Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Itiyoppiya Federaalak Demokraatik Rippeblikih የኢትዮጵያ ፌዴራላዊ ዴሞክራሲያዊ ሪፐብሊክ Rippabliikii Federaalawaa Dimokraatawaa Itiyoophiyaa Jamhuuriyadda Dimuqraadiga Federaalka Itoobiya ፌዴራላዊ ዴሞክራሲያዊ ሪፐብሊክ ኢትዮጵያ
Flag Coat of arms
Capital and largest city	Addis Ababa
Official languages	Afar Amharic Oromo Somali Tigrinya
Area
• Total	1,104,300 km²
Population
• 2022 estimate	123,379,924

Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in East Africa.

History

Overview

The History of Ethiopia can be usefully categorized into four periods:

1. To 1270: Antiquity
2. To 1500: The Ethiopian Middle Ages (which encompasses the beginning of the Zagwe Dynasty to the beginning of the emergence of Islam and the end of the early Solomonic period)
3. To 1855: The Gondarine Period
4. To present day: The Modern Period (beginning with the End of the Zemene Mesafint, "the Era of Princes") under Tewdros II in 1855.

1855–1974

Italy attempted to colonize Ethiopia in the 19th century but was defeated by Emperor Menelik's forces in 1896. Fascist Italy overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie and occupied Ethiopia from 1936 to 1941. Haile Sellasie was reinstated as Emperor and continued to rule the country until 1974. Starting from the 50s, the United States started to exert neocolonial relations in Ethiopia.

1974–1991

In 1974, the Ethiopian Revolution took place, which ultimately brought the Derg to power. The Derg was chaired initially by Mengistu Haile Mariam (he was replaced by Aman Adom in September 1974), who later became head of state in 1977. The monarchy was formally abolished in 1975, and replaced by a socialist government in Ethiopia. In 1987, the Derg was formally dissolved and the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia founded, which was overthrown by the TPLF and other groups in 1991, establishing the Transitional Government of Ethiopia.

1991–present

In 1995, the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia was founded.

Politics and government

Administrative divisions

Administrative devisions of Ethiopia (kilil and zones)

In 1992, the Transitional Government issued Proclamation 7/1992 (National/Regional Self-Government Establishment Proclamation), which was responsible for the creation of fourteen national/regional governments and two chartered cities. In 1995, five of the regions were merged to form the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples. Presently, there are eleven regions (kilil) based on ethno-linguistic territories:

• Afar
• Amhara
• Benishangul-Gumuz
• Gambela
• Harari
• Oromia
• Sidama
• Somali
• South West Ethiopias Peoples
• Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples
• Tigray

The two chartered cities are Addis Abeba and Dire Dawa. Regions are subdivided into zones (formely, meaning prior to 1991, this administrative level was called awrajja). Zones are subdivided in Woredas, which are further subdivided into Kebeles.

The Woredas comprise three main organs: a council, an executive and a judicial. The Woreda Council is the highest government organ of the district, which is made up of directly elected representatives from each kebele in the woredas.

The main constitutional powers and duties of the Woredas are:

1. Preparing and approving the annual Woreda development plans and budgets and monitoring their implementation
2. Setting certain tax rates and collecting local taxes
3. Administering fiscal resources of the Woreda
4. Constructing and maintaining low-grade rural tracks and roads, water points, and Woreda level administrative infrastructure (offices, houses)
5. Administering primary schools, health institutions and veterinary facilities
6. Managing agricultural development activities, and protecting natural resources

The representative of the people in each kebele is accountable to their electorate. The woreda chief administration is the district's executive organ that encompasses the district administrator, deputy administrator, and the head of the main sectoral executive offices found in the district, which are ultimately accountable to the district administrator and district council. The quasi-judicial tasks belong to the Security and Justice administration. In addition to woredas, city administrations are considered at the same level as the woredas. A city administration has a mayor whom members of the city council elected. As different regional constitutions govern woredas, the names of the bodies may differ.

The Kebeles are the prime contact level for most Ethiopian citizens. Kebele administrations consist of an elected council (approx. 100 members), a Kebele Cabinet, and a social court (three judges). They commonly form community commitiees. The Kebele Cabinet usually comprises a manager, chairperson, development agents, school director, representatives from the womens association and youth association.

The Kebele council and executive committee's main responsibilites are:

1. Preparing a Kebele devlopment plan
2. Ensuring the collections of land and argicultural income tax
3. Organizing local labor and in-kind contributions to development activities
4. Resolving conflicts within the community (through social courts)

Constitution and legal system

The Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ፌዴራላዊ ዴሞክራሲያዊ ሪፐብሊክ ሕገ መንግሥት), also known as the 1995 Constitution of Ethiopia, is the supreme law of Ethiopia. The constitution came into force on 21 August 1995 after it was drawn up by the Constituent Assembly that was elected in June 1994. It was adopted by the Transitional Government of Ethiopia on 8 December 1994.

