African Union missing in action in conflicts from Mali to South Sudan

Weak leadership and rivalry between states have hampered African efforts to bring security to the conflict-hit continent

A French soldier patrols Bossangoa, Central African Republic. Foreign troops have struggled to stem sectarian clashes. Photograph: Andreea Câmpeanu/Reuters

 

by Martin Plaut

The retired French general Vincent Desportes told the BBC World Service last week that France should back political change in Mali and remain in the country as long as necessary.

In the Central African Republic (CAR), the current deployment of 1,600 French troops is insufficient: at least 5,000 are needed, Desportes said. No one batted an eyelid. Yet a decade ago, such statements would have been denounced as outrageous imperialist ambition to re-colonise Africa. So what has changed?

From Mali to Somalia, the continent has been convulsed by an arc of conflict. Consider the most recent wars, in CAR and South Sudan. Médecins Sans Frontières, the normally unflappable aid agency,described the violence in CAR as out of control. Half the citizens of Bangui have fled the town and, across the country, about 785,000 people are displaced. The situation in South Sudan is little better: the UN says more than 194,000 people have fled their homes and that 107,000 seek shelter around UN bases.

In all this bloodshed the African Union (AU) is nowhere to be seen. It was French troops that were airlifted into CAR to save the day – just as they did in Mali, Niger and Ivory Coast. UN peacekeepers are being rushedfrom Darfur, Liberia, Ivory Coast, and even Haiti, to try to staunch the fighting in South Sudan. The US deployed marinesfrom their base in Djibouti to Uganda and Juba, the South Sudanese capital, to assist in the evacuation of Americans.

The much-vaunted African Standby Force, with its regional Standby Brigades at the beck and call of the AU has failed to materialise. The idea of a military force answerable to African leaders has its origins in the Rwandan genocide of 1994. Horrified as they looked on helplessly, this bred a determination to intervene in future conflicts.

The problem was discussed in Harare, Zimbabwe, in 1997 by African chiefs of defence staff, but the initiative had to wait until July 2002 before it receive a formal go-ahead. African leaders planned to have five regional forces by 2010 to bring security to their troubled continent.

The Standby Brigades would answer to the AU's peace and security council, the continental equivalent of the UN security council. The aimwas to produce a rapidly deployable force and that by 2012 two units, each 2,500 strong, could be operational within just 14 days.

 

Malian troops battle militants in Gao. Photograph: Frederic Lafargue/AFP/Getty

This was highly ambitious but badly needed. When, in 2002, the AU replaced the OAU, its badly discredited predecessor, it was specifically mandated to prevent a repetition of the Rwandan genocide. The AU's constitution allows it to intervene in a member state to halt what is described as "grave circumstances, namely war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity."

The Standby Brigades gave teeth to this intention and won considerable western support. The US poured money into the initiative, providing $500m to train up to 50,000 African troops. British involvement was also substantial, with more than £110m a year being invested via the African Conflict Prevention Pool for nearly a decade.

Today the figure stands at £51.5m. The pool is a joint initiative, run by the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defence and the Department for International Development. Little hard information has been provided about its programmes, which were criticised by an independent review.

In reality the Standby Brigades have not got off the ground. Differences between African states run far too deep for them to be used in the continent's many crises. Many of the troops are insufficiently trained, armed or disciplined to be deployed effectively. In November 2013 an official statement from the South African government took the route of least resistance: it announced that the force would be renamed.

The "African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises" would be what was termed a "transitional arrangement" until the African Standby Force was up and running. The Nigerian Guardian was more forthright. Itreported that the Standby Brigades had made little progress since they were dreamed up more than a decade ago.

A UN armored vehicle in South Sudan passes displaced people walking to the camp where they have sought shelter amid clashes. Photograph: Ben Curtis/AP

So why the failure? It is not as if Africa is incapable of running military operations, given sufficient outside financial and logistical support. The 25,000 strong AU Mission to Somalia, or Amisom, has driven al-Shabaab, the al-Qaida affiliate, out of the capital.

