The Tragic Role of Intellectuals in  Ethiopia: A Sowellian Critique 

Eyassu Epheraim G Hanna
London UK 21 August 2025 

Preamble 

A TikTok video circulating on social media first brought my attention to Professor Messay  Kebede’s recent remarks. In that video, he was portrayed as an Amhara, and many were  disturbed by his comments about the so called ―Amhara ruling class‖. Whether or not he is  ethnically Amhara is not my primary concern. What disturbs me is that his political thought  appears less shaped by rigorous academic rationality and more by his own mixed identity.  Because he is a native speaker of Amharic, some people have assumed he is Amhara, but in  his own interviews, he clarified his background. For me, Ethiopia is best understood as a  melting pot of nationalities that produces composite identities like his. Yet individuals such  as Kebede, rather than embracing this synthesis, often play the ethnic card and retreat into  academic authority to shield their biases. 

This problem is evident in his article ―Fano and the New Amhara Nationalism: A Review‖ (September 17, 2024, Analysis & Opinion). And the following his discourse on YouTube channels, such as Mengizem Media ምንጊዜም ሚዲያ: and Buffet of Ideas-የሀሳብ ገበታ. Kebede openly acknowledged that his inspiration came from Meskerem Abera’s paper, ―የአማራ ብሔርተኝነት እና የሀገረ-ኢትዮጵያ መስተጋብር‖ (―Amhara Nationalism and its Interaction with  Ethiopianness‖). In his conclusion, he stated: “What might we conclude from this analysis of  

the new Amhara nationalism? Obviously, the new nationalism, unlike the position conflating  Ethiopianness with Amharaness, does not seek the termination of ethnic federalism.” But  should a professor of his seniority simply reproduce the framework of a much younger  activist-intellectual and treat it as the definitive interpretation of Amhara nationalism?  Meskerem Abera, though an articulate figure, is relatively young and holder of MA in  Development Studies from Addis Ababa University at the time of writing and now a political  prisoner. Kebede, by contrast, is a seasoned academic in the United States with decades of  age and intellectual authority on his side. The point here is not that Meskerem was literally  his student, but that the relationship resembles one: in principle, it is the professor who  should challenge, critique, and refine the ideas of the younger generation, not uncritically  adopt them. By taking Meskerem Abera’s work as the foundation of his thesis, Kebede  reverses the academic relationship, diminishing his own authority and reducing his role to  that of a follower rather than a guide. 

Megersa Gemechu, in his article “A Sugar Coated Poison on Fano’s Amhara Nationalism” (Borkena, November 4, 2024), lamented: “The chronic pain is to hear and read from the  Ethiopian elites of the old generations who had the knowledge of the Ethiopian history and  reality, but had betrayed the Ethiopian people for selfish motives or otherwise.” While this  captures the frustration many feel toward Ethiopia’s older intellectual class, I would argue  that Professor Messay Kebede’s motivations appear even more troubling. His interventions  are not merely misguided or selfish but reflect a deeper, more insidious intellectual project. In  this sense, Kebede is not an isolated case: he is part of a broader cohort of elites who have,  over decades, injected venomous ideas into Ethiopia’s political bloodstream. These ideas,  dressed in academic language but corrosive in practice, have poisoned national cohesion and  perpetuated cycles of ethnic resentment and violence. 

To be clear, I have deep respect and admiration for my fellow Ethiopian, Meskerem Abera. In  fact, during my time with Ras Media, I had the opportunity to interview her for more than 

five hours—one of the longest interviews I have ever conducted. I value her opinions and the  personal sacrifices she has made in the struggle for justice, equality, and democracy.  However, it is important to recognize that Meskerem Abera’s perspective is not the sole voice  representing the Amhara cause. Amhara nationalism, like any political discourse, is shaped  by a diversity of voices, experiences, and interpretations. While some—including Meskerem  herself—emphasize correcting historical misunderstandings, the Amhara as a people have  never abandoned their Ethiopian identity or their commitment to the Ethiopian state. 

If Professor Messay Kebede assumes that Meskerem Abera’s discourse aligns with his own  divisive and deeply problematic prescriptions, then he gravely misreads both her intent and  the broader reality. Rather than appropriating her work to validate his sinister arguments, he would do better to revisit and critically examine his own ideas. 

Introduction 

Education and intellectual leadership are often seen as drivers of progress and enlightenment.  Yet, as Thomas Sowell (2009) argues in Intellectuals and Society, intellectuals can also be  powerful forces of destruction. Their ideas—when detached from accountability, reality, and  lived consequences—can devastate nations. Ethiopia is a striking case where so-called  intellectuals, from the radical student movement of the 1960s–70s to diaspora academics  today, have contributed more to fragmentation than to unity or development. This essay  applies Sowell’s critique to the Ethiopian context, showing how eloquent but untested  theories undermined Ethiopia’s political, social, and economic fabric. 

