Colonel Mengistu Hailemariam and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia offered unreserved all rounded support including diplomatic and military training to many liberation leaders including Nelson Mandela and Robert Mugabe.
On 4 November 1960, Ethiopia and Liberia took [the] South Africa’s Apartheid government to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its invasion of Namibia. This demonstrated Ethiopia’s commitment to the Pan-African movement that extended to the global courtrooms. On his way to getmilitary training and attend conference in Addis Ababa, Nelson Mandela boarded Ethiopian Airlines flight in 1962 just a couple of months before his arrest in South Africa. This was his first eye-opening experience of an independent black African nation with its airlines, black pilots and stewards, black professional army and state, at its head a famous black Emperor. His first passport was an Ethiopian one. He wrote:
We then changed flight to an Ethiopian Airways to Addis. Here I experienced a rather strange sensation. As I was boarding the plane I saw that the pilot was black. I had never seen a black pilot before… Once we were in the air, I started studying the geography of Ethiopia, thinking how Ethiopian guerrilla forces hid in these very forests to fight the Italian imperialists….Here, for the first time in my life, I was witnessing black soldiers commanded by black generals applauded by black leaders who were all guests of a black Head of State. It was a heady moment. I only hoped it was a vision of what lay in the future for my own country.
Ethiopia played a significant role in the establishment and development of, first the OAU and later the AU. In 1957, the idea of organizing a meeting of independent African states (at that time only eight) was discussed for the first time in London when Prime Minister of newly independent Republic of Ghana Kwame Nkrumah visited Ethiopian Ambassador Ammanuel Abraham on the margins of the Commonwealth Ministerial Conference on 1 July 1957. Kwame Nkrumah thought about organizing this meeting in October the same year to issue a declaration of African and global affairs. Similar ideas were also forwarded to Ethiopia by Morocco during the same time but separately. Nevertheless, Ethiopia was of the opinion that the arrangement and the aim of such meeting should be more than a formality and declaration that could lead to the establishment of a Pan-African organization. As such the Ambassador of Ethiopia suggested the importance of internal consultation between the independent states before any declaration and meeting. Since August 1958, Ambassadors of Ethiopia, Ghana, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Libya, and Liberia hosted several consultative meetings in preparation of the agenda and date of the conference. A year later and after series of consultations particularly between Africa held its first Conference of Independent States in Accra on 15 April 1958. Despite being independent, they were however divided into colonial-inherited linguistic and other kinds of groups.
With no colonial inheritance what so ever, Ethiopia, served as a trusted home to all these groups. In this regard, Emperor Haile-Selassie pointed out that these groupings are seeds of division that need to be undone by establishing the OAU. “The commentators of 1963 speak, in discussing Africa, of the Monrovia States, the Brazzaville Group, the Casablanca Powers, of these and many more. Let us put an end to these terms. What we require is a single African Organization through which Africa's single voice may be heard, within which Africa's problems may be studied and resolved. We need anorganization which will facilitate acceptable solutions to dispute among Africans and promote the study and adoption of measures for common defense and programs for co-operation in the economic and social fields. Let us, at this Conference, create a single institution to which we will all belong, based on principles to which we all subscribe, confident that in its councils our voices will carry their proper weight, secure in the knowledge that the decisions there will be dictated by Africans and only by Africans and that they will take full account of all vital African consideration.”Five years later Ethiopia also called for and hosted the May 1963 Conference of African Heads of State that led to the establishment of the OAU.
