In 1994, Ethiopia became a federal democratic republic composed of nine regional states, which bear the name of their majority ethnic group, except Gambela and the Southern Region. This paper... Show moreIn 1994, Ethiopia became a federal democratic republic composed of nine regional states, which bear the name of their majority ethnic group, except Gambela and the Southern Region. This paper discusses some issues of ethnicity and the "national project" in Ethiopia in relation to the Southern Regional State, officially the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State (SNNPRS), which has a population of 11 million, or some 17 percent of the total Ethiopian population. The Southern Region, known for its notable ethnolinguistic diversity, is a double challenge: to the Ethiopian federation, because of this diversity and the lack of a dominant ethnic majority; and to the development of the region itself, in search of a coalition of ethnic elites that will manage policy and administration, and an appropriate role of ethnic identity. The paper sketches the history and ethnocultural diversity of the "South"; its economic and political role within the Federation; changing politics of identity resulting in patterns of cooperation and conflict; and the role of ethnicity as political construct and sociocultural identity. The South is a region vital to the redefinition and survival of the Ethiopian federation and of Ethiopian nationhood. There is a need in this multi-ethnic region to sustain commonalities bridging differences and to define common issues and interests of efficient governance and economic development. There are new opportunities for the Southern people. The price of the heightened organizational significance of ethnicity is the increased volatility and conflict potential of ethnic group consciousness. Show less
This paper focuses on problems and dilemmas of changing alcohol use among the Surma, a group of lowland agropastoralists in Maji, southern Ethiopia. The area under discussion is inhabited by... Show moreThis paper focuses on problems and dilemmas of changing alcohol use among the Surma, a group of lowland agropastoralists in Maji, southern Ethiopia. The area under discussion is inhabited by indigenous agriculturalists, descendants of northern immigrants of mixed origin, and Surma and Me'en agropastoralists. The paper reveals the existence of a pattern of 'alcoholic hegemonism' in the area. The culturally dominant villagers want to have the best of both worlds. Their types of alcoholic drinks are 'the best' and they think they know how to use and not abuse them. The local people (the Surma, Dizi and Me'en) are 'still caught' in their traditional drinking habits involving the consumption of their local 'bord‚' beer. They are also subjected to the harsh reign of 'katikala', a strong and dangeous beverage, which they cannot handle and which thus tends to create trouble. That they themselves (the villagers and State-connected people) have introduced 'katikala' does not make them feel in any way responsible for such trouble. Bibliogr., notes, ref Show less
This article has two purposes: 1) to provide a first historical outline of the Tishana or Me'en, a small 'tribal' group living in southwestern Ethiopia, and 2) to illustrate the importance of a... Show moreThis article has two purposes: 1) to provide a first historical outline of the Tishana or Me'en, a small 'tribal' group living in southwestern Ethiopia, and 2) to illustrate the importance of a political economy approach for the explanation of such a process. Inspiration has been derived from the historical anthropological approach of E. Wolf (1982), which postulates the interdependence of political economic factors on the one hand, and social dynamics and cultural factors on the other. The vast majority of Me'en speakers now live in highland areas west of the Omo. However, some of the people who currently speak Me'en were pastoralists who lived in the lowlands bordering the southwestern Ethiopian highlands. The problem explained here is how and why a portion of these Me'en pastoralists left the lowlands and how they successfully adapted to highland areas where cattle keeping was notoriously difficult and where the invading northerners tried to prevent them from settling. A further issue is how they were able to absorb other groups and individuals from different ethnic origins. The author argues that the very expansion of the Me'en out of the Omo Valley into the highlands - that is the reshaping of their social reproductive system in a new ecoeconomic niche - was fuelled by Me'en ideology itself, and that this ideology was activated by the confrontation of the Me'en with the expanding frontier of the Abyssinian State. Their cultural ideology, bound up with cattle, entered into the adaptation process of the Me'en groups in a period of crisis. Bibliogr., notes, ref Show less
