Ethiopia

Core values & worldview

If you want to understand an Ethiopian, start with pride, and with the reasons for it. Ethiopians grow up knowing that their country is ancient, that its Christian kingdom is older than most of Europe’s, that it has its own script and calendar, and above all that at Adwa in 1896 it defeated a European army and stayed free while the rest of Africa was carved up.^•

Faith as the frame of life. Religion is not a private hobby for most Ethiopians. Orthodox Christians cross themselves passing a church, wear a cross on a cord (mateb) around the neck, and observe fasts that shape the whole year. Muslims and the fast-growing Protestant (Pentay) churches are just as devout in their own ways. Ethiopian surveys and ethnographers have long noted how central God is to everyday speech: plans are made “if God wills” (Egziabher kale).^•

Respect, hierarchy and restraint. Traditional highland culture places great weight on respect for elders, priests and guests, on polite formal speech, and on not showing anger or need too openly. The sociologist Donald Levine famously described Amhara culture’s love of sem-ena-werq, “wax and gold”, poetry with a plain surface meaning and a hidden deeper one. Many Ethiopians still enjoy indirect speech and double meanings, and outsiders can miss what is really being said.^•

Community and mutual help. Most Ethiopians belong to an iddir, a burial and mutual-aid society that pays for funerals and supports grieving families, and many join an equb, a rotating savings club. These institutions matter more to many people than the state.^•

Who “we” are is contested. For some, especially in the old Christian highland centre, Ethiopia is one ancient nation with a continuous 3,000-year story. For many Oromo, Somali, Sidama and others, the modern state was built by conquest in the 1880s and 1890s, and their own histories were long ignored. Most people hold some mix of both: proud of Ethiopia, and proud of their own people, language and region.^•

Daily life & customs

Coffee comes first. In homes and offices the coffee ceremony, buna, is the great social ritual. A woman of the house (it is still usually a woman) roasts green beans in a pan, passes the fragrant smoke around for guests to admire, grinds them, and brews them in a round-bellied clay pot, the jebena. Three rounds are served, and staying for all three is polite. Buna is when neighbours talk, news spreads and disputes are smoothed over. Ethiopia is the homeland of arabica coffee and Africa’s largest coffee producer.^•

Eating together. Food is shared from one round platter of injera, with stews (wat) ladled on top, eaten with the right hand. Feeding a friend a rolled bite by hand, a gursha, is a gesture of affection. Raw beef (kitfo, tere sega) is a delicacy at celebrations.^•

Fasting and feasting. The Orthodox Church sets fast days on most Wednesdays and Fridays and in long seasons, including the 55 days of Lent before Easter. The devout fast on well over half the days of the year, eating nothing until the afternoon and then no meat, dairy or eggs. That is why Ethiopian restaurants worldwide have such good vegan menus. Then come the feasts: Christmas (Genna) on 7 January, Timkat (Epiphany) on 19 January, Easter (Fasika), and Meskel in late September, with its huge bonfires. Muslims mark Ramadan and the two Eids, both public holidays.^•

The calendar and the clock. The Ethiopian year has twelve months of 30 days and a thirteenth, Pagume, of five or six. New Year (Enkutatash) falls on 11 September (12 September in some years), at the end of the rainy season, and the Ethiopian year number is seven or eight behind the Gregorian one; Ethiopia celebrated its millennium in September 2007. Many people tell time from dawn, so a meeting “at three” may mean 9 a.m. Always check which system someone is using.^•

Town and country. About 130 million people live in Ethiopia, making it Africa’s second most populous country, and most still live in the countryside, farming with ox-ploughs in the highlands or herding in the lowlands. Addis Ababa, the capital and seat of the African Union, is a fast-growing city of cafés, cranes, minibus taxis and a vibrant music scene.^•

Wounds & sensitivities

The Italian occupation. Italy’s invasion of 1935–36 used poison gas on soldiers and civilians, and after an attempt on the viceroy’s life in February 1937, Italian forces and Blackshirts massacred thousands in Addis Ababa over three days; the historian Ian Campbell estimates about 19,000, while other estimates are lower or higher. Monks at the monastery of Debre Libanos were executed. The anniversary, Yekatit 12, is still commemorated, and many Ethiopians feel Italy has never fully reckoned with it.^•

