Blurred Bottom lines of Ethiopian Political Crisis from 20011 to 2020

Jemal Muhamed Adem

doi:10.7176/iags/79-03

Abstract

Ethiopia has been hosting political crisis since 2011. While the dominant and official narratives emphasis on ethnicity as a sole factor to explain contemporary Ethiopian politics in general and the ongoing political crisis in particular, this paper argues that ethnic and religious determinants are deeply intertwined in Ethiopian political and conflictual dynamism. The current political transformation and related political violence and the country’s upcoming future can only better explained by interplay of ethno and religious factors at local, regional and international levels. Despite the masking role of ethnicity over religious motives at least in official term, there is a tendency of developments in which the latter overwhelms the former which will expose the country for external manipulation and destabilization. The grievances that provoke ethno-religious tensions have most often demonstrated through ethnic unrests, bitter political dissidents often stoked by political elites, direct and indirect foreign actor’s involvement, social media activities and violent incidents. In view of the current events unfolding in the country, the paper argued that ethnic factors alone cannot explain Ethiopia’s political crisis, but ethno-religious mingles. The arguments in this paper are supported by both secondary and primary sources and with consideration of the violent incidents and their implications in multicultural contexts of Ethiopian Society. Keywords: Ethno-religious, political crisis, Ethiopia DOI : 10.7176/IAGS/79-03 Publication date: January 31 st 2020

Highlights

Few years ago it was hard to predict that Ethiopian politics would change dramatically in short a period of time as the country witness that surprises citizenries, scholars, politicians and international communities alike
The two diaspora organizations arranged a joint dialogue with the government by sending delegation composed of nine members: four from the US, three from Europe, one from Canada and one from Saudi Arabia who conducted a kind of survey and listed out what they called the crucial issues of Ethiopian Muslims articulated under a single document titled as ‘Questions Rise by the Ethiopian Muslims diaspora to the Prime Minster Meles Zenawi’
This article has sought to clarify the confluence of ethnicity and religion in the view of ongoing Ethiopian political crisis and tried to indicate some future scenarios

Summary

Introduction

Few years ago it was hard to predict that Ethiopian politics would change dramatically in short a period of time as the country witness that surprises citizenries, scholars, politicians and international communities alike. While the controversy between the government and Muslim community had hushed without effective solutions, the protest sustained by a serious of ethnic based protest when ethnic Oromo in 2014, Amhara in 2016, Afar and Somalia in 2016 joined the protest and resistances politics Amid of these popular resistance and confrontations with the government, the latter adopted various measures and internal reforms, mainly the nomination of new Prime minister, Dr Abiy Ahmed on Aprile 2, 2018. The key argument of the paper is that the ongoing political heats in Ethiopia are neither purely ethnic driven, as reputed officially nor free from religious based motives To put in another words Ethnicity alone cannot explain the behavior, interest and motives of actor’s Ethiopian politics

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Discussion

Conclusion