Marginalization of Ethnic Ethiopians:
assessing the past to confront the future
10 August, 2009 | By Teshome Borago
surprise of many, the quotation comes from one of the biggest
supporters of Meles Zenawi in the 1990s named Dr. Samuel P.
Huntington of Harvard University . The famous American political
scientist Dr. Samuel Huntington visited Ethiopia after the Mengistu
government was removed from power and he staunchly supported the
ethnic federalism based system of the TPLF/EPRDF. Despite his
friendship with Meles Zenawi, however, Dr. Samuel Huntington could
not hide the danger Meles will face. Dr. Samuel gave a warning to the
Ethiopian government about the threat of ethnically mixed majority
population in Ethiopia. According to him, this would be the biggest long-
term threat or challenge to the current ethnic-federalism experiment of
the new government.
As expected, the Ethiopian government has since used its state
institutions to actively marginalize and deny the rights of ethnically
mixed Ethiopians the last twenty years. The genesis of this federal
policy has its roots from national census of 1994 when many people
remember stories of imprisonment and marginalization of mixed
Ethiopians who rejected to choose one ethnic group as self-
identification during the population counting process or the census.
From Ethiopians with Sidama and Oromo heritage to Ethiopians with
Amhara mother and Tigre father or Somali father and Gurage mother,
several others with more than two or three ethnic heritages were
incarcerated in the south, north, east and west parts of the country.
What was their crime?
Despite the ongoing marginalization of multi-ethnic Ethiopians by the
one-ethnic organizations around the country, it remains true that multi-
ethnic identities will in fact grow faster than any other group in our
society and this is a big danger to the agenda of many organizations
today. Even in the perilous ethno-political atmosphere that exists today,
a person in Awassa or in Jimma town (who, for example, has an ethnic
Sidama father and an Oromo mother) might never relate with his next
door Oromo neighbor. But he would certainly relate culturally,
historically, behaviorally and politically more with a person living in far
away Mekele town who has a mixed Raya-Oromo and Tigre parents.
Or that person will relate more with a Wollo person who has a mixed
Amhara and Oromo parents. All of these have similar heritages and
common destiny. This pattern is accurate for many different scenarios
of multi-ethnic identities in every corners of Ethiopia .
I myself come from a mixed ancestry that goes back centuries. On my
father side, I have Oromo and Welayta descent and on my mother side,
it is even more complex and tangled since I have Oromo, Amhara and
Tigrayan descent. As an “Ethnic Ethiopian” person, I sympathize with
almost all political groups and organizations in Ethiopia. I have care for
the concerns of the OLF and OFDM as well as for the fears of TPLF
and UDJ. People like me identify ourselves as “Ethnic Ethiopians” and
not as “ethnic Oromo” or “ethnic Amhara” etc. While most Ethnic
Ethiopians like me sympathize with all people in the country, we also
have our own interests and destiny. For example, a person with Oromo
father and Gurage mother relates and shares a common descent,...More
assessing the past to confront the future
10 August, 2009 | By Teshome Borago
- "A substantial portion of Ethiopia's population is of mixed
ethnic cannon" -- Dr. Samuel P. Huntington, Harvard University
- Reading the quote above, one
would expect that Dr.
Samuel’s involvement in
Ethiopia opposed the EPRDF-
led Ethiopian government of
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi
surprise of many, the quotation comes from one of the biggest
supporters of Meles Zenawi in the 1990s named Dr. Samuel P.
Huntington of Harvard University . The famous American political
scientist Dr. Samuel Huntington visited Ethiopia after the Mengistu
government was removed from power and he staunchly supported the
ethnic federalism based system of the TPLF/EPRDF. Despite his
friendship with Meles Zenawi, however, Dr. Samuel Huntington could
not hide the danger Meles will face. Dr. Samuel gave a warning to the
Ethiopian government about the threat of ethnically mixed majority
population in Ethiopia. According to him, this would be the biggest long-
term threat or challenge to the current ethnic-federalism experiment of
the new government.
As expected, the Ethiopian government has since used its state
institutions to actively marginalize and deny the rights of ethnically
mixed Ethiopians the last twenty years. The genesis of this federal
policy has its roots from national census of 1994 when many people
remember stories of imprisonment and marginalization of mixed
Ethiopians who rejected to choose one ethnic group as self-
identification during the population counting process or the census.
From Ethiopians with Sidama and Oromo heritage to Ethiopians with
Amhara mother and Tigre father or Somali father and Gurage mother,
several others with more than two or three ethnic heritages were
incarcerated in the south, north, east and west parts of the country.
What was their crime?
Despite the ongoing marginalization of multi-ethnic Ethiopians by the
one-ethnic organizations around the country, it remains true that multi-
ethnic identities will in fact grow faster than any other group in our
society and this is a big danger to the agenda of many organizations
today. Even in the perilous ethno-political atmosphere that exists today,
a person in Awassa or in Jimma town (who, for example, has an ethnic
Sidama father and an Oromo mother) might never relate with his next
door Oromo neighbor. But he would certainly relate culturally,
historically, behaviorally and politically more with a person living in far
away Mekele town who has a mixed Raya-Oromo and Tigre parents.
Or that person will relate more with a Wollo person who has a mixed
Amhara and Oromo parents. All of these have similar heritages and
common destiny. This pattern is accurate for many different scenarios
of multi-ethnic identities in every corners of Ethiopia .
I myself come from a mixed ancestry that goes back centuries. On my
father side, I have Oromo and Welayta descent and on my mother side,
it is even more complex and tangled since I have Oromo, Amhara and
Tigrayan descent. As an “Ethnic Ethiopian” person, I sympathize with
almost all political groups and organizations in Ethiopia. I have care for
the concerns of the OLF and OFDM as well as for the fears of TPLF
and UDJ. People like me identify ourselves as “Ethnic Ethiopians” and
not as “ethnic Oromo” or “ethnic Amhara” etc. While most Ethnic
Ethiopians like me sympathize with all people in the country, we also
have our own interests and destiny. For example, a person with Oromo
father and Gurage mother relates and shares a common descent,...More
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Because for many centuries Ethiopians paid huge life sacrifices to
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centric view of Ethiopian History (Ethiopiawinet)?
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