Addis Ababa: the diplomatic hub of Africa
As a seat of the AU, Ethiopia not only provided land and the building that the AU is hosted by but also offered all the human and physical facilities that the OAU required in its earliest times. As Africa’s diplomatic centre and Ethiopia’s capital city, Addis Ababa hosts permanent representations of the AU member states and other states, other accredited diplomatic missions such as the United States, the European Union, China, India, Brazil and the United Nations agencies and other international multilateral and humanitarian organizations. The US and EU have two heads of delegations –a bilateral one to Ethiopia and multilateral to the AU. The number is expected toincrease. Ethiopia regularly pays its assessed contribution of USD 1.4 million per year based on capacity to pay and GDP. Ethiopia is one of the eleven AU Member States that pay contributions regularly but also one of the five that made advance payments. Currently, on average Addis Ababa hosts a total of 7,000 delegates, more than 40 are heads of state during summits. Ethiopia also contributes to the East African Standby Brigade. In May 25, 1963, Ethiopia was the first country to propose the establishment and offered the hosting of the Pan African University, an idea that was only revived again and became operational after five decades in the AU Kampala Summit in 2010. Ethiopia suggested that “[s]erious consideration…be given to the establishment of an African University, sponsored by all African States, where future leaders of Africa will be trained in an atmosphere of continental brotherhood. In this African institution, the supra-national aspects of African life would be emphasized and study would be directed toward the ultimate goal of complete African Unity. Ethiopia stands prepared here and now to decide on the site of the University and to fix the financial contributions to be made to it.” Various universities including Addis Ababa University have recently established several institutes that offer courses on African Union.
Contributions of Ethiopia to peace and security in Africa and beyond
Ethiopia’s contributions to the peacekeeping missions begun immediately with the establishment of the United Nations (UN.) During the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930s, Emperor Haile-Selassie called for the League of Nations to rescue Ethiopia from the invaders on the basis of the League’s principle of collective security. Giving a deaf ear to the plea of Ethiopia, the League’s leading countries of Europe failed even to properly discuss the matter after the Emperor’s speech to the deliberative body of the League. In a very prophetic and farsighted manner, the Emperor pointed out that the League’s failure to keep the covenants of collective security of members when attacked by another member would put the League in disaster and the world in peril. In prophetic manner Emperor Haile-Selassie warned the League of Nations that failure to defend Ethiopia from the invasion of Italy will be the last nail on the coffin of the League. He said:
It is not merely a question of a settlement in the matter of Italian aggression. It is a question of collective security; of the very existence of the League; of the trust placed by the States in international treaties; of the value of promise made to small states that their integrity and their independence shall be respected and assured. It is a choice between the principle of equality of States and the imposition upon small powers of the bonds of vassalage.
Indeed within couple of years, Adolf Hitler with his ally Benito Mussolini declared war on Europe, and the League was no more. As a victim of continues wars of unsuccessful invasion, Ethiopia genuinely sought a strong organization that ensures equality of states through collective security. Ethiopia’s active involvement as founding member of the UN and later OAU was entrenched in this deep-rooted belief in fairer, peaceful and secure nation of nations.
Borne out of this experience of victimization, its struggle to maintain its independence and to demonstrate its conviction in collective security, Ethiopia, as one of the first signatory members of the UN Charter, has been upfront in peacekeeping efforts in Africa and beyond. It also believes in multilateralism. Emanating from its history, Ethiopia inclined to make use of multilateral solutions and institutions to pursue its interest and addresses its concerns. This contributed that the Horn of Africa, unlike the other regions, remains free from fear of being dominated by a country. Despite its capacity, that is the reason why Ethiopia is not keen to posture its self as regional hegemonic power in the region. Common defence of Africa against any military aggression was also in the mind of Ethiopia. Emperor Haile-Selassie warned African leaders not to “rely solely on international morality. Africa's control over her own affairs is dependent on the existence of appropriate military arrangements to assure this continent's protection against such threats. While guarding our own independence, we must at the same time determine to live peacefully with all nations of the world."Ethiopia was in support the establishment institutionally similar to the current AU Standby Force, but divergent in its aim.
Since the establishment of the UN and later OAU and AU, Ethiopia has successfully participated in more than ten peacekeeping missions at continental and global level. With the UNISFA, Ethiopia currently has close to 7,000 troops in various the UN peace keeping missions. This makes Ethiopia one of the top four troop contributing countries in both African and global level. In 1950s and 1960s, Ethiopia has successfully participated in the UN peacekeeping missions in Korea and Congo. Recently, Ethiopia has also successfully participated in Rwanda, Burundi and Liberia and is participating in Darfur, and Southern Sudan. Ethiopia’s peacekeepers have won continental and global reputation.
