Category: Opinion
Thanks to a friend, I recently read an article written by Andreas Eshete and Samuel Assefa for a conference held in Addis Ababa and titled “Reflections on Expanding Ethiopia’s Democratic Space”. The article takes note of Ethiopia’s turn toward a…
The starting occasion of this article is a video I watched on the 7th conference of Vision Ethiopia in which my old and dear friend and colleague, Dr, Befekadu Degefe, gives an insightful analysis on the requisites for economic development…
I was about to write an analysis on the obstacles that Abiy Ahmed’s reformism is increasingly facing and the possible choices that he has to overcome them when I came across René Lefort’s latest article on the situation in Ethiopia,…
When Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited Gambella by the end of May 2018, he noticed how far the region was lagging behind in its overall development compared to most regions of the country. He later brought these concerns before the parliament,…
Ethnic tensions and violent clashes and subsequent displacements of people in some regions of Ethiopia and around Addis Ababa have set off alarmist, if not distraught, reactions among political analysts, activists, and ordinary people. While for some these tragic events…
Ethiopians have obviously a manifest difficulty in understanding rationally both the rise of Dr. Abiy Ahmed to premiership and his implementation of far-reaching changes. Here is a man who comes from the ranks of the coalition of political parties known…
Though in many ways this article continues my previous article titled, “On Transitional Government and Ethnic Federalism”, logically speaking, it precedes it in that it provides the social dynamics behind Dr. Abiy’s vision of መደመር, which I translate by the…
Locating Ethiopia Even though Ethiopia is widely mentioned in great Classical mythologies, maps, art, sculptures, poetry, war narratives, it has always been difficult to establish the country or its people in concise geographical and historical contexts on the basis of…
( This is the second part of the article, “Ethiopianism,” The “Neo-Official-Nationalism,” and the “Oromia First!” Trend, published on July 30.) In the past, on another platform (at OSA Conference, July 2016, Washington DC), I put forward three scenarios for…
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s visit to the Ethiopian diaspora in the US has offered the occasion to raise two crucial issues that have been the object of intense discussions among many students of Ethiopian politics and political activists since his…