Yoseph Shibeshi

Ethnic politics in Ethiopia and the church: Ethnicity Yoseph Shibeshi

Essay from the year 2011 in the subject Sociology - Religion, grade: A-, - (Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology, Biblical Theology), course: Integrated, language: English, comment: This essay was part of my assignement for a course in which I tried to reflect the current ethnic politics and what the church should do against any racist ideologies which are disintegrating the nation. , abstract: Politically, Ethiopians are currently provoked and even forced to align with their ethnic group as opposed to Ethiopianism that promotes national identity over ethnic identity.1 Mesfin Woldemariam discusses how this was enforced in the 1992 election in Ethiopia. 2 This has to do with the federalism governance the country adopted since the over through of the Dergueregime. As the result of this there is a growing ethnic tension in many places, government sectors, other organizations and churches. As Christians of this century living in a critical defining term of history, we are in a baffling trajectory where every other turn seems grey and our ethnic identity and our view of it plays a crucial role.