Ethiopia: A Revolution Despite Itself?

The most thorough uprooting of old institutions and their replacement by new ones in an African state in the last half-century overthrew not a regime imposed by outside forces, but the ancien regime which could call upon the longest indigenous historical tradition of any in sub-Saharan Africa. The northern core area of Ethiopia can trace a continuing history back to the ancient Aksum state, contemporary with Rome. In the fourth century A.D. Aksum adopted Christianity, and the Ethiopian Church from that time onward provides a unifying core for the dominant groups in the Ethiopian state. In the 19th century Ethiopia extended its boundaries to incorporate ethnic groups with only marginal affinities to the core areas, and under Emperor Haile Selassie's rule (1930-1974) the central government increased its control over outlying areas. However, the Amhara, although comprising only a quarter of Ethiopia's population, continued to dominate the entire state, but did not succeed in assimilating other peoples into their culture. One source of friction thus was the divergent cultural aspirations of different ethnic groups.