A commentary on Gebreslassie Kiross study of social stratification and marginalization in the southern nations, nationalities and people region of Ethiopia: The case of Manjo minority groups

Abstract

This study explored the pitfalls of the Gebreslassie Kiros’s study of social stratification and marginalization in the Southern Nations Nationalities and People Region of Ethiopia. To achieve the purpose of the study, the qualitative research method was employed through semi-structured interviews, participant observation and document analysis. To that end, Six Woreda administration officials, seven educated Manjo parents, nine Manjo participants of functional adult education fellows and six non-Manjo households participated in the in-depth interviews and participant observation by employing a purposive sampling procedure. The results of the study portray that the Gebreslassie Kiros’s study lacked focus, pursued the poor ethnographic study method and came about erroneous generalizations. To this end, the paper recommends those researchers who are interested in rights of minority community to employ long term observation by spending longer time with participants at the study site to minimize distortions and to provide the researcher with the opportunity to test biases and perceptions. Key words: Manjo, Gomaro, social stratification, marginalization, minority rights.