My colleague and HDP candidate, Mesfin, likes to talk a lot about any aspect of Ethiopian culture. Amongst many subjects, we have talked about religion here in Ethiopia. There are three main religious groups here: Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, Protestant Christians and Muslims. Reliable figures are hard to find but most estimates put Christians at around 55% and Muslims at around 45% of the population. One of the most impressive features of Ethiopian society is that the three groups live pretty much intermingled with no real religious tensions. The Ethiopian Orthodox church has a very long history, was founded in the north of the country in 4 A.D. and contains many customs and features of Judaism, which is thought to be due to the north being Judaic before it was converted. Church services are held in a language called Ge’ez, which was the forerunner of Amharic. Today Ge’ez is the liturgical language of the Orthodox Church, which means that most worshippers at an Orthodox service cannot understand a word being said by the priest (just like Catholic services used to be in Latin). Non-Orthodox Christian churches here are all referred to as Protestant, and as far as I can see they are all very like the modern evangelical “happy-clappy” churches at home. The most striking thing about the Protestant churches is the loudspeaker systems they use to broadcast their preachers’ sermons. At home noise abatement orders would be flying thick and fast, but here the Ethiopian easy-going tolerant attitude seems to prevail. Protestantism is very much on the increase, which is partly due to disenchantment amongst young people with the very traditional approach of the Orthodox Church, and probably also due to any reservations they might have about defecting being battered into submission by the sheer number of decibels generated by a typical Protestant Church loudspeaker system.

There seem to be quite a lot of Ferenji missionaries here. When I last flew back from the UK, out of a total passenger load of approx fifteen there were a group of six Ferenji (Brits and Americans) missionaries. Their conversations were a dead giveaway along with their bibles, which they spent most of the flight either reading or discussing. My in-flight reading material (The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy) was embarrassingly light by comparison. I respect the religious views of others (well, up to a point) but I do feel quite cynical about white missionaries coming to Ethiopia to convert people who often have much bigger issues to worry about. To me there’s something almost sinister and arrogant about spending your time and energy trying to change the religious beliefs of others, instead of primarily seeking to change certain views because they are demonstrably harmful (e.g. Female Genital Mutilation and the low status of women). I know there are many people who come here whose motivation is religious and who also try and contribute in practical ways to helping people improve their lives, but I feel quite contemptuous of missionaries whose primary (or only) goal is to convert. Ethiopia has many difficulties to deal with and Ferenji missionaries seem to me to be the last thing this amazing country needs.