Review: War & the Politics of Identity in Ethiopia: the making of enemies & allies in the Horn of Africa

Abstract

War and the Politics of Identity in Ethiopia: the Making of Enemies & Allies in the Horn of Africa by Kjetil Tronvoll. New York, NY: Boydell and Brewer, 2009. xiv + 239 pp. ISBN 978 1 84701 612 6. In War and the Politics of Identity in Ethiopia, Kjetil Tronvoll takes on the delicate subject of identity and politics in the Eritrea-Ethiopian context. He painstakingly examines the diverse views and sometimes contradictory comments of the Tigrinya- speaking people of Tigray in explaining the latest war with their friendly-neighbor- turned-foe Eritrea. Tronvoll makes clear from the outset the scope of his study; this book, he states, is not “about the origin or the bilateral politics of the Eritrean-Ethiopia war. Neither does it address the effect of the war as seen from the Eritrean point of view, nor how it has impacted upon Eritrean identities” (p. 3). Also, the book does not discuss the regional and international aspect of the Eritrea-Ethiopia border war and the ensuing peace process. The book is instead about finding answers to basic questions on the effect of war on identity formation. The main questions are whether the bilateral war enhanced the ideology of nationalism, thereby creating a homogenous effect on the population at large, and, more importantly, whether the war helped to create a triumphant single-enemy image, solidifying the various close ethnic loyalties to a nationalist rhetoric. In trying to tackle these intricate and intertwined issues, Tronvoll focused on the two-year border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia in 1998-2000. The primary sources that Tronvoll collected during the two-year period of active war and immediately afterwards, though useful, require a careful reading of the sentiments and aspirations of the people at the time of the interviews. This is important because those times were characterized by nationalistic ethos and government propaganda directed at the warring parties and the people of the two countries, who were highly polarized. Emotions were running high and very few on either side of the border were immune to the mainstream arguments of each country’s government’s accusation and dehumanization of the “other.” Those sentiments died out as time went by and people started to ask critical questions. Tronvoll starts off by giving a historical background to how the May 6, 1998 border incident led to a full-fledged border war between the two formerly friendly governments. The war continued on and off until the