There’s a famous bible verse that states, “There’s nothing new under the sun.” This is what the viewer of the documentary “Made In Ethiopia,” currently screening at the Tribeca Film Festival, will perhaps think as they observe the unfolding impact of a corporate foreign entity on a small farming community in Ethiopia. The documentary feature debut of Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan chronicles the lives of Motto, an amiable and ambitious Chinese deputy director of Eastern Industry Park, an enormous manufacturing park in the Ethiopian town of Dukem; her diverse employees; and the local inhabitants, mostly small farmers from whom both labor and land are extracted at bargain basement prices. The action begins as Eastern Industry Park tries to move into “Phase II” of the already sprawling factory’s development—an additional 400 acres of factory space.
The action is very straightforward: interviews with floor workers who are all Ethiopian, their families, Motto herself, and the supervisors. The film captures a community in flux as they move from one way of life to another. In some ways, it’s like a look into the past; like Europeans at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, perhaps, pushed and pulled from their farms and everything with which they were familiar. In terms of loss of land, it’s similar to what Native Americans, Australian Aboriginals, and Black South Africans perhaps experienced, though the mechanism of violence appears to be absent here. In the Dukem captured in “Made in Ethiopia,” sustained coercion and manipulation are the preferred tactics.
Dukem locals are promised that they will be compensated with “replacement land” that at least over the course of the four years of filming, never materializes. In fact, the filmmakers learn that half of the land promised to the local farmers was sold for profit to “wealthy buyers.” They don’t clarify if the “wealthy buyers” are Ethiopian or foreigners. In essence, the locals, now without land, become dependent on and subservient to the Chinese. To be poor while owning land is one thing; to be poor without land, another. Though Motto and local Ethiopian government officials insist that the factory is good for the populace, many of the locals disagree. One plainly states, “The Chinese put us in more poverty.”
The factory, which churns out inexpensive shoes and garments, is reminiscent of China a generation ago. All of the supervisors appear to be Chinese, and one opines of Dukem, “It’s just like China used to be.” And Motto, chipper and determined, believes this path is the key to happiness for the Ethiopians who work in her factory and for the country itself. “Economic development,” she insists, “is the solution.”Â
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Motto can’t be faulted for worshipping at this particular altar. It makes sense from the standpoint of self-interest, for one thing. For another, her homeland is an apparent example of success via this economic model. With tens of thousands of companies across numerous African countries and billions in investment since the end of European colonialism there, operating and investing in Africa has helped China become the second largest economy in the world. China has a stranglehold on Congo’s production of cobalt, essential for manufacturing electric cars, cell phones, and computers. According to a report in the American Economic Review, “China’s share of world GDP increased from less than 3% in 1978 to 20% in 2015, while average income has increased by a factor of eight.” Though this is far from a nuanced view of China’s economy, it is fair to say a significant number of Chinese are doing better than they were 50 years ago, all things being equal.
But “Made in Ethiopia” demonstrates that the fate of Ethiopia is likely not the same as that of China. There is the hint of imperialism, which historically has meant exploitation, not real progress for populations of color. Many of the automated machines “speak” Chinese, not any of the local languages. Even now, almost 20 years after China built this economic zone, the workers live in dire circumstances while the Chinese supervisors are in houses with modern accoutrements. More importantly, profit from the Eastern Industry Park is not being reinvested into Ethiopia or even Dukem in a substantive manner. Yes, there have been great investments in infrastructure, but that is primarily to make it easier for the Chinese to make more money there, not to benefit the local population. A local political official lamented the lack of investment on health care and education for the locals who make up the labor force for the Chinese factory owners, casting a foreboding light on the future earning potential for those workers.
“They make billions but give pennies,” he states. There is the aforementioned loss of land which translates into loss of resources and community cohesion in addition. The community itself is starting to unravel under the stressors of development that essentially excludes them.
Converting land and labor to factories to promote economic development is certainly a positive thing for any nation. The problem lies in who it intends to benefit. In China, those changes were meant to better China and ultimately did improve China’s economic standing. “Made in Ethiopia” causes one to ask the question: For whom is China developing Ethiopia? Please visit https://www.tribecafilm.com/festival for more information on this film and other programming at the 2024 Tribeca Festival.