Kaplan’s reductionist view of Ethiopian history relegates the independent existence and histories of all other groups to a mere footnote of Christian highlanders’ history. Kaplan’s other glaring mistake is his reductionist view of Ethiopian history. He ignores—unjustifiably—the most