Making the city of nations and nationalities: the politics of ethnicity and roads in Hawassa, Ethiopia

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between the politics of ethnicity and road construction in Hawassa, Ethiopia. The Ethiopian state has recently invested unprecedented amounts of money in the construction of urban roads. These roads both undermine and reinforce longstanding ethnic hierarchies within Ethiopian cities. Contrary to the image promoted by the state of harmony among residents of different ethnic backgrounds, our research revealed a great deal of tension, particularly concerning the distribution of benefits from state-led infrastructural development. The experiences of residents in rapidly changing neighbourhoods, demonstrate that the benefits of recent road construction are not necessarily distributed according to the policies of the current regime. Instead, historical inequalities interact with contemporary urban development in ways that may actually disrupt the state's vision of unity through diversity. Stratification is built into the city and attempts to reshape the city necessarily interact with recent and long-standing inequalities.

Ethiopia’s ‘Developmental State’

“…40 The 2005 elections brought about a change in strategy with the EPRDF cultivating Sidama support through the installation of a Sidama, Shiferaw Shigute, as SNNPR president, and promoting Sidama ownership of the city, including by changing the official spelling from Awassa (Amharic) to Hawassa (the Sidama spelling). Infrastructure development and land distribution in the expanding city were deliberately intended to 'overwhelm' the multi-ethnic city with newly integrated Sidama residents (Mains and Kinfu 2016;Kinfu et al 2019, p. 78). The result was that by 2007 the Sidama were the largest group (49 per cent) in the area administered by the city administration for the first time, albeit that they remained the minority in areas defined as urban (18 per cent, compared with 25 per cent Amhara) (CSA 2008).…”