Amisom holds substantial areas of Somalia, but it is, in reality, run by its troop contributors. So Uganda and Burundi call the shots in the capital, while Ethiopia runs its operations in the west, and Kenya holds a strip of land in the far south. Although it nominally works in the AU, the organisation has little control over what it can and cannot do.

The root of the problem lies with a failure of African leadership. When Nigeria's Olusegun Obasanjo and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa held office they worked hand in glove on a range of issues. For a time it seemed that the concept of an African renaissance might become a reality. But the moment faded.

Today Nigeria is resentful that South Africa is the continent's representative among the Brics group of emerging economies. Both countries vie for a possible African seat on the UN security council. And, in Goodluck Jonathan and Jacob Zuma, both nations are saddled with weak presidents obsessed with domestic problems and incapable of giving a sense of direction to the continent.

As a result, the African Standby Force has gone the way of so many other initiatives. Who, for example, now talks of the African Peer Review Mechanism, or suggests there can only be "African solutions to African problems?" From Bamako to Bangui, ordinary African men and women have cowered and waited, hoping that western troops or UN peacekeepers will come to their aid.

Source: theguardian.com,

The Hillman Prize 2014 for Journalists Worldwide

2014 Hillman Prize Nominations

The 2014 Hillman Prizes will be given for work produced, published, broadcast, or exhibited in 2013.

The received-by deadline for all submissions is January 31, 2014.

There is no submission fee.

Please use the Submission form at the bottom of this page. It has category-specific instructions as well as a box to enter your cover letter. You may upload your files, provide URL's and/or mail copies to our office depending on the category-specific instructions. If sending tear sheets (preferred for large Newspaper series), applicants should indicate with a highlighter or sticker which article is being submitted on each page.

2014 categories are as follows:

1. Book (bound volumes and ebooks) 

2. Newspaper Journalism (story or series/in print or online) 


3. Magazine Journalism (story or series/in print or online) 


4. Broadcast Journalism (story or series/at least 20 minutes in total package length) Open to television, web TV, radio, podcast, and documentary film.

5. Web Journalism (publication/story or series/multimedia) Open to blogs, photojournalism, computer-assisted reporting, new investigative tools, mapping, crowd sourcing, and other multimedia projects. Entries should feature both text and visual components.

6. Opinion & Analysis Journalism (any medium) Includes all types of advocacy, opinion, commentary and analysis, normally short-form and/or frequent, regardless of medium. Open to newspaper and magazine columnists, TV and radio presenters, podcasters, blogs, and bloggers.

The contest is open to journalists and subjects globally, although work must have been published in the U.S. You may nominate your own work or someone else's.

Winners will be announced in April 2014. Winners are awarded travel to New York City to receive a $5,000 prize and a certificate at our awards ceremony and cocktail reception to be held Tuesday May 6, 2014.

Submissions are judged by a distinguished panel of journalists: Hendrik Hertzberg, senior editor, The New Yorker; Ta-Nehisi Coates, Senior Editor, The Atlantic; Harold Meyerson, Washington Post columnist and editor-at-large, The American Prospect,Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher, The Nation, and Rose Marie Arce, senior producer, CNN.  

You can see previous winners here.

Since 1950, the Sidney Hillman Foundation has honored journalists, writers and public figures that pursue investigative journalism and public policy in service of the common good. Sidney Hillman was the founding president of the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union of America, a predecessor union of Workers United, SEIU. Sidney Hillman, an architect of the New Deal, fought to build a vibrant union movement extending beyond the shop floor to all aspects of working people’s lives.

Proceed to the online submission form (link will open in a new window)

Did 2013 Mark the End of Somali Piracy?

