Ethiopian Governments, Unlike TPLF, Consulted Their People? Sure.

Some of Ethiopia’s elite, who have been making bogus claims about Port of Assab on the basis of history and nature, are trying a new one: legitimacy. Eritrea became independent while TPLF was in charge but TPLF never consulted Ethiopians; therefore, its recognition of Eritrea (and therefore Ethiopia’s landlocked-ness) is invalid. You can see their point because Ethiopia was always a democratic republic.

MENELIK II: Historians well recall the time, in 1907, when Ethiopian Emperor Menelik held townhall meetings throughout Ethiopia to consult Ethiopians about a land-for-guns swap deal he had in mind. By ceding Kunama lands, Bogos, and Hamassien, Ethiopia (or Emperor Menelik) would get 30,000 modern Remington rifles, 28 of the latest cannons and 5,000,000 Italian lire in cash, to protect Greater Ethiopia (and, more importantly, to neutralize any upstart Tigray threats to his new throne.) The emperor celebrated the deal: it was money for nothing, “The territories north of the Mereb-Melash [Eritrea] do not belong to Abyssinia nor are under my rule.” I never had them, never wanted them: and I am getting paid for them. Women ululated, horses nickered.

HAILESELASSIE I: But the most flamboyant display of People Power had to have been the Cabinet of Emperor Haile Selasse and its gripping Royal Prerogative Debate to see who would observe the highest protocols in slavishly agreeing with the God-ordained king. At His majesty’s Imperial Open Audience, and Menbere Bet Sessions, one Ethiopian farmer after another beseeched for the Absorption of the Mereb Melash people back to their Mother. The Land of the True Cross, Our Ancient and Sovereign Empire needs sea access, said the large (non-existent) merchant class. The emperor had to land-grab Eritrea because the people demanded it.

MENGISTU: But nobody could top the formidability of Mengistu Hailemariam’s arguments among his Shengo (parliament made up 100% of his own CPE party), as he calmly explained that anyone who disagreed with his plan of launching one failed offensive after another to hold on to Eritrea will be summarily executed. Ethiopia First. He killed all his able generals helping EPLF and TPLF win the war against him.

Now there was a democratic republic country at work.

MELES Zenawi: You already know about Meles’ 1991 move when he didn’t do what nobody else had done before: consult the people. On ports, he believed they were a commodity: renting from many is better than relying on one. But now, he said, I gotta focus on the famine (1991-1992) and trying Derg officers.

What’s more interesting is what he did in 2001 during the EEBC hearing at The Hague when he tried to save Ethiopia from the blunders of Menelik and use the most creative arguments he could to shorten the “60-kilometer from the sea shore” language of Menelik’s treaty for rifles by asking, “yeah, but which seashore: the receding one or advancing one? Can we use a “coastal construct” so the Eastern border can be 40 kilometers from the seashore instead of 60?”

Unfortunately for him, Menelik II had so screwed Ethiopia with binding legal documents that he lost in court. The border remains 60 kilometer from the sea But when it came to owning parts of Eritrea, he fought more for Ethiopia’s cause than Menelik.

That’s what history shows. But history is boring and myths and fables are more appealing to Ethiopians including (or should I say specially) the Ethiopian elite.