
BY GETACHEW MINAS
Ethiopia is composed of several ethnic groups with social and cultural differences. This is manifested by the differences in language, dishes, clothing, and social organizations. These differences have not been diminished by global factors of political, social and economic nature. Ethiopians have been able to sustain their cultural and social peculiarities in unity. They have been able to retain colorful ethnic attractions for outsiders and tourists.
The reason behind this unity in diversity is attributed to the indigenous cultures that are abundant in Ethiopians. Also, the style of life has not changed much resulting in greater uniformity. Yet, many ethnic problems arise in Ethiopia mainly from the political and economic hostility that derives from competition between ethnically different peoples for wealth and power.
The TPLF is the root cause of practically all ethnic conflicts in Ethiopia. As a minority group, its strategy of maintaining its dominant political power is to use the outdated “Divide and Rule” system. This approach seems to help the ruling class, but it does not last long in the modern world. Normally, there is an inter-ethnic conflict for scarce resources in the country. But, such conflicts used to be resolved by elderlies who command respect from the community they lived in.
TPLF made it a point to breakdown this traditional institution so that it could easily exploit ethnic differences to its advantage. It also exploited the existing ethnic political divisions by extending it to the extreme. It sided with one group against the other leading them to irreconcilable, conflicting and irresoluble situations.
TPLF followed the evil strategy of ethnic harassment, persecution, detention, incarceration, confinement and disappearances. The ultimate objective of this strategy is to stay in power, which is the instrument for exploitation of resources of the country. The true owners of these resources have been relegated to second or third class citizens whose constitutional rights have been practically denied in practice.
Those who claimed for the natural resource ownership have been, in other words, demanding for total elimination by the junta. All the resources of the country have been directly or indirectly controlled by the ruling junta. Meaningful and realistic objection could not be raised against the junta due to the diverse nature of the people, which has made identification with all the exploited people a difficult task. As a result, the citizens could never develop a proper concept of unity and nationhood.
According to Haile Ayichew, ethnic group relation prompted by the junta signifies a negative dimension for the Ethiopian political system and democratic process. This calls for debates and discussions on the effects of ethnic politics on the process of developing democracy in Ethiopia. Given the reality of political marginalization of various ethnic groups, it becomes necessary to prepare the ground for democracy.
Ethnicity has become a factor of political importance as it became the fundamental policy of the TPLF to prompt various ethnic groups to isolate and eliminate each other. In its manifesto, the TPLF has proclaimed the Amhara as the archenemy of the Tigray people to justify its massacre on innocent people. Those who were against this policy have been detained and persecuted. Most of them were excluded from political offices, economic enterprises, and employment until they submit to the junta.
There are issues related to the concept of ethnicity, a term which does not lend itself to easy definition. To fully understand this, some related concepts like “ethnic group” and “ethnicity” need to be defined and understood. Social scientists refer to ethnic group as an informal interest group whose members are distinct from the members of other ethnic groups within the larger society.
They share affinity, religious and linguistics ties with other groups. This means that ethnic groups are social formations, which are distinguished by the communal character of their boundaries. It is emphasized that the most important or crucial variable in ethnic identity is language. This implies that an ethnic group consists of those who are themselves alike by virtue of their common ancestry, language and culture.
Ethnicity is another related word, which needs to be conceptualized. By definition it means the interactions among members of many diverse groups. The term “ethnicism” denotes ethnic loyalty. This is a feeling of attachment to one’s ethnic group. The concept of loyalty in the above definition carries with it the willingness to support and act on behalf of the ethnic group. Thus, ethnic loyalty or ethnicism usually involves a degree of obligation and is often accompanied by a “negative attitude” towards those regarded as outsiders or members of other ethnic groups.
From these related concepts, it can be seen that ethnicity is a phenomenon, which involves interaction among various ethnic groups. This by itself does not pose any serious threat to either development or democracy. On the other hand, it is the phenomenon of “negative” ethnicism, which is the attitude towards those regarded as outsiders that threatens the development process.
It is important to note that it was the phenomenon of ethnicity that was found among Ethiopians, while the second phenomenon, ethnicism is a product of competition for both economic and political resources. The problematic nature of ethnicism as reflected earlier can be explained in different ways. First, one can examine the negative aspect of ethnicism. It is argued that while developed countries are characterized by universalism, achievement orientation and functional specificity, the under-developed ones are characterized by the opposites, namely particularism, designation and diffuseness. For the under-developed countries to develop, they must adopt the pattern variables that are characteristic of the developed societies.
Another reason why ethnicism has become a problem to contend with is that it is a social conflict over values or claims to status, power and scarce resources. The conflicting parties are not only to gain desirable values but also to neutralize, injure or eliminate their rivals. Thus, “conflict” becomes an important aspect of ethnicism. The implication of this is that conflict is inevitable under conditions of inter-ethnic competition for scarce valuable resources.
