The Responsibility of Majoritarian Ethnicities

By Addissu Admas

Like many countries in the world, Ethiopia is home to numerous different ethnic groups. By common estimation, around 80 of them. However, unlike most other countries, Ethiopia is not overwhelmingly dominated by one single ethnic group with numerous smaller other ethnic groups; for example, like China where the Han ethnic group constitutes 91% of the total population, and Russia where Russians make up 77% of the population. Ethiopia’s case is unusual, since rather than having one super-majoritarian ethnic group, she has relatively large ethnic groups that could be tiered in the following way. The two majoritarian ethnic groups would be the Oromo and the Amhara, which respectively are 35 and 27 percent of the total population of Ethiopia, followed by the two big minoritarian ethnicities, the Somali and the Tegaru at approximately 6% each. In the third tier are those smaller minorities such as the Sidama, Gurage, Wolaita, Hadiya, Afar and Gamo who range each from a high 4% to a low of 1.5% of the total population. Most of the remaining ethnic groups, some 70 of them, number less than half a million people each. Together, they constitute some 13% of Ethiopia’s population.

Since in Ethiopia there has never been an supermajority ethnic group that controls all the instruments of power, the economy and culture as in China or Russia, there was always an expectation, seldom expressed openly but nonetheless persistent, that Ethiopia had to be governed in a manner that reflected her ethnic and religious heterogeneity. The problem has been that this expectation was not only never fulfilled to everyone’s satisfaction, but was never even addressed in the proper way.

During the imperial era, under both Atse Menelik II and Atse Haile Selassie I, the Amhara, especially the Showan, tended to govern the subjugated populations through a combination of individual, marital and military alliances tending more to assimilationism and appeasement. Where these did not succeed, through outright military dominance. This is what led most irredentist intellectuals to compare, erroneously in my opinion, Amhara dominance to European colonialism. It became, in fact, the battle cry of most liberation fronts from the 1960s onward. I do not want to stop here to refute the validity of their comparison. Suffice to say that European colonialism was motivated, initiated, and expanded by totally other reasons- and means. Calling Amhara dominance colonialism not only misses the point, but impedes a genuine inquiry and understanding. The point is that there was indeed Amhara dominance and Amharanization has been the preferred mode of governance. Let us not forget that until the advent of modern education, and thus the emergence of an awareness of alternative modes of governance, the only known form of government to nearly all Ethiopians without distinction of ethnicity, culture or religion, was the autocratic type; and that is one that subscribed to subjugation by force. This was not the sole modus operandi of the Amhara alone. The Oromo and other larger minorities have made recourse to it equally; e.g. the process of Oromo-ization or Tegaru-zation in the past as well as in the present. This may not have characterized as such the intra-ethnic relations in all cases, but it has certainly defined the inter-ethnic relations of all concerned. For example, the Oromo Gadaa system of governance is essentially democratic, but it is not so as concerns their subjugated peoples! Thus, not only the Amhara, but also the Oromo have resorted to identical autocratic methods of governance of other ethnicities. This is the reason why the recent history of Ethiopia has been seen as a succession of periods where one ethnicity emerges as the hegemonic one. That is why we have the tendency of speaking of the “ascendance” of one particular ethnicity over all Ethiopians. In this regard, the expression ጊዚአቸው ነው (it is their time) is an expression we often hear stated with the resentment that accompanies it. It is as if this is a course of historic progression that must be accepted as being “natural” and inevitable; where in fact it is neither natural nor inevitable.

That Ethiopia must recognize her ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic diversity has not been a point of contention at least since the Revolution of 1974 (አብዮት). Neither is it something that can be minimized by a revisionist history. What we have not succeeded is to accommodate our differences as to make them functional without fringe parties trying to undermine and blow it up. We have, in theory, a constitution that not only acknowledges our complex diversity, but attempts, at least in the spirit of the letter, to devise a credible solution. However, the fact of the matter remains that no law in Ethiopia has been applied objectively and fairly under any administration and under all circumstances without the existing regime twisting and turning it to satisfy its own agenda or benefit certain parties. What Ethiopia suffers from is not lack of reasonable laws, but a lack of good faith and political will to implement them with the required objectivity and fairness. The current constitution may not need to be overhauled wholesale. However, it may need amendments to prevent it from being manipulated by the power that be. What it ultimately needs is, in fact, fair and good faith implementation.

