Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front Research Articles

The War on Tigray: Geopolitics and the Struggle for Self-Determination

Tigray continues to be a unique case among ancient kingdoms, Westphalia nation-states, post-colonial Africa, and post-Cold War national liberation struggles. It is one of the oldest civilizations (Aksumite Kingdom) and the historical, cultural, and political soul of ancient and modern Ethiopia. But it was made to be an ‘oppressed nation struggling for regional autonomy and survival from genocidal aggression’ by the empire state of Ethiopia and the ‘garrison state’ of Eritrea. It also survived Egyptian and Mahdist expansionists, and Italian colonialism, though it lost ‘Bahre-Negash’ (Eritrea) to Italy due to the Wuchale Agreement (or Treaty of Wichale) in 1889. Eritrea was handed over to Italian colonialists by Menelik II of Shewa-Amhara in order to weaken Tigray’s geopolitical power base. Tigray was also the hotbed of the first Woyane rebellion in 1943 which sparked the idea of ‘land to the Tiller, fair taxation, and self-rule,’ and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) led the second Woyane rebellion (1975–91) that restructured the empire state of Ethiopia into a federation with the 1995 constitution. Since 2018, after 27 years of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF)- led federal experiment, Tigray again became a victim of a ‘genocidal war’ led by the Ethiopian federal army, Amhara forces, Ethiopian regional forces, and Eritrean army, supported by UAE and Turkey drones, and the Somalian army. The international community and the African Union supported Abiy Ahmed and Issaias Afewerki’s genocidal war in the name of “maintaining the territorial integrity of Ethiopia” by neglecting the principles of Responsibility to Protect (R2P), people’s self-determination rights, and the prevention of genocide. Tigray, therefore, is a rare case in the vicious cycle of violence. The Tigrayan ‘two-year’ survival war (from November 2020 to November 2022) against those who practice genocide was destined to break Tigray’s historically vicious cycle of violence perpetrated by Ethiopia and Eritrea. The paper aims to investigate the historical, geopolitical, and security reasons that have trapped Tigray into facing the post-2020 genocidal war.

The making and re-making of administrative regions in Ethiopia, 1907-2018: policy changes and continuities

ABSTRACT Ethiopia is one of the places in the ancient world where state formation took place, with its distinct cultural and technological advancements. Ethiopia has experienced the making and re-making of administrative regions several times in its long history. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to document the policy changes and continuities that were prevalent in the making and re-making of administrative regions in Ethiopia from 1907 to 2018. The researchers employed a qualitative research approach in the sense that both primary and secondary data were collected through document analysis and semi-structured interviews of key informants. This was followed by the selection, organization, and cross-checking of the data before it was analyzed and presented on paper. The findings of this study showed that, since the establishment of the Ministry of Interior in 1907, the rulers of Ethiopia formulated administrative policy/guideline based on their own administrative and political motives with which the country’s administrative regions were organized and reorganized. The administrative regions of the country showed little or no change from 1962 to 1991. A major shift in the administrative policy of the country, however, came about during the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) rule from 1991 to 2018.

The Party System in Ethiopia

Abstract Political parties and their internal working policy and pattern of interactions have a profound impact on the operation of federations and the character of intergovernmental relations (IGR). By using the Ethiopian party system as a case study, this article aims to explore the impacts of party ideology, structure and style of functioning on the overall operation of a federation and the (de)institutionalisation of intergovernmental relations. It shows that the party structure, internal practices and ideological conviction of two parties—the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and the Prosperity Party (PP)—have shaped and reshaped the functioning of the Ethiopian federation and the dynamics of vertical and horizontal relations. At the same time, constitutional and IGR principles have been sidelined. There is a need to entrench stable and formal IGR frameworks for negotiation, the exchange of information and co-operation between federal and sub-state institutions. Reducing excessive reliance on the party line is essential to optimise the regularity, continuity and effectiveness of the interactions.

