The American poet Robert Frost is often quoted for his saying, ‘Good fences make good neighbors’. This line by Frost is sometimes associated with the allegory of the frozen porcupines. In this allegorical fable, the frozen porcupines tried to huddle together for warmth on a bitterly cold day. They, however, pricked one another and couldn’t keep on huddling and were forced to keep distance between themselves. The bitterness of the cold, however, made them attempt to get closer to one another again and again, but the porcupines finally discovered that to build a healthy relationship they need to maintain a moderate distance between them. The lesson to be derived out of this famous fable is that it is advisable to keep a moderate distance between oneself (an individual or a group) and the other. To avoid pricking one another and lead a tolerable life, we need to build a good fence between neighbors, says Frost.
Turning this fable to our today’s reality, we find various groups grappling to build stronger fences among themselves and hence identify themselves as a competent ethnical group. The Ethiopian government led by TPLF-EPRDFhad managed to bung fifty plus nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia into one region, namely Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples /SNNP/. Several zonal administrations in this region have been demanding to form their own independent regional administration for decades though all were denied by the TPLF led Federal government. It is of course after the coming of Dr. Abiy that their demands became stronger and sometimes involved riots and protests. Consequently, the Sidama people have now become the tenth region of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia /FDRE/ after pro-independent votes weighed in the referendum.
Sidama being the 10th regional state of the FDRE has become an impetus for dozens of other zonal administrations in the SNNP region to enkindle their request of forming ethnic-based regional states. The federal government, after conducting research, came up with a resolution that aims to address the problem. The resolution proposed is to group those nations, nationalities and peoples having cultural, linguistic, and ethnic similarities into one region. It is however unfortunate that the resolution is not welcomed especially by proponents of radical ethnonationalism. Many other elites and politicians have also denounced the diagnosis and the prescription of the federal government. They contend that the eventual outcome of such portioning would be the same as it has been before. Current tension among various ethnocentric groups and political parties of different zones within the region signals the inevitability of chaos and conflicts if left unchecked.
Ethiopia, as diverse as it is, it is also a land where a number of similar attributes in between and among the diverse nation, nationalities and peoples exist and coexist. Ethiopia is a home for more than 80 ethnic groups most of which have lived intermingled and intermarried for centuries.
The American historian, Andrew Baruch Wachtel, in 1998, has once remarked with a particular reference to the Yugoslav conflicts, ‘No matter how similar a group of people appears to be on the surface, there is sure to be some level at which differences appears; Conversely, no matter how heterogeneous a group of people might appear to an observer, there is a level at which its members could choose to see each other as belonging to one nation.’ And such intermingled setting has made the ethnic surgery very difficult for political entrepreneurs though they managed to do it somehow shadily by magnifying the minor differences, they find between their group and the other/s.
It should however be noted that the ‘desire for recognition and dignity’ is among the noblest political goals that a group/s could ever aspire for, sometimes even above economic needs. Francis Fukuyama on his latest book, Identity, has succinctly explained the issue in simple terms; “Consider that next time you give money to a homeless person, but fail to make eye contact with him/her: You are relieving the material want but failing to acknowledge the shared humanity between the beggar and you.’’ People/groups want to be visible and be recognized as they are. Both the regional and federal governments, therefore, need to reconsider their approaches in dealing with the constitution based requests made by the various zones within the SNNPR. Those in need of answer should also take into account the overall situations in and out of the country.
In line with the discontents and looming crises within these highly intermingled zonal administrations, the resolution package should combine social, economic and political elements in addition to the legal approaches in order to preclude potentially adverse effects. As history witnesses, hostilities and conflicts that arise in between and among groups sharing several common values and adjoining territories are the bloodiest and the fiercest. The two Koreans, the two sons of Abraham, India vs Pakistan, Serbs vs Croats, Sunnis vs Shiites, Hutu vs Tutsi, tribes in Somalia and others are good examples of generational hostilities. In Ethiopia, some ethnic groups have minor differences among themselves but the hostilities created by magnifying those minor differences are potentially hazardous. People tend to cling on the minor differences than to tighten the common values they share. When relations are pleasant, their desirable parts come to the fore. When disagreements arise, differences get the upper hand, and minor differences are then magnified. Even if there are no minor differences, groups tend to create them. They constantly keep on ridiculing each other.
Sigmund Freud has developed a theory that depicts such hostile rivalries. On his famous book titled ‘Civilization and Its Discontents,’ Freud discusses how communities with adjoining territories, and related to each other in other ways such socio-cultural values engage in constant feuds. Furthermore, his theory goes on explaining how two families connected by a marriage think of each other as superior or of better birth than the other. And of two neighboring towns, each is the other’s most jealous rival; every little town looks down upon the others with contempt. Freud termed this phenomenon “The Narcissism of minor differences”.
When groups tend to lean on the narcissism of minor differences, two major problems are likely to arise; A tendency to define yourself by what you’re not, and a focus on trivialities over fundamentals. Groups keep drawing lines between themselves and the other and hence build their relative identity by focusing on who they are not. While doing so, they magnify the minor differences meanwhile belittling the commonalities among themselves. Here comes the wryest expression of Freud, “It is always possible to bind together a considerable number of people in love, so long as there are other people left over to receive the manifestations of their aggressiveness.” Humans are naturally drawn to conflict, and latching on to minor differences to bolster our sense of self is really just a submerged form of aggression and hostility.
The situation within the SNNP region needs a careful diagnosis of historical, psychological and political contexts before the prescription. Groups’ need to be ethnically visible and recognized is both inherent and politically manipulated. Moreover, to avert possible political chaos once and for all the regional and federal governments should devise strategies that tie these groups economically. Economic ties preclude conflicts even when a feeling of hatred and hostility is present among the groups. The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), when initially conceived by Jean Monnet and Robert Shuman, was to deter further European war. The ECSC has been successful in bringing reconciliation between the major powers, France and Germany. It is ECSC that laid the ground for the formation of the European Economic Community that later transformed itself to the European Union. The ECSC, by bringing France and Germany to factual solidarity, it avoided potential war between them on one hand and boosting the economic growth of the member countries. It was, of course, a double-edged plan.
By the same token, besides the attempt of bringing about and maintaining peaceful co-existence in the region through political and legal means, the governments at both the federal and regional level have to consider creating lasting economic ties among the hostile groups. It can be through construction of highways linking the zones, encouraging the groups to involve in doing businesses together such as banks, factories, and others because good fences don’t necessarily make the neighbourhood good unless backed by elements of cooperation.
Finally, I will leave you with a book paragraph that challenged me. It is from Dr. Meg Jay’s book, The Defining Decade. “Distinctiveness is a fundamental part of identity, but different is simple. Like the easiest way to explain black is to call it the opposite of white, often the first thing we know about ourselves is not what we are—but what we aren’t. We mark ourselves as not-this or not-that…But self-definition cannot end there. An identity or a career cannot be built around what you don’t want. We have to shift from a negative identity, or sense of what I’m not, to a positive one, or a sense of what I am. This takes courage.”
Inviting you Paul Simon’s song, ‘One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor’, I close!
The Ethiopian Herald June 25, 2020
BY WOSSENSEGED ASSEFFA
