Exploring the oppressive mechanism used by the Ethiopian state to suppress the creative talents of its subjects, these essays depict not only the lack of respect for basic human rights in Ethiopia but also the denial of the people's right to freely determine the governance of their choice and the pace of their socio-economic progress. The contributors passionately believe that the problems facing the Ethiopian people are neither inevitable nor insurmountable - instead they offer hope and solutions bound in an impassioned critique of current injustice.

Exploring the oppressive mechanism used by the Ethiopian state to suppress the creative talents of its subjects, these essays depict not only the lack of respect for basic human rights in Ethiopia but also the denial of the people's right to freely determine the governance of their choice and the pace of their socio-economic progress. The contributors passionately believe that the problems facing the Ethiopian people are neither inevitable nor insurmountable - instead they offer hope and solutions bound in an impassioned critique of current injustice.

Arrested Development examines the USSR's involvement in West Africa during the 1950s and 1960s as aid donor, trade partner, and political inspiration for the first post-independence governments in Ghana, Guinea, and Mali. Buoyed by solid economic performance in the 1950s, the USSR opened itself up to the world and launched a series of programs aimed at supporting the search for economic development in newly independent countries in Africa and Asia. These countries, emerging from decades of colonial domination, looked at the USSR as an example to strengthen political and economic independence. Based on extensive research in Russian and West African archives, Alessandro Iandolo explores the ideas that guided Soviet engagement in West Africa, investigates the projects that the USSR sponsored "on the ground," and analyzes their implementation and legacy. The Soviet specialists who worked in Ghana, Guinea, and Mali collaborated with West African colleagues in drawing ambitious development plans, supervised the construction of new transport infrastructure, organized collective farms and fishing cooperatives, conducted geological surveys and mineral prospecting, set up banking systems, managed international trade, and staffed repairs workshops and ministerial bureaucracies alike. The exchanges and clashes born out of the encounter between Soviet and West African ideas, ambitions, and hopes about development reveal the USSR as a central actor in the history of economic development in the twentieth century.

This book is the most complete, accessible, and up-to-date resource for Ethiopian geography, history, politics, economics, society, culture, and education, with coverage from ancient times to the present. Ethiopia is a comprehensive treatment of this ancient country's history coupled with an exploration of the nation today. Arranged by broad topics, the book provides an overview of Ethiopia's physical and human geography, its history, its system of government, and the present economic situation. But the book also presents a picture of contemporary society and culture and of the Ethiopian people. It also discusses art, music, and cinema; class; gender; ethnicity; and education, as well as the language, food, and etiquette of the country. Readers will learn such fascinating details as the fact that coffee was first domesticated in Ethiopia more than 10,000 years ago and that modern Ethiopia comprises 77 different ethnic groups with their own distinct languages.

The book deals with historical, social, economic, political, and international causes, contexts, and consequences of inequalities and conflicts in Africa. In particular, the book is to puts conflicts and turbulences in Ethiopia in a broader, African comparative perspective. It also identifies and analyzes multiple causes of conflicts which cannot be studied only as a result of one variable. Inequalities and conflicts have a whole set of causes stemming from historically inherited, as well as global, international, socio-economic, political and other contexts which cannot be analyzed separately. This book is vital for anyone who is interested in the study of African history, comparative politics, and conflict in Africa.

After the fall of the Berlin wall and the disintegration of the former USSR and Yugoslavia, it has widely been assumed that socialist federations have become a thing of the past. Ethiopia’s ethnic federal system however is essentially a socialist federal system based on the notion of the ’right to self-determination of nationalities’ and a Marxist-Leninist organization of the state and party. This book assesses the Ethiopian ethnic federal system from the perspective of the principles of socialist federations and other Marxist oriented policies pursued by the ruling Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). Exploring how the application of these ideological principles has impacted on the structure and function of the Ethiopian federal system, the research examines the ways in which these ideological policies of the ruling party affect national consensus, protection of human rights, the rights of minority groups, separation of power principles and the relationship between the federal and regional governments. It also explores the extent to which ideological principles have had an impact on the democratization process, rule of law and in building up institutions such as parliamentary democracy, the judiciary, the media and civil society organizations in the country. Approaching the Ethiopian federal system from the perspective of the fundamental ideological principles of the party in power allows a deeper insight into the structure and function of the ethnic federal system.

The Routledge Handbook of the Horn of Africa provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary survey of contemporary research related to the Horn of Africa. Situated at the junction of the Sahel-Saharan strip and the Arabian Peninsula, the Horn of Africa is growing in global importance due to demographic growth and the strategic importance of the Suez Canal. Divided into sections on authoritarianism and resistance, religion and politics, migration, economic integration, the military, and regimes and liberation, the contributors provide up-to-date, authoritative knowledge on the region in light of contemporary strategic concerns. The handbook investigates how political, economic, and security innovations have been implemented, sometimes with violence, by use of force or by negotiation – including ‘ethnic federalism’ in Ethiopia, independence in Eritrea and South Sudan, integration of the traditional authorities in the (neo)patrimonial administrations, Somalian Islamic Courts, the Sudanese Islamist regime, people’s movements, multilateral operations, and the construction of an architecture for regional peace and security. Accessibly written, this handbook is an essential read for scholars, students, and policy professionals interested in the contemporary politics in the Horn of Africa.