All animals recognize differences between “self” and “other”. In human societies, these differences take on enormous significance, partly because humans are so individualistic – rather than being clone-like automatons, humans have individual personalities. Society validates that individualism by giving infants unique names. Those names also keep track of who’s related to whom, sometimes for generations back into the past. On the other hand, Ethnic groups constitute an identity as defined by outsiders who do not belong to the group but identify it as different from their own groups and by “insiders” who belong to the same group. This generally becomes the basis of mobilizing group’s consciousness and solidarity and which in certain situation result in political activities.

1. Ethio
Views
ኢትዮ
ቪዊስ
Identity at the peace, conflict security & development Nexus
All animals recognize differences between
“self” and “other”. In human societies,
these differences take on enormous signifi-
cance, partly because humans are so individu-
alistic – rather than being clone-like automa-
tons, humans have individual personalities.
Society validates that individualism by giving
infants unique names. Those names also keep
track of who’s related to whom, sometimes for
generations back into the past. On the other
hand, Ethnic groups constitute an identity as
defined by outsiders who do not belong to the
group but identify it as different from their
own groups and by “insiders” who belong to
the same group. This generally becomes the
basis of mobilizing group’s consciousness and
solidarity and which in certain situation result
in political activities.
Some scholars conceptualize ethnic group
as a unit of population having unique
characteristics in relation with others, bind-
ing with common language, myth of origin,
and history of ethnic allegiance. Define eth-
nic groups as a self-defined group based on
subjective factors and/or fundamental cul-
tural values chosen by members from their
past history or present existing conditions in
which members are aware of-and-in contact
with other ethnic groups. in a context of in-
ter-ethnic interaction, group distinctiveness
strongly depends on identification of self and
ascription by others and members of a certain
ethnic group will be evaluated in accordance
with their ‘performance’ of the value standards
Vol.01 N0.10, August 2021
By: Belayneh Zelelew

2. and ‘possession’ of diacritical features design-
ing the group against other. This entailed that,
ethnic group are defined out of group interac-
tion in which members of a group keep their
social solidarity, identified themselves as be-
longing to specific group based on their sub-
jective communalities (language, myth of ori-
gin, and shared cultural entities) that defined
in reference with others.
Race is an elusive concept like ethnic-
ity –used in a variety of contexts and
meanings; sometimes interchangeably with
ethnicity, where the relationship between the
two concept remain complex. When first ap-
peared, ethnicity/ethnic identity was used in
synonym with race or racial identity, which
complicated their relation. Moreover, the
boundary between the two concepts is his-
torically variable; what was ‘racial’ before 1945
may be more publicly acceptable as ‘ethnic’
today. Currently, ethnicity is a cover for most
conflicts between groups in Africa, especial-
ly, in my mother land Ethiopia. For instance,
identity related conflicts in Ethiopia are char-
acterized by a high emphasis on ethnic group
identity with a low emphasis on individual
identity.
On the individual level, ethnicity is a social-
psychological process, which gives an indi-
vidual a sense of belonging and identity in
a group. It is, of course, one of a number of
social phenomena, which produce a sense of
identity. Ethnic identity can be defined as a
manner in which persons, on account of their
ethnic origin, locate themselves psychologi-
cally in relation to one or more social systems,
and in which they perceive others as locating
them in relation to those systems. By ethnic
origin is meant either that a person has been
socialized in an ethnic group or that his or her
ancestors, real or symbolic, have been mem-
bers of the group. The social systems may be
one’s ethnic community or society at large, or
other ethnic communities and other societies
or groups, or a combination of all these.