International efforts have tightened the noose on Somalia's infamous pirates, but the scourge is alive in West Africa and could well return to the country

By Noah Rayman

When five armed men in a small motorboat approached an oil tanker sailing off the coast of Somalia on Dec. 9, the crew sprang into action. They increased speed and unleashed fire hoses off the side to evade the assailants, according to a report from the International Maritime Bureau (IMB). They called for help from the British Royal Navy, which dispatched a helicopter to their location. And they summoned to the deck an armed security team traveling with the tanker, who made sure the assailants saw they were carrying weapons.

The suspected pirates, presumably now deterred from their original intentions of attempting to hijack the ship and kidnap its crew, turned back.

It’s a testament to the success of recent antipiracy measures that hijackings of major shipments off the coast of Somalia plummeted to zero in 2013, according to the final numbers compiled by the U.S. Navy and released last week. The pirates are also trying less often: there were nine suspected attempts in 2013 in the shipping lanes that pass between Yemen and Somalia, down from seven hijackings and 25 attempts a year earlier. In 2009, there were 51 hijackings and 130 attempts, according to the Navy, including the failed attempt to take the Maersk Alabama that formed the basis of the Hollywood film Captain Phillips.

(MORE: How Somalia’s Fishermen Became Pirates)

Attacks on shipments off the coast of Somalia, a vital sea-lane that sees nearly 25,000 passages a year, have dropped so significantly that the region is no longer Africa’s hot spot of piracy. In West Africa, where oil tankers sitting just off the coast are lucrative targets for Nigerian rebel militias and regional organized crime, there were nine hijackings and 48 confrontations with pirates in 2013. In some cases, these pirates will go straight for the crew to hold for ransom: two Americans were kidnapped from their oil ship off Nigeria in October and released weeks later. “With fewer attacks off Somalia, attention has moved to the Gulf of Guinea,” the IMB said in a report in October. That’s a sea change for a shipping industry that has paid Somali pirates more than $400 million in ransom money over the past seven years, according to some estimates.

A handful of factors have helped deter Somali pirates since the international community woke up to the threat in 2008. International naval patrols spearheaded by NATO and the E.U. have boosted security by deploying up to 20 warships to the area at one time, according to Michael Frodl, founder of C-LEVEL Maritime Risks, a private intelligence and consulting firm. The ships aim to provide a secure corridor through the region — the “I-95 between Yemen and Somalia,” says Frodl — and go after suspected pirates, with U.S. surveillance drones over the coast of Somalia warning when pirates appear to be setting off.

Meanwhile, the shipping industry’s Best Management Practices, a set of antipiracy recommendations for captains sailing at-risk areas off Somalia’s coast, provides seemingly simple but often crucial advice: for example, to lift the ship’s ladders and travel at higher speeds (the BMP says pirates have never successfully taken a ship traveling faster than 34 km/h). And shipping companies reluctant to depend on warships that might be days away are hiring security teams — usually armed groups of roughly four former U.S. or British marines — to stand guard on the most dangerous legs of the journey.

But maritime-security experts warn that 2013 is, if not a blip, then a tenuous moment of success that could evaporate as quickly as the funding for the naval presence. Already, budget cuts in Washington are expected to hit the U.S.’s antipiracy deployments. “We have to assume this presence is going to be diminished,” Frodl says. In the place of Western navies, countries that depend most on safe shipment in the region — like oil exporter Saudi Arabia and oil recipient China — will have to step up. “Can we replicate 2013? Yeah. But we have to be careful,” he says. “We have to do a smart handoff.”

International monitors also worry that the shipping industry will grow complacent. Ships have always been reluctant to boost speeds and pay for the extra gas, even if that means giving rogue pirates the slip. And while security teams have proved effective, their armed presence on civilian cargo ships stokes fears of an escalation where a hostage-taking scenario turns into a deadly gun battle. It’s also still not quite clear when the security teams are legally — or morally — allowed to fire on an unknown approaching vessel, and who exactly is liable when an injured pirate — or, indeed, a fisherman — files a claim. A video taken in 2012 that showed a security team firing roughly 400 rounds at approaching pirates, likely injuring or killing at least some of the pirates, fueled debate over the unregulated role of private security on the high seas. Shipping companies may soon choose to forgo the liability risks — and the up to $100,000 price tag that includes transporting the team to the region.

