SEPAG - Southern Ethiopian People's Action Group

Today

The Derg was eventually brought down in 1991 by a coalition organisation of regional-ethnic party organisations called the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), although the real power behind this movement was the Tigrayan People's Liberation front (TPLF), led by the
current prime-minister Meles Zenawi.

The EPRDF was ostensibly committed to creating a federal system, in which all the ethnic groups in the country would be given a voice. Tight control, however, was maintained over dissenting voices. In the election of 1995, for example, the regime banned regional-ethnic parties which were not part of the
EPRDF coalition.

The Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples State was created to encompass the ethnic diversity of the south west. The most scrupulous of governments would have found it difficult to create a fair administrative system in the area and southerners themselves have been only too ready to
jostle for advantage As the name suggests the resulting state is something of a ragbag and, with the eyes of the government elsewhere (the Eritrean border!) and foreign NGOs largely concerned with the drought-prone north, the area has returned to a state of stagnation and even decline. The area
faces a number problems, including –

• Underdevelopment
• Overpopulation
• Environmental degradation

Gathering Wood
© Beatrice Watson

Underdevelopment. Ethiopia is a poor country and health, education and infrastructure resources are thinly stretched. Nevertheless, the inequality of distribution in the south is evident to a casual visitor – roads are poorer, electricity more intermittent, schools and hospitals more scattered. From the
nineteenth century the region was viewed as a backward area which could be ignored and this attitude continues today. Fewer students from the area enter higher education than from the centre or north of the country and there are correspondingly fewer southern voices to argue their case, either at a national level or among the international community.

Overpopulation. The population of Ethiopia as a whole is booming. Between 1967 and 1984 the highest annual growth rates were in Kaffa, Sidamo, and Shewa, ranging from 4.2 percent for Kaffa to 3.5 percent for Sidamo and Shewa. Kaffa and Sidamo are in the south. Such an increase was not entirely natural – the growth corresponds with the Derg's policy of shifting population groups from the north to the south. Migration into the area continues to be encouraged by the central government. The growth in population in a neglected area means that scarce resources are stretched even further. It also leads to the next, perhaps most urgent problem – environmental degradation.

Environmental degradation. Natural population growth in south puts considerable pressure on the forests – pastures are cleared, wooden taken for fires and so on. But there has a widespread belief among all twentieth century governments that the south is natural breadbasket which, made accessible, would solve Ethiopia's food problems – and have enough left over to make a profit. Coffee, after all, originates in the area and is the country's largest export earner. Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth. The government continues to encourage both peasant small-farmers and agribusiness exploitation, with the result that the land is slowly turning into a desert like much of the rest of the country. Large numbers of poor northern peasants also add another complicating factor to the sometimes tense relations between indigenous ethnic and caste groups. The issue of continuing villagisation will be discussed in the next section.

Last updated 29/01/06 by Graeme Watson