Ethiopia: At the Threshold of a Renaissance: Ethiopia Celebrates Its Third Millennium against a Backdrop of a Rejuvenated Economy, with an Average Growth Rate of 11.9% in the Last Five Successive Years. All Indicators Show That the Country, with a Proud History Going Back 3,000 Years, Is on the Cusp of a Profound Economic and Social Transformation

Beginning of article

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Ethiopia entered its third millennium on its New Year's Day, 1 Meskerem 2000 (or 12 September 2007 in the Gregorian calendar). Ethiopia's calendar year begins September, comprising of 12 months of 30 days and one additional month of five or six days in a leap year.

The country is unique: It is the cradle of humankind, the origin of coffee and the first written music (6th century AD). Ethiopians greeted the new millennium with rekindled hope of the country's renaissance.

Ethiopians successfully created an advanced civilisation in the first millennium. Great monolithic steles and an alphabet left by the Aksumite era attest to this great period. One of the steles is the tallest and heaviest (half a million kg) monolithic structure in the world.

In the first 300 years of the second millennium, Ethiopian civilisation was at its peak as evidenced by the Lalibela Church buildings and other artifacts. The rock-hewn churches in Lalibela are recognised as the Eighth Wonder of the world. In fact, Bete Medhane Alem, one of the 12 churches, is the largest rock-hewn church in the world.

Towards the middle of the first millennium, the first mosque in Africa was built as the first Muslim converts who fled from persecution in Arabia were given refuge by an Ethiopian king. At the beginning of the second millennium, Ethiopians in the east established an ancient trade centre at Harar, which already had a cluster of mosques, but later welcomed the establishment of churches--an expression of religious tolerance that prevails today. This heritage recognises Harar as a …