Long-term security in the seas may paradoxically have to play out on shore. Somalia is seeing the first semblance of stability — the influence of its perennially weak central government now extends beyond the capital Mogadishu — in more than two decades, and international observers say those who once took to piracy may be dropping the increasingly risky trade for legitimate business. But the trend is easily reversible. Somalia ranked the most corrupt country in the world in the 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index, and the Somali-based Islamist terrorist group al-Shabab’s recent deadly attacks in the capital city Mogadishu and on Nairobi’s Westgate Mall in September bode ill for stability, even if al-Shabab itself does not engage in piracy.

And the pirates haven’t disappeared. They are still involved in commandeering smaller international fishing boats — often then used as “motherships” to target larger tankers and container ships — which means the pirates are both active and potentially stocking up for future attacks. They are also still holding more than 70 sailors hostage, mostly from Southeast Asia, according to Andrew Mwangura, a piracy monitor based in Kenya who is wary that the lull in hijackings will last. “The pirates will continue in Somalia,” said Mwangura. “They’re waiting for us to sleep, and then they’ll attack.”

Source: U.S. Navy: No Somali Pirate Attacks in 2013 | TIME.com http://world.time.com/2014/01/06/did-2013-mark-the-end-of-somali-piracy/#ixzz2plUPgwic

East Africa Expert Analyzes South Sudan Conflict

Amb. David Shinn discusses recent violence and scheduled negotiations between leaders of Africa’s newest country.

 

By Julyssa Lopez

A bloody conflict that broke out in South Sudan on Dec. 15 has raged on for three weeks, resulting in the death and displacement of thousands of civilians. Rebels loyal to former vice president Riek Machar and government forces led by President Salva Kiir are at the center of the complicated confrontation, which has pitted members of South Sudan’s two largest ethnic communities against one another.

Leaders of the young country’s warring sides opened peace negotiations this Sunday in Ethiopia. David Shinn, former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia and Burkina Faso and professorial lecturer in GW’s Elliott School of International Affairs, talked to George Washington Today about the conflict, the possibility of a cease-fire and what the situation means for a troubled Africa.

Q:  Can you discuss the issues that have resulted in conflicts between the South Sudanese government and rebel forces? What sparked the violence that escalated in December?

A:  South Sudan was experiencing internal divisions well before it became independent from Sudan in July 2011. There was an especially nasty incident in 1991 when elements of the Nuer ethnic community, the second largest in South Sudan numbering about 1.7 million persons, killed members of the Dinka ethnic group, the largest group in the country of about 4.5 million persons, in the town of Bor.

Over the past year, there has also been serious fighting between the Lou Nuer and the Murle ethnic groups. The situation worsened significantly in July last year when President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, dismissed his Nuer vice president, Riek Machar, and the entire cabinet. Following the outbreak of fighting in the capital of Juba in December, President Kiir charged that opposition elements had launched a coup led by former vice president Machar. He then arrested 11 prominent politicians, including a number of ex-ministers. Former vice president Machar escaped arrest, went into hiding and denied that he was behind a coup attempt.

The situation now is largely a fight for political power between President Kiir and former vice president Machar, although it has been compounded by ethnic issues, especially Dinka versus Nuer. But some of those opposing President Kiir are fellow Dinka and not all the Nuer support the former vice president. To some extent, this situation has spun out of control because neither President Kiir nor Dr. Machar has the ability to completely rein in their respective followers.

Q:  Peace talks between government and rebel leaders began Sunday in Ethiopia. Are these negotiations likely to result in an end to the fighting?
 
A:  I doubt that these talks will end the fighting in the coming weeks, although they may slow down the violence and bring it to an end in the coming months. There is just too little ability to control the situation over the short-term.

Q:  Can you talk about the toll the fighting has taken on civilians?
 
