Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Dea, Data

Titel

Enduring Issues in State-Society Relations in Ethiopia: A Case Study of the WoGaGoDa Conflict in Wolaita, Southern Ethiopia

Ist Teil von

• International journal of Ethiopian studies, 2005-07, Vol.2 (1/2), p.141-159

Ort / Verlag

Tsehai Publishers

Erscheinungsjahr

2005

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This paper examines a conflict that emerged in the context of a policy imposition by the ruling party (EPRDF) and a civil resistance against a perceived state misconduct. The subject of the conflict was a "new language" named WoGaGoDa, which was concocted from Wolaita, Gamo, Gofa, Dawro and other dialects of Ometo subfamily of Omotic language spoken in southwest Ethiopia. Based on empirical research of this conflict, it is argued here that 1) the state attempted to address a real problem related to issues of language and integration, 2) in the process the state made a historic mistake, 3) even though citizens made civil attempts to persuade the state to abandon a faulty policy imposition, the state rejected these civil efforts thereby encouraging violence and undermining civility, and 4) at the end of this conflict the original problem that needed policy intervention was left in much worse shape than it was before the attempted policy. The conflict highlights some of the persistent issues in state-society relations in Ethiopia.