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Ethiopian President: 'There is Nothing that a Woman or a Girl Cannot Do'

Solomon Abate

   This interview originated in VOA's Horn of Africa service. VOA Africa
   Division's Thierry Kaore, Andrea Tadic and Salem Solomon contributed to
   the story.

   Editor's note: Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde gave an interview
   to Solomon Abate of the Voice of America's Horn of Africa service, in
   New York. She spoke in Amharic and English. These highlights are from
   their conversation in English and have been edited for brevity and
   clarity.

   Sahle-Work Zewde [1]was elected president of Ethiopia by the country's
   members of parliament in October 2018. She became the first woman to
   hold this position in the country's history. Sahle-Work previously
   [2]served at the U.N. Special Representative to the African Union and
   Ethiopian Ambassador to France, Senegal and Djibouti. She also headed
   the U.N. office in Nairobi.

   Solomon Abate: Your Excellency Madame President, thank you very much
   for your time. I would like to start this interview with yourself.
   Please tell me a little about yourself, about your family...
   Sahle-Work Zewde: I don't know where to start. I grew up in a family of
   four girls. I'm the firstborn. But I had a very amazing family
   especially my father, who has always told us that there is nothing that
   a woman or a girl cannot do. So this has been my motto all my life and
   in whatever I did, by the way, I was the first woman to do this, the
   first woman to do that, so I was daring. I was courageous and I had my
   self-esteem as well.
   All this has helped. So I started in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
   then, no, Ministry of Education, rather, [and] then foreign affairs. I
   was [an] ambassador of Ethiopia for close to two decades. Too many
   countries and multilateral as well to the African Union. Then I joined
   the U.N. as an assistant secretary-general and a special representative
   of the SG (secretary-general) to the Central African Republic, where my
   main task was to stabilize the country and work on the peacebuilding
   for close to eight years. The only United Nations headquarters in the
   global south which is based in Nairobi as its first dedicated
   director-general, female or male, that was the first one and the first
   female of course. Yeah, so with that I'm co-founder Secretary-General.
   The last posting in the U.N. was to the African Union as a special
   representative of the SG again to the EU before I joined this office.
   That's it in a nutshell.
   Abate: And congratulations for becoming the first Ethiopian president
   your, excellency. And my next question would be on the peace and
   stability of Ethiopia. There are people who are very much concerned
   about the future of this country. There are people who predict [the]
   disintegration of that country. [In the] meantime, there are some
   optimistic views from the public and from the high officials of the
   country, including the prime minister of Ethiopia. How do you
   characterize the current situation in the country?
   Sahle-Work: First of all, I always see the glass half full. If you
   don't have that perspective, then it can distort your views. Second, I
   think we have to think of where we were like two, three years ago. I
   think we are [on] the right path. I think this is what we should be
   doing, consolidate. We have a conducive environment. Of course, it can
   be improved as we move on, but we have the conditions now for everybody
   to come in and play their role. So if we put the interests of our
   country first, the interests of our people first, the peace-loving
   people of Ethiopia because it's the people who have suffered most. So I
   think we really have to come together to draw a red line not to cross
   when it comes to peace, because it cannot be used as political
   expediency. This is too serious of an issue. So, yeah with all this in
   mind and with the conducive situation in Ethiopia, I think we have a
   good opportunity to move along.
   Abate: Madame President, the situation of women in Africa is one of the
   greatest challenges. ... Ethiopia, of course, is not an exception. What
   do you think governments should do to elevate the ability and the
   participation of women and what should their contribution be?
   Sahle-Work: Yeah, I mean, if the history of Africa was written by
   Africans and by women Africans, I think we would find many unsung
   heroes. But that's not enough. We know the state of affairs. In
   Ethiopia, the government has taken a bold decision to bring gender
   equality and women's empowerment at the heart of what we do. My coming
   here is a result of that, half of the Cabinet [are women] and so on.

References

   1. https://www.voanews.com/africa/women-take-top-posts-ethiopian-politics-evolve
   2. https://www.voanews.com/africa/women-take-top-posts-ethiopian-politics-evolve

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