Media and Politics of Representation: A Critical Decolonial Analysis of the Protests Against Addis Ababa’s Integrated Master Plan

ABSTRACT This study explores both the coloniality of knowledge and politics of representation and the dominant political ideologies manifested within the Ethiopian Brodcasting Corporation (EBC). It also deepens media coverage of protests by interrogating how the media in Ethiopia construct knowledge and negotiate politics of representation in every aspect of the political scene. The study employed an exploratory case study research design through the lens of decolonial epistemic theory to scrutinise the mass media coverage of protests deployed in the EBC. This study mainly discusses the colonial matrix of power, dominant discourses and their ideologies in EBC regarding protest representation against Addis Ababa’s Integrated Master Plan (AAIMP). The study extends its argument to how decolonisation occurs in the struggle for economic control through the land-grabbing political system of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) government of Ethiopia. The study’s central argument regards AAIMP’s goal to annex the neighbouring Oromia regions, proposed in 2014. Through this colonial matrix, as emphasised by the work of Tlostanova and Mignolo, the study elaborates on how the government imposes restrictions on the media representation of protests and how and why the media partially or fully ignore or distort the coverage of social movements.

Ethnocentrism vis-à-vis Ethiopian Nationalism as Reflected in Yismake’s Novels, <i>Därtogada</i> and <i>Kïbur Dïngay</i>

This paper was intended to make a critical analysis on the state of ethnocentrism and pan-Ethiopian ideology during the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) regime as reflected in Yismake Worku’s two Amharic novels which are titled Därtogada (2009) and Kïbur Dïngay (2013) respectively. Van Dijk’s (1995; 1998) and Wodak’s (2009; 2017) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) theories were employed to make the critical analysis. The finding of the study revealed that the ethnocentric political system employed during the EPRDF’s period has been serving as a fertile and legitimate ground for the proliferation of tribal ideology at the expense of pan-Ethiopian ideology. In the two Amharic novels, the ethnic political system is portrayed as a perilous tool via which Ethiopia’s future existence as a unified whole is in question mark. This inspired a strong nationwide mass movement to avoid such a divisive political thought on the one hand and to promote Ethiopian nationalism on the other.

Displaced for housing: analysing the uneven outcomes of the Addis Ababa Integrated Housing Development Program

ABSTRACT The population of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital and largest city is growing at a remarkable pace. Similar to other places in the Global South, rapid urban population growth poses significant challenges for Addis Ababa, the most important of which is acute housing shortage. Around 80% of the housing stock in the city is considered sub-standard, lacking essential utilities and services. In recognition of the severity of the housing crisis, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), which governed Ethiopia from 1991–2018 introduced the Integrated Housing Development Program (IHDP), an ambitious plan to construct hundreds of thousands of condominium units. However, despite the IHDP’s pro-poor aims, the program has been criticized for failing to benefit the city’s poorest residents. Focusing on IHDP-induced displacement and resettlement to re-politicize the issue, this article demonstrates how in some instances, the IHDP not only failed to benefit the urban poor but actually deepened material inequality.

Ideology, grand strategy and the rise and decline of Ethiopia's regional status

Abstract Ethiopia transformed from a state on the verge of collapse at the end of the Cold War into one of the world's fastest-developing economies and a regional power in the Horn of Africa in less than two decades. Since 2018 its economic, military and diplomatic status have, however, become significantly compromised yet again. What explains these significant fluctuations in regional power status? Drawing on policy documents and in-depth interviews with diplomatic, military and political officials from the Horn of Africa this article conducts a comparative analysis of the nature and variation of Ethiopia's regional power status under the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) in 2000–2018 and the Prosperity Party (PP) in 2018–2022. The findings illustrate that the fluctuations in regional power were primarily caused by different grand strategies, which in turn reflected the priorities of the EPRDF's developmental state and the PP's restorative nationalist ideologies. These grand strategic concepts shaped Ethiopian government policies on key issues like defence doctrine, status-seeking, economic development, and rivalry and alliance management. These policies had a direct and significant impact on Ethiopia's state capacity, its ability to project military power and its diplomatic influence.

