Pub Date : 2021-10-01DOI: 10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.227v
Kebene Wodajo
ABSTRACT:Government-to-people and people-to-people relationships are increasingly mediated and configured by emerging technologies, necessitating new ways of framing and understanding the role of government and digital technologies in the social order. Recent sociopolitical developments in Ethiopia demonstrate how digital platforms have become a space for contested narratives and a division of interests between socioeconomic policies and political views. By addressing the major technologically assisted counterpower movements in Ethiopia between 2015 and 2021, this article examines digitally mediated encounters and configurations that are struggling to produce a specific form of subjectivity. The article examines digitally mediated encounters and the patterns of the relationships among main actors in the digital space—users, the government, and platform technologies—through the lens of the network theory of power. The article problematizes the deployment of state surveillance, rulemaking and regulatory leverages, and the gatekeeping role of platform technologies in modulating and suppressing the emergence of a self-determined critical mass. As a remedial approach to addressing the risks inherent in intersecting state–corporate configuration and surveillance, the article proposes a broadly defined yet context-specific right to privacy that enables self-development, protects a socially and culturally constructed emergent self, and encourages the capacity for self-determination. To analyze the right to privacy as a remedy, the study uses a critical legal analysis of privacy rights with a focus on the 1995 Ethiopian Constitution. Throughout the analysis, it seeks to highlight three overarching arguments that have relevance beyond the specific case of Ethiopia. First, it challenges the assumption that the digital space is a neutral and free space. It argues that digital platforms provide venues for contested and rival narratives and interests, and that not every actor in the digital space has equal leverage over the digital infrastructure. The digital space therefore manifests an asymmetric power relationship. Second, it argues that the capacity of citizens for self-development and self-determination is increasingly modulated by expansive surveillance and the regulatory leverage of state and corporate power, which is used to suppress the emergence of critical mass. It therefore argues that third, there is a pressing need for the reinterpretation of legal protection for privacy rights as a protection for a socially and culturally constructed emergent self. By addressing this need, protection will be offered to the capacity for self-determination, critical subjectivity and democracy.
{"title":"Contested Space and Self-Determination: The Dynamics of Ethiopia's Digital Space","authors":"Kebene Wodajo","doi":"10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.227v","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.227v","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:Government-to-people and people-to-people relationships are increasingly mediated and configured by emerging technologies, necessitating new ways of framing and understanding the role of government and digital technologies in the social order. Recent sociopolitical developments in Ethiopia demonstrate how digital platforms have become a space for contested narratives and a division of interests between socioeconomic policies and political views. By addressing the major technologically assisted counterpower movements in Ethiopia between 2015 and 2021, this article examines digitally mediated encounters and configurations that are struggling to produce a specific form of subjectivity. The article examines digitally mediated encounters and the patterns of the relationships among main actors in the digital space—users, the government, and platform technologies—through the lens of the network theory of power. The article problematizes the deployment of state surveillance, rulemaking and regulatory leverages, and the gatekeeping role of platform technologies in modulating and suppressing the emergence of a self-determined critical mass. As a remedial approach to addressing the risks inherent in intersecting state–corporate configuration and surveillance, the article proposes a broadly defined yet context-specific right to privacy that enables self-development, protects a socially and culturally constructed emergent self, and encourages the capacity for self-determination. To analyze the right to privacy as a remedy, the study uses a critical legal analysis of privacy rights with a focus on the 1995 Ethiopian Constitution. Throughout the analysis, it seeks to highlight three overarching arguments that have relevance beyond the specific case of Ethiopia. First, it challenges the assumption that the digital space is a neutral and free space. It argues that digital platforms provide venues for contested and rival narratives and interests, and that not every actor in the digital space has equal leverage over the digital infrastructure. The digital space therefore manifests an asymmetric power relationship. Second, it argues that the capacity of citizens for self-development and self-determination is increasingly modulated by expansive surveillance and the regulatory leverage of state and corporate power, which is used to suppress the emergence of critical mass. It therefore argues that third, there is a pressing need for the reinterpretation of legal protection for privacy rights as a protection for a socially and culturally constructed emergent self. By addressing this need, protection will be offered to the capacity for self-determination, critical subjectivity and democracy.","PeriodicalId":35635,"journal":{"name":"Northeast African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47008693","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-01DOI: 10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.151v
E. Gebissa
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.
