The Two-faced Amhara Identity

The term Amhara relates in contemporary Ethiopia to two different and distinct social groups. The ethnic group of the Amhara, mostly a peasant population, is different from a mixed group of urban people coming from different ethnic background, who have adopted Amharic as a common language and identify themselves as Ethiopians. Sevir B. Chernetsov explained in 1993 their difference as a result of a historical process of assimilation. Though the difference has significant consequences in contemporary political life, it appears little reflected, maybe even consciously veiled, in the interest of a pan-Ethiopian nationalist elite claiming to represent all Amhara.