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What a great book Ethiopia in Theory is, @ElleniZeleke ! Thank you @hewaniye for tipping me about it prior to its release! ብድር መላሽ ያርገኝ! A few points for why I loved it. For a start, any discussion of the 1974 revolution, the student movement and red terror is personal!
These are wedged deep in the psyche and memory of every Ethiopian -every family has stories to tell about this epoch-growing up, a story in our household relayed how my father narrowly missed EPRP recruitment days before all mayhem unfolded..his much beloved cousin not so lucky!
He was executed by the rampant revolutionary guards አብዮት ጥበቃ(his mom never had a chance to bury him and only got to pay her respects at a suspected mass grave uncovered at the overthrow of the Derg(military regime) in 1991..such tales of agony and loss are all too familiar
I like how @ElleniZeleke captures the spirit of those times and the way they persist, deep in popular memory - infusing culture and art forms to this day. Beyond that, the book mainly scrutinises & traces the genesis of the theories that underlie present day political discourses
A fascinating review follows how theories were adopted/adapted across time as students engaged vigorously within the student journals esp. 'Challenge'... Textual analysis follows the budding agenda that go on to define politics since: the nationality question and land ownership
It also evaluates how the times shaped the tone and style of engagement between political actors in Eth - students measuring up the world around them and enticed by d/t impulses. Interesting discussions on students' perceptions of & claims on modernity and the scientific method
and how these perpetually influence the way political actors perceive national development- a positivist and top down approach to diagnosing social ills and fashioning solutions. The student movement of the 70s were the days of certainty where students railed against tradition
A poignant case showcases an editorial by a youthful Desalegn Rahmato castigating the larger than life Afewerk Tekle for engaging in futile art and serving power. A letter to the editor protests this, but is cut down by more polemic - revolutionary fervour has no bounds!
I enjoyed the constant lens within the book juxtaposing the local with the global- the African post-colonial state versus global capital - and who the former serves. Was the revolution a mass movement or simply elites jostling for state capture to negotiate with global capital?
The discussions of the 2005 election are a gripping account - highlights the revolving door between academia, global neoliberal institutions and civil society. It looks back at the genesis of civil society in the west and the tricky complicated roles they continue to play
Then there is the discussion of political thought and theory that gets a bit heavier at the end, but hey it's a book centred on theory :) Thank you for this immense read @ElleniZeleke, I shall end my patchy reflections here! Much recommend!
