RELIGION AND CONFLICT IN AFRICA WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON EAST AFRICA

Bjørn Møller
DIIS REPORT 2006:6

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The EPRDF, Ethnicity, Nationalism and Religion

Whereas there had thus for centuries been religious elements in the various conflicts in the Ethiopian multinational empire, they had only rarely predominated. Most confl icts had predominantly been national and, at most, referred to religion (mainly Islam) as a complementary argument in support of the nationalist cause. Religious identities simply tended to overlap with the ethnic and territorial ones, as the Abyssinian Shoa (both Amhara and Tigrayans) and immediately adjacent areas tend to be Orthodox Christian whereas the more distant provinces, including those in which the majority of the population were  Oromi or Somalis, are predominantly or almost entirely Muslim.198 It was thus inherently plausible that the formula adopted by the present regime, the EPRDF, of democracy and ethnic federalism (vide infra) would go a long way towards defusing the religious issue.

The EPRDF (Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front) was created through a merger of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) under the leadership of the present President (subsequently Prime Minister) Meles Zenawi with other national liberation movement such as the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF). In 1991 the armed forces of the TPLF and the EPLF (Eritrean People’s Liberation Front, vide infra) captured Asmara and Addis Ababa, respectively, and deposed the Dergue – the TPLF assisted by the pressure of the OPLF on the regime in the southern parts of the country.

Having eff ectively allowed Eritrea to secede (vide infra in the section on Eritrea), the EPDFR then proceeded with the introduction of democracy, at least on paper, including a constitution granting an extensive array of civil and religious rights to the population, including a separation of state and religion (art. 11).199 Th e constitution also codifi ed the new formula of “ethnic federalism” for solving the national problems, entailing the proclamation of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (FDRE)200 and making ethnic federalism the basis of an administrative subdivision into “national regional states” and “special administrative areas”.201 Th e constitution even grants these constituent parts the right to further subdivision (art. 47) as well as, even more surprisingly, the right to secession from Ethiopia under specific conditions, i.e. presupposing a two-thirds majority in the state legislature and a subsequent referendum (art. 39).

While this might seem to indicate that ethnic federalism is the antithesis of state-building, it may also be the case that the granting of such extensive rights to the various ethnic groups (and their defi nition in territorial terms) may be the only viable compromise which will prevent disintegration, or even state collapse, by violent means. It is, of course, also entirely conceivable that ethnic federalism is pure window-dressing, and that actual secession will never be tolerated.202 At the very least, however, the formula seems to have pacifi ed most of the armed nationalist insurgencies and thereby also indirectly solved most religious conflicts.

Even though Ethiopian history has seen many national liberation movements, DIIS REPORT 2006:6 the most important have surely been those of the Oromia (also known as Galla), the Somalis and the Eritreans.

Oromo nationalism was partly a response to an Abyssinian imperialism posing as Christian, hence it occasionally posed as Muslim, even though quite a number of Oromi were in fact Christians.203 Th e EPRDF sought to pacify the OLF by cooptation as well as by supporting new parties to represent the Oromi nation: the Oromo Peoples Democratic Organisation (OPDO), a member of the ruling coalition, as well as the Oromo Liberation United Front (OLUF) and the Oromo National Congress (ONC), both of which became represented in parliament. However, the traditional “representatives” of the Oromi have been the OLF, the goal of which is “to exercise the Oromo peoples’ inalienable right to national self-determination”. The wording notwithstanding, this has not so much been a call for actual secession as for equal treatment, refl ecting a sense of repression and exploitation of the Oromi by successive Amharic and Tigrayan rules in Addis and a desire for an infl uence proportional to the Oromi share of the total population. Th e OLF reserves for itself the right of armed struggle, but it claims “an unswerving anti-terrorism stand and opposes terrorism as means of struggle”.205

As far as the Somali region of Ethiopia (mainly the Ogaden) is concerned, the link between Somali nationalism and Islam has been more authentic, as virtually all ethnic Somalis are indeed Muslims.206 Th e Ogaden province has now been renamed Somalia National Regional State and is represented in parliament by the Somali People Democratic Party (SPDP). Th e veteran Western Somalia Liberation Front (WSLF), fo