Sowell’s Critique of Intellectuals 

Sowell distinguishes intellectuals from other professionals in one crucial way: they are  rewarded not for the real-world success of their ideas, but for their originality and verbal  virtuosity. They operate in insulated environments—universities, journals, politics—where  they rarely bear the consequences of their prescriptions. This produces three dangers: 

1. Ideas without responsibility – Intellectuals propose, but others suffer the  consequences (Sowell, 2009). 

2. The presumption of knowledge – Intellectuals assume they know better than  traditions, institutions, or ordinary people. 

3. Moral superiority complex – They cloak destructive ideologies in the language of  justice. 

These dynamics have been observed in various historical contexts, from French intellectuals  during World War II to the ideological justifications of totalitarian regimes. In Ethiopia, they  manifested vividly in the radical student movement and beyond. 

Answering the So-Called Intellectuals 

To critically evaluate such figures, Sowell’s framework offers clear criteria: 

∙ Accountability Test: Have these ideas improved Ethiopia’s unity, prosperity, and  stability? The historical record suggests the opposite. 

∙ Reality Test: Where have similar models (ethnic federalism, Marxism) succeeded  elsewhere? Comparative history shows they have consistently failed. 

∙ Unity Test: Do these theories unite Ethiopians or divide them further? Division has  been the dominant outcome. 

∙ Consequences Test: Who bears the cost—the intellectual, or the ordinary Ethiopian  villager? Clearly, it is the latter.

By these measures, Ethiopia’s so-called intellectuals fail the test of genuine intellectual  responsibility. 

The Radical Student Movement: Wallelign Mekonnen 

Wallelign Mekonnen, a 21-year-old student at Haile Selassie I University, wrote the famous  essay On the Question of Nationalities in Ethiopia (1969). His Marxist-inspired text argued  that Ethiopia was a ―prison-house of nations‖ and called for radical restructuring along ethnic  lines. Though little more than a youthful polemic, it became the intellectual seed of  Ethiopia’s ethnic federalism (Bahru Zewde, 2014). Sowell would identify this as the hubris  of untested theories—a student essay elevated into a national constitutional framework  decades later. The result was not liberation but enduring division. 

Meles Zenawi and the Codification of Ethnic Federalism 

Meles Zenawi, a former medical student who abandoned his studies to join the armed  struggle, later codified Wallelign’s vision into Ethiopia’s 1995 constitution. This document  formalized ethnicity as the foundation of politics, even granting secession rights to regions  (Vaughan, 2003). Sowell would classify this as the epitome of intellectual irresponsibility: a  radical theory applied wholesale to millions of lives without regard for historical complexity  or practical consequences. The outcomes—ethnic wars, disintegration, and fragile  governance—illustrate what Sowell described as the gulf between the eloquence of theory  and the devastation of practice. 

Contemporary Intellectuals: Perpetuating Division 

Even today, academics in the diaspora, such as Professor Messay Kebede, recycle similar  frameworks. Instead of reassessing Ethiopia’s failures, they continue to validate divisive  ideologies in the name of intellectual rigor. This is particularly troubling given that Professor  Kebede has lived through the consequences of Wallelign Mekonnen’s youthful essay and  Meles Zenawi’s ethnic federalist experiment. The Amhara genocide, recurring ethnic  conflicts, and the devastating civil war in Tigray—which is estimated to have cost over  600,000 lives—are not abstract historical debates but lived national tragedies. For an  academic of his stature, having witnessed such consequences over half a century, to still  advance theories rooted in Wallelign’s polemics raises questions about intellectual  responsibility, academic integrity, and even the capacity to acknowledge reality at this stage  of life. 

This problem is evident in his recent appearance on a YouTube discussion titled “አሳዳጊ አልባ ኢትዮጵያዊነት እና መጪው ጊዜ፣ ‘አዲሱ የአማራ ብሔርተኝነት‘” Buffet of Ideas-የሀሳብ ገበታ Youtube.  Where he is unashamedly reflects a narrow definition of Ethiopian identity. He argues that  there was Amhara domination through language, culture, and religion. Yet as a highly  regarded intellectual, he fails to grasp the complexity of nation-building. Otto von Bismarck  is famously remembered for saying that nations were built through ―blood and iron,‖ and  certainly not by endlessly re-litigating cultural dominance. Two centuries ago Ethiopia lacked  the institutions to build a democratic nation; today, instead of helping to build one, Messay  Kebede turns his back on Ethiopia’s potential and spreads political venom among the youth,  perpetuating ethnic division, conflict, and even genocide. 

