Ethnic Federalism In Ethiopia

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Ethnic-federalism in Ethiopia was framed around the idea of matching ethnic groups and administrative boundaries in order facilitate self-administration and power-sharing while preventing centralization of power. However, this process led to the formulation of two categories/hierarchy of people in ethnically established self-administrative zones: ‘titular’ ethnic groups who are entitled to exercise self-administration in their home regions, and ‘non-titular’ groups—dispersed settler/migrant minorities (Kefale 2014). The second category of people are often confused or deliberately portrayed as being first generation migrants but most of them are native born to the land and have generations of ancestors born in the same place. In some urban cities,…show more content…
The cities in the northern Ethiopia, Mekele in Tigray and Bahir Dar in Amhara region, are predominately populated by ethnic Tigryans (96.2%) and Amharas (96.23%) respectively. This is unsurprising in light of the historic migration pattern in the country has been from north to south with limited upward migration. The remaining six cities— Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa, Adama, Jimma and Hawassa—are all multi ethnic and has more than 50% of their total populations from ethnic groups other than the one the territory the cities are built demarcated for (CSA…show more content…
However, studies focused on public perception and experience of non-territorial minorities have not been given the central attention in any of the research reviewed for this study. Hence, this section will focus on understanding Ethiopian citizens attitude, behaviour and experience under Ethnic federalism, particularly on multi-ethnic urban areas. Understanding how citizens interpret the provisions of ethnic-federalism and act within the new Ethiopia. This will be a critical driver on how successful the countries diversity management effort would be and how the future of the country would be shaped in the decades to come. With that objective, a survey was conducted in two cities of Ethiopia to get a first-hand experience of the citizens. The two cities are Jimma and Adama city in Oromia regional

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