The following is taken from a speech Dr Abraham Demoz gave at a meeting of the Royal African Society on June 19, 1968 published in African Affairs, January 1969

"Ethiopia is the despair of the compulsive classifier. There is hardly any category into which it falls neatly.

It is one of the most ancient members of the Christian world and yet has a Moslem population estimated by some to be as high as 40 per cent. Linguistically, it is an integral part the Semitic world and yet about half of its population speaks non-Semitic, mainly cu****ic, languages. As regards other aspects of culture it is as much a part of the Near Eastern world as it is of the African. Its standing in the global community of nations is among the most ancient and yet it has taken a leading role among the emergent nations of Africa of the post-colonial period. In its ethnic composition, the country is so diverse that it has been aptly referred to as “a museum of peoples”. Even in its physical features the country manifests diversity. Within its borders are to be found extremes of climate, of elevation, of vegetation and of configuration…

When all is said and done it remains a fact that Ethiopia has had a continuous existence as a nation state for about two millennia and a half. There are very few states in the world today that could make such a claim. It is reasonable to assume that whatever has held this nation together for so long will continue to do so in the future."

This is the country that our enlightened political leaders of today want to destroy. But they cannot succeed in their destructive mission unless we help them by failing to speak for the unity of the Ethiopian people.