{"title":"National Integration through Political Marginalization: Contradictions of Nation-Building in Ethiopia","authors":"E. Gebissa","doi":"10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.151v","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.151v","url":null,"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.","PeriodicalId":35635,"journal":{"name":"Northeast African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45222853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-01DOI: 10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.083v
G. Wayessa
ABSTRACT:State-building and development are mutually reinforcing phenomena. The sustainability of development depends on the stability of state's political-structural foundation and the prospect of peace, which is influenced by the origin and evolution of the state. Every regime in Ethiopia has portrayed its advent as a new dawn for the country's development. In recent history, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) introduced a "developmental state" model and registered notable economic growth on aggregate but failed on accounts of equitable distribution. The EPRDF regime used the "developmental state" model to enhance the centralization of state power and circumvent regional autonomy. In 2018, the Prosperity Party (PP) introduced a "prosperity" model. From the EPRDF to the PP, there are signals of a radical shift of approach in state-building and development. This article analyzes the premises and promises of the multinational federation and "developmental state" model under the EPRDF regime, and the unitarist orientation and "prosperity" paradigm under the PP. I argue that the radical shift of direction from the multinational federalism towards a unitary state is unrealistic and fundamentally shatters the prospect of development.
{"title":"State-Building and Development in Ethiopia: From \"Developmental State\" to \"Prosperity\" Model","authors":"G. Wayessa","doi":"10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.083v","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.083v","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:State-building and development are mutually reinforcing phenomena. The sustainability of development depends on the stability of state's political-structural foundation and the prospect of peace, which is influenced by the origin and evolution of the state. Every regime in Ethiopia has portrayed its advent as a new dawn for the country's development. In recent history, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) introduced a \"developmental state\" model and registered notable economic growth on aggregate but failed on accounts of equitable distribution. The EPRDF regime used the \"developmental state\" model to enhance the centralization of state power and circumvent regional autonomy. In 2018, the Prosperity Party (PP) introduced a \"prosperity\" model. From the EPRDF to the PP, there are signals of a radical shift of approach in state-building and development. This article analyzes the premises and promises of the multinational federation and \"developmental state\" model under the EPRDF regime, and the unitarist orientation and \"prosperity\" paradigm under the PP. I argue that the radical shift of direction from the multinational federalism towards a unitary state is unrealistic and fundamentally shatters the prospect of development.","PeriodicalId":35635,"journal":{"name":"Northeast African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47870618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-01DOI: 10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.011v
K. Tronvoll
ABSTRACT:The Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the government party in Ethiopia from 1991 to 2019, was Africa's biggest party in terms of membership base and considered to be the most powerful incumbent on the continent. The factors behind its rapid fall from grace and eventual collapse in 2019 will be put under scrutiny in this article. Comparative political research has pointed to both endogamous and exogamous factors contributing to party instability. Party-specific concerns such as differences in local constituencies, variations in ethnopolitical identities, differences of ideological outlook, and policy preferences are all factors that may lead to a withering of party consensus. Furthermore, the governance structure of the country may also impinge on party stability, because federal models may be more divisive in nature than unitary states. The argument pursued in this article will be to investigate how the origin of the EPRDF's component parties and their ethnopolitical base under the federal system were made relevant in the internal power struggle to claim control of the coalition and hence the government of the land. The article concludes by identifying four key factors contributing to the internal power struggle that led to the demise of the EPRDF: disagreements over ideology; disputes over party bylaws, procedures, and practices; contestation over the federal state model; and finally, the surge of ethnonationalism with intrinsic territorial ambitions.
