Narratives of Political Violence in the Tigray War
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Date
2024-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Given the almost complete lack of access for journalists, diplomats, or any independent
observers to the hot bed of the war in Tigray that lasted from 2020 - 2022, Ethiopians and
observers of Ethiopian affairs have had no choice but to rely on communications coming from
the warring parties themselves. As a result, a distinctive feature of the conflict has been the
level of competition over narratives. This study attempts to implore into the narrative world of
the war to examine how political violence was discursively framed by parties to the conflict.
Taking three cases from the duration of the war where the battles at the narrative and war
fronts were at their heights: 4 - 28 November, 2020; 1 October - 20 December 2021; and 24
August - 2 November 2022, it employed critical discourse analysis to analyse text, image and
video content produced by the FDRE and TPLF that sought to rationalise and justify the war
and the violence it observed. The findings show that parties to the conflict used strategic
narratives to appeal to different audiences at different times. In the first case communication
by the FDRE largely narrated the virtuousness of their reluctant military operation that was
necessitated because of TPLF‟s consistent transgressions to ensure that justice is served and
Ethiopians can live in peace. In the second case, narratives by the FDRE framed the
government as a victim of concerted efforts fighting a war against global dominance while in
the third, narratives of a resilient Ethiopian identity took centre stage. TPLF‟s narratives across
the cases largely devoted to framing the group as a victim that was fighting an existential war
against a senseless and irrational actor that can only be effectively dealt with through the use of
fatal force.
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Keywords
Tigray war, Narratives, Political Violence, Ethiopia