Institutionally crafted Amhara-domination narrative: an existential threat to Amhara people

Abstract

ABSTRACT Political narrative is an instrument for political actors to construct a shared meaning, and it can be harnessed to harm political opponents. The Italian invaders, the Ethiopian Student Movement, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the Oromo Liberation Front, and the incumbent regime contributed in varying degrees to the Amhara domination narrative. TPLF, in its political manifesto and later in the 1995 FDRE constitution, institutionally crafted an anti-Amhara narrative, reaching a crescendo after Abiy Ahmed assumed office in 2018. Thus, this research article tried to scrutinise and weigh the discourse of institutionally crafted Amhara existential threats. The study employed a qualitative research tradition and an exploratory research design approach that involved a political-economic analysis. The study finds that the century-old Amhara domination narrative, coupled with institutionally supported recurrent mass killings and expulsion, especially in Oromia, Benishangul-Gumuz, and Amhara regional states, posed a real and perceived existential threat that gave birth to the Amhara Fano armed struggle.