Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #607367 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 335 pages

Synopsis
Dissecting contemporary Ethiopia, this work includes the voices of conflict in the emerging third world. This is a collection of essays exploring the contradicting paradigms of oppression and liberation in Ethiopia. Since the creation of the Ethiopian Empire in the 1880s, political, social and military power has been dominated by the elites of two minority groups. The vast majority of the peoples in Ethiopia have been subjected to political subjugation, economic marginalisation and cultural dehumanisation. While the ruling ethnic groups have sought to maintain the status quo, the oppressed majority have been struggling to free themselves from tyrannical rule. As a result, contemporary Ethiopia is a mass of contradictions and contest revolving around the paradigms of oppression and liberation - producing decades of civil wars, violation of human rights, poverty, famine and misery in monumental proportions. These essays explore the root causes of arrested development. They expose the oppressive mechanisms used by the Ethiopian state to suppress the creative talents of its subjects.

As much as they are inspired by the long suffering of the oppressed people, they are informed by the search for solutions, articulating a yearning for freedom, human dignity, self-determination and democracy.