Introduction A three part commentary by a gay Ethiopian living in South Africa. He tells of threatening conditions and persecution of LGBT people in his native country. The entire contents of this story are from the highly valuable and useful Pan-African web site Behind the Mask which has useful information about 36 countries on the
Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in the world and Africa’s second-most populous nation. Ethiopia has yielded some of humanity’s oldest traces, making the area a primary factor in the origin and developmental history of humanity, with recent studies claiming the vicinity of present-day Addis Ababa as the point from which human beings migrated around the world. Male homosexuality is illegal in Ethiopia and female homosexuality is overlooked in the law. Mainstream Ethiopian social mores are broadly influenced by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Muslim religious life. Homosexuals are known to have been lynched by locals, intolerent of the LGBT people.
Name: Ethiopia
Population: 62565000
Capital: Addis Ababa - Pop. 2723000
Area: 1104300 sq. km/ sq. miles
Language: Amharic, Tigrinya, Orominga, Guaraginga, Somali, Arabic
Religion: Muslim, Ethiopian Orthodox, animist
Status of Homosexuality: Illegal
Telephone Country Code: 251