Ethnicity and conflict generation in Ethiopia: some problems and prospects of ehno-regional federalism

The post-1991 regime in Ethiopia has been less successful than expected in managing ethnic tensions. It has not foreseen the drawbacks of a federal system based on ethno-linguistically defined regions and a strict "ethnicization" policy. "Ethnic" struggles between communities are quite frequent and have led to a localization of conflicts away from challenging the central State, and to an "essentialization" of ethno-cultural or linguistic differences which then come to (re)define local group relations. The majority of conflicts now dubbed "ethnic" in Ethiopia are about land and the boundaries between territorialized ethnic groups. An inventory and analysis of local/ethnic confrontations suggests there is a pattern of continuing and in many cases increasing conflict, accompanied by an undermining of traditional mediation mechanisms which has not been offset by the effective extension of State judicial mechanisms. Recurring causes of conflict are disagreements about the possession of or use rights to land, water sources, access to State resources (funds, jobs, investments), cultural policies and prestige, and language policy in education and administration. Case studies of Suri, Dizi and Me'en conflicts in the Maji area, Oromo-non-Oromo relations in Wollega, and Nuer-Anywaar conflict in Gambela serve as illustration. App., bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]