New millennium in Ethiopia
13-month calendar finally flips to year 2000 and, amid celebrations, PM
foresees `glorious new page'
Katie Nguyen
Barry Malone
13 Sep 2007 ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) –Seven years after the rest of the world, Ethiopia entered
the 21st century yesterday with parties, prayers and gestures of political reconciliation.
Tens of thousands of revellers packed Addis Ababa's main square for festivities overnight that
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said should mark the vast Horn of Africa nation's renaissance.
Ethiopia follows a calendar, long abandoned by the West, that squeezes 13 months into every
year.
Meles said the occasion heralded a "glorious new page" in the history of a country that, from the
1980s, became internationally synonymous with hunger and conflict.
"A thousand years from now, when Ethiopians gather to welcome the fourth millennium, they
shall say the eve of the third millennium was the beginning of the end of the dark ages in
Ethiopia," he said.
"They shall say that the eve of the third millennium was the beginning of the Ethiopian
renaissance."
Whistles, car horns and sirens shook the air at midnight.
At dawn, worshippers wrapped in traditional white robes flocked to church, crossing paths with
partygoers returning from a once-in-a-lifetime celebration.
"I've come for God's blessing," said Michele Fantaye, smearing ash on his forehead. "I hope the
next 1,000 years will deliver peace and unity."
Banging drums, Orthodox Christian priests sang of the importance of the occasion in Ethiopia's
ancient Ge'ez language in churches choked with incense.
As home to the 3-million-year-old "Lucy" skeleton, Ethiopia and its 81 million people claim to live
in the cradle of humanity, the birthplace of coffee and the only African nation not to be colonized.
But "the darkness of poverty and backwardness" had dimmed Ethiopia's proud reputation, Meles
said. "We cannot but feel deeply insulted that at the dawn of the new millennium ours is one of
the poorest countries in the world," he said.
He was speaking at a new exhibition hall where U.S. hip-hop act Black Eyed Peas performed for
dignitaries and the capital's elite.
Many stayed away from the official event, regarded by critics as a government project. They
preferred to party for free in sports fields rather than pay $170 – two months' wage for many –
to rub shoulders with the wealthy.
Some in Addis Ababa, an opposition stronghold, were angry at the government's campaign to
clear the streets of thousands of beggars, and at the spiralling cost of food for the millennium.
"I don't think much will change," said resident Belai Kassa. "Most of us will stay poor."
Most Ethiopians spent a rainy New Year's Day with their families. Sweeping away ashes of
bonfires lit the night before, many held a day's fasting to be broken today by a meal of njera,
spongy Ethiopian bread, and roasted goat.
A host of millennium events were delayed or dropped because of security concerns in Ethiopia
which is embroiled in Somalia's conflict, locked in a bitter border row with Eritrea, and fighting
separatist rebels in its Ogaden region.
Criticized internationally for an opposition crackdown after disputed 2005 elections, the
government released nearly 18,000 prisoners this week. There were 230 political prisoners,
including 35 Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) rebels. Source
Ethiopian Millennium