The history of nation building carried out in many countries had undergone similar approach and almost all were conducted through military means.
The 1888 Berlin conference, derived by the scramble for Africa paved the way for the creation of political maps of the African countries and laid groundwork for the subjugation of them.
After their independence in the 1960s, conflict born to border disputes among the countries was common in various parts of the continent. After the establishment of the then Organization of African Unity (OAU), in 1963 dialogue was taken as a path to solutions, but still some disagreements are witnessing. The OAU convention declared the legality of the existing political maps crafted during the colonization period. The history of some European countries nation-building was not an exception and the unification of Italy and Germany can be mentioned as a case in point in this regard. Garibaldi unified Italy starting from south to north by force and in a similar manner, Bismarck unified the divided 38 regions of Germany by “Iron and fist” forcefully. What differed these countries from African countries was that in the later decades they succeeded in establishing peaceful and democratic countries with strong economies.
The history of the United States also proved this approach. The Anglo-Saxon migrants settled in North America since the 16th century and laid the ground for the establishment of the United States by subjugating the indigenous population. Later, the introduction of the Constitution in 1789 played a pivotal role for the establishment of the United States with a strong economy and a viable democratic political system.
The establishment of Australia is not an exception, in fact. The country was created by European settlers by marginalizing the indigenous people economically and politically. Today Australia is one of the richest countries in the world with an advanced democratic system, and ethnic diversity is also accommodated. Therefore, one can understand that in the past, nation-building by force was a common phenomenon in the history of mankind and the global realm.
In Ethiopia, the modern nation-building project started in the last quarter of the 19th century by Emperor Menelik II through military means and is still perceived by some political groups as controversial and took it as their driving force for their liberation struggle objectives.
It is an undeniable fact that before the emperor’s campaign to the southern regions of the country, there were established states with their own kings. During the campaign, some resisted the emperor’s army while others surrendered through negotiations and secured their autonomous status then.
The coronation of Emperor Hailasilasie I in the earlier years of the 20th century further consolidated the nation-building project and attempted to establish a more centralized government by eroding the regional kings’ autonomous power.
Emperor Hailasilasie I for the first time introduced an earthly constitution in 1930 to establish a modern political system, which defined state structure with legislative, judiciary, and executive branches. The constitution also declared that the emperor had absolute power.
In the later decades, the nation-building project continued through emperor territorial control consolidation and political power booming. Side by side with these efforts, the establishment of infrastructures such as educational and health institutions and the construction of roads and provision of telephone and electric services had come to the forefront. In the economic sphere, except for the advent of some small-scale industries, the nation remained in a feudal mode of production in which land was owned by a few feudal landlords, and life was hard to the tenants as they had been given a hard time to lead a subsistence life in poverty.
The expansion of education in 1960 created elite groups who posed questions on the political viability of the imperial regime and forwarded their demand for change, but the old imperial regime adamantly rejected the intellectual community’s demand. In line with this, the armed resistance forces that waged war against the imperial government in the Bale, Tigray, and Gojam regions were forcefully calmed down.
In the feudal era, though the constitution was introduced, the relation between people and the government and the country was not legally defined. Until 1955 people were denied their rights to elect their representatives to the legislative organ. Even though the legislative body was established, the members of the legislature were not elected by the people; rather, they were selected based on their blood affinity with the ruling elites regardless of merit. The members of the council of the upper house had been strictly selected by the emperor himself. These clearly indicate that people had not been regarded as citizens; rather, they had been categorized as subjects of the monarchial system.
Tenants were subjected to the operation and exploitations of the landlords and paid tribute of 2/3 of what they produced, and as he wished, the landlord could evict them from their holdings. Such unbearable operation forced people to aspire to the establishment of a new political order. The quest for democracy and freedom of expression coupled with the regional liberation struggle in the northern part of the country gave birth to the outbreak of the Ethiopian revolution and the demise of the statuesque in 1974. But the successive regimes which came to power were unable to establish the political order governed by the rule of law. This intern critically hampered the proper nation-building project.
They tried to resolve by introducing imported radical ideologies which further complicated the generational long socio-economic problems.
The crafters of the 1995 constitution regarded that the root causes of the country problems are ethnic operation and forwarded establishing ethnic based regions to be governed under the federal rule. The preamble unequivocally declared that the constitution is endorsed by the representatives of nations, nationalities and peoples.
The constitution also recognized freedom of expression, the right to association and all human rights ratified by the United Nation Convention in 1948, which are recognized to be part of it. Similar to individual rights, group rights, including the right to self-determination, which is still controversial by many, are also enshrined in the constitution. The regime was criticized by promoting group rights by denying individual rights, which posed horizontal conflict among ethnic groups.
Putting all kinds of rights on paper and implementing them are different matters since what is practically carried out and what is stipulated in documents are diametrically divergent. The government did not show interest in implementing laws written on paper in the ground and similar to other dictatorial regimes all were subjected to manipulation.
The administration did prohibit the establishment of independent institutions and denied the autonomy of the three branches of the government, the legislative, judicial and executive.
Though the constitution stipulated the flourishing of a multi-party system, opposition parties were precluded from getting enough space to struggle in a peaceful manner. Besides, all the elections conducted in the reign of the regime were fake and served to perpetuate the ruling party’s power tenure.
Therefore, similar to the past regimes, Ethiopia lost the chance to attain power succession in a peaceful manner by considering the citizens ambition for attaining democracy. In 2018, after retaining its power forcefully for 27 years, the EPRDF left its power unceremoniously.
The reformist government led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD), cognizant of the vitality of resolving the generational long contradiction and grievances committed by successive regimes, established a National Dialogue Commission. The commission drew important lessons from some African countries, including Tunisia, Rwanda and South Africa, which passed through negotiations to resolve their past grievances committed by regimes and non-state actors.
In the case of Ethiopia, there are parties that still put questions on the very process of nation-building, as they have claimed that their territory was annexed by the central government forcefully during the making of the nation-building. Ensuring individual rights advocates also strived for meeting their aspiration through establishing a democratic governance system. Therefore, participants should anticipate that addressing historical grievances and ensuring citizens generational long political aspirations are key matters.
Among the African countries which experienced national dialogue for resolving their political differences, Southern Sudan, Tunisia, Liberia, Libya and Sudan can be mentioned and except for Liberia and Tunisia, the rest are unable to resolve their root cause of political disparity, and Ethiopia can draw lessons from the fruitful trajectories from which successful nations garner benefit.
According to the senior United Nations Conflict Resolution Experts, the dialogue commission should be independent and free from the manipulation of any interest groups to meet the objectives of the national dialogue. It is believed that the National Dialogue Commission meets these criteria.
The commission anticipates completing the agenda gathering process sooner. According to the Chief Commissioner Professor Mesfin Araya , over the past two and half years, the Ethiopian National Dialogue Commission has carried out tremendous preparation activities in various phases to conduct a nationwide consultation with a view to addressing Ethiopia’s multiple political challenges.
All interested groups and stakeholders should recognize that the historic opportunities created by the government to resolve generational long political differences through dialogue and healing the past wounds. To this end, all citizens and stakeholders should exert their maximum effort thereby creating a stable and economically advanced nation.
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald
BY ABEBE WOLDEGIORGIS
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SATURDAY 15 MARCH 2025
