Most governments in Africa, seeing the political mobilisation of ethnicity as a threat, have rejected the use of ethnic differences as an explicit basis for political representation. The one prominent exception is Ethiopia, which since 1991 has imposed a system of ethnic-based federalism that offers each ethnic group the right of ‘self-determination'.

This book provides a detailed empirical study of this system at work in the complex multi-ethnic environment of southern Ethiopia. It finds that ethnic self-rule, in combination with the power politics of an authoritarian regime, has produced both intended and unintended outcomes. While arguably easing large-scale ethnic conflicts, it has led to ‘ethnicisation' of local socio-economic disputes and to sharper inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic divides, often to the disadvantage of historically marginalised groups.

Lovise Aalen is Senior Researcher at Chr. Michelsen Institute. Her publications include a wide scope of studies of Ethiopian politics, among them Ethiopia since the Derg: A decade of Democratic Pretentions and Performance (co-editor; Zed Books 2002).

Lovise Aalen will be interviewed by Kjetil Tronvoll, Professor, Norwegian Centere for Human Rights, University of Oslo.

Publication

Book | 2011

The politics of ethnicity in Ethiopia: Actors. power and mobilisation under ethnic federalism

Most governments in Africa, seeing the political mobilisation of ethnicity as a threat, have rejected the use of ethnic differences as an explicit basis for political representation. The one prominent...
Lovise Aalen (2011)
Leiden: Brill (African Social Studies Series no. 25) 214 p.