Ethiopia and its gift of the Nile

Egypt is threatening Ethiopia with war if they use the Nile under a new agreement reached with the Nile basin countries. The countries around the Nile basin include Kenya, Tanzania Burundi, Rwanda, DRC and Ethiopia who all jointly agreed on using the Nile for irrigation under a new treaty.

According to Egypt, Ethiopia would be breaking the 1959 Treaty. That treaty is the continuation of the Nile water agreement of 1929 – brokered by the British when they were the colonial power. Egypt was guaranteed 48bn cubic meters of water. Following the 1959 deal, which did little more than reaffirm Egypt and Sudan's right to a majority of the Nile; this was increased to 55.5bn cubic meters, while Sudan is allotted 14.5bn cubic meters.

Egypt and Ethiopia share a long history of wars from ancient to the time Egypt was occupied by the Greeks, Turks followed by the Arabs. Our present similarity may have watered in modern times, however the river Blue Nile from Ethiopia following has not changed. The ancient Egyptians called present day Ethiopia the land of the Gods, as they depended on the water and silt Ethiopia gave them. They even had an ancient measuring device along the river banks to measure the height of the river and the silt levels.

Ethiopia throughout the years defended its territories from ancient invaders and colonial invaders to Arabs. Ethiopia was delayed with modernizing in the 20th century due to two world wars and in the 80’s had to deal with a civil war and an attack from Somalia as well as famine.

While the world was concerned with providing food aid to Ethiopia no one gave them the solution to be self sufficient and use their resources. Ethiopia’s image was blown up as a poor country locked in a time zone; no one acknowledged the gift of the majority of the Nile it gave to Egypt. Egypt was associated with the Nile exclusively as if it flowed upstream from the air and made use of it by themselves.

During the cold war, there where systematic political games being played on Ethiopia by foreign powers for their own purposes. Egypt supported any of Ethiopia’s political enemies and terrorists to cause instability in the country to continue using the Nile in peace. Now there is peace in Ethiopia, it is very worried so is trying to cause further chaos and instability; by encouraging separatism and ethnic tension amongst the tribes.

Thanks to the Chinese who have remained neutral, have agreed to help fund Ethiopia with the building of the dam on the Nile basin; when Western bank lenders refused Ethiopia like a parent refuses his child for candy. The only thing that is stopping the construction now is Egypt and the Northern administration of Sudan threatening war.

My question is what right has Egypt got to try and get the upper hand and say the colonial treaty signed in 1929 must be upheld in 2010? How does Egypt explain such a selfish attitude of threatening war on a developing country that just got out of a drought and threaten to cut aid for the other countries that depend on aid from Egypt? The fact of the matter is, these African countries rich in resources such minerals and fertile lands but poor due to civil wars want to be self sufficient and use their resources. Why do foreigners get uneasy when African resources are used by their own people? Is there a law that sates diamonds can be mined by black people but must given to the Lebanese, Belgian or French company? Oil must only go through Arab countries and owned by European companies like BP who are happy to help the community by building one water tap.

Rivers that pass through African countries cannot be used by black African countries. Newly independent African countries had been brain washed by their former colonial powers so much they accepted the unjust treaties put in place to make generations of Africans poor and dependant on food aid. As soon as a couple of African countries rally and demand to use their God given recourses, they get bullied with war threats with the backing of rogue states. Will Egypt defend the 1929 treaty to USA?

Barack Obama who is half Kenyan wrote in his book ‘Dreams of my father’ about his grandfather’s struggle against colonialism and being imprisoned for believing in freedom. I doubt Barack Obama will defend a colonial treaty that did not involve a free Kenya and other Nile basin countries. How about the African Americans or ‘Afrocentrics’ described by critics, who are having an increased interest in the motherland. Rastafarism is a growing trend which sees Ethiopia as Zion against Babylon. Other groups will have a say such as the Hebrew Israelites and the Kemets who follow the ancient religion of Egypt and believe the ancient Egyptians were black like the rest of the African countries.

The black Egyptians called Abbay’s the name of Ethiopia’s blue Nile waterfall are marginalized and have lost their land and are treated like second class citizens by the majority Arabs Egyptian.

Egypt has always denied they are African but do not mind using African resources. In times of trouble they would rather side with their Arabian relatives than side with their African slaves neighbors. This exploitation and inconsiderate use of resources must stop, Africa had been suffering from the after effects of slavery and colonization for too long. This treaty established in 1929 is a relic of the past era and its up to African countries collectively to rip it up and demand change.

Negative views of Ethiopia and Ethiopian people by the media

As a second generation Ethiopian citizen who lives in Europe I am astonished by the negative articles on Ethiopia. If you Google Ethiopian children you will get a list of websites dedicated to the saving and feeding of Ethiopian children. Then you will get 20 pages full of my new Ethiopian child I adopted or how to comb your Ethiopian orphan’s hair? You then google Ethiopian women and you get lots of articles on Ethiopian women being raped in arab countries and committing suicide. Now I know that there is an element of truth to it but it is as if the negative stereotype of Ethiopia and Ethiopians is blown out of proportion. Every body has something to say about Ethiopia but the Ethiopians never have a say why is that? Ethiopian people are generally conservative closed people who do not let foreigners in their circle, so I think the mystery of them makes a lot of people assume things about them. We as Ethiopian people must fight back at their ridicules exaggeration that all Ethiopians were starving at one point in their lives or are all victims of child brides. People just give their opinion on cultural practices without seeing it from an objective view. I don’t condone child brides but most of the people in the countryside have been living that kind of way since biblical times, people cannot expect them to change overnight.


Ethiopia was late to modernize due to centuries of wars on several fronts. Why can’t people allow Ethiopia to modernize in its own time without constant scrutinies from modern countries who watch write countless degrading shameful negative articles? Everybody seems to want to save Ethiopia from all sorts of famine if there happens to be no famine then they create the image of a famine so people could donate to their nonprofit organization. It seems that if there is a positive article written about Ethiopia the NGO and charities rally and dismiss it by bringing a negative article to light. These organizations cannot promote any positive views of Ethiopia as they know that Ethiopia will get tourists and then no longer need no more aid and handouts which the charities are very happy to handle as it means they also get paid large sums of money to. The charities create negative bad stories on Ethiopia to continue to get large donations from unsuspecting donors who think Ethiopia is a pit of hell riddled with disease and poverty and children who want to be adopted.

This couldn’t be far from the truth, Ethiopians are patriotic people who love their country and are working hard to shake off the hunger label attached to their country. Ethiopians are excelling in setting up businesses abroad with the intention of going back to their country to re-build. Ethiopians pay a big attention to their families and fathers play a big role in families. The women are independent and strive for a better life which is why they emigrate to countries study or work for a couple of years and save enough money to set up their own business in Ethiopia.



Instead the media views these women going to Arab countries as helpless women trafficked to work as slaves and prostitutes. It’s very easy to stigmatize women and call them prostitutes, especially if they are black but to call a whole race a prostitute is quite shocking and racist and must be challenged. These women seek their fortune abroad like every other immigrant in history for a better life, most economic migrants have always been men but when they see women economic migrants they assume the worst and call them prostitutes. I am not denying there is no prostitution, prostitution exists in all societies but you cannot call a whole sector of immigrants’ prostitutes.



I think people should challenge stereotypes and views that are written about certain members of the community, as people write such assumptions because those people who it is written about do not have the guts or resources to make a stand against such views. This is why certain people drill it into peoples head that Ethiopia is poor the people are poor a million times, at least we need to give people something new and interesting to read about and challenge this dated stereotype.