Analyzing the Rationality of Ethiopia in Dealing with China’s Support in Infrastructure Development

This article analyzes the rationality of Ethiopia in cooperating with China in restoring the Addis Ababa-Djibouti railway project using rational choice theory in foreign policy making. Despite having several alternative ports and other parties to support the project, Ethiopia has chosen the fund from China to support its railway project. The similarity between China and Ethiopia regarding political values is one of the factors in choosing China to work with. The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) seems to be unapproachable by Western political values that are influenced by the internal condition of the state and tend to emphasize democracy. Therefore, it tends to work with China. Other than that, depending on Djibouti’s port as the most viable seaport in the region to access the sea as a landlocked country has driven Ethiopia to restore the railway as quickly as possible. By considering the Chinese loan system, which did not have many qualifications to lend money, Ethiopia could quickly restore the railway and not miss out on the opportunity to grow its trade through developing its infrastructure.
 Keywords: African infrastructure development, China’s loan, China in Africa, rational choice

A history of road construction and its socio-economic impact in East Gojjam,1941-2005

In Ethiopia, infrastructure development remains one of the largely neglected areas of historical research. This paper, therefore, surveys the history of road building and its socio-economic impact in East Gojjam from 1941 to 2005. To this end, archival documents, oral information and secondary sources were consulted. The findings show that the post-liberation imperial period saw no significant development on the opening of new routes. Road construction reawakened during the military regime. It witnessed promising road networks that encompassed highway, feeder and rural roads. In contrast, road construction remained sluggish during the reign of the Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) under discussion. The transitional government lifetime (1991-1995) was in particular a gloomy period. The failure of successive governments in expanding the road network emanated from economic, political, policy and related issues. Despite this, the impact of the nascent road network that extended all through the three regimes is clearly observable from the increasingly socio-economic interaction that appeared in the region and beyond.

Interstate Media Wars: The Experience of the Ethiopian Federation

The present study interrogates the interstate media wars that erupted following the emergence of relational troubles among the parties of Ethiopia’s coalition: the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Data from archives and interviews were used to understand the causes and characteristics of the media wars that were mostly fought out on television and other mass media. Findings show that the states used offensive and defensive strategies that included delegitimation, narrativisation and moralisation. Findings further indicate that the most open media war involved the Somali and Oromia states, which used Facebook as their major platform to express an open political hostility relating to their ethnoterritorial disputes in the earliest phases of the conflict. The present study highlights the potential dangers of inflammatory state media deployment in the context of fractured and fragile federations.

The Transformative Power of the Oromo Protests in Ethiopia: Resilience and Political Change

This article explores why the Oromo protests have transformed the Ethiopian political landscape since demonstrators took the streets in November 2015. It also examines the relationship between the two pillars of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), ethnic federalism and developmentalism, and the Oromo protests. The study aims to illustrate the connection between the Ethiopian state’s fundamental strategies and the capacity of popular movements to bring about political change. The study has used a qualitative research approach with both primary and secondary data. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted and recorded with a voice recorder, and data was analysed through thematic analysis. The findings of the research show, first, that the securitisation of development strategy performed by the EPRDF triggered the protests. And second, that the primordial understanding of ethnicity, as defined in the Constitution, contributed to the articulation of the Oromo protests as a movement. The study concludes that the Oromo protests will pave the way for reform because they reflect the regime’s failures and also represent the demands of the larger part of Ethiopian society.

Ethiopia and the Running Sores of Ethnic Federalism: The Antithetical Forces of Statehood and Nationhood

