A PRIMITIVE COUNTRY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22286, 12 June 1934, Page 7

A PRIMITIVE COUNTRY

LIFE IN ETHIOPIA WORK OF SUDAN MISSION (Special to Daily Times.) WELLINGTON, June 10. Ethiopia, formerly known as Abyssinia, offers the greatest opportunity of any country in the world to the missionary, in the opinion of Mr R. J. Annan, of the Sudan Interior Mission, who arrived with his wife and young son by the Maunganui from Sydney today after spending five and a-half years in that country. Mr Annan belongs to Invercargill, and he will spend 10 months in the Dominion before returning to the mission field. Mr Annan gave an interesting interview to a reporter on the contrasts and customs that obtain in Ethiopia. Many biblical customs were still observed, he said, although the country had a telephone system and motor cars, the drivers of which were required to have licenses. He had been working at Hosanna, 600 miles from the coast, where his work included the medical and surgical treatment of natives and Europeans.

“I spent a year in England studying medicine before I went to Ethiopia, and this knowledge was very valuable and must have saved many lives,” Mr Annan remarked. “I used to treat between 300 and 400 natives and Europeans each month, doing operations, giving advice, and extracting teeth. 'The death *3te among the pagans, of whom there are 11.000. is very high, their vitality being low.” The Coptic Christians, a branch if the Coptic Church in Egypt, formed the ruling class and numbered about 2.000. Mr Annan continued. The Coptic Church had been established in Ethiopia since the third century. Before that the people had the Old Testament and many of the old customs were still observed.

“ When we first went there they were very wary of us,” said Mr Annan, “but after six mouths we got a footing and started to learn the language. Then the barriers were broken down. On onr departure for New Zealand the Ethiopian Governor of the province presented us with a lion’s skin, one of the highest honours he could bestow. He, also gave us n Book of Psalms written in the ancient language of the country, and enough money to pay for a 10 days’ trip to the capital, Addis Ababa. The name of the capital meant ‘ new flower.’ Incidentally every Ethiopian place name means something of the kind.” There were about 60 members of the Sudan Interior Mission in Ethiopia, said Mr Annan, and the work had been opened up in 12 provinces during Dm past six years. Other missions had been active in the country for the past 25 years, but until the crowning of King Haile Silassic in 1932 missionaries were not allowed into the interior. Now the. whole country was open to the work, and it presented one of the greatest mission fields in the world. Feudal law still prevailed in Ethiopia, and slavery also still existed, although the king on being crowned released bis thousands of slaves, whom he was putting on the land and into schools. There were groat numbers to be released elsewhere. . The penalty for trading in slaves was death. Taxes were paid in money or kind. The serf system seemed even worse than slavery, but prominent men were honest and one could trust them. There were thousands of lepers, some of whom grew quite rich, according to the native standards, from the proceeds of their begging. The disease Mr Annan said, was regarded as a chastisement from God. In some respects the laws were very strict, yet in the administration of justice everything was done by bribery and gifts. There was, however, a new law coming into effect which would be to the good of the people.