Social scientists note that this type of ethnic conflict will strengthen the in-group and out-group feelings of the members of ethnic groups involved in the conflicts. Such conflicts will have negative impacts on certain institutions of the society including the political institutions. This has led to a belief that ethnicism leads to primitive or aboriginal sentiments in multi-ethnic society.
Ethnicism feeds into ethnocentrism, which simply denotes differentiation according to origin. This is to say that it is a kind of behavior where a group of people look down on others and discriminate against them. Thus, one can see ethnocentrism as a belief in the unique value and rightness of one’s own group. This human attitude manifests itself in the form of prejudice and tribalism, ethnic communalism and conflict. One aspect of prejudice that is currently relevant is group solidarity.
Moreover, group solidarity provides security in situation of potential conflict and informal support when official agencies cannot or will not help. Prejudice can easily be turned to discrimination. If this happens, there will be strong pressure to exclude outsiders in the sharing of scarce resources such as political power.
At this point, it is useful to briefly discuss the concept of democracy. Democracy, just like ethnicism, is a concept that is not amenable to unanimity, as there exist several versions of it. Common among these is the classical democracy, liberal democracy orradical democracy just to mention a few. Democratic discussion is often entangled with controversies over a true democracy. The views of scholars are divergent on the concept and practice of democracy. Here, the focus is on liberal democracy or representative democracy which is promoted or impeded by ethnic politics.
Democracy, in the liberal perspective, is government by popular representation. It is a form of government in which the supreme power is retained by the people. It is indirectly exercised through a system of representation and delegated authority which is periodically renewed. Among the major features of democracy is equality of individuals before the law; freedom, liberty and universal suffrage are enjoyed by the people.
Studies examine how competition for wealth and power among various ethnic groups in Ethiopia affects institutionalization of democracy in the country. They studied ethnicism and its resultant ethnic politics as an important factor that contributes to political instability, subsequently threatening democratic rule in Ethiopia. The country is undoubtedly a plural society with different ethnic groups, religions, languages, cultures and institutional arrangements.
As a heterogeneous society, more than eighty ethnic groups have been identified. They naturally interact with one another in competition for power and wealth. This, of course, has resulted into ethnic conflict. A major contributor to ethnic conflict in Ethiopia has been the TPLF and its political manifesto. Previous constitutions had advocated for national integration of the country.
The current constitution provides for a federal government of ethnic-based regions governed by a parliament. Many political scientists have observed that this constitution paved way to the process of fragmentation along ethnic lines in Ethiopia. It has been advocated and supported by the West that had a hidden intent of dividing, disrupting and weakening the country.
The West found in the TPLF a true neocolonial surrogate and proxy ready to bow to any external influences. The external enemies have nothing but to subdue Ethiopia for ease of exploitation of its natural resources by means of external aid. Aid agencies come into the country, guided by the West. They are guided to identify vulnerabilities that would keep Ethiopians under extended poverty. Food aid is given to those affected by war, environmental degradation, that cause underdevelopment. This is a prelude to aid dependency. This has “fostered” lack of will to develop oneself and get rid of dependency on foreign aid.
The best strategy of domestic control by Western powers is to identify and locate agents of exploitation. These agents are treated as local representatives of the global exploiter. They are allowed to pocket a share of the profits from Foreign Direct Investors (FDI), who own the local resources with written permission to do so. The natural owners of these resources could not claim an iota of their resources. If they attempt to do so, they will be annihilated without any mercy.
This act would be a warning for other groups of people from claiming their share. Initially, they are divided along ethnic lines based on internal and fictitious narratives. The FDIs ensure that their investments in Ethiopia are highly remunerative and well-protected by the ruling TPLF junta. Using handpicked regional officials, the junta takes the leading step in identifying enterprises the result in high profits and remunerations. Priority is given to industries that produce for exports and save and secure foreign exchanges to be pocketed or saved in foreign banks recommended by the FDI agents.
To legally divert and diminish domestic resistance to exploitation, the TPLF used the constitution and rules that emanate from it. The rules encouraged factionalism, which later resulted into ethnic nationalism. This is the tendency to consider oneself as a member of an ethnic group rather than as a member of a nation. This tendency is shown in the allegiance of individuals to their ethnic groups. Subsequently, many persons suffer from ethnic based isolation, harassment, eviction, lack of employment opportunities.
This ethnic allegiance encourages primitive sentiments among Ethiopian people. Thus, the individuals are concerned with socioeconomic and political development of their own group and not the nation as a whole. It is imperative to note that ethnic politics has exhibited and displayed itself in many patterns in Ethiopia. It has to be cooled down for the proper development of democracy, which is rule by the majority with great respect to the rights of the minority.
Editor’s Note: The views entertained in this article do not necessarily reflect the stance of The Ethiopian Herald
The Ethiopian Herald October 8/2022