Over and above the written letters of the Constitution, what has been lacking sorely in Ethiopia is the spirit of nation building: the idea that the personal destiny of every Ethiopian is tied to the nation’s; that a single ethnicity cannot dominate the entire nation in every sector and at every level and expect peace and stability. We have seen how regimes founded on these premises have failed spectacularly within and without Ethiopia. There  must be a mind-set that we are in this predicament together, and that we can only emerge from it together.

Ethiopia, to remind both the majoritarian and larger minoritarian ethnicities, is not a commodity that passes from one ethnicity to another, from a losing party to a winning party, to be “exploited and enjoyed” at the expense of other ethnic groups until another ethnic group ascends. There is no “our time has come” or “their time has passed”. If one thinks in these terms, Ethiopia would not be any better than an insignificant agglomeration of squabbling nationalities, and not a nation with a remarkable history. Thus, we cannot go on with the policies of resentment, rancor and spite. They beget neither stability, peace, much less prosperity, but constant hatred and diffidence. In the battle of “majoritarian ethnicities”, clear alignment is expected often from minoritarian ethnicities. Not their loyalty to the nation, but their loyalty to the hegemonic group is required and tested relentlessly. Their very existence is rendered precarious and they are at the mercy of their ethnic overlords. This is not the intent of the constitution and neither of all Ethiopians of good will.

The greatness of a person lies in his/her magnanimity; in the literal sense of the word, this signifies “having a big soul”, suggesting loftiness of spirit, eschewing all forms of meanness. No fascist, no ethnocentrist, no tribalist, no one who “others” those who do not belong to one’s group can ever be called magnanimous because his or her soul is too small to accommodate or include “the other”. The same can be said of a majoritarian group in a nation. If its intent is to seek only the advantage, privilege and superiority of its members at the expense, disadvantage and suffering of minorities, not only will it be ignoring its expected historic responsibility, but it will signify that it has not been able to rise to its status as a mature majoritarian people. Or, following the analogy, to merge as a magnanimous group.

Ethiopia has never existed, as far as history can tell, as a nation of one single ethnicity. She has always been a nation formed of various ethnicities. There has of course been differences in the size and number of ethnicities that constitute her through the course of her history. However, there was an unwritten covenant that even though her varying ethnicities may have had constant squabbles over land, grazing fields and water resources, they were constantly ready to face together their common enemy, without ever questioning that they were members of the same nation.

 Let me reiterate one point: Ethiopians cannot afford to go the way of former Yugoslavia. Not only are we abjectly poor collectively, but also and more to the point, separately in our individual enclaves. Not only we lack collectively the economic, political and intellectual infrastructure, but these resources are unequally and haphazardly distributed among the Killils. If the Slovenians, Croatians, Bosnians, Serbians, etc…. have been able to go their separate ways, all be it through violent internecine war, it is because they have known in their past distinct national identities and because they possessed sufficient resources separately to sustain themselves. If, out of pure insanity, Ethiopians, especially the majoritarian and greater minoritarian ethnicities were to go their separate ways, not only it would be disastrous for the smaller minorities, but it would be even worse for themselves.

          Ethiopians, whether they belong to a majoritarian or minoritarian ethnicity must be aware that they cannot entertain the possibility of going the Yugoslavian way because it means quite simply going the way of our neighbor to the east. Our only and sole preoccupation should be to eliminate the mentality of ascendency of one ethnic group over the others using all the means at our disposal. It is imperative that we find a mode of co-existence that both reflects and respects our equality, and fosters our fraternity and liberty. 

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