Ethiopia’s Amhara people are being portrayed as the enemy: the dangerous history of ethnic politics
When the TPLF entered the Amhara region, committing atrocities against civilians and taking over towns, the Fano worked with government forces to maintain local stability.
- When the TPLF entered the Amhara region, committing atrocities against civilians and taking over towns, the Fano worked with government forces to maintain local stability.
- During and after the war, massacres and mass displacement of Amhara occurred in the Oromia region, the Benshangul Gumuz region and other regions of Ethiopia.
- But the Amhara were left out of the agreement and continue to be targeted even by government forces.
- I am a scholar of history, human rights and decolonisation in Africa with a keen interest in Ethiopia.
- It is important to shine a light on what is happening and unpack the decades-long project of ethnic politics that has allowed the Amhara to be targeted.
The history of ethnic politics in Ethiopia
- Ethiopia has a long history of ethnic harmony.
- When the fascist Italian prime minister Benito Mussolini invaded and occupied Ethiopia from 1935 to 1942 dividing the country along ethnic lines took centre stage.
- It was carried out along plans devised earlier by the Austrian Nazi Roman Prochazka to portray the Amhara as the enemy of all other ethnic groups.
- After the expulsion of Italy, Haile Selassie sent Ethiopians from diverse ethnic groups overseas for higher education.
- The two combined, organised other ethnic allies, and removed the Derg from power in 1991.
- The TPLF led a transitional government which approved the secession of Eritrea from Ethiopia and the adoption of the current constitution.
The Amhara as national enemy
- Although the Ethiopian monarchy was established in Tigray and many Tigrayan (and, indeed, Oromo, Amhara and mixed) emperors ruled the country, the TPLF singled out the Amhara as the monarchical oppressor of all ethnic nations.
- This was partly convenient because Ethiopian emperors, regardless of ethnic origin, used Amharic as the language of their court.
- The Amhara are labelled as neftegna, which means a monarchical soldier, despite the monarchy being an institution led by kings from mixed ethnic groups.
- Even if one believes that the Amhara were monarchical oppressors, the monarchy was destroyed almost 50 years ago and the Amhara have been excluded from power ever since.
Heading towards genocide
- In August 2023, Oromia state government representatives travelled to Tigray to declare war:
The war we just started [on the Amhara] is a major war. - Right now, this group we are fighting wants to impose one religion, one country, and one language by force on all of us.
- Similar demonisation of the Tutsi by Hutu genocide agitators led to genocide 30 years ago in which 800,000 Tutsis and Tutsi sympathisers were killed.
- Without more attention and action from the media and global actors, Ethiopia could be heading towards a Rwandan-style genocide.