In his first year as prime minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed was showered with accolades. He was hailed as Ethiopia’s Barack Obama and, like the former American president, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Like with Obama, that recognition proved to not just be premature, but also unjustified. In 2019, just around a year after coming into office, Abiy, as he’s known, would preside over a civil war — a deadly conflict known as the Tigray War that would take an unknown number of lives. Some estimates say upwards of 600,000 were killed in the two-year war involving the Ethiopian military, various ethnic nationalist militias, and the military of neighboring Eritrea teaming up against the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) — the dominant force in Ethiopia’s ancien régime.
Like the war’s death toll, Abiy too is shrouded in mystery. He’s an enigmatic figure. For many in Ethiopia’s divided society, he’s an Oromo (read “separatist”) nationalist. Others see him as the latest avatar of oppressive, homogenizing, centralizing rulers.
Tom Gardner, the East Africa correspondent for The Economist, in his new biography of Abiy, describes the Ethiopian leader as a “Pentacostal Putin” — a regime insider with a messianic sense of self colored by his Pentacostal faith and a drive to be the man who will make Ethiopia great again. Gardner’s book is an essential guide to the leader of a pivot state in one of the world’s most strategic regions.
Gardner and I discuss Abiy and his lively book in the latest edition of The Pivot podcast. The conversation is wide-ranging and covers Abiy’s childhood, the role of religion in his life, his rise through the Ethiopian system, his transition from revered to reviled, and his relationship with great and regional powers, including China, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates.
Listen to this episode of The Pivot on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Audacy, Castbox, iHeart Radio, Overcast, Pandora, Pocket Casts, Spotify, TuneIn Radio, or YouTube Music.
Those interested in the geopolitics of the Horn of Africa may also want to listen to my conversation earlier this year on the Ethiopia-Somaliland maritime agreement with Prof. Michael Woldemariam of the University of Maryland:
Episode Description
The Economist magazine East Africa correspondent Tom Gardner discusses with host Arif Rafiq the enigma that is Ethiopia’s prime minister Abiy Ahmed, who would preside over a civil war roughly a year after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Guest Bio
Tom Gardner is an Africa correspondent for The Economist, based in Nairobi. He has covered the region for the best part of a decade, much of it based in Addis Ababa before and during the 2020-22 Tigray war. His reporting and analysis on Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa have been published in a number of other publications, including The Guardian, Foreign Policy, and The Atlantic. His first book, “The Abiy Project: God, Power and War in the New Ethiopia,” was published in 2024. The U.S. edition, available later this year, can be pre-ordered now.
Arif Rafiq is the editor of Globely News. Rafiq has contributed commentary and analysis on global issues for publications such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the New Republic, the New York Times, and POLITICO Magazine.
He has appeared on numerous broadcast outlets, including Al Jazeera English, the BBC World Service, CNN International, and National Public Radio.
Source link : https://globelynews.com/africa/meet-abiy-ahmed-ethiopia-pentecostal-putin/
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Publish date : 2024-07-15 18:49:40
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