A:  Estimates of the number of deaths and displaced people are little more than guesswork, but it would appear that more than 1,000 people have died and perhaps 200,000 have been displaced since mid-December. Typically in these situations, civilians comprise the vast majority of those killed and injured, and nearly all of the displaced.

Q:  Secretary of State John Kerry warned both sides of South Sudan not to use peace talks as a “gimmick” at the expense of the South Sudanese people. Is the U.S. likely to become involved or address the conflict any further?
 
A:  The United States played an important role in South Sudan’s independence and has subsequently been the principal bilateral source of foreign assistance, both to South Sudan and in support of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.

In 2013, the U.S. provided more than $400 million in foreign assistance and has requested a similar amount for 2014. The United States has also been at the forefront of pressing for negotiations between the two sides and calling for the release of the 11 former members of the South Sudan government who have been arrested. U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan Donald Booth has been in the region for more than a week, working with the regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development and members of the international community to achieve this end.

Except for additional military security around the American Embassy in Juba, the United States has no intention of sending troops to South Sudan—although it did support U.N. action to nearly double the size of its peacekeeping force in South Sudan. The United States will also remain a leader in providing humanitarian assistance to the people of South Sudan.

Q:  South Sudan is one of several turbulent areas in Africa right now. How do flare ups in South Sudan affect surrounding countries that are also in turmoil, like the Central African Republic?
 
A:  If the unrest continues in South Sudan, it will inevitably impact neighboring countries as a result of refugee flows and the ability of dissidents in those countries to take greater advantage of uncontrolled space in South Sudan. There are already serious problems in the neighboring Central African Republic that could be exacerbated by the conflict in South Sudan. But the problems could also spill into neighboring Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There are reports that Uganda has moved troops into South Sudan to protect its citizens there. Continuing unrest could also further destabilize the uneasy situation along the Sudan-South Sudan border.

Haweeney Toogasho ku Dishay Sarkaal ka Tirsanaa Nabad-sugidda Qaranka Soomaaliyeed

 

 

Muqdisho — Haweeney ayaa la sheegay inay xalay toogasho ku dishay sarkaal ka tisran ha’yadda nabadsugidda Qaranka oo ay xaaskiisa ahayd, kaddib markii uu muran xooggn soo dhexgalay.

Sarkaalkan oo magaciisa lagu soo koobay Cadde ayaa waxaa la sheegay in xaaskiisu ay toogatay kaddib markii uu seexday, iyadoo haweeneyda oo ay gacanta ku hayaan ciidamada booliiska su’aalo laga weydiinayo sababtii keentay inay disho saygeeda.

“Toogshada sarkaalku waxay ka dhacday degmada Waaberi, haweeneyda dilka geystay waxay ahayd xaaska sarkaalka dhintay oo lagu magacaabi jiray Cadde, waxayna ku toogatay qori AK-47 ah oo guriga yaallay,” ayuu yiri mid ka mid ah dadka deegaanka oo la hadlay warbaahinta Muqdisho.

Goobjoogaha ayaa sheegay in sarkaalka uu ku geeriyooday isla sariirtii uu jiiray, sidoo kalaena haweeneydii ay gacanta ku dhigeen ciidamada booliiska degmada Waaberi oo goobta soo gaaray.

“Haweeneydii waxay ku xiran tahay saldhigga booliiska degmada Waaberi halkaasoo su’aalo lagu weydiinayo,” ayuu yiri ruux ehel la ahaa sarkaalka la dilay, kaasoo sheegay in sarkaalka maanta lagu aasayo Muqdisho.

Dilkan ayaa noqonaya kii ugu horreeyay noociisa oo Muqdisho ka dhaca, iyadoo aysan horay u dhicin dil ay u geystay haweeney xaas u ahayd sarkaal sare oo dowladda ka tirsan.

