Written by: Telile Fikru Badecha on May 9, 2014

The title of this week’s reading “Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human  Societies” really drew my interest to the author’s theory of the history and prehistory of human development. Jared Diamond compellingly writes about the development of human societies for the last thirteen thousand years.He points out that all human beings were hunter-gatherers in the beginning. Speaking of the development of human beings he inserts, “Our closest living relatives are three surviving species of great ape: the gorilla, the common chimpanzee, and the pygmy chimpanzee (also known as bonobo)”(p. 36). This is interesting, and the author might have backup for his argument, but from biblical point of view his argument is  not supported.

He attempts to provide explanations for the historical causation of how the societies got where they are at now. According to Diamond, there are four factors that contributed to human development. First, the wild plant and animal species available as starting materials for domestication. This was very critical for the “buildup of large populations enjoying a military advantage through mere numbers even before they had developed any technological or political advantage”(p. 390). Second, “the rates of diffusion and migration” is differed greatly among continents (p. 391). Third, the spread of knowledge between contents varies because some continents are isolated than others, fourth, population size, which means more potential inventors and more innovations available to adopt”(p.391).These are not the only things that contributed to human development. As Diamond argues, “The history of interactions among disparate peoples is what shaped the modern world through conquest, epidemics, and genocide” (p.16) For instance in my people’s case, the literate societies such as Britain and France in the late18^th centuries gave guns to the Ethiopian King Menelik II who exterminated the Oromo societies from their land and made them peasants in their own country. This was done to create the country now called Ethiopia but done so with guns and by forcefully converting the people to Christianity. The idea of creating a new Ethiopia resulted in destroying our culture,  a centuries old social system called Gadaa.

Sadly, Oromos continued to be suffering under the tyranny of Ethiopia through to the present generations. Beginning two weeks ago, we have been mourning as a nation over the tragic killing of Oromo students and others in the homeland. There have been a huge protests and demonstrations in the Oromia region of Ethiopia, mainly university students joined by others, all protesting the new plan to expand the city of Addis Abba to the surrounding Oromo cities. The proposal will displace the Oromo farmers in the area surrounding the city, erase significant landmarks, and dismantle the rich Oromo culture and identity. Above all, extending Addis Ababa into the Oromia region that surrounds it will result in further blows to the region and its people who have already been marginalized for centuries. Sadly, the authority’s response to the Oromo students’ peaceful protest has been killing and clashing very violently. For this reason,  it is not hard to make my own commentary “Why did wealth and power become distributed [in my country] as they now are, rather than in some other way? (p. 15). But I still wonder why just the Oromos? When is this subjugation going to end? The issues of inequality in my society reminds me that although we say we live in an interconnected global society, the reality is that in the developing countries like mine we still need to deal with our own issues. When it comes to the issues of human rights in poor countries like mine, powerful countries like the USA and its media give very little or no attention to what is happing in Ethiopia, although they give many dollars in aid to support our country’s autocratic leadership. Perhaps I need to see the bigger picture to know what is behind the dollars given in aid. But what is the Christian communities’ responsibility to say no to injustice? How do we respond not just to what happened in the past but to what happening now? Where do the fates of our societies lie? We trust in God. Only God can free us.

About the Author

Telile Fikru Badecha