ABSTRACT

Decades of both non-violent and armed struggle did not bring much result to the Oromo quest for political power over the Ethiopian state, and contemporary Oromo politics often appear recondite and discordant. When Abiy Ahmed came to power as the new Prime Minister in April 2018 as the first Oromo politician entering the former imperial palace, many believed it was the Oromo’s turn to rule. Developments since then have, however, revealed a far more complex picture, where previous internal divisions have resurfaced, and where the inherently fragmented nature of Oromo politics seems to have prevailed. Drawing on recent interviews, in this article, we argue that the current divisions and positions in Oromo politics may be made explicable by applying a multilayered ethnographic approach to identify their provenance and grassroots anchoring. With the three main positions found within Oromo politics – the unitarist, secessionist, and federalist – as our point of departure, we unveil the deeper connections between the current political positioning and their historical trajectories and ethnographic anchoring, and we capture overlooked and competing power discourses informing Oromo politics.

摘要

数十年的非暴力斗争和武装斗争并没有为奥罗莫寻求对埃塞俄比亚国家的政治权力带来太多的结果，而当代的奥罗莫政治常常显得re和不和谐。当阿比·艾哈迈德（Abiy Ahmed）于2018年4月上任新总理时成为第一位进入前帝国宫殿的奥罗莫政客时，许多人认为这是奥罗莫统治时期。然而，此后的事态发展揭示了一个更为复杂的图景，以前的内部分歧已经浮出水面，奥罗莫政治固有的零散性质似乎盛行。本文基于最近的访谈，我们认为，通过应用多层人种志方法来确定其起源和基层锚固，可以使奥罗莫语政治中的当前分歧和立场变得可理解。