Ethiopia’s Choice: Ethnic Disintegration or Inclusive Healing
Posted: 05 Nov 2020, 20:49
while most of the world was engrossed in the unfolding US elections, the first shots of a looming civil war were fired as the Ethiopian military engaged with TPLF militias in Tigray. When it comes to facts on the ground, there is very little that is independently corroborated at this moment except for the commencement of hostilities. In war, the only things that are true are disinformation and confusion emanating from all sides.
However, this much is certain; Ethiopia has quickened the pace of an oncoming calamity from a stroll into a gallop. A roiling disintegration fueled by decades of ethnic grievances and built on the foundation of historical injustices have burst into an open warfare that has the potential of turning Ethiopia into Rwanda 2.0. Led by tribal politicians whose thirst for power is only exceeded by their indifference to human suffering and encouraged by too many Ethiopians who have been conditioned to view anguish through the lens of ethnicity above nationality—and more importantly humanity—Ethiopia stands at the precipice of a horrific bloodbath.
The seed of strife that is girding Ethiopia was planted the minute “ethnic federalism” was introduced by Meles Zenawi and the TPLF junta he headed. Let me say from the outset that my condemnation of TPLF the ideology is not an attack on Tigray people as a whole, Tigray people are part and parcel of Ethiopia’s foundation and they are my brothers and sisters like the rest of Ethiopia’s ethnic communities. The basic premise of “ethnic federalism” was to group Ethiopians into clusters based on tribe. Supposedly, each “homeland” would be representative of Ethiopia’s main ethnic groups. If this sounds familiar, that is because it is a carbon copy of South Africa’s “Apartheid” policy that...continued...
Read full article at: https://ghionjournal.com/ethiopias-choi ... e-healing/
However, this much is certain; Ethiopia has quickened the pace of an oncoming calamity from a stroll into a gallop. A roiling disintegration fueled by decades of ethnic grievances and built on the foundation of historical injustices have burst into an open warfare that has the potential of turning Ethiopia into Rwanda 2.0. Led by tribal politicians whose thirst for power is only exceeded by their indifference to human suffering and encouraged by too many Ethiopians who have been conditioned to view anguish through the lens of ethnicity above nationality—and more importantly humanity—Ethiopia stands at the precipice of a horrific bloodbath.
The seed of strife that is girding Ethiopia was planted the minute “ethnic federalism” was introduced by Meles Zenawi and the TPLF junta he headed. Let me say from the outset that my condemnation of TPLF the ideology is not an attack on Tigray people as a whole, Tigray people are part and parcel of Ethiopia’s foundation and they are my brothers and sisters like the rest of Ethiopia’s ethnic communities. The basic premise of “ethnic federalism” was to group Ethiopians into clusters based on tribe. Supposedly, each “homeland” would be representative of Ethiopia’s main ethnic groups. If this sounds familiar, that is because it is a carbon copy of South Africa’s “Apartheid” policy that...continued...
Read full article at: https://ghionjournal.com/ethiopias-choi ... e-healing/