The tourist travelling to Ethiopia is unlikely to be wholly unaware of the country's recent history or blind to its poverty and the signposts to many years of international aid; the white UN landcruisers; the market place pots and pans manufactured from USAID food tins; the NGO offices in every town. She may, on the other hand, initially bowled over by ancient marvels, quite easily avoid a close view of real hardship and see modernity, growth and increasing wealth exemplified in the great ribbons of new, Chinese built, highway; the bridge construction and the multi-storeyed housing blocks consuming slum areas in old Addis Ababa. A picture supported on the surface at least by a level of equanimity and optimism amongst people who remember when things were a lot worse.
Anyone wishing to understand contemporary Ethiopia better, over and above the staggering beauty of the countryside, its people, wildlife and unique monuments, picking up the country's recent history from the pictures of the 1980s famine still so imprinted on the minds of those old enough to remember, should read Peter Gill’s new book, ‘Famine and Foreigners, Ethiopia since Live Aid' (Oxford University Press).
Gill was the first TV journalist to reach the worst areas of hunger in the 1984 famine and one of those, besides Jonathan Dimbleby, whose television reports changed the whole story of aid and made us all aware of the politically charged imbalances between rich northern givers and poor southern receivers.
His new book is based on in depth research during 2008 and 2009, revisiting the famine affected areas of the eighties; interviewing people ranging from the Prime Minister, opposition leaders, diplomats, international advisers and commentators, to poor farmers, local health workers and, especially, women.
Ethiopia has embarked, more recently than us according to its Julian calendar, on the journey of the 3rd Millenium. For the traveller or the armchair observer wishing to bring the long history of the country up to date beyond its ancient stones, imperial past and the Band Aid legacy, this book provides the essential view; portraying Ethiopia's complicated politics, the lives of its poorest people, the ongoing issues and complications of international aid and the ever present spectre of famine lurking in the wings.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/