The Red Terror and the famine. People over fifty remember bodies left in the streets of Addis Ababa during the Red Terror of 1977–78, with families sometimes made to pay for the bullets. Estimates of the dead range from tens of thousands to far more. The famine of 1983–85, made worse by war, forced resettlement and the regime’s concealment, killed hundreds of thousands. Many Ethiopians resent that the world’s image of their country was frozen by those famine pictures.^•

The Tigray war. The war of 2020–22 between the federal government (with Eritrean troops and Amhara forces) and Tigray’s ruling party killed huge numbers, with estimates ranging from around a hundred thousand to several hundred thousand, and involved massacres, sexual violence and starvation, documented by UN and Ethiopian investigators. Fighting and violence have also hit the Amhara and Oromia regions. Emotions are raw, people’s experiences differ sharply by community, and many have lost family.^•

Ethnicity. Under the federal system since 1991, ethnic identity became the basis of regional states and politics. Many Ethiopians are tired of it, others see it as hard-won recognition, and ethnic violence has displaced millions. Asking someone “what are you?” in an ethnic sense can feel loaded.^•

Looted heritage. Many treasures taken by the British from Magdala in 1868, including manuscripts and sacred tabots, are still in British collections, and their return is a long-running cause.^•

Modern attitudes

Development and dignity. Many Ethiopians want to be seen as a rising economy, not a charity case. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, largely paid for by Ethiopians at home and abroad through bonds and donations, became a symbol of national self-reliance; it was inaugurated in 2025 and is Africa’s largest hydropower plant. Its dispute with Egypt over Nile water is a matter of national honour on both sides.^•

Politics: hope and disillusion. Abiy Ahmed’s arrival in 2018 brought a burst of optimism, freed prisoners and peace with Eritrea, for which he won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. The wars that followed divided the country. Attitudes to the government vary enormously by region, ethnicity and generation, and many people prefer not to discuss politics openly.^•

Conservative on family and sexuality. Ethiopian society, Christian and Muslim, is largely conservative about family, sex and religion. Same-sex relations are criminalised, and most religious leaders strongly oppose changing that.^•

Young and restless. Most Ethiopians are under 30. Young people in the cities juggle unemployment, high prices, social media, and the pull of migration to the Gulf, Europe or North America, along with deep attachment to family and home.^•

Not all Ethiopians are the same

Oromo. The largest group, about a third of the population, speaking Afaan Oromoo, a Cushitic language written in Latin letters. Oromo are Muslim, Orthodox and Protestant, and many value the traditional Gadaa system of age-grade democracy and the Irreecha thanksgiving festival. Many feel that their language and culture were suppressed under the emperors and the Derg; Oromo nationalism is a powerful force.^•

Amhara. The second-largest group, mostly Orthodox Christian, whose language, Amharic, is the national working language. For many Amhara, Ethiopian and Amhara identity were long intertwined; since 1991 many feel they have been unfairly blamed for the empire and targeted in other regions.^•

Tigrayans. Heirs of Aksum, speaking Tigrinya, and mostly Orthodox. Tigrayans dominated the government from 1991 to 2018, and then suffered terribly in the 2020–22 war. Their relationship with the rest of the country is deeply wounded.^•

Somali, Afar and other lowland peoples. Ethiopian Somalis, mostly Muslim pastoralists, live in the east; their region was the scene of a war with Somalia in 1977–78. The Afar live in the hot Danakil lowlands. Southern Ethiopia is a mosaic of dozens of peoples, Sidama, Wolaita, Gurage, Hadiya and others, each with its own language and traditions.^•

Christians and Muslims. Orthodox Christians (43.5% in 2007), Muslims (33.9%) and Protestants (18.6%) mostly live side by side and attend each other’s weddings and funerals. Protestant growth, especially in the south and west, is a big change in recent decades.^•

Beta Israel and the diaspora. Ethiopia’s ancient Jewish community, the Beta Israel, was airlifted to Israel in 1984–85 and 1991. Millions of other Ethiopians live abroad, especially in the US, the Gulf and Europe; they send money home, and diaspora politics can be more polarised than politics at home.^•

