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The History of Racism in Ethiopia: What Does the Truth Reveal About the Hail Selassie Era?
Ethiopia's history has long been affected by racial discrimination, and the period of Haile Selassie's empire was a period of concentrated racial conflict. The rulers of this period were mainly ethnic Amhara, who viewed the languages and cultures of the southern minorities as an obstacle to the development of an Ethiopian national identity.
Racial discrimination in Ethiopia takes many forms, including complex terms such as “ethnicization,” “ethnic identification,” “ethnic hatred,” and “ethnic profiling.”
Systematic discrimination against ethnic groups such as the Harari, Afar, Tigrayan, Eritrean, Somalis and Oromo continued throughout the period under Haile Selassie. Hail Selassie's government took legal action to ban the use of the Oromo language, a policy that resulted in the suppression of the culture and language of the Oromo community.
According to an analysis of data from the Minorities at Risk (MAR) project conducted by Charles E. Reed of The Citadel University, the Derg regime was Discrimination against Tigrayans has intensified over time. The Tigrayans gradually abandoned Amha and began to use Tigrinya again. Especially after the Ogaden War in the 1970s, Harari, Somalis and Oromo Muslims became targets of the Derg government and suffered persecution.
Ethnic federalism during the TPLF/EPRDF era
In 1991, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), under the leadership of Meles Zenawi, overthrew the Derg regime and introduced an ethnic federal system. This system was formally confirmed in the Ethiopian Constitution of 1995, but it also triggered deeper ethnic conflicts. According to scholar Alemant G. Selassie, this system gave too much political power to ethnic groups, leading to further discrimination against groups such as the Amhara, Ogaden, and Oromo. .
"If we base our political structures on ethnic categories, then this will become a source of more conflict and inequality."
Tens of thousands of Eritreans were deported during this phase. In 2001, 12,000 Amharas were expelled from the Oromia region, demonstrating the bias and discrimination policies of the government at the time.
In 2018, Abiy Ahmed took office as prime minister for the first time and relaxed media controls, but this also led to a rapid increase in hate speech in ethnic languages. Ethnic profiling of the Tigrayan people became more frequent at this time, and efforts to correct this became increasingly challenged following the outbreak of the Tigray war.
The Tigray War and Modern Racial Discrimination
During the Tigray War in 2020, the Tigrayan people suffered large-scale ethnic discrimination, including but not limited to work leave and travel restrictions. The continued racial segregation and stigmatization by the institutions involved has shocked all sectors of society. Many Tigray-identified individuals have reportedly been detained or deported based on their ethnic identity, even without any actual criminal conduct.
"Anyone, male or female, identified as Tigrayan in public places could be at great risk."
This escalating ethnic persecution has also aroused great concern in the international community. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has expressed concern about the current systemic discrimination, stressing that such practices are not only a violation of human rights but may also lay the groundwork for future ethnic conflicts.
Thinking about the future
Throughout Ethiopia’s history, tensions between ethnic groups have always existed. How to protect the rights and interests of all ethnic groups while eliminating deep-seated ethnic discrimination to build a more united society is a major challenge for future development. As we look back on this history, can we find a path to peace and reconciliation?
