Soil erosion decreases soil fertility of the uplands and causes siltation of lakes and reservoirs; the lakes and reservoirs in tropical monsoonal African highlands are especially affected by sedimentation. Efforts in reducing loads by designing management practices are hampered by lack of quantitative data on the relationship of erosion in the watersheds and sediment accumulation on flood plains, lakes and reservoirs. The objective of this study is to develop a prototype quantitative method for estimating sediment budget for tropical monsoon lakes with limited observational data. Four watersheds in the Lake Tana basin were selected for this study. The Parameter Efficient Distributed (PED) model that has shown to perform well in the Ethiopian highlands is used to overcome the data limitations and recreate the missing sediment fluxes. PED model parameters are calibrated using daily discharge data and the occasionally collected sediment concentration when establishing the sediment rating curves for the major rivers. The calibrated model parameters are then used to predict the sediment budget for the 1994–2009 period. Sediment retained in the lake is determined from two bathymetric surveys taken 20 years apart whereas the sediment leaving the lake is calculated based on measured discharge and observed sediment concentrations. Results show that annually on average 34 t/ha/year of sediment is removed from the gauged part of the Lake Tana watersheds. Depending on the up-scaling method from the gauged to the ungauged part, 21 to 32 t/ha/year (equivalent to 24–38 Mt/year) is transported from the upland watersheds of which 46% to 65% is retained in the flood plains and 93% to 96% is trapped on the flood plains and in the lake. Thus, only 4–7% of all sediment produced in the watersheds leaves the Lake Tana Basin.
The Natal multimammate mouse, Mastomys natalensis, occurs throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Mitochondrial phylogenetics indicate this species was fragmented during the Pleistocene, forming six matrilineage phylogroups: A-I, A-II, A-III, B-IV, B-V, B-VI with distinct ranges. All except the A-III lineage are identified as natural reservoirs of mammarenaviruses. M. natalensis A-III is found in western Ethiopia and is the only lineage reported in the country. While screening 203 small mammal samples from Dhati Welel National Park for mammarenaviruses, we detected mammarenavirus RNA in nine samples, eight from M. natalensis and one from M. awashensis. A sequence similarity search and phylogenetic analysis confirmed the M. natalensis mitochondrial DNA belongs to the A-III lineage. We characterised the complete virus genome, which showed typical mammarenavirus organisation. Phylogenetic analysis indicated it clusters with Gairo virus found in M. natalensis B-IV in Tanzania, while showing sufficient divergence from other mammarenaviruses to be considered as a new species, for which we proposed the name Dhati Welel. Additional sampling in the M. natalensis A-III phylogeographic range should help determine whether the detection of the virus in M. awashensis represents a local spill-over or if the virus circulates in both Mastomys species.
The Oromo nationalism becomes one of the most sensitive issues within Ethiopian studies or those groups of social scientists dealing with socio-political development of contemporary Ethiopia. On one hand, especially Oromo authors from the diaspora are very active in redefining and reinventing of Ethiopia’s history, on the other hand, mainly Western social scientist tend to analyze Ethiopia’s “ethnic problem” in broader perspectives. The aim of this study is to present some arguments which modify perceptions on the Oromio nationalism as a homogeneous movement heading to independent Oromia. According to my own fieldwork and by studying contemporary scholarly works I came to a conclusion that there are many strategies within Ethiopia which the Oromo people use in order to co-exist with other ethnic groups in Ethiopia and that the will to secede is rather minor phenomenon. Reasons can be found in a complex nature of the Oromo society where many other variables besides ethnicity come into discussion with religion being probably the most important one. That is why I have used examples from both Muslim Oromos as well as Christian Oromos to support my arguments.
The Oromo nationalism becomes one of the most sensitive issues within Ethiopian studies or those groups of social scientists dealing with socio-political development of contemporary Ethiopia. On one hand, especially Oromo authors from the diaspora are very active in redefining and reinventing of Ethiopia’s history, on the other hand, mainly Western social scientist tend to analyze Ethiopia’s “ethnic problem” in broader perspectives. The aim of this study is to present some arguments which modify perceptions on the Oromio nationalism as a homogeneous movement heading to independent Oromia. According to my own fieldwork and by studying contemporary scholarly works I came to a conclusion that there are many strategies within Ethiopia which the Oromo people use in order to co-exist with other ethnic groups in Ethiopia and that the will to secede is rather minor phenomenon. Reasons can be found in a complex nature of the Oromo society where many other variables besides ethnicity come into discussion with religion being probably the most important one. That is why I have used examples from both Muslim Oromos as well as Christian Oromos to support my arguments.
Drawing on a wide range of sources, including informant testimonies, government and diplomatic archives and contemporary published account, the present article seeks to investigate the Ethiopian experience in international food exchange in the first half of the 20th century. Specifically, it sheds light on the primary causes of the internationalization of the country´s food market and the impact this has had on the important question of access to the valued agricultural resources at production sites. Its findings reveal how first the absence and then the slow growth of the food market within the country´s boundaries - most notably in the capital Addis Ababa - contributed to the globalization of the country´s food trade in the half century after its expansion in 1907. The paper demonstrates that the country´s experience in transnational food exchange was unprecedented and its growth and transformation was embedded in politics rather than the economics of supply and demand alone.