The Role of Popular Songs on Ethnicity and Nationalism in Ethiopia Since1991 G.C
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Date
2021-09
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AdAddis Ababa University
Abstract
My thesis investigates the role of music in supporting or undermining ethnonational and Pan-
Ethiopian national identities, as well as the major causes of their emergence, through a critical
examination of Ethiopia's past historical narrative. I extensively explore the participation of
music in national identity formation in the Derg and special emphasis on the Federal
Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE) since 1991. In this project, I mainly deployed the
qualitative research method. The main source of the data is songs. Some of the songs are
acquired from the archive. The secondary source is mainly derived from open-ended interviews
and questionnaires administered to my respondents, who are multidisciplinary intellectuals.
Music is a medium that doesn’t go in a vacuum and also it is part of the process of the past
historical narratives or discourses in Ethiopia. In this case, Music plays a major role in the
formation of ethnonational and Pan-Ethiopian national identity in Ethiopia. This thesis is
intended to show how the participation of music in the formation of identity politics and can
create a collective identity formation in Ethiopia. In addition, music is a powerful tool for
conflict transformation in Ethiopia, so that the government has to give more attention to the
greater potential of music for conflict resolution. Therefore to study music is given the chance to
understand a unique perspective about identity formation that can’t be found from the other field
of studies like history and political science and also I believe that, this thesis provides a greater
contribution to the scholar those who are interested in multidisciplinary research.
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Keywords
Ethiopian Music, Identity, Nationalism, Ethnicity, Representation