Political and Ideological Legacy of Ethiopia’s Contested Nation-Building: A Focus on Contemporary Oromo Politics

Ethiopia’s nation-building is rife with accusations and claims of past atrocities and injustices from the time of Emperor Menelik’s southward expansion to recent political discourse since 2018. This article attempts to capture these complexities embedded in the making of the modern Ethiopian state, critiquing both modernization and colonial theses used to explain this process, with an emphasis on Oromo politics, the legacy of political and ideological contradictions in these endeavours. Its analysis, how production and reproduction of Ethiopia’s past has led to deep-seated divisions and complicated sense of common citizenship as a precondition for establishing stable democracy.