This essay intends to analyze how Ethiopianism (Synthesis) is impossible without the ideological, philosophical, and practical struggle between Amhara (thesis) and anti-Amhara (anti-thesis).
Concerning this, by borrowing the ideas of dialectical idealism from George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831) and dialectical materialism from Karl Marx (1818–1833), this essay argues that the dialectical struggle for the march to Ethiopianism has been getting ethnic rather than spiritual and economic base.
Ethiopia has been operating under an ethnic federalist political system since 1991. Article 39 of the 1995 FDRE constitution grants ethnic groups the right to self-determination, including the ability to secede. After this, there are doubts about Ethiopia’s stability as an integrated state. Ethnicity turns into a battleground for Ethiopia’s integration or disintegration.
Relating to that, Ethiopian ethnic groups and ethnic elites have been in condemnation and quarrel. Ethnic groups and any ethnic elites who have been condemning ethnic federalism, anti-ethnic narration, and the continuity of the Ethiopian state can be enunciated under the Amhara thesis.
Ethnic groups and any ethnic elites who portray Amhara as dominant in politics, economy, or culture and wish the disintegration of the old, civilized state Ethiopia and wait for the political landscape to open up in order to form their sovereign states are stated under anti-Amhara anti-thesis.
Thus, the Ethiopian movement is unyielding on its own and requires Amhara as a thesis and anti-Amhara as an antithesis for realization. However, if the Amhara thesis has been growing weaker to prevail over the anti-Amhara thesis, the conflict between thesis and antithesis may fail to bring Ethiopianism back and would result in long-lasting material and humanitarian losses.
This essay contends that in the current situation, the march to reach Ethiopiansim has been facing barriers since there have been more than a century of conspiracy and ahistorical narration against the North Ethiopian ethnic groups (Tigray and Amhara-Agaw), more specifically Amhara, which take charge of crafting a civilized Ethiopia.
Thereby, the anti-Amhara thesis has been defusing in the minds of Ethiopian peoples for an extended period of time, and this has caused a number of Ethiopian peoples to be reluctant and cowardly to defend Ethiopia from European colonial thinking.
Concerning this, since the 1960s , most Ethiopian elites have been starting to accept colonial thinking and developing anti-Amhara theories. Sharing of the advanced living style, culture, literature, and arts from the North Ethiopian ethnic groups was taken as oppressive and assimilation, although ruling elites had the opportunity to manipulate the Northern culture for their political gain.
Anyway, such a phenomenon can be supported by Althusser’s idea. As Louis Althusser (1918–1990), a French Marxist philosopher, argued in his essay “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses: Notes towards an Investigation,” capitalists use education as ideological state apparatuses to generate Marxist ideology-oriented generations.
This Althusser’s statement can be applied to the Ethiopian case. During the end of the monarchy political system and after the fall of the regime of Emperor Haile Selassie, Western educated Ethiopian elites with the left-wing military of the emperor have been starting to implement anti-Amhara thesis as ideology in the education sector and political apparatus to dismantle Ethiopia through process by taking the state craft of Ethiopia as architected by Northern and Southern-exclusive.
Ethiopia has been on the verge of fragility. Existing anti-Amhara and fake historical narratives will inevitably lead Ethiopia to collapse and the halt of Ethiopianism. There is no time to fix the current political crisis through national reconciliation and education. National reconciliation and education take a long time, although the country has had time to survive.
To save the country, the following short-range plan must be practical. Power balance is in need. For the anti-thesis of Amhara, the country needs to adopt the thesis of Amhara as a defense mechanism. For the purpose of this writing, the Amhara thesis or thesis of Amhara refers to thinking and ideology that lead to the continuity of the Ethiopian state with ethnic equality, equal and equitable distribution of resources, and political position for all ethnic groups rather than the hegemony or domination of Amhara ethnic groups and Amhara elites in the political and economic arena of Ethiopia.
Ethiopians who value their country must embrace the Amhara thesis and participate in all political, social, and intellectual battles in order to remake Ethiopia’s history—that is, to reconstruct Ethiopia for all. However, achieving the ideological superiority of “all to one Ethiopia” is necessary to ensure thesis hegemony over antithesis since it enables the transition to Ethiopiansm (synthesis).
For this, a good reference is Gramsci. Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937), who was a leader of the Italian Communist Party, stated that to be a hegemon, ideological superiority must prevail. Accordingly, the ideology of “all to one Ethiopia” should be described on earth.
The Amhara elites and other ethnic group elites who need Ethiopia to survive must work together with an inclusive, democratic, and humanitarian political base. Ethnic groups who have been affected and victimized by political groups that have been under the category of antithesis and disintegration need to be represented in politics, and their rights need to be of great concern.
In addition to this, Ethiopian elites and politicians who have been on the side of this thesis have to work to foster positive diplomatic relations and political alliances for mutual benefit with the sovereign countries of all Horn of Africa countries. Related to this, elites should take care to not fail in conspiracy by interfering with the political issues of countries in the Horn of Africa and pronouncing the issue of port early, since this can cut off alliances and leave synthesis in danger.
In Ethiopian political history, the source of problems and solutions is the elite. It is the elite who developed anti-thesis and tried to create the sovereign state of Tigray and the sovereign state of Oromia in disintegrated Ethiopia. Similar, it is elites who can mobilize peoples to unite on the thesis for the journey to Ethiopanism. Accordingly, it is time to fill the playing field of the thesis, even though it is a complication to be sure, as if the Prosperity Party, rebel groups, or this and that ethnic groups have stood on the thesis for Ethiopian achievement.