The main features of Constitution of 1994 are:

1. The establishment of the federal system: The Constitution declares Ethiopia to be a federal polity with nine regional states based on ethno-linguistic patterns. Federalism was introduced as the culmination to the long-standing 'national question'. The constitutions also outlines the relations between the federal government and the regions.
2. The wording of the Preamble of the Constitution begins with "We, the nations, nationalities and peoples of Ethiopia. ..." This symbolises a constitution of the Ethiopian citizens not simply taken together as a people but as citizens in their different ethnolinguistic groupings. The ethno-linguistic groupings and the nationality issue have historico-political and socio-economic significance beyond the cultural and linguistic expressions. The contitution defines a nation or ethnicity in Article 39.5 as being:

   "A "Nation, Nationality or People" for the purpose of this Constitution,is a group of people who have or share a large measure of a common culture or similar customs, mutual intelligibility of language, belief in a common or related identities, a common psychological make-up, and who inhabit an identifiable,predominantly contiguous territory."

3. The Constitution establishes a bicameral parliamentary democracy. There are two houses known as the Federal Houses. They are the House of Peoples' Representatives (HPR), with 547 seats, and the House of Federation (HF), with 108 seats. The Constitution also provides for a one house State Council at the state level. The HPR is the highest authority of the Federal Government and the State Council is the highest organ of state authority. The HF which is composed of representatives of Nations, Nationalities and people is the other representative assembly with specific power, including the ultimate "power to interpret the Constitution".
4. The right to secession is part of the broader right to self- determination. The right to secession is the ultimate extension and expression of the right to self-determination and the Constitution provides a detailed set of procedures for the way in which this right may be exercised in Article 39.4.
5. The Constitution states that, "the right to ownership of rural and urban land … is exclusively vested in the state and in the people of Ethiopia". It goes on to add, "Land is a common property of the nations, nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia and shall not be subject to sale or to other means of transfer". According to Article 40, Land is common property of the Ethiopian state and its people.
6. Article 5 provides both for the equality of languages and for their practical application in government. Accordingly, all 85 Ethiopian languages enjoy equal state recognition. It also allows for the right of nations to protect and develop the useage of its own language in Article.
7. The ultimate interpreter of the Constitution is not the highest court of law, but the HF. The Constitution establishes the Council of Constitutional Inquiry, a body of mostly legal experts of high standing, headed by the Chief Justice of the Federal Supreme Court, to examine constitutional issues, and submit its findings to the House of Federation. The HF thus has the competent and authoritative legal advice of the Council of Constitutional Inquiry before it makes its decision on constitutional issues.

Customary and religious law has a special status in Ethiopia, as well as in the federal states. This also finds application in the 1960 Civil Code.

Ethnic federalism

The Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) lead the "Peaceful and Democratic Transitional Conference of Ethiopia" in July 1991 to approve the "Transitional Charter", convinced of the deleterious effects of the unitarian nation-state tendencies at the expense of the rights of Ethnic groups and nations in Ethiopia of the Derg and the Ethiopian Empire. As a result, the “National and Regional Self-Government Establishment Proclamation No. 7/1992′′ was issued, forming regions on the basis of “settlement patterns, language, identity, and consent of the peoples concerned" (Article 46). Ethiopia’s ethnic-federalism seeks to establish regional states based on ethnicity. This constitutional foundation gives nations, nationalities, and peoples within Ethiopia’s federation the right to self-determination. The territorial autonomy of regional states, nations, nationalities, and peoples, including language and cultural rights as well within the federation, and the right to secession. As a federal system, it outlines the executive, legislative and judicial functions and powers of the federal government and the regions in Article 50-52.

Marxist-Leninist Influence, The Student Movement, the Derg and its Opposition

The 1995 constitution is similar in its treatment of the question of nationality as found in Lenin and Stalin. Specifically, as evidenced by "Declaration of the Rights of the People of Russia":

"The united will of this Congresses, The Councils of the People's Commissars, resolved to base of their activity upon the question of the nationalties of Russia, as expressed in the following principles:

1. The equality and sovereignty of the peoples of Russia.
2. The right of the peoples of Russia to free self-determination, even to the point of separation and the formation of an independent state.
3. The abolition of any and all national and national-religious privileges and disabilities.
4. The free development of national minorities and ethnographic groups inhabiting the territory of Russia.

