IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v14y2024i3p21582440241262755.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Discourse Structures, Weaponization of Language and Ethiopia’s Civil War

Author

Listed:
  • Lucas Mafu

Abstract

The use of language to alienate, ostracize, dehumanize, and mobilize people on racial, ethnic, and other forms of profiling has been a prominent feature of the Ethiopian conflict between the government of Mr Abiy Ahmed and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). In fact, the jingoistic vitriol in the civil war amounted to hate speech which reflected the deeper ethno-regional fissures which have been embedded in Ethiopia’s political tapestry for many years. The Tigray/Addis Ababa conflict not only heightened both the ethno-cultural and political divides in the country, but also, worsened the vitriolic speech in the framing processes of the adversarial “other.†This rendered language itself a choice weapon of warfare. Using discourse analysis, the hermeneutic analysis and the articulatory theory, this paper, therefore, argues that Ethiopia’s ethno-provincialist politics, fragmental federalism and the state’s hegemonic discourses have together exacerbated and further entrenched the political disintegration of the Ethiopian body politic while also rendering post-conflict peace-making and nation-building efforts more hazardous. While the parties to the conflict have agreed an African Union (AU) sponsored ceasefire, genuine peace-building efforts, this paper urges, must begin with the disavowal of inflammatory language by all the belligerents and a concurrent detoxification of the national political discourse.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucas Mafu, 2024. "Discourse Structures, Weaponization of Language and Ethiopia’s Civil War," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(3), pages 21582440241, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:14:y:2024:i:3:p:21582440241262755
    DOI: 10.1177/21582440241262755
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21582440241262755
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/21582440241262755?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jocelyn Alexander, 2021. "The Noisy Silence of Gukurahundi: Truth, Recognition and Belonging," Journal of Southern African Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(5), pages 763-785, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Simon Bvurire, 2023. "Graves and the Memorialization of Gukurahundi in Matobo," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 7(9), pages 2113-2126, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:14:y:2024:i:3:p:21582440241262755. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.