Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-k7p5g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-13T04:25:19.147Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Drinking, Rumour, and Ethnicity in Jimma, Ethiopia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Daniel Mains
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper is an investigation of the relationship between identity, politics, and rumours in Jimma, Ethiopia. The introduction of ethnic federalism in Ethiopia after the fall of the Marxist Derg regime in 1991 has been the topic of a significant amount of academic discussion, but little attention has been given to the day-to-day experience of this change. Consequently, post-1991 Ethiopian politics have been viewed primarily in terms of ethnic power struggles. An analysis of rumours that are circulated through casual conversation enables a better understanding of popular reactions to ethnic federalism. In particular, rumours regarding the drinking habits of Oromo Muslims and the political behaviour of Protestants reveal that ethnicity is closely intertwined with religion and nationalism. This analysis also demonstrates how a particularly Ethiopian form of discourse functions as a means both of resisting and coping with loss of political power and economic decline. Finally, it explores how international news media coverage of Christian–Muslim conflict and anxieties about globalisation are interrelated with local power struggles. In this paper, rumours are treated as a discourse that provides a window into the worldview of the speaker in order to explore how individuals negotiate political change and construct difference at the everyday level.

Résumé

Ce papier est une investigation sur la relation entre identité, politique et rumeurs à Jimma, en Éthiopie. L'introduction du fédéralisme ethnique en Éthiopie après la chute du régime marxiste Derg en 1991 a été le sujet de nombreuses discussions académiques, mais on s'est peu intéressé à l'expérience quotidienne de ce changement. C'est pourquoi la politique éthiopienne post- 1991 a été essentiellement considérée en termes de luttes ethniques pour le pouvoir. Une analyse des rumeurs véhiculées dans la conversation ordinaire permet de mieux comprendre les réactions populaires vis-à-vis du fédéralisme ethnique. En particulier, les rumeurs sur les habitudes de consommation d'alcool des musulmans oromo et le comportement politique des protestants révèlent que l'ethnicité est étroitement liée à la religion et au nationalisme. Cette analyse montre également la manière dont une forme particulièrement éthiopienne des fonctions du discours en tant que moyen à la fois de résistance et d'adaptation à la perte du pouvoir politique et au déclin économique. Enfin, il examine le lien entre, d'une part, le traitement par les organes d'information internationaux du conflit entre chrétiens et musulmans et des inquiétudes soulevées par la globalisation et, d'autre part, les luttes locales pour le pouvoir. Dans ce papier, les rumeurs sont traitées comme un discours qui ouvre une fenêtre sur la vision du monde du locuteur afin d'étudier la manière dont les individus négocient le changement politique et construisent la différence au quotidien.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , August 2004 , pp. 341 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abbink, G. J. 1999. ‘Competing practices of drinking and power: alcoholic “hegemonism” in Southern Ethiopia’, Northeast African Studies 4 (3): 7–22.Google Scholar
Zegeye, Abebe and Pausewang, Siegfried (eds). 1994. Ethiopia in Change: peasantry nationalism, and democracy. London and New York: British Academic Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, B. R. O'G. 1991 (1983). Imagined Communities: reflections on the origin and the spread of nationalism. Revised and extended edn. London and New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Asafa, Jalata. 1993. Oromia and Ethiopia: state formation and ethnonational conflict, 1886–1992. Boulder CO:L. Rienner.Google Scholar
Asmarom, Legesse. 1973. Gada: three approaches to the study of African society. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Asmarom, Legesse. 2000. Oromo Democracy: an indigenous African political system. Lawrenceville NJ: Red Sea Press.Google Scholar
Bahru, Zewde. 1991. A History of Modern Ethiopia 1855–1974. London: James Currey; Athens: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Bryceson, Deborah Fahy (ed.). 2002. Alcohol in Africa: mixing business, pleasure, and politics. Portsmouth NH: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Clapham, C. 2002. ‘Controlling space in Ethiopia’, in James, W., Donham, D., Kurimoto, E. and Triulzi, A. (eds), Remapping Ethiopia: socialism and after. Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
Donham, D. L. 1986. ‘Old Abyssinia and the new Ethiopian empire: themes in social history’, in Donham, D. and James, W. (eds), The Southern Marches of Imperial Ethiopia: essays in history and social anthropology. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Donham, D. L. 1999. Marxist Modern: an ethnographic history of the Ethiopian revolution. Berkeley: University of California Press; Oxford: J. Currey.Google Scholar
James, W., Donham, D., Kurimoto, E., and Triulzi, A. (eds). 2002. Remapping Ethiopia: socialism and after. Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
Kidane, Mengisteab. 2001. ‘Ethiopia's ethnic-based federalism: 10 years after’, African Issues 29: 20–25.Google Scholar
Levine, Donald N. 1965. Wax and Gold: tradition and innovation in Ethiopian culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, Herbert S. 1965. A Galla Monarchy: Jimma Abba Jiffar, Ethiopia 1830–1932. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, Herbert S. 1996. ‘The development of Oromo political consciousness from 1958–1994’, in Baxter, P. T. W., Hultin, Jan and Triulzi, Alessandro (eds), Being and Becoming Oromo: historical and anthropological enquiries. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.Google Scholar
Loukeris, K. 2001. ‘Contending Political Ideologies in Ethiopia after 1991: the role of intellectuals’. Paper presented at the 13th Biennial Congress of the African Association of Political Science in Yaounde, Cameroon.Google Scholar
Marcus, C. 2002. ‘Imperial nostalgia: Christian restoration and civic decay in Gondar’, in James, W., Donham, D., Kurimoto, E. and Triulzi, A. (eds), Remapping Ethiopia: socialism and after. Oxford: James Currey.Google Scholar
Markakis, J. 1998. ‘The politics of identity: the case of the Gurage in Ethiopia’, in Salih, M. A. Mohamed and Markakis, J. (eds), Ethnicity and the State in Eastern Africa. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.Google Scholar
Mohammed, Hassen. 1990. The Oromo of Ethiopia: a history 1570–1860. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mohamed Salih, M. A., and Markakis, J. (eds). 1998. Ethnicity and the State in Eastern Africa. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.Google Scholar
Tegegne, Teka. 1998. ‘Amhara ethnicity in the making’, in Salih, M. A. Mohamed and Markakis, J. (eds), Ethnicity and the State in Eastern Africa. Uppsala: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.Google Scholar
van Onselen, C. 1982. Studies in the Social and Economic History of the Witwatersrand 1886–1914. Volume 1. New Babylon. Johannesburg: Ravan Press; Harlow and New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Willis, Justin. 2002. Potent Brews: a social history of alcohol in East Africa, 1850–1999. London: British Institute in Eastern Africa in association with James Currey; Athens: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar