The Politics of Ethnic Identity and Conflicts under Ethnic Federal System in Ethiopia

The study examined identity politics and conflict under ethnic federal system in Ethiopia. The Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has instituted ethnic federal system along with ethnic right to self-determination up to secession. The federal system is explicitly based on ethnicity that formalized identity politics in the post 1990s.  The quest for an anatomy of conflicts in pre- and post-federal Ethiopia leads one to clearly understand the nature of political relations in historic and contemporary Ethiopia. The historic root of formalized identity politics and ethnic rights to self-determination under ethnic federal system goes back to the politico-ideological agenda of National Questions by Ethiopian Student Movements (ESM) in the 1960s. The formalized identity politics altered conflicts causes, goals and nature in Ethiopia.  The study concluded that ethnic federal system and ethnic rights to self-determination up to secession has neither led to ethnic political autonomy nor ended secessionist conflicts in Ethiopia.    

Keywords: Ethnic Federal System, Identity Politics, New War Theory, Boundary Conflicts, Ethnic Autonomy Conflicts and Pan- Ethiopian Identity.