Ethnic federalism in Ethiopia proved non-viable in practice because it came to be widely seen as a political tool used by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)-dominated Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), whose ideological foundation was inspired by Soviet system of ‘democratic centralism’: a benign façade that veneered an authoritarian vanguard party operating under a token parliament. This article examines the dynamics of statehood and nationhood: antithetical forces of integration and differentiation, which play out around the commonly shared albeit highly contested polity of the nation-state. The need to dialectically resolve these antagonistic though mutualistic stakes lies at the epicentre of political debate in contemporary Ethiopia, ultimately pointing to the constitutional reform dilemmas it now faces. By drawing on literature on political theory, the article argues that the federal constitution proved antagonistic to the inherited politico-cultural orientations that posited the nation-state as the principal supranational identity. By redefining narrow forms of collective identity that were anchored precisely on ethnic sentiments that grew largely in reaction to perceived injustices, the federal constitution appeared neither to embrace, as a system of legitimation, the characteristic and authoritative dimensions of ‘Ethiopian’ identity as a supra-national universal habitus of loyalty and identification. Nor did it provide integrative cohesion to an otherwise essentially differentiated primordial ethnic and linguistic identity features that now came to be diffused and indeed accentuated at sub-national regions as rigid and hermetic sites of conflict and strife, rather than discursive, reflexive, and interactive domains of cultural and social life.

A critique of building a developmental state in the EPRDF's Ethiopia

ABSTRACT This article explores the main features of Ethiopia's ‘developmental state’ and takes a critical look at how the model is applied in practice, capturing parallels and contradictions through comparative evidence with that of the East Asia model. Accordingly, it notes that the East Asian model has a strong ideological influence on the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) regime, allowing it to formulate a strong vision of development, but this, although it contributed to economic growth, failed to ensure democracy and stability in the country. It argues that land grabbing and political instability are the biggest threats to Ethiopia's development prospects.

A pragmatic high modernism? rural development and state building in the Ethiopian lowlands, c. 1960–2019.

Large scale agricultural projects driven by a high modernist ideology have been closely interlinked with the process of state building at the Ethiopian lowland frontier since the second half of the twentieth century. This paper provides a diachronic analysis of the political economy of agricultural development and the associated frontier effect in the western and north-eastern lowlands of the country across three different political regimes. A comparative assessment of these patterns suggests that the high modernist paradigm should be applied with some qualification to the agenda of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the coalition that ruled Ethiopia from 1994 to 2019. The EPRDF was far more pragmatic than its predecessors; the oscillation between different degrees of state intervention was based upon past experiences of success and failure in the territorialization of state power in contested borderlands.

Infrastructures of Renaissance: tangible discourses in the EPRDF’s Ethiopia

In late 2014, disputes around land, displacement and compensation related to the roll-out of big infrastructure projects across Ethiopia mutated into much deeper conflicts about the authoritarian nature of the state, the political marginalization of particular ethnic groups and the legitimacy of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). As security forces continued to quell mounting protests, the federal government imposed a state of emergency. This article explores how the EPRDF navigated this period of political fragility and why infrastructures were used as strategic vehicles for the party’s discourse. Drawing on the Addis-Djibouti Railway as an analytical lens, this research explores how the party strategically deployed posters, images and speeches centred around infrastructure to directly respond to protestors' grievances. This choice to deliberately embed visuals and rhetoric descriptions of such megaprojects in its political messaging about Ethiopia’s aspired ‘unity in diversity’, ‘democracy’, and ‘good governance’ illustrates how infrastructures were effective carriers of the party’s narratives. Roads, railways, and dams rendered EPRDF’s abstract ideas of political reform and economic renaissance tangible. At this critical juncture, these tangible discourses not only expose how the party attempted to restructure state-society relations in Ethiopia, but also how centrally anchored infrastructure was in the EPRDF’s self-styled developmental state project.

Reexamining the Politics of “Developmental State” in Ethiopia: Was/Is Ethiopia a Developmental State in EPRDF Regime? A Study From 1991-2018

