Resolving Conflict and Building Peace Through Re-Thinking Community Relationship

Abstract This study aims at appraising the nature of two major community relationships (I-Thou and I-It) in Ethiopia and analyse how these types of relationships play a corresponding role in resolving or exacerbating conflict and building/deteriorating peace. This study adopted an exploratory research design and primary data is collected from different social and mainstream media. The I-Thou relationship is a genuine societal relationship that led to a genuine dialogue between groups, which, in turn, creates mutual understanding, enrichment, reciprocity, and enlightenment. The I-It relationship, on the other hand, is characterised by mutual suspicion, prejudice, misunderstanding, wearing masks, and keeping secrets where there is no genuine dialogue. The study explores that the type of relationship that best characterise the Ethiopian society is mainly the I-It relationship. Since the society is polarised mainly based on ethnic and linguistic lines, the relationship has resulted in conflict, mass killing, displacement, and gross human right violations.