50 years of Amhara political failure.
This will be my first post after 6 months, considering it won't be deleted by mods.
FYI, I'm Tigrayan. I'm mentioning this because I know that ethnicity can influence how political arguments about Ethiopia are interpreted. I have no bad or hidden intention.
So in the past couple of months i've been analyzing Ethiopia's history and politics. Even though I cannot include everything in one post, in this post I will talk about Amhara politics and why it failed to deliver protection, prosperity, and stability for Amharas.
Since the fall of Hailesilase, most Amhara politicians have been refusing to engage in ethnic politics. Some believe its backwards, degrading to the Ethiopian identity or even a betrayal of the nation. Instead, they've been engaged in nationwide politics trying to promote "Ethiopianist." Whether that's genuine Ethiopianist or not is another question.
But the tragedy happened as Amhara elites failed to reach their goal. They were either outmaneuvered or crushed by their opponents, leaving the people of Amhara almost defenseless. They didn't retreat of ethno-nationalism while at the same time failing at the national level.
The past 50 years were marked by Amhara oppression (even though Amharas were not the only oppressed people), lack of political representation, and many massacres that the "Ethiopianist Amhara elite" failed to defend.
After many decades, Fano emerged as "Amhara First" movement, putting the interest of Amharas first. While Tigray and Oromia have relatively well-developed ethno-national parties, Amharas started almost from scratch in recent years.
Despite the recent achievements of Fano, they have not yet overthrown the government. And to do so, they've allied with other armed forces. For a force that represents 40 million people, I expected a much more organized, well-funded, diaspora-backed force with experienced and educated leaders. I'm not saying the current Fano leaders are not educated, but are they fit enough to outmaneuver their opponents? Ethiopia's politics are brutal, and incompetency amongst Fano will directly affect Amharas. Whether Fano can answer the ultimate Amhara question is also yet to be seen.
Maybe in the future we'll see many Amhara-centric parties.