The core theme of the article is focused on reexamining the "developmental state" politics in Ethiopia. Conceptually, a developmental state is a state which follows the development approach of a state-led economy. It is characterized by the existence of development oriented-political leadership, autonomous bureaucracy, production-oriented private sector, and performance-oriented governance. Based on this notion, the study aims to prove whether Ethiopia (from 1991-2018) is a developmental state or not in the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) regime by employing a qualitative research approach with secondary sources of data. Hence, EPRDF's economic-political realities are examined using theoretical frameworks and features of the developmental state. Accordingly, the study has found, first, that the rhetoric of creating efficient development-oriented political leadership in Ethiopia is aborted due to the prevalence of the economic-political culture of corruption, organized theft, and rent-seeking. Secondly, the EPRDF regime has failed to build autonomous and efficient bureaucracy. Thirdly, the private sector had forced so as not to be productive, competitive, and strong. Fourthly, through achieving high economic growth and reducing the level of poverty, the regime has relatively succeeded in performance-oriented governance even though debt crisis, high level of unemployment, and huge income disparity, the concentration of national resources prevailed amidst the poor level of industrialization. Thus, empirically, EPRDF's Ethiopia in the study's time frame has exceedingly remained as a predatory state and marginally continued as a developmental state. Accordingly, the study recommends succeeding regimes that strive to achieve sustainable economic development to take lessons from the failure of EPRDF in functioning development-oriented political leadership, production-oriented private sector, and meritocratic bureaucracy, plus realizing performance-oriented governance.

Demystifying the causes of the Amhara people’s protest in Ethiopia

For nearly three decades, Ethiopia has been ruled by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) regime. Under this regime, the Amharas were subjected to many cases of abuse. Since 2016, the Amharas have been protesting against this regime. This article shows the EPRDF regime’s structural problems and shows how these are the causes of the Amhara people’s protest. It argues that the EPRDF regime’s severe structural engagements have instilled a sense of victimhood in the Amharas. This sense of victimhood is the result of the mobilisations of the diasporas and other actors. The article concludes that in the post-2018 Ethiopian politics, the country’s constitution, the state structure, and some EPRDF officials and practices that abused the Amharas during the EPRDF regime are still in place.

The political-economy of land acquisition and privatization of Birr and Ayehu Farms in Amhara Region, North-West Ethiopia

The recognition of commercial agricultural investment led to the expansion of large-scale farms through eviction of farmers during the Derg and Ethiopian People Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) regimes. But anti-dispossession voices and investment driven violence have frequently occurred in post-Derg Ethiopia. This study thus attempts to uncover the political-economy of land acquisition and privatization of Birr and Ayehu farms. The necessary data for the study were collected through interview, questionnaire, focused group discussion and document review. The data collected through questionnaire was analyzed using descriptive statistics and the qualitative data was analyzed thematically. The findings of the study indicated that the farms were began during the Derg regime as public enterprises, and later privatized to Ethio-Agri-CEFT in a neo-patrimonial modality with a gigantic trend of land acquisition, legal distortion and violation of landholding rights. This poor and neo-patrimonial operation of farms jeopardized local livelihoods, created land use change and evoked stiff public grievance, political upheaval and polarized state–society relations. This indicated that the expansion of farms have brought lopsided development to party affiliated investors by dismantling local livelihoods. Ethio Agri-CEFT thus should respect legal frameworks and adopt inclusive developmental practices for its sustainability and success.

Gimgema: civil servants’ evaluation, power and ideology in EPRDF Ethiopia

ABSTRACT During its 28 years of rule, the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) had built a strong system for controlling the Ethiopian state and civil society. This article looks at how the party first managed to keep control over the civil service. It analyses the functioning of civil servants’ evaluations called gimgema. Such evaluations comprise the filling of evaluation forms and sessions of criticisms and self-criticisms during which bureaus’ employees have to publicly acknowledge their mistakes and accuse colleagues. Bureau heads who are also party officials then decide on the employee’s future. The article describes the functioning of gimgema, its political efficiency, and some resistance strategies put in force by state agents. Born in a Marxist-Leninist ideological framework, gimgema is an Ethiopian variation on the global socialist evaluation theme, now fitting perfectly with neoliberal injunctions to ‘good governance’, ‘commitment’ and ‘transparency’. As a symbol of the EPRDF’s ideological evolution, gimgema exemplifies the ideological indeterminacy of government techniques.

Crises and Crossroads in Ethiopia

Crises and Crossroads in Ethiopia