By Australian journalist Philip Luker

The countries most affected by AIDS are all in Africa and these two men I photographed in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, are performing a play sponsored by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) aimed at counteracting discrimination against AIDS victims.

On this trip I visited MSF missions across Africa and wrote 100 articles about them for Australian newspapers. Of Ethiopia’s 109 million people, 3.3 per cent have AIDS, nothing like the small African kingdom of Swaziland (29 per cent of adults).

Ethiopians have a different look

Ethiopia is unique and Ethiopians have a different look.

Their genes are a mixture of sub-Saharan African, Berber, Jewish, Arabic and Mesopotamian (modern-day Iraq). Ethiopia lies between North and Southern Africa.

Its neighbours are Kenya, Sudan and Somalia.

Visit by the Queen of Sheba

In the 11th Century Before Common Era, its legendary, mythical ruler, the Queen of Sheba, went to visit King Solomon in what is now Israel.

King Solomon successfully answered her riddles and she showered him with gifts.

They must have hit it off because after the Queen returned to Sheba, she had a son from Solomon, Menelik 1, who continued her dynasty.

Motley collection of Ethiopian rulers

In modern times, Ethiopia, which used to be called Abyssinia, has had a motley jumble of rulers.

Haile Selassie, a descendant of Menelik 1, was its progressive, reformist ruler from 1916 to 1974 apart from the five years after the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s army conquered it and Selassie fled to Bath in England.

Selassie regained control after Italian partisans shot Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci and hung their bodies in a picturesque Italian village as World War 11 ended

Selassie tried to break the Ethiopian feudal nobility’s power by increasing the government’s authority until Russian-backed Communists in his army took control and are believed to have strangled him.

Since 1991, Ethiopia has had a fairly democratic government.

One ironic result was that, on my first visit there in 2006, the new government had taken down the Communist street names in the capital Addis Ababa, such as Stalin Street, but not put up any new names, so finding my way around was a matter of guesswork.

The Scramble for Africa and Ethiopia

Ethiopia, Liberia and part of Somalia were the only African countries to escape what has been called The Scramble for Africa.

After Belgium grabbed control of the Congo and Britain grabbed Egypt, Britain, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Germany and Belgium met in Berlin in 1884 and ‘85 to carve Africa into colonies.

No-one represented Africa or any of its countries.

Quite likely no-one thought that Africa should have a say or that any division should be along tribal or religious lines. The result has been disastrous for Africa.

Between 1885 and 1914, control of the people of Africa was grabbed by Britain (30%), France (15%), Portugal (11%), Germany (9%), Belgium (7%) and Italy (1%).

Life expectancy in Ethiopia is 66 years of age

Ethiopia has fared better than many other African countries. Its life expectancy is 66.2 years, comparted with AIDS-riddled Swaziland, 31.9 years but nowhere near Hong Kong, 84.3 years and Japan, 83.8 years.

It has 230 textile and garment factories and the largest cattle numbers in Africa; it was where the first coffee plant was grown, in the Ninth Century, and today 12 million people work in coffee production and coffee is its biggest export; 15 years ago, only 25% of boys and 20% of girls went to school; now 90% do.

Famine killed a million people

But 15% of Ethiopians live below the poverty line; 61 million of Ethiopia’s 109 million people do not have access to clean water or sanitation; and in Addis Ababa, 80% of the people live in slums and 12,000 children live on the streets.

The 1983-1985 famine killed a million people. I walked along many wide, imposing main streets in Addis Ababa—and into dozens of shanty slums on each side.

Lucy, the oldest human skeleton

Like elsewhere in Africa, most Ethiopians are young, except Lucy, a skeleton 3,200,000 years old, found in 1974 and said to be the oldest known human skeleton.

I looked at her in a glass case in a shabby Addis Ababa museum and thought her current descendants deserved a better life than they have now.