Ma jiro hadal ku saabsan arrintan oo kasoo baxay hay’adda nabadsugidda Qaranka oo uu sarkaalku ka tirsanaa, iyadoo dilkan uu imaanayo xilli ay shalay maxkamadda ciidamadu dil ku fulisay askari horay u dilay qof rayid ah.

British weapons could be arming Somali pirates

Review into the quantity of guns sent to help UK firms after fears that some will end up in the wrong hands

The Government has been forced into an urgent review over why nearly 44,000 guns in only 15 months were sent to tackle piracy in East Africa and a number of repressive regimes.

MPs have accused the Business Department of a potential security risk, by approving the exports while failing to look into why British security firms needed so many assault rifles and pistols in countries with poor human rights records, such as Sri Lanka, Egypt and the Maldives.

The weapons are supposed to be used by the security firms for services such as protecting ships from Somali pirates. But the sheer volume that was authorised for exports between April 2012 to June 2013 has raised fears among members of the House of Commons Arms Export Controls Committee that the guns could have ended up in the hands of the pirates themselves or of dictatorial regimes.

Pressed to explain the numbers, the head of the Export Control Organisation at the Business Department, Edward Bell, told MPs: "I understand the concern about the volumes … having now heard about the volumes, I would like to do a bit more digging around that. I have no concerns that anything untoward has happened, but I certainly will have a closer look at the volumes involved."

Government data shows that the arms exports comprised 30,000 assault rifles, 2,536 pistols and 11,000 rifles, and the countries they ended up in also include Russia and South Africa. Sources on the committee say they want to know why British firms would need such a large stash of fresh guns, given that they will have had thousands of weapons in their armoury prior to April 2012.

Ann McKechin, a committee member and Labour MP, said: "The evidence provided to us by Mr Bell seems to suggest that the department did not have a process of looking at the cumulative number of weapons and whether those exports fitted the scenario on the ground needed for protection." A Business Department spokeswoman confirmed that a review is under way.

The development is part of a wide-ranging inquiry into arms exports. This has already seen the Business Secretary, Vince Cable, pushed to publicly reveal names of British companies granted licences to export products to Syria that could potentially be turned into chemical weapons. Mr Cable has refused.

The Foreign Secretary, William Hague, faces the committee on Wednesday and will come under pressure over the Government's increasingly close relationship with China, which was cemented by a David Cameron-led trade mission towards the end of last year. China has been widely accused of state-sponsored cyber-terrorism.

A second committee member, Katy Clark, said: "China is one of the countries the Government is prioritising for the development of trade links. This raises questions over whether we've got the balance right between the arms trade, surveillance equipment and our economic interests."

Where Did the Wise Men Come From?

the Boswellia tree–from which the gum that is used to make frankincense is tapped–is native only to the Somaliland

Where did the Magi come from? The usual answer is from Persia. They are identified with a caste of Zoroastrian astrologers and philosophers known to be active in Persia from the sixth century BC. The term “magi” is derived from the Greek magos which in  turn was derived from the Persian term for the philosopher-astrologer-priests. They were active during the empire of the Medes. But did the wise men really come from Persia? I’m increasingly interested in the idea that they came from the Arabian peninsula, from the Kingdom of Sheba.

Just because Matthew uses the term “magi” does not mean that he is necessarily referring to the Persian caste of astrologers. Although the term for this sort of wise man was derived from the ancient Persian sect, it was a term which was used of any sort of sorcerer, astrologer or occult practitioner. Thus in the Acts of the Apostles we meet Simon Magus who is a sorcerer. Also, the sixth century BC was the time they flourished? By the time of the Roman Empire the Medes were long gone.

The religion of Persia (modern day Iran) during the time of the Roman Empire was a mish mash of belief systems. The Parthian Empire was there at the time, and they had been horsemen from the East who swept in and took over. They adopted Zorastrianism, but also practiced ancient tribal religions, worshipped the Greek and Roman gods and operated in a kind of religious free market like most of the ancient world at that time. Whether there was an active Zorastrian caste of astrologer-priests at the time of Christ’s birth is debatable. That they had an interest in whether a new born king of the Jews would appear is also debatable.