Even more troubling is Kebede’s misunderstanding of his own ethnic background. He has publicly stated that his father is Gurage—an ethnic group linguistically and culturally  connected to Amhara and Tigray—and his mother is Oromo. Social anthropology studies  indicate that Gurage and Amhara communities are historically intertwined, through culture,  lineage, and intermarriage. For instance, even Emperor Haile Selassie himself had Gurage 

lineage. When Professor Kebede speaks of ―Amhara domination,‖ he inadvertently speaks of  his own composite identity, yet denies it. This reveals a deeper problem: pseudo intellectualism that disregards historical complexity in favour of simplistic narratives. Such  distortions do not clarify Ethiopia’s challenges; they inflame them. 

Equally contradictory are his proposed solutions. In the same discussion, Kebede declared  that Ethiopia’s problem could be solved by a renewed Ethiopianism, yet simultaneously  claimed that no one can truly be organized under an Ethiopian umbrella. Instead, he insisted  that people could only organize along their respective ethnic identities. This is an inherently  self-defeating argument: if Ethiopianism is the solution, it cannot at the same time be  declared impossible. 

Moreover, Kebede’s own linguistic and cultural background undermines his claim. He speaks  either his mother’s or his father’s tongue—Oromo or Gurage—yet by his own framework he  could not be fully accepted in either group as a political actor. This contradiction exposes the  fragility of his ethno-centric prescriptions. 

Even more troubling is his analogy of ethnic relations to nuclear deterrence. He suggested  that Ethiopia’s ethnic groups should relate to one another as the USA and the Soviet Union  did during the Cold War—through Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). According to this  logic, each ethnic group must arm itself to secure respect and peaceful coexistence. Such a  vision, however, is both impractical and destructive. While the United States Constitution  does enshrine the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment (1791), this principle was  grounded in democratic state-building and civic republicanism—not ethnic separatism. To  advocate arming each ethnic group as the foundation of mutual respect is to promote  perpetual instability, more akin to the collapse of Somalia than the federalist stability of the  United States. 

These contradictions—invoking Ethiopianism while rejecting its possibility, calling for  mutual respect while advocating ethnic armament—illustrate what can only be described as  pseudo-intellectual confusion. Rather than contributing to solutions, such arguments risk  normalizing division, militarization, and eventual state failure. 

As a renowned academician, Professor Kebede should be expected to offer long-lasting,  constructive solutions. Instead, he borrows indirectly from Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy  of suffering, will to power, and overcoming adversity, but distorts it into a nihilistic  prescription for Ethiopians to arm themselves and fight until they supposedly learn through  destruction. Nietzsche emphasized struggle as a means of personal and cultural growth, not as  an excuse for mutual annihilation. To reinterpret such thought as a justification for ethnic  warfare is reckless. 

Kebede’s suggestion resembles the dangerous realpolitik voiced by figures such as Donald  Trump in discussions of the Ukraine–Russia war. In 2025, Trump argued that ―sometimes  you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart‖ (The Guardian,  2025). Yet even Trump ultimately acknowledged that peace, not protracted conflict, was the  only sustainable solution. For a university professor in the United States—who benefits from  democratic stability and prosperity—to advocate a ―fight it out‖ approach for Ethiopia is both  dangerous and irresponsible. Such remarks from someone in his position reveal not  intellectual courage but intellectual recklessness. 

True intellectual responsibility lies not in producing eloquent theories, but in ensuring that  ideas serve the people and unite the nation. Ethiopia does not need more theories of  disintegration; it needs practical wisdom rooted in unity, accountability, and the lived realities  of its people

Sowell (2009) would call this the insulation from feedback: professors abroad face no  consequences for repeating theories that tear Ethiopia apart, while ordinary Ethiopians pay  the price in poverty, displacement, and war. 

Conclusion 

Ethiopia’s intellectual history illustrates Sowell’s warning: when intellectuals are rewarded  for eloquence rather than outcomes, they become dangerous. Wallelign’s student essay,  Meles Zenawi’s ethnic federalism, and today have recycled diaspora theories all share one  trait: they prioritize ideology over unity, and theory over lived reality. Ethiopia does not  need more ―eloquent disintegration.‖ It requires intellectuals who embrace accountability,  respect history, and commit to unity and practical wisdom. True intellectual responsibility, as  Sowell reminds us, lies not in dividing a nation, but in contributing to its healing. 

References 

∙ Bahru Zewde. (2014). The Quest for Socialist Utopia: The Ethiopian Student  Movement, c. 1960–1974. James Currey. 

∙ Sowell, T. (2009). Intellectuals and Society. 

∙ Vaughan, S. (2003). Ethnicity and Power in Ethiopia. University of Edinburgh.

Editor’s Note : Views in the article do not necessarily reflect the views of borkena.com  

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