The (mis)management of ethnolinguistic diversity in Ethiopian cities

Abstract

Ethiopia has an ethnic federal system that is based on the assumption that the ethnolinguistic communities of the country are located in neatly defined, or definable, territorial areas. On the basis of this assumption the federal system aspires to accommodate the ethnic diversity of the Ethiopian people through, principally, if not exclusively, territorial schemes. This assumption is, however, incorrect as far as urban areas are concerned which, despite being territorially enclosed within one of the ethnic-based regions or sub-regional units, have thousands of multiethnic dwellers. The territorial scheme thus fails to cater to a large contingent of multiethnic urban dwellers.