The concrete decrees that follow from these principles will be immedieatly elaborated after the setting up of a Commission of Nationality Affairs."

The National Question, albeit finding early expression before the Ethiopian Student Movement, such as in the First Weyane in Tigray 1941-1943, the acivities of the Mecha-Ulamo Oromo self-help association and the Bale uprising 1964-1970, played a major political and ideological role within the Ethiopian Student Movement. As described by Kastakioris:

"Along with call for the redistribution of land to the tillers and radical economic reform, the student movement engaged in a heated debate over the national question. This debate was triggered by an article entitled ‘On the question of nationalities in Ethiopia’ that Wallelign Mekonnen, a student in political sciences at Addis Ababa University and published in November 1969. An ethnic Amhara, Wallelign, defended the legitimate right of Eritreans to fight against oppression, but opposed the Eritrean liberation movement, because, as he pointed out, it was led by the bourgeoisie and the local feudal lords. At the same time, he invited all Ethiopians to build ‘a genuine national-state . . . in which all nationalities participate equally in state affairs’. Liberation, according to Wallelign, would not come by replacing Amhara with Eritrean masters, but through building a socialist federation of all ethnic groups, a genuinely egalitarian ‘national-state’, as he put it, that would ensure the interests of the working masses all over Ethiopia and reform the country along socialist lines. In this respect, Wallelign Mekonnen remained faithful to the Leninist solution. Other students, however, opposed his views. They also quoted Lenin’s and the Comintern’s theses on the national and colonial question to make, however, an opposing argument. In short, they contended that because Eritrea was a colony and because in the near future the conditions for building a socialist Ethiopian federation could not be fulfilled, secession was a legitimate right of Eritreans" .

After the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974, the Derg made moves towards a regocnition of the rights of nations, linguistic rights, and land reform, while concurrently spawning mutiple ethnonatioanlist and seperatist movements in the Ogaden and Tigray, while continuing the war in Eritrea. The TPLF openly embraced Walleligne Mekonnen by the 1980s, even serving as the namesake of the final operation against the Derg in 1991 ("Operation Walleligne").

The Derg, aligned with the Eastern Bloc, declared equality among the country’s ethnic groups, and promised self-­administration. In 1983, it established the Institute for the Study of Ethiopian Nationalities (ISEN), which had two mandates—assessing the distribution, social, and economic conditions of ethnic groups in the country and recommending a new state structure that would provide regional autonomy for the various ethnic groups. The Derg introduced the constitution of the People’s Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (PDRE) in 1987, which established some regional autonomy. Some of the provinces affected by the national/regional insurgency were organized into five autonomous regions—Eritrea, Tigray, Dire Dawa, Ogaden and Assab—while Eritrea was provided with more autonomy. In addition, the Derg translated the constitution into some peripheral languages and employed non­-Amharic languages in its literacy programs, but there was no linguistic autonomy and Amharic remained the working language of the government at all levels.

Historians such as John Young draw parallels between pre-revolutionary and revolutionary Russian Empire and the Ethiopian Empire:

"The Ethiopian emperor, who like his Russian counterpart was head of state and of the Orthodox Church, attempted to assimilate the different ethnic elites into the cultures and languages of the Amhara ruling class. It employed neftegnas (gun carrying settlers) from various ethnic groups to forcefully occupy territory for the empire. While Ethiopia did not have pogroms like Tsarist Russia, it did have indentured peasants, forced national evacuations, lowland African people who were viewed as slaves, and a distinct racial hierarchy."

He especially stresses the debates surrounding the national question of Eritrea as instrumental in the early Student Movement, and contends that much was drawn from the Soviet experience.

Meanwhile, the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP) mobilized on a pan-­Ethiopian basis and called for a proletarian revolution under a vanguard party. Nonetheless, its leaders were sufficiently aware of nationalist sensitivities to establish the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization (OPDO) to mobilize the Oromo.

In contrast, groups largely from the non-­Amhara core of the country, including the future leaders of the TPLF, highlighted the nationalities issue and held “Amhara chauvinism” to be the enemy in a context where a Shoan Amhara elite imposed its language, culture, and Coptic faith on the peoples of Ethiopia.

Ultimately the difference between the EPRP and the TPLF was not a strategic question since the TPLF affirmed that the class contradiction superseded all other contradictions. Rather it was a question of whether the national issue was primary for purposes of mobilization, as affirmed by the TPLF, or class, as held by the EPRP. The TPLF contended that its own formation as a Tigrayan national party, together with other national parties, such as the Afar Liberation Front, Western Somali Liberation Front, Sidama Liberation Front, and the OLF, provided conclusive evidence in support of its position.

