The creeping fashion of ethnicism in the modern Ethiopian politics: Its creation, process, and consequences

Abstract

Ethiopia is located at 3’ and 14.8” latitude 33’ and 48’ longitude in the Eastern part of Africa that commonly refers as the Horn of Africa, bordering Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, South Sudan, and the Sudan Republic. After the country’s current constitution was declared in 1995, the country followed the ethnic-based federalism path. Primarily, this research aims to study when and how ethnic-based political activities started in the country’s modern political history. Furthermore, the expansion and consequences of ethnicized politics in the country will be addressed in this research. Primary sources like interviews with eyewitnesses, official reports from different organizations, and others were used in this research. Apart from primary sources, secondary sources mainly researched books used. In this country, ethnic-based political activities functioned for half a century and several achievements were scored as a result of this system. On the other side, the total of several pitfalls including mismanagement of ethnic diversity, the ethnic-based political activities transformed ethnic tensions into ethnic conflicts. Furthermore, on one hand, or the other, ethnic-based political activities kidnapped the democratization processes of the country.

Keywords

• Ethiopia
• ethnic conflicts
• ethnic federalism
• TPLF