Contested conceptualisations of Ethiopian statehood

In this chapter, I discuss why I chose Ethiopia as a case through which to study state formation in Africa. Moreover, in working towards the ethnography of the state, this chapter, and this book in general, attempts to highlight and challenge several bodies of literature that, in various ways, focus on making sense of the nature and role of the state in Ethiopia. My analysis takes its point of departure from two difficulties faced when conceptualising the state in Ethiopia. One is the problem of pinpointing its location in African studies. Scholarly discussions about the state in subSaharan Africa have tended to afford only a marginal place and level of analysis to the Ethiopian state because, for many scholars, it is considered an anomaly. In the first part of this chapter, I will make the opposite point: Ethiopia represents one sociocultural and political formation in a diverse continent.