In just days, one song by Tewodros "Teddy Afro" Kassahun has ignited a firestorm—revealing not unity, but multiple Ethiopias speaking past each other. What appears as controversy is, in truth, a deeper collision of meanings shaped by power, history, identity, and memory. This article unpacks the layered messages behind the moment, exposing how one song became a prism through which a fractured empire sees itself.
Even if elections are predetermined, they still require minimum conditions and structures to stage the illusion of democracy. In today’s Ethiopia, those conditions no longer exist. Large parts of Ethiopia are outside regime control, opposition parties participate only to avoid deregistration, insecurity is widespread, and political intimidation is routine. Some regions appear politically detached, actively contemplating a post-Ethiopia political order, and therefore cannot be considered fully participatory in the electoral process. This is no longer an election that can be rigged; it is an election that cannot even be convincingly staged.
Ethiopia’s debate over Menelik II reflects far more than disagreement about a ruler’s legacy. It reveals two historical memories occupying the same political space yet interpreting the same events in radically different ways. This essay introduces the concept of moral asymmetry—the unequal ethical weight between disputing a leader’s greatness and denying the suffering experienced by others—and explores whether acknowledging this asymmetry can help narrow Ethiopia’s deeply divided historical narratives.
Video footage circulating on social media showing ENDF forces deliberately destroying grain stored in Amhara farmers’ warehouses stopped me cold. If you were challenged to write an essay on this sadistic act, what would your take be? How would you title it—The Banality of Cruelty in a Militarized State? When the State Trains Young Men to Laugh at Hunger?
For me, this footage reveals far more than a single atrocity. It exposes something deeply rotten—structural, inherited, and unresolved—at the core of an empire called Ethiopia.
Please bear with me. Stay with me for a brief but unflinching analysis of what lies beneath the surface.
Ethiopia has crossed a moral and political threshold. Lying is no longer an occasional deviation but a governing method. From the fabricated pretext of the Tigray war to the attempted rewriting of Eritrea’s role—publicly rebutted by Gedu Andargachew—the pattern is unmistakable. When power substitutes for truth, institutions collapse, Parliament applauds falsehood, and citizens are conditioned to accept governance without reality. This is not political spin; it is rule by fabrication.
When politics loses its grammar, words stop meaning what they mean and power begins to masquerade as principle. In critiquing Lidetu Ayalew, this piece is not about personal disappointment but about a deeper political failure: the refusal to accept irreversible facts of federalism, Oromo self-rule, and historical reality. Denial is not argument. Semantic inversion is not moderation. And restoration politics, however eloquent, cannot substitute for credible, principled leadership.
A fringe party’s audacious proposal to erase Oromia and other regions of the oppressed nations and nationalities has exposed a deeper crisis: the entrenched complacency and political paralysis of the majority. This is not merely the aggression of a fringe party attempting to erase Oromia and other regions; it is the predictable outcome of a majority conditioned to tolerate the intolerable. Ethiopia’s tragedy persists because boldness from the few meets silence from the many.
Oromia now faces a widening expansionist push—driven by local opportunists, reinforced by external actors, and carried along by a region long caught up in the politics of spite that has defined the Horn. These forces promote territorial fantasies that collapse under scrutiny. The article argues that only a free, self-determined Oromia can break this cycle, restoring stability to the Horn and creating the conditions for a genuine synergy of prosperity with its neighbors.
A recent viral clip shows a young Somali man boldly claiming Dirre Dhawa as Somali land — a moment that might seem laughable if it didn’t reflect a deeper anxiety and the politics of manufactured bravado. His claim coincides with PM Abiy Ahmed’s sudden “truth-telling” about Dirre Dhawa’s constitutional limbo — a convenient revelation used to frame Ethiopia’s port hunger and revive irredentist narratives disguised as historical correction.
Ignorance, when disguised as intellect, has long shaped Ethiopia’s moral decay. This compendium exposes how Amhara pseudo-elites turned mockery of Oromo language, names, and heritage into a badge of honour. Through evidence, reflection, and irony, it reveals that ignorance is not mere absence of knowledge — it is the arrogance that resists enlightenment.
There’s something truly ironic about attempts to rewrite history—how they often stumble on the very tools they try to wield. A case in point: a laughable “13th-century map of Abyssinia” now making the rounds. A single glance at its slick, pixel-perfect typography and digitally crisp outlines is enough to raise eyebrows. We are expected to...
Ignorance is our enemy. When we are devoid of facts and logic, all we have is raw emotion. Emotion alone won’t do it. Rewriting fake history, like the fabricated narrative of Barara, won’t change reality. No amount of rhetorical flourish can override the weight of facts. And the fact of the matter is this: Finfinnee...
Excerpt Historical revisionism is no mere academic exercise—it is a powerful political tool that shapes memory, identity, and power. In Ethiopia’s modern politics, the deliberate use of imperial-era place names like "Nazareth" instead of "Adama" signals a deeper resistance to Oromo identity restoration. This article explores how such symbolic acts, like Dr. Desalegn Chanie's recent...
Some mistakes are mere slip-ups, while others leave the world scratching its head. The latter category—unforced errors of a daft kind—carries a special weight, often revealing deeper flaws in leadership, judgment, and strategic thinking. These aren’t the minor lapses of an exhausted official or the misstatements of an off-the-cuff remark; rather, they are self-inflicted wounds...
This article was part-featured in Ethio Forum's news documentary: የሽመልስ አብዲሳ የምስጢር ሠራዊት፤ ነጌኛዎቹ ወታደሮች (5 Feb 2025). What Do You Do When Power Becomes the Criminal? How do you describe the indescribable? How do you find words for a reality so twisted that it defies logic, morality, and even the most basic human decency?...
Take this as an axiom: no peace with the Oromo means no peace for Ethiopia. The reality is simple yet profound: Oromia is the heart of Ethiopia. It serves as the empire's economic hub and defines Ethiopia in every sense of the word for its existence. Without addressing the Oromo questions, the foundation of Ethiopia’s...
