Abstract
This paper explores the dynamics of contending and ultra-ethnic based nationalism movement in Ethiopia which has recently created a rift in the country, a divergence that could have far-reaching implications to the insecurity of the Ethiopian statehood. Through the use of a qualitative desk research approach, the paper reveals that the primacy of ethnicity and ethnic nationalism in Ethiopia originally emanated from the ideological inputs of Marxism-Leninism ideology, an ideology that dominates the politics of Ethiopia for more than two decades. The paper further argues that ethnic nationalism in the Ethiopia context arguably a recent phenomenon and its provenance primarily associated with the exclusive ideological narratives of the state elites and in some case the state formation process of the country. The paper further argues the guise ‘nation-building’ narratives of the post-1990s have further intensified the saliency of ethnicity in the Ethiopian Political market place. Put differently, the re-structuring of the Ethiopian state along ethnic lines and the constitutional engineering of ‘self-determination’ including secession has further intensified ethno-nationalist movement in the country which has been become the major challenges for the continuation of the Ethiopian statehood. Perhaps, its continuance as a unified state seems lays on the will of these ultranationalist groups. Keywords: Ethnicity, Nationalism, Nation-Building, Political Narratives DOI : 10.7176/JCSD/54-01 Publication date: December 31 st 2019
Highlights
Nationalism is the most powerful principle of political legitimacy in the modem world
Nationalism and Ethnicity in the Ethiopia context The relevance of ethnicity and nationalism in the Ethiopia contexts has associated with the historical condition of state formation, the subsequent political struggle for power, resources, domination and marginalisation, and succession-mostly by elites but not limited to them, the legacies of Marxism-Leninism, the modernization process of the country, the radicalization of western-educated Ethiopians and to some extent the influence of colonialism
Attached with the ‘national question’, Marxism ideology1 had greatly influenced the political dynamics of Ethiopia in the second half of the twentieth century (Keller, 2014)
Summary
Nationalism is the most powerful principle of political legitimacy in the modem world. The recent political development in the former USSR, Eastern Europe, and some third world multi-ethnic states demonstrates the powerful impact of nationalism in the making and unmaking of nations (Gellner, 1983; O’Leary, 1997; Smith, 2009; Wimmer, 2013). 2), ‘‘most of today’s more prominent and protracted wars are associated with the national principle – the idea that each people should be self-ruled, that ethnic like should be governed by like’’ In his widely acclaimed book, Nations and Nationalism, Gellner (1983) reveals that ‘‘[c]onflict is predicted to occur ‘where “ethnic” (cultural or other diacritical marks) are visible and accentuate the differences in educational access and power’, and ‘above all, when they inhibit the free flow of personnel across the loose lines of social stratification’’. The potential number of nation-states may be higher given the existence of numerous unsatisfied nationalisms which may succeed and in this context; the risk of the national question is more visible in a multi-ethnic state like Ethiopia (Markakis, 2011; Merera, 2002)
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