ninehillsRAMBLE in the JUNGLE
Ethiopia
By Wanaku Verdzekov · · Africa & the Gulf of Guinea
Tags: federalism, ethnic-states, botswana
No magic here. Just like Botswana, the Ethiopians have created a governing system that takes advantage of WHO their citizens are.
Check this: in 2014, Ethiopia was divided administratively into 9 ETHNICALLY based states (kililoch; singular, kilil) and 2 self-governing administrations (astedaderoch; singular, astedader). (You can look up the list.)
Then their constitution states:
Article 50.8: "Federal and State powers are defined by this Constitution. The States shall respect the powers of the Federal Government. The Federal Government shall likewise respect the powers of the States."
African countries, states and nations can learn a thing or two from both Botswana and Ethiopia.
Rehash: ETHNICALLY BASED STATES.
If you ask me, as long as you cannot change a person's ROOTS, the logical thing to do is to base your systems on those roots.
TribalMonk
— Wanaku Verdzekov
Reading & grammar
Reading level: Gr 9–11
Understand
- What does Ethiopia's system take advantage of, according to the author?
- What does Article 50.8 of Ethiopia's constitution say?
- What is the author's main argument about "roots"?
Grammar focus: quoting a legal text. The post quotes the constitution word for word in a block quote and names the article. Exact quotation matters when the wording itself is the evidence.
Try it: Find one article of your own country's constitution. Quote it correctly and explain it in plain English.
Discuss: Is ethnic federalism a good way to govern a diverse country? Consider Ethiopia's later conflicts in your answer.