National Integration through Political Marginalization: Contradictions of Nation-Building in Ethiopia

Abstract

Abstract In Ethiopia, the nationalities question has been the most contentious political force shaping politics, engendering conflicts and obstructing national integration. In this article, I provide a historical analysis of the emergence in the 1960s of two dominant positions, “ethionationalism” and ethnonationalism, which coalesced into competing political visions of the character of the Ethiopian state. I posit that advocates of the two positions wrested power and tried to shape the state, writing constitutions and introducing political systems for governing Ethiopia. I discuss the transformation of these political positions and realignments as those in power maneuvered to deny Oromo nationalists access to political power, rejecting the idea of self-determination as a solution to the nationalities question. I conclude that the competing nationalisms have failed, and that the only way to create a stable Ethiopian state remains the position that Oromo nationalism has enunciated for half a century.