“It is so good to be back home, after having been away for too long.” Those were the first words of Moroccan King Mohamed VI in a speech at the 28th African Union (AU) Summit Tuesday. The speech came after a vast majority of the AU’s member states voted Monday to readmit Morocco to the…
By Tedla Woldeyohannes (PhD)* We do not need to dwell on various theories of truth (there are several) in order to make progress with the issues I am interested to address in this piece. [I make use of the idea of truth as correspondence without comparing it to other theories since it is the most…
Image copyrightSCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYImage captionThe documents include records of UFO sightings About 13 million pages of declassified documents from the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have been released online. The records include UFO sightings and psychic experiments from the Stargate programme, which has long been of interest to conspiracy theorists. The move came after…
An analysis on what the rising ethnic nationalism among the historically powerful Amhara means for the country’s future. A man from Ethiopia’s Amhara, the second largest ethnic group in the country [ K Muller/De Agostini/Getty Images]By Kalkidan Yibeltal Amba Giorgis, Ethiopia – Etenesh* sits alone on a worn cow skin in her mud-walled home in Amba…
By Jean-Marie Guéhenno Crisis Group The world is entering its most dangerous chapter in decades. The sharp uptick in war over recent years is outstripping our ability to cope with the consequences. From the global refugee crisis to the spread of terrorism, our collective failure to resolve conflict is giving birth to new threats and emergencies. Even…
By Tedla Woldeyohannes, Ph.D.* January 3, 2017 The question whether there is a shared Ethiopian national identity or Ethiopiawinet (ኢትዮጵያዊነት) has recently become a hot issue. The main purpose of this article is to examine some of the reasons that appear to lead to a denial of a shared Ethiopian national identity or something close…
By Tedla Woldeyohannes (PhD) For keen observers of the current Ethiopian politics, especially the writings, media interviews, and social media comments and posts by Oromo elites and activists, one topic has kept receiving a steady focus more than others: The role of Emperor Menelik II in the formation of the modern Ethiopian State and how…
What’s the real size of Africa? How Western states used maps to downplay size of continent By Sophie Morlin-Yron (CNN)On a typical world map, Canada is a vast nation. Home to six time zones, its endless plains spread from ocean to ocean, dominating great swathes of the northern half of the globe. But, in reality,…
By Hone Mandefro There are contradictory statistics about the number of poor people and changes in number of poor people in Ethiopia with statistics ranging from 26 to 86% of the total population in 2013. This paper analyzed how such contradictory statistics feed into national politics focusing on who uses which statistics and based on what…
By RENÉ LEFORT Things fall apart: will the centre hold?Oct.2,2016.Ethiopian soldiers try to stop protesters in Bishoftu, in the Oromia region of Ethiopia before visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.STR/Press Association. All rights reserved.Almost exactly a year ago, Ethiopia entered its worst crisis since the arrival of the regime in 1991. Last month, a state of…