The Impact of Historical Narratives on Ethnic Conflicts in Post-1991 Ethiopia
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Date
2022-11
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Addis Ababa University,
Abstract
The last 50 years of Ethiopia's history can be characterized by revolutions, popular protests,
rebellions, self-determination movements, armed struggles, regime changes, and civil wars.
Significant portions of these conflicts and civil wars are caused or supported by historical
narratives. The revolution of 1974 was backed by the question of nationality raised by the
Ethiopian Student Movement (ESM). As a result, the established narrative on which the
imperial regime has been based for centuries is challenged. After the 1991 regime change,
the two contending groups confronted each other, as the narratives had been fighting through
different courses of action. The main narrative, Pan Ethiopianism, lost its hegemonic status
as a government ideology while the opposing ethno-nationalism assumed power through
opposition and armed struggle. The dethroned narrative of Pan Ethiopianism continued to
fight verbally through opposition parties and non-governmental organizations through the
printing and broadcasting media. Ethno-nationalism, on the other hand, was privileged as a
government narrative, propagating its ideals through government media and organizations.
On top of that, the constitution and the federal arrangement are considered the advantages of
ethno-nationalism. These conceptions of each group toward the other created a significant
amount of grievance and conflict as a result.
This paper aimed to diagnose the features of the two conflicting parties, the perceived
deprivations that are raised by both, and the actual conflicts that occurred due to the leading
role of the two narratives. Using a qualitative approach, both primary and secondary data
are used. Audio and video documents, with printed and unprinted documents such as books,
journals, magazines, newspapers, and electronic versions of some documents, have been
analyzed. Additional interviews with a few concerned parties are held in order to get at the
true causes behind the witnessed conflicts. As the conflict cannot be resolved through decades
and still both are approved as the key actors in the nation-building process, reconciliation
and peace-building mechanisms have been inquired into by the mentioned methodologies.
Based on his research endeavor, the researcher recommended conflict intervention
mechanisms for the peaceful process of the ongoing nation-building process.
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Keywords
Pan Ethiopianism, Ethno nationalism, colonial thesis, national question, revolution, regime change, ethnicity, Unionists