Sensitive to the nationalism of their Tigrayan followers and appreciating the limited capitalist development in the country, which meant that the working class was a negligible force, the TPLF focused on the peasantry. The primary contradicition was seen in Amhara domination. The Front emphasized national struggle and held that the national contradictions had to be resolved before multinational class struggles could be settled. The early TPLF entertained the idea of Tigray’s secession before proclaiming the right of Tigrayans as a nation to self­-determination According to one TPLF veteran, Stalin’s (1913) article became a “bible,” while another said it was read “scores of times.”

The TPLF and EPDM (Ethiopian People's Democratic Movement) established the EPRDF in 1989. The Amhara­ dominated Ethiopian Peoples’ Democratic Movement (EPDM) was replaced by the Amhara National Democratic Movement (ANDM) to emphasize its national character and distinguish it from the All Amhara Organization. The ANDM came together with the TPLF to form the EPRDF, which were joined in 1990 by the Oromo Peoples’ Democratic Organization (OPDO) and later by the Southern Ethiopia Peoples’ Democratic Front (SEPDF). The EPRDF took power in 1991, as a coalition of four groups.

Demographics

There are over 80 ethnic groups in Ethiopia. The largest nations in the country are the Tigray (6.1%) and Amhara (27%), who speak Semitic languages,and the Somalis (6.2%) and the Oromo (34%), who speak a Cushitic language.

According to the most recent census conducted by the Population Census Commision of the FDRE in 2007 (which recorded a population of 74 million), 43,5% of the Ethiopian Population are Orthodox Christian (Tewahedo), 18.6% Protestant (mostly Pent'ay) and 0,7% Catholic, which totals to a Christian population of 62,8%. In addition, 33.9% are Muslim, 68% of which identify as Sunni, and 2% as Shia. The census lists 2.6% of the population as being adherents to "traditional religions".

Languages

Since the 29th of February 2020 (as decided by Ethiopia's Council of Ministers), the FDRE has five working languages: Afaan Oromo, Tigrinya, Somali, Afar and Amharic. Prior to this decision, Amharic was the only working language of Ethiopia, and it remains the de facto second language of many Ethiopians because of this status. Amharic and Afaan Oromo are considered to be lingua francae of Ethiopia. Ethiopia has a literacy rate of 52%.

The 2007 census reported 85 Ethiopian ethnic groups vs. 80 of the 1994 census, and the 2007 census reported 87 Ethiopian mother tongues vs. 77 of the 1994 census. However, this same paper also notes:

"the persistent difficulty concerning differences between names of languages and their dialects, and between self-names and names, often thought derogatory, given by others. Of course even the notions 'ethnic group', 'mother tongue' or 'language' are not well defined, but are non-discrete entities, and the facts which, in particular cases, would give them clarity if not satisfactory definition are many and probably impossible to elicit in a census. The Ethiopian census seems not trying to identify and count all Ethiopian ethnic groups and mother tongues, or even a well-defined subgroup of these. The apparent absence of expert advice in these matters (or at least in the census reporting) is understandable, given the certain difficulties of choosing among experts, interpreting the advice (probably often contradictory), and implementing it."

The same author elswhere states about the 1994 Census:

"linguistic findings of the Census seem reasonably consistent with the typically un-quantified and often intuitive knowledge of Ethiopianist linguists" [despite of the] "expected difficulties for the Census arising from the political sensitivities associatied with linguistic and ethnolinguistic questions, an unsystematic and ambiguous linguistic nomenclature, and the practical problem of reaching and sampling in all corners of Ethiopia."

indicating the census reliability. The Ethnologue page for Ethiopia lists 87 living and 2 extinct languages, broadly in the Afro-Asiatic (Semitic, Cushitic and Omotic languages) and Nilo-Saharan (Surmic, Gumuz, and Koman languages) language families (excluding sign language for Amharic). Currently, 25 languages are used as a language of instruction in primary education, whereas English is used as a language of instruction (Amharic and the local language being included in the curriculum) in secondary and higher education. More precisely:

"Ethiopia’s approach has first and foremost been the introduction of local languages as a medium of instruction at the primary level and followed multilingual education strategies. Ethiopian educational experts of the several regions and zones decided whether the mother tongue should be used as a medium of instruction at the first cycle (1st– 4th grade) or during the complete primary level. That means that the medium of instruction can not only be different within a regional state but sometimes even within zones of a region with a multiethnic situation. Local languages are used as a medium of instruction up to the 8th grade in the Oromiya, Amhara, and Tigray regions as well as in Addis Ababa. The SNNP (Southern Nations, Nationalities and People) are using the respective local languages only in the first cycle (...). Amharic as a medium of instruction is preferred in urban areas due to the multiethnic character of many towns where the inhabitants often only share it as the lingua franca."