{"title":"Falling from Grace: The Collapse of Ethiopia's Ruling Coalition","authors":"K. Tronvoll","doi":"10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.011v","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.011v","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:The Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), the government party in Ethiopia from 1991 to 2019, was Africa's biggest party in terms of membership base and considered to be the most powerful incumbent on the continent. The factors behind its rapid fall from grace and eventual collapse in 2019 will be put under scrutiny in this article. Comparative political research has pointed to both endogamous and exogamous factors contributing to party instability. Party-specific concerns such as differences in local constituencies, variations in ethnopolitical identities, differences of ideological outlook, and policy preferences are all factors that may lead to a withering of party consensus. Furthermore, the governance structure of the country may also impinge on party stability, because federal models may be more divisive in nature than unitary states. The argument pursued in this article will be to investigate how the origin of the EPRDF's component parties and their ethnopolitical base under the federal system were made relevant in the internal power struggle to claim control of the coalition and hence the government of the land. The article concludes by identifying four key factors contributing to the internal power struggle that led to the demise of the EPRDF: disagreements over ideology; disputes over party bylaws, procedures, and practices; contestation over the federal state model; and finally, the surge of ethnonationalism with intrinsic territorial ambitions.","PeriodicalId":35635,"journal":{"name":"Northeast African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46396361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-01DOI: 10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.265v
F. Gebrekidan
ABSTRACT:From transatlantic trailblazer to wartime correspondent, from pageantry to widowhood at an early age, pan-Africanist Dorothy Hadley Bayen lived a fast and multilayered life that few of her contemporaries would have imagined. Yet Dorothy Bayen remains ignored in the historical records to the point of erasure. As Kathleen Sheldon and others have pointed out, the absence of women leaders in the history of Black internationalism is a sign of gender-biased scholarship and not a reflection of events on the ground. This article validates that observation. In rescuing Dorothy Bayen and her catalytic role in Ethiopian and African American relations from obscurity, it shows how emphasis on men-centered narratives might compromise, or even stultify, the emancipatory ethos of grassroots social movements.
{"title":"Race, Gender, and Pageantry: The Ups and Downs of an African American Woman in Imperial Ethiopia","authors":"F. Gebrekidan","doi":"10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.265v","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.265v","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:From transatlantic trailblazer to wartime correspondent, from pageantry to widowhood at an early age, pan-Africanist Dorothy Hadley Bayen lived a fast and multilayered life that few of her contemporaries would have imagined. Yet Dorothy Bayen remains ignored in the historical records to the point of erasure. As Kathleen Sheldon and others have pointed out, the absence of women leaders in the history of Black internationalism is a sign of gender-biased scholarship and not a reflection of events on the ground. This article validates that observation. In rescuing Dorothy Bayen and her catalytic role in Ethiopian and African American relations from obscurity, it shows how emphasis on men-centered narratives might compromise, or even stultify, the emancipatory ethos of grassroots social movements.","PeriodicalId":35635,"journal":{"name":"Northeast African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44853523","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-01DOI: 10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.117v
Etana H. Dinka
ABSTRACT:This article seeks to place the Oromo popular uprising of 2014–2017 into a deeper historical context. It traces the origins of the uprising through various landmarks in the Oromo national struggle for self-determination and turning points in the history of Ethiopia's state-making projects. In understanding the relationship between attempts at state construction and the determined opposition it encountered, the article emphasizes the dramatic changes that unfolded between the close of the nineteenth century and the political transition that was triggered in 2018. Although recognizing Ethiopia's long-ranging political intricacies, this article argues that the Oromo popular uprising of 2014–17 demonstrates the peak of decades of struggles for inclusion, recognition, self-rule, and equality that have mainly resulted from the Ethiopian state's cyclical violence and rejection of demands for reform.
