Abiy Ahmed Takes His Case To Permanent Court of Souped-Up History

To try to explain how far back Ethiopia’s sense of ownership about the Red Sea goes to, this Eritrean Digest article had said it goes back to the D’MT Kingdom (10th century BCE to the 5th century BCE), a maritime power which controlled the Red Sea.

I was off by a millennia or two.

“Because everybody knows of Aksumite domination of the Red Sea,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed explained, with an Apple laptop, and a PowerPoint presentation, to his audience at the Prosperity Party, eager to play pupil with pen on pad. “Let’s go back to era of the Land of Punt.”

The Land of Punt? That’s between 3rd millennium BCE to 10th century BCE.

“Wait, Land of Punt is Ethiopia’s?” you are asking. History buffs among you might say “The capital city of Land of Punt was Adulis, Eritrea; and the capital city of D’mt was Yeha, Tigray. One is an independent State north of Ethiopia, and the other is a region in Northern Ethiopia, being pushed to strive for independence.”

It turns out, as Abiy explained, “it has always been Ethiopia. It may be Ethiopia plus the West, Ethiopia plus the Northeast, Ethiopia plus the East,” he explained as the PowerPoint flashed images of ancient kingdoms.  It turns out all previous civilizations of the Horn of Africa are Ethiopia+, a bullshit streaming service.  Images accompanied by the logic of “If part of Ethiopia was part of the kingdom, then that kingdom is all Ethiopia’s now” were on the big screen, as the assembled delegates took notes. That is called መደመር። To expand the present you must expand the past.

Alas for Abiy and his sovereign sea ambitions, there is no Permanent Court of History. Just of justice and law. And its custodian? Just the UN , which holds a map of Eritrea’s common border with Ethiopia. Actually 45 maps (at 1:25,000 scale) and a detailed annex listing 146 boundary points (BPs) with UTM grid and geographical coordinates. Precise to a meter. All now part and parcel of international law.

The maps were issued on November 27, 2009, four years after EEBC gave up on physical demarcation (due to Ethiopian non compliance.) Ethiopia then protested: there is no such thing as “virtual demarcation”, and the EEBC said “oh yes there is. How do you think UNCLOS demarcates Seas?”

Ethiopia is not a prisoner of geography. But it is a prisoner of some souped up history. And until the fever breaks, I think the lecture will be in session, as Ethiopia talks to itself.