3. Genetic studies concerning human varia-
tion show that humans are > 99% genet-
ically alike. Surprisingly, of the <1% variation
[~85% is found within any human population
or group (such as town/village/tribal or ethnic
group), ~10% is between any two groups, even
those that are geographically close and ~5% is
between geographically distant groups such as
two towns/villages from different continents].
Still biologically studies show that because of
the blending of people from different parts of
the world, there is no such thing as a “pure”
race, not even people living in the same coun-
try or areas. In my opinion, use of race as sys-
tem of human categorization lacks scientific
validity. Studies show that dramatic genetic
discontinuities are not found among modern
human population and even the little varia-
tion, far more within-group than between
group; there lack a unifying genetic essence
for people of the same race.
At the end of the Cold War, the socialist mili-
tary regime in Ethiopia was overthrown by
ethno-nationalist armed forces. A political re-
gime that came to power in 1991 has adopted
a federal system, which is explicitly based on
ethnicity, to radically reconstruct the Ethio-
pian state as a multi-ethnic federation. This
federal system was adopted as a response to
’old’ ethno-nationalist armed conflicts that be
leaguered the old regime and has helped to
successfully pacify such conflicts from nation-
al scene in the post 1990s.With the introduc-
tion of ethnic federalism in contrast to author-
itarian and socialist unitary state, the politics
of ethnicity was formally institutionalized.
This identity politics has therefore entirely al-
tered the conflict dynamics, goal and nature.
In view of this, it is now possible to consider
the contemporary conflicts in Ethiopia cased
by identity politics. I believe the current con-
stitutional principle has made regional and
sub-regional administrative boundaries to
coincide with ethnic identity. The politics of
ethnicity has transformed and generated lo-
calized ethnic conflicts. The conflicts are de-
volved from national scene of earlier periods
to current sub-national and local levels. The
study informants reported that localized con-
flicts are characterized by conflicts of low in-
tensity, fragmentation and identity politics
and ethnic elites’ entrepreneur ships or po-
litical economy. Although the identity based
conflicts are closely inter-related and should
be viewed holistically, the first category is the
ethnic based boundary conflicts within and
between regional states. Second category is
ethnic autonomy conflict, which conflicts that
emerge on a range of issues, such as ethnic
quest for distinct ethnic identity, for self-rule

4. at regional and sub-regional level, competi-
tion for control over regional power, resources
and opportunities, competition for access to
and control over cities or towns from federal
to local levels and ethno-nationalist secession-
ist struggle and the third category is pan-Ethi-
opian identity conflict that refers to conflicts
due to lack of overarching and inclusive pan-
national identity and creation of ethno-po-
litical boundaries that exclude people on the
basis of their identity. I believe ethnic conflicts
are often subjected to manipulation by domes-
tic elites for their own political expediency. In
particular, when the central state is identified
with or accused of ethnic category or ethnic
favoritism, the chance for ethnic mobilization
would be high. In this connection, the central
rule in Ethiopia has always been accused of fa-
voring particular ethnic groups, which leads
to conflict in every corner of the country.
To Concluded that, the strong theoretical and
practical objections against ethnic federalism
are evident and Ethiopia itself needs to draw
lessons from other relevant jurisdictions to
help its future. Though the primordialists re-
ject association of conflicts with ethnicity, the
hard fact cannot be ignored that institution-
alization of ethnicity and political empower-
ment based on such identity are encouraging
political elites to use primordial factors as in-
struments to mobilize ethnic groups to engage
in conflicts to achieve their goals, which adds
fuel to the fire in Ethiopia. Ethnic tensions
and displacement of people continue as ethnic
groups have kept conflicts alive in many bor-
der areas of the country in pursuit of greater-
self-determination and autonomy under a re-
formed federal system.
Finally, I want to suggest to solve the cur-
rent and future generation problem relat-
ed to identity/ethnic based conflict, we should
focus on youth, like I did in my social change
initiative (SCI), government organization and
NGOs put their efforts to bring positive so-
cial change. The aim is to rise youth who ac-
knowledge and respect one another, while at
the same time retain loyalty to their own eth-
nic/cultural heritages and identities. Create
awareness for the public regarding identities
(ethnic, national, cultural, and religious), pro-
mote culture of tolerance and appreciation of
diversity, treating all culture equally, and en-
gaging youth in peace building, which bring a
better Ethiopia to live in harmony.