Eritreans are not Ethiopians. Eritrea, once an Italian colony and then part of Ethiopia, became independent in 1993 after a thirty-year war. Eritreans and Tigrayans share a language and much culture, but Eritrea is a separate country with its own story, and assuming otherwise can offend.^•

Meeting someone

Conversation starters

• Coffee and food. Ask about the coffee ceremony, their favourite dish, or where to get the best kitfo. Accept the coffee if offered.
• Running. Ethiopia’s Olympic distance runners, from Abebe Bikila to today’s champions, are a safe source of shared pride.^•
  • Ethiopia — Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Music. Teddy Afro, Mahmoud Ahmed, Mulatu Astatke or the Éthiopiques records will often bring a smile.
• History and heritage. Lalibela, Aksum and Adwa are usually welcome topics; let them tell you how they see them.^•
  • Rock-Hewn Churches, Lalibela (World Heritage List) — UNESCO World Heritage Centre (1978)
  • The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire — Raymond Jonas, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2011)
• Holidays. Ask how they celebrate Timkat, Meskel, Genna, Fasika or Eid, and wish them well on Enkutatash in September.

Topics to approach carefully

• Ethnicity and current politics. Don’t ask someone’s ethnicity in the first conversation or assume it from their name or looks. Let them lead on Abiy, the TPLF or regional conflicts.^•
  • Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia — Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (1995)
  • Report of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia — UN Human Rights Council (2022)
• The Tigray war. People from Tigray, Amhara, Afar and elsewhere may have very different and very painful experiences. Listen rather than adjudicate.^•
  • Report of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia — UN Human Rights Council (2022)
  • "We Will Erase You From This Land": Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing in Ethiopia's Western Tigray Zone — Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International (2022)
• Menelik and the empire. He is a national hero to many and a conqueror to others. Don’t assume which view you’ll hear.^•
  • The Oromo of Ethiopia: A History, 1570–1860 — Mohammed Hassen, Cambridge University Press (1990)
  • The Battle of Adwa: African Victory in the Age of Empire — Raymond Jonas, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2011)
• Famine. Leading with “Live Aid” or starving children is tired and hurtful; it reduces a great civilisation to its worst years.^•
  • Evil Days: Thirty Years of War and Famine in Ethiopia — Alex de Waal (Africa Watch), Human Rights Watch (1991)
• Eritrea. Ethiopia and Eritrea share families and a bitter history; tread gently.^•
  • The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa — Gebru Tareke, Yale University Press (2009)

Common misconceptions

• “Ethiopia was colonised like the rest of Africa.” It was not; Italy’s 1936–41 occupation was resisted throughout and ended after five years.^•
  • A History of Modern Ethiopia, 1855–1991 — Bahru Zewde, James Currey (2001)
  • The Addis Ababa Massacre: Italy's National Shame — Ian Campbell, Hurst (2017)
• “Ethiopia is a desert.” Much of it is green highland, over 2,000 metres up, with heavy summer rains; the Blue Nile rises here.^•
  • Ethiopia — Encyclopaedia Britannica
• “Ethiopia is all Christian” or “all Muslim”. It has large communities of both, and a growing Protestant church.^•
  • Summary and Statistical Report of the 2007 Population and Housing Census — Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Population Census Commission (2008)
• “Ethiopians are Arabs.” Ethiopians are Africans; Amharic and Tigrinya are Semitic languages, related to Arabic and Hebrew, but Ethiopia’s peoples have their own long histories, and many speak Cushitic, Omotic or Nilo-Saharan languages.^•
  • Greater Ethiopia: The Evolution of a Multiethnic Society — Donald N. Levine, University of Chicago Press (1974)
  • Foundations of an African Civilisation: Aksum and the Northern Horn, 1000 BC – AD 1300 — David W. Phillipson, James Currey (2012)
• “Haile Selassie is worshipped in Ethiopia.” Rastafari venerate him; most Ethiopians do not, and views of him at home are mixed.^•
  • Exodus! Heirs and Pioneers, Rastafari Return to Ethiopia — Giulia Bonacci, University of the West Indies Press (2015)
  • Haile Selassie I — Encyclopaedia Britannica