It is my opinion that the word “magi” has been a false clue. Matthew is probably using it as a more general term to refer to any kind of astrologer-wise man or magician. I believe the more interesting clues to their origin is not the term magi but the gifts they brought. This, combined with the prophecies from the Old Testament and other clues would point to the magi coming not from Persia, but from the ancient kingdom of Sheba–which is in modern day Yemen at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula.

Why Yemen? Archeologists are increasingly agreed that the ancient and powerful kingdom of Sheba was located at the Southern tip of the Arabian peninsula, and that it’s reach extended deep into Eastern Africa. The three gifts of the magi indicate an origin in Sheba since the kingdom was known firstly for its vast wealth from the gold mines of Africa, secondly, the Boswellia tree–from which the gum that is used to make frankincense is tapped–is native only to the Somaliland. Thirdly, the commiphora tree–from which the resin to make myrrh is derived–also grows only in the Arabian peninsula and Somaliland.

The Kingdom of Sheba therefore grew rich on these three unusual, rare and precious commodities: gold, frankincense and myrrh. Of course in the ancient Middle East wise men from Persia could have brought these gifts, but if they were seen not only as rich gifts, but a sort of diplomatic gift–kings bringing the best produce and commodities from their own country in h0mage to a neighboring king, then identifying the country of origin with the gifts makes sense.

There is more: we remember that the Queen of Sheba brought rich gifts of gold and spices when she came to pay homage to Solomon. (I Kings 10:2) and Jesus refers to her in Matthew 12:42 saying that she brought gifts to Solomon, but “one greater than Solomon is here” implying that kings from the same country had come to pay homage to him as their ancestor had to Solomon? Finally, the prophecy from Isaiah says that caravans from Midian and Ephah and Sheba would coming bearing great gifts of gold and frankincense. To get to Palestine from Sheba (Yemen) the route passed through the ancient Arabian kingdoms of Midianites and Ephah.

Then there is the Incense Road. This was an ancient trade route whereby spices from India, incense from Arabia and exotic riches from Africa made their way up the Eastern coast of the Arabian peninsula into Palestine and then on to the port of Gaza for further travel to Italy and points around the Mediterranean. Thus the wise men would have followed long established trade routes. They would already have had long standing knowledge of the history of the Jews. References to Midian, Ephah and Sheba abound in the Old Testament and the Arabian peninsula was much more the region of the Hebrews and their ancient neighbors than Persia. Furthermore, the kings from Sheba would have had long standing relationships with the Jewish people. That they would have felt comfortable going to Herod’s court to ask directions would make total sense.

Then what about the story that they followed the star until they found the Christ child? The text doesn’t actually say that. The wise men said they saw his star “when it arose” and they came to worship him. It makes more sense that astrologers in the Kingdom of Sheba-Yemen understood the congruence of the planets and stars that indicated a new King of the Jews would be born, and they left on their established trade routes to pay him homage. The only time the star moves is when they leave Herod’s palace. It says the star they had seen when it arose re-appeared. They were filled with joy when they saw it–which implies that they hadn’t seen it since it had arisen. The star then guided them to the place where the child was. How the “star” moved and what that astrological sign was specifically is the subject of much speculation.

Finally, the idea that the magi were Persian Zorastrian philosopher-astrologers seems to be based only on the derivation of the word magi. Brent Landau suggests another theory here. He unlocks an eight century Syrian manuscript called the Revelation of the Magi–which is supposedly written by the Magi who came from China or India. If that is the case they could have made the journey as the Incense Route was also used by traders from India and China. However, an eighth century manuscript is unlikely to have much historical value as to the actual identities of the wise men.

So far, so speculative. The fact is, we don’t know where the wise men came from, and although early sources suggest they came from as far away as India, China and Arabia, most say Persia, and I’m happy to be informed and corrected by people who know far more about it than I ever will.

Source: patheos.com