Territoriality and Its Implications for the Ethiopian Political Community

• In Event: Probing Identity and Political Community Across Africa

Abstract

Abstract
Title: Territoriality and its implications for the Ethiopian political community
Solomon M. Gofie
The political forces that took state power in Ethiopia in 1991 carried out a major restructuring of the internal administrative boundaries of the country. A federal state structure has been put in place arguably in response to what the 1960s & 70s Ethiopian Student movement called the “national-question”. The people constituting Ethiopia or the Ethiopian political community has been redefined as “nations, nationalities & peoples” that have been granted the right to self-determination including the right to form independent entities. In this paper I argue that while the post-1991 political system in Ethiopia in the post 1991 period has gone a long way in the recognition and accommodation of diversity, it has led to territoriality, a condition in which inter-regional administrative boundaries have become the sources of conflicts, having implications for the Ethiopian political community including the suppression of diversity and political pluralism. The paper aims to interrogate the dynamics of territoriality in the post 1991 context in Ethiopia and its challenges to the Ethiopian political community at the national level. The paper is based on the critical analysis of the most recent literature particularly on “ethnic federalism” in Ethiopia, web-sources on the subject, and insights from recent research and observation of the writer.

Author

• Solomon M Gofie, Addis Ababa University