Journal of Developing Societies current issue

Introduction to 'The Ethiopian Millennium': A New Millennium: A Renaissance or a New Beginning for Ethiopia?

Zegeye, A., Tegegn, M., Toggia, P. S. — 2008-07-07

The State of Emergency: Police and Carceral Regimes in Modern Ethiopia

Toggia, P. S. — 2008-07-07

This article examines how Ethiopian governments have periodically declared a state of emergency in the country; these effectively turned out to be police and carceral regimes during periods of political crisis. Each of the three Ethiopian governments claimed legitimacy for their respective body politic as a derivation of the ‘consent’ or the ‘general will’ of the Ethiopian people in the last hundred years; Haile-Selassie as the rightful successor tracing the legendary Solomonic Dynasty for his modern Christian autocracy; Mengistu as the head of a socialist state with the will of the working people; and Meles as the head of the federal democratic state with the will of nations/nationalities. Nonetheless, the mode in which they exercised their powers or the mechanism of power they applied in order to normalize their respective body politic is indistinguishable. Furthermore, this contrived idea of the ‘general will’ and its empirical derivative, that is ‘public order’ has become the ‘norm’ in modern Ethiopian politics. These governments have also utilized similar institutional and legal mechanisms that remained intact, such as the police, the criminal law, the prison and the army, as variegated power of normalization despite radical regime changes in September 1974 and May 1991.

Problems of Feminist Leadership among Educated Women in Ethiopia: Taking Stock in the Third Millennium

Biseswar, I. — 2008-07-07

Feminist leadership is a matter of grave concern in Ethiopia where educated women appear to be obliged to fight individual battles to sustain their own agendas on the emancipation of women. Being manipulated by the government-led ‘woman question’ rhetoric, many fail to come to terms with charting such an independent discourse. What is holding them back? Could it be their ideological make-up that is influenced by state and religious indoctrination? Or perhaps their own shortcomings where many fail to comprehend what feminist leadership is all about? Educated women need to have a renewed vision on women's emancipation and to take meaningful decisions on what form of leadership would best advance such concerns. In this twenty-first century it is indeed high time to shed the apolitical and deradicalized stance on the emancipation of women; they should take an independent lead and call for comprehensive and transformative forms of gender equality.

The Civilian Left and the Radicalization of the Dergue

Kebede, M. — 2008-07-07

This article attempts to explain the radicalization of the military committee in Ethiopia known as the Dergue. The committee brought down the monarchy and initiated far-reaching socialist transformations of the country. Yet the Dergue had not initially shown any propensity to radicalism. To explain this conversion to Marxist–Leninist ideology, scholars have thus far provided three prevailing views: (i) the Dergue radicalized to steal the revolution from the civilian left; (ii) objective conditions caused its radicalization; and (iii) radical officers initiated the radicalization. The article critically evaluates these views and shows their serious short-comings. It suggests a new explanation involving the quest for legitimacy and the need for political survival.

The Red Terror in Ethiopia: A Historical Aberration

Tareke, G. — 2008-07-07

This article was inspired by Arno Mayer's magisterial work on the French and Russian revolutions. It is Mayer's thesis that two social forces with irreconcilable political views and objectives fought to the finish in both revolutions. Violence and terror were inevitable. In Ethiopia, the deadly conflict that metamorphosed into the Red Terror was not between conservative and radical forces, but between two modern political organizations which shared the same ideology and strategic goals – but used different tactics. Terror, the article argues, was avoidable. The intent is not to test the validity of Mayer's theory, but to show the peculiarity of the Ethiopian experience.

The Politics of Contemporary Language Policy in Ethiopia

Smith, L. — 2008-07-07

Language is political in Ethiopia because it has both structured and symbolized the nation-building project, and because, in the context of limited resources, any language policy change would require a significant realignment of resources. In modern Ethiopia, the historical distribution of the political goods of communication, recognition and autonomy has been highly skewed, benefiting native Amharic-speakers disproportionately. Since the early 1990s, the decentralization of language choice under the federal constitution has led to the use of other languages by members of select ethno-linguistic communities. This study considers the politics of language choice, drawing from the rich literature in political theory which addresses the role of language in the identity politics of multiethnic and multilingual societies. The historical trajectory of language politics in Ethiopia is presented, but the focus is on evidence gathered in parts of Ethiopia in 2001 and 2003. These findings indicate the relationship between language identities, citizenship formation and identification in the country. They are based on structured interviews and participant observation in select regions of the country.

The Post-war Border Dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea: On the Brink of Another War?

Zegeye, A., Tegegn, M. — 2008-07-07

The claims and counter-claims over the troubled border between Ethiopia and Eritrea, at the root of the crisis between the two governments, were by no means resolved by the war of 1998–2000. Indeed, when the jointly-formed post-war commission delivered its ruling on the boundaries, its terms were rejected out of hand by Ethiopia. Eritrean border claims rest largely upon the maps drawn up by Italy in 1934, while Ethiopia's claims largely rests on the treaty that Emperor Menelik entered with the Italians in 1908. And this is only to touch upon the ramifications of the tangled dispute. This article provides a critical observation of the claims made by the two governments; it assesses the validity of these claims, explores their strengths and points out their weaknesses. It also shows why the impasse continues to fester, pushing the crisis dangerously close to renewed war, and offers some tentative suggestions on how a lasting solution to the Ethio-Eritrean crisis might be found.

Power Politics: Kinijit in the 2005 Elections

Tegegn, M. — 2008-07-07

This article looks at the role of the main opposition party in Ethiopia, Kinijit, during the parliamentary elections of 2005. It shows that the election was unique in that it galvanized the people of Ethiopia to come out and vote en masse. Kinijit was mainly instrumental in mobilizing the people and provided hope for a political change towards democracy. They saw in Kinijit the capacity to lead the country as opposed to the ruling party, trusted it fully and were determined to follow its leadership. The voter turn-out was the highest in the history of the country. Kinijit won the elections but the ruling party rigged the results and declared itself the winner. Controversy arose and dragged on for months. Kinijit then resorted to a protest movement in the form of civil disobedience. The government took this as ‘unconstitutional and as preparation for armed rebellion’ and began a clamp-down. The entire leadership of Kinijit was imprisoned, and some 400 people were massacred as they demonstrated. Close to 17,000 others were thrown in jail and labor camps. This article examines the flaws in Kinijit's decision to resort to civil disobedience, looks at the consequences of the election for the process of democratization and at what that means in the fight against poverty and under-development. It singles out Kinijit's structural problems, such as insufficient institutional preparedness and lack of organizational structure in 2005, and suggests the strategic political course it should have taken.