The concrete usage of languages varies according to the existence or availability of written material in that language, a consistent and standardized dictionary and grammar, and the availability of trained and educated people in that respective language.

Principally, according to the 1994 constitution (Article 5 and Article 39), each nation has the right to choose its respective working language, as well as the right to speak, to write and to develop its own language, as well as promote and preserve its own culture and history.

Several Ethiopian langages use the Ge'ez Script (Ethiopic Script), first used to write the Ge'ez language, which presently serves as an liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. It is the script for the major Ethiosemitic languages, such as Tigrinya and Amharic. Some langages use different scripts, like for instance the Latin Script, such as Afaan Oromo, eventhough an alphasyllabic alternative exists since the 1950s in the form of the script invented by Sheikh Bakri Saṗalō. In total, at least 20 languages use the Ethiopic script, including some Omotic and Nilo-Saharan languages. It is also employed for some Eritrean languages. It has 26 syllographs classes with 7 variations within a class, leading to a total of 182 syllographs in its standard form (some languages use additional syllographs and there are additional "special" syllographs used in some contexts).

Politics of language and nationalities

The politics of language in Ethiopia broadly encompasses two related but distinct topics: a) Whether a policy of linguistic homogenization existed, and if so, to which extent, its role in "nation-building" efforts and the shift in policy in the 1990s as well as the political consequences of both and b) the politics of personal langauge choice and its instrumentalisation for political aims. I.e., the national-political and the economic problem, as well as the personal problem. Relatated to this is the problem of nationalities in Ethiopia, the emergence of ethnonationalism as a political force in Ethiopia etc.

Walleligne Mekonnen, marxist activist in the Ethiopian Student Movement, states in his (in)famous account of the problem of nationalities and languages in Ethiopia in the text "On the question of nationalities in Ethiopia":

"To be a "genuine Ethiopian" one has to speak Amharic, to listen to Amharic music, to accept the Amhara-Tigre religion, Orthodox Christianity and to wear the Amhara-Tigre Shamma in international conferences. In some cases to be an "Ethiopian", you will even have to change your name. In short to be an Ethiopian, you will have to wear an Amhara mask (to use Fanon's expression). Start asserting your national identity and you are automatically a tribalist, that is if you are not blessed to be born an Amhara. According to the constitution you will need Amharic to go to school, to get a job, to read books (however few) and even to listen to the news on Radio "Ethiopia" unless you are a Somali or an Eritrean in Asmara for obvious reasons. To anybody who has got a nodding acquaintenance with Marxism, culture is nothing more than the super-structure of an economic basis. So cultural domination always presupposes economic subjugation. A clear example of economic subjugation would be the Amhara and to a certain extent Tigrai Neftegna system in the South and the Amhara-Tigre Coalition in the urban areas."

Walleligne Mekonnen is here referring to the 1955 Constitution, which adopted Amharic as the offical language of the Empire of Ethiopia. In this quote, the political importance of language in Ethiopia is described and its content can be used as a useful starting point. The contentiousness of the history of state formation in Ethiopia is well described in this quote:

"The history of state formation in Ethiopia is a source of profound contention. At one extreme, pan-Ethiopian nationalists contend that the state is some 3,000 years old. According to this perspective, well represented by Solomon Gashaw, the state has existed for millennia, successfully countering ethnic and regional challenges, and forging a distinct national identity. The assimilation of periphery cultures into the Amhara or Amhara/Tigray core culture made the creation of the Ethiopian nation possible. From this point of view, Ethiopia is a melting pot and a nation-state. At the other extreme, ethnonationalist groups such as the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) claim that Abyssinia (central and northern Ethiopia, the geographic core of the Ethiopian polity) colonized more than half the territories and peoples to form a colonial empire in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. From their vantage point, Ethiopia is a colonial empire that needs to undergo decolonization whereby ‘‘ethnonational’’ colonies become independent states. A more credible image of Ethiopia would be as a historically evolved (noncolonial) empire - state. The ancient Ethiopian state—short-term contractions in size notwithstanding—expanded, over a long historical period, through the conquest and incorporation of adjoining kingdoms, principalities, sultanates, and so on, which is indeed how most states in the world were formed."

Here, three of the dominant views on Ethiopian state formation, both scholarly and political, are outlined. The History of the politics of languages and nationalities will be examined in more detail in the following sections, as it has undergone dramatic shifts in the modern history of Ethiopia.