Ethiopia and African integration
Ethiopia has been cautiously optimistic on the integrationist project of the AU. It pursues a gradualist integration of that beguns with realistic considerations of the eonomic dvelopment of each country and Regional Economic Communities (RECs.) As such, without appreciation of the current economic determinants and linkages among countries, integration becomes an excellent aspiration without the elemnetns required for implementation. Fifty years ago, Emperor Haile-Selassie spoke of the priority for African integration by pointing out that “travel between African nations and telegraphic and telephonic communications among us are circuitous in the extreme. Road communications between two neighbouring states are often difficult or even impossible. It is little wonder that trade among us has remained at a discouragingly low level. These anachronisms are the remnants of a heritage of which we must rid ourselves -- the legacy of the century when Africans were isolated one from the other. These are vital areas in which efforts must be concentrated." Thus, Ethiopia prioritizes the integration within the RECs as first step towards a continent-wide integration. Ethiopia puts more empahses on infrastrutural linkages among the countries and the complimentarity among the economies of the countries under integration. In recent years, Ethiopia has now better infrastructural links with Sudan, Djibouti and construction of similar links are ongoing with Kenya, South Sudan, and Somaliland. Ethiopia has also begun exporting electricity to Djibouti, Republic of Sudan, and intends to do with Kenya, Somaliland, South Sudan and Egypt. Ethiopia, Africa's second-most populous country and already the preeminent player in east Africa, appears poised to become a regional economic engine.
Emperor Haile-Selassie and Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, increased the role and influence of Ethiopia in the OAU and the AU respectively and even at a global level for the following three main reasons. First, they led a country that is historically at the centre of Pan-Africanism. Secondly they stayed in power for decades. Thirdly, the AU, IGAD and the international community found Emperor Haile-Selassie as very charismatic leader and Prime Minister extremely intelligent in proposing solutions for complicated issues and extraordinarily persuasive and competent in advocating African positions at global forums such as previously in the Non-Aligned Movement and the United Nations, and recently in the G-20 and G-8, Climate Change Forums, New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and so on. As a result, both the late Emperor and the late Prime Minister acted as de facto chairperson of the OAU and AU respectively until their death.
Ethiopia’s place in the AU is entrenched in its historical contributions as seedbed of African history, and its support to anti-colonial and apartheid struggle and its critical role in the establishment of the OAU and AU. Signifying the genuine commitment of Ethiopia to the causes of the OAU and AU, successive rulers of Ethiopia continued to pursue the same foreign policy on the OAU and AU. Ethiopia’s current significant influence in the AU, however, comes from its leading role in the IGAD and heavily depends on the Pan-African disposition and calibre of its leaders. Nonetheless, is yet ratify and implementmore than 15 conventions (35 percent) of the total 43 binding instruments of the AU. To its credit, Ethiopia ratified the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance within a year of its adoption. Moreover, as a headquarters of the AU, Ethiopia should provide an enabling environment and platforms for Pan-African state and non-state actors to enter to the country without cumbersome visa process, debate, contribute and monitor the AU agenda.
Finally, as we celebrate the excellent legacies of the OAU in the fight against colonialism and apartheid, the AU should consider honouring Ethiopia and its leaders for their momentous contributions to the OAU and Pan-Africanism.Is it too much to ask the AU and the Ethiopian government to honour the Pan-African contributions of Ethiopia and its leaders by erecting a monument for Emperor Haile-Selassie at the AU complex? It is no doubt fitting to honour Emperor Haile-Selassie alongside the Pan-Africanist leaderKwame Nkrumah of Ghana.
Ed’s Note: Mehari Taddele Maru is a former fellow at Harvard University. He holds a Doctorate of Legal Sciences (DSL) from JL Giessen University, a MPA from Harvard University, an MSc from the University of Oxford and a LLB from Addis Ababa University. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of The Reporter. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