{"title":"The Quest for Self-Determination and the State in Ethiopia: The Oromo Popular Uprising of 2014–2017 in Historical Perspective","authors":"Etana H. Dinka","doi":"10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.117v","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.117v","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This article seeks to place the Oromo popular uprising of 2014–2017 into a deeper historical context. It traces the origins of the uprising through various landmarks in the Oromo national struggle for self-determination and turning points in the history of Ethiopia's state-making projects. In understanding the relationship between attempts at state construction and the determined opposition it encountered, the article emphasizes the dramatic changes that unfolded between the close of the nineteenth century and the political transition that was triggered in 2018. Although recognizing Ethiopia's long-ranging political intricacies, this article argues that the Oromo popular uprising of 2014–17 demonstrates the peak of decades of struggles for inclusion, recognition, self-rule, and equality that have mainly resulted from the Ethiopian state's cyclical violence and rejection of demands for reform.","PeriodicalId":35635,"journal":{"name":"Northeast African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42820534","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-01DOI: 10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.057v
A. Regassa
ABSTRACT:With the coming to power of Abiy Ahmed in April 2018 following a popular movement that was initially sparked in Oromia and then spread to other regions, there was a short period of euphoria over the country's political landscape. Ethiopians and the international community alike were optimistic of democratic transition that would lead to the opening up of political and media spaces, fair and free elections, consolidation of the multinational federal system, the strengthening of autonomy of regional states, peace and stability, equitable resource distribution and equal socioeconomic opportunities for citizens. But, to the dismay of many observers, Abiy and his entourages shifted the narrative to the restoration of imperial system rather than strengthening the already existing multinational federal system. The return to imperial imaginations is both discursively and practically evident in Ethiopia's political discourses, in particular since 2018. Polarized political views between supporters and critics of multinational federalism have not only created a tense political environment but also partly contributed to the war in Tigray and Oromia. The country's three-decade long experiment with the federal system now faces a serious challenge of reversal. As the thesis and antithesis of multinational federalism have become salient forces shaping the country's political order, this article seeks to contribute to the existing debate, in particular contextualizing the discussion within decolonial literature. I argue that the current controversy over the nature of state structure is part of the struggle between forces promoting the right to self-determination and those favoring a unitary system.
{"title":"Self-Determination, Multinational Federalism and an Emerging Threat in Ethiopia: A Decolonial Approach","authors":"A. Regassa","doi":"10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.057v","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.057v","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:With the coming to power of Abiy Ahmed in April 2018 following a popular movement that was initially sparked in Oromia and then spread to other regions, there was a short period of euphoria over the country's political landscape. Ethiopians and the international community alike were optimistic of democratic transition that would lead to the opening up of political and media spaces, fair and free elections, consolidation of the multinational federal system, the strengthening of autonomy of regional states, peace and stability, equitable resource distribution and equal socioeconomic opportunities for citizens. But, to the dismay of many observers, Abiy and his entourages shifted the narrative to the restoration of imperial system rather than strengthening the already existing multinational federal system. The return to imperial imaginations is both discursively and practically evident in Ethiopia's political discourses, in particular since 2018. Polarized political views between supporters and critics of multinational federalism have not only created a tense political environment but also partly contributed to the war in Tigray and Oromia. The country's three-decade long experiment with the federal system now faces a serious challenge of reversal. As the thesis and antithesis of multinational federalism have become salient forces shaping the country's political order, this article seeks to contribute to the existing debate, in particular contextualizing the discussion within decolonial literature. I argue that the current controversy over the nature of state structure is part of the struggle between forces promoting the right to self-determination and those favoring a unitary system.","PeriodicalId":35635,"journal":{"name":"Northeast African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47803359","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-10-01DOI: 10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.183v
Mebratu Kelecha
ABSTRACT:This article provides a chronological analysis of the Oromo social movements that have contributed to the recent major political changes in Ethiopia. It draws on theories of nonviolent social movements, political defiance, and the transition approach of democratization in analyzing the chain of event that led to political changes in early 2018. This helps put the protests in perspective in terms of Ethiopia's political trajectory, explaining how youth activists have played a role in advancing the conditions for the transition to democracy, bringing together fragmented, rival political forces and social groups in the interest of challenging the status quo and toppling a deeply entrenched authoritarian regime.
{"title":"Oromo Protests, Repression, and Political Change in Ethiopia, 2014–2020","authors":"Mebratu Kelecha","doi":"10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.183v","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.14321/nortafristud.21.2.183v","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This article provides a chronological analysis of the Oromo social movements that have contributed to the recent major political changes in Ethiopia. It draws on theories of nonviolent social movements, political defiance, and the transition approach of democratization in analyzing the chain of event that led to political changes in early 2018. This helps put the protests in perspective in terms of Ethiopia's political trajectory, explaining how youth activists have played a role in advancing the conditions for the transition to democracy, bringing together fragmented, rival political forces and social groups in the interest of challenging the status quo and toppling a deeply entrenched authoritarian regime.","PeriodicalId":35635,"journal":{"name":"Northeast African Studies","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49612486","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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