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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Decentralization as a solution to the problem of cultured diversity: an example from Ethiopia |
Author: | Hamer, John |
Year: | 2007 |
Periodical: | Africa: Journal of the International African Institute |
Volume: | 77 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 207-225 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Ethiopia |
Subjects: | State-society relationship Sidamo political history |
External links: | https://doi.org/10.3366/afr.2007.77.2.207 http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/africa_the_journal_of_the_international_african_institute/v077/77.2hamer.pdf |
Abstract: | The failure of the nation-State in sub-Saharan Africa has been a topic of great concern in recent years. In this article the author explores in detail the historical experience of one ethnic group in the Horn of Africa, the Sidama, and shows how the nation-State has had a comparatively negative effect upon another group in southern Ethiopia, the Maale. For the Sidama, historic disparagement by the State, though discouraged by the present Ethiopian government, is shown to continue into the present in regard to dispute settlement and policymaking by the elders. The Maale, though different in culture and social structure, experienced similar distrust and disparagement in Ethiopia's revolutionary period (1974-1991). In the case of the Sidama, indications are that this has continued into the post-revolutionary period of State-sponsored parliamentary democracy. As a solution the author proposes the 'indirect State' as a means not simply of maintaining the past culture of the Sidama, but also of encouraging the people to originate change for themselves. Rather than institutional edicts being imposed from above by the nation-State, the people will, in conjunction with other ethnic groups, negotiate both vertically and horizontally to reach consensual agreements for change. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract] |