September 19th, 2012 
Emily 
Less than two weeks before our trip to Ethiopia, the Ethiopian Prime Minister died.
It’s hard to overstate what a big deal this was in Ethiopia.
That’s because Prime Minister Meles Zenawi had been a dictator for 21 years. As a result, the mourning period and funeral were a HUGE deal in the capital of Addis Ababa. (Obviously, even when a dictator dies, it’s important to show your support for him. You don’t want his political party to think you’re a critic.)
Needless to say, our trip to Ethiopia was thoroughly affected by his death.
Our hotel was located near a public square where mourners gathered to listen to speeches glorifying Meles’ reign. That meant that the roads were blocked off and we had to walk to our hotel. It wasn’t a big deal, although crowds make me nervous. Especially crowds that are memorializing a dead dictator in a country with a new power vacuum.
People mourning in the square by our hotel.
Because the police were monitoring the public squares, it meant that they weren’t monitoring the mercado (market), which is one of the largest in Africa. It wasn’t safe for us to walk through the market, so we drove through it instead. Again, no big deal. Apparently, the market isn’t very safe even when the police are present. Plus, my husband did not need to do any more souvenir shopping, as his extra suitcase was already full of Ethiopian treasures.
A quick glimpse of the mercado.
On Sunday, the day of the funeral, almost every business was shut down. It took us a while to find a restaurant that was open for lunch, and then we were the only people in it. The same thing happened at dinner. We might not have been able to do any people-watching over our meal, but the service was excellent.
Delicious dinner.
We felt Meles Zenawi’s presence everywhere. Nearly every restaurant, museum, and hotel we went into had a tribute on display. Ethiopians lined up to sign the memorial books in each establishment. Every t.v. we encountered was turned on and broadcasting his funeral. Somehow Meles even snuck into half of our pictures.
There he is at the National Museum.
In our hotel.
On the Jumbo-tron.
Can you see the reflection of his photograph on the bottom of the screen?
The mourning period and funeral certainly affected our trip, but I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing. I felt like I learned more about Ethiopia by being in the country during such a critical time.
Now we’ll just have to wait and see what happens next.
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I don’t know much about his reputation as a dictator. Was he truly liked? I especially like your photo of the crowds mourning the dictator. It made me ponder the things in America that attract crowds like that… NFL football, rock concerts, 911 memorials, the shootings at Virginia Tech…
The impression I get is that he was potentially liked by many Ethiopians in Ethiopia, but Ethiopians in the diaspora were not always fans. Then again, with dictators, you never know if they were truly liked or just feared, right?
Hopefully things will move forward in a positive way for Ethiopia – it seems to be a country on the rise in Africa, so I’m hoping that it won’t sink into corruption and violence. It’s a place I’d love to go to. Although I must admit, I wasn’t aware that the country was ruled by a dictator for the past 21 years – and I’d heard nothing of his death until reading your post. Need to stay better informed of current affairs!
Yeah, hopefully things go well in Ethiopia. I know Americans who have lived there for several years and they were a bit worried because the Patriarch (the leader of the Ethiopian Orthodox church) died around the same time. I think it would be like if the Queen and the British Prime Minister both had been ruling for a long time and then died in the same week. People were worried about the power vacuum, but so far it seems like everything has been going smoothly.
For the past 21 years the people of Ethiopia have lived in a morbid fear of the brutal dictatorial regime that kills political dissidents, journalists and students. Dictator Meles Zenawi died on July 12, 2002, but his death was kept a secret from the Ethiopian public for 2 whole months until succession plans and funeral arrangements were made. Ethiopia is Africa’s North Korea, where there is one security agent for every 20 citizens, spying their daily activities, eavesdropping their phone conversations, including reading their emails. SKYPE is criminalized in Ethiopia, punishable with up to 15 years prison time.
The people in power hail from a tiny minority ethnic group that makes up mere 3% of the total 84 million Ethiopian population. They have a total monopoly over the economy, the army, security, media, telecommunications, internet, etc. The regime receives to a tune of $3 billion dollars a year in aid from the US and the UK, but most of the money is deposited in off-shore bank accounts while the Ethiopian people starve to death.
Last year, the late dictator’s wife spent $1.2 million dollars at a clothing store in Spain. This is the woman who appears on National TV and says that she’s “the poorest first lady in the world.” Her late dictator husband had also stashed half a billion dollars at a US bank account under one of his loyal diplomats’ name, and then the diplomat’s wife filed for a divorce in a US court and was awarded half of the money.
Ethiopia is ruled by very cruel people who are committing genocide and ethnic cleansing in the Southern regions of the country. Two Swedish journalists who entered the country to report about the on-going genocide were arrested and charged with “terrorism.”
The people of Ethiopia are living in constant fear of death, torture and imprisonment. They were forced to mourn the death of the dictator just like the North Koreans were forced to take part in the theatrical public mourning of the death of the dictator.
I really appreciate you sharing your insight on the challenges facing Ethiopians. Hopefully, the future brings growth, peace, and equity to Ethiopia.
Glad I found your blog via your guest post at “20 something Travel” blog. This is a very creative post. Thanks for sharing your experience and embracing it to appreciate your time in a country that is undergoing such a big transition.
Thank you for stopping by. It was a really interesting time to be in Ethiopia, I’m glad we went.
Sounds terrifying to me! Glad you guys remained safe.
Thanks so much for linking up with the TALU!
Thanks for telling us about the TALU! Glad I could join in.
Wow, this is the first I’m hearing about this too. I’ll have to do a little digging to see how things are going there now. It really makes you wonder about our news outlets here in the states. I have often found that I learn more from watching the news on BBC than on our local channels here at home! I find that somewhat disturbing. So glad you didn’t encounter any problems on your trip as a result. (Stopping in via the #TALU).
Yeah, we’re lucky to get less American-centric news in Kenya. It’s good to know what else is going on in the rest of the world! Thanks for stopping by!
Wow – this is so fascinating. It makes me so thankful I live in a free country. Thanks for linking up and sharing this interesting post on TALU.
It was a really interesting time to be in Ethiopia. To be honest, I didn’t know much about what was going on. My husband keeps up with world news and he had to update me.
Wow, that’s interesting. It’s so amazing to see how countries do things so differently in different situations. I’m gonna hunt around your site and see what else is going on. Fascinating. TALU
[...] When we decided to visit Ethiopia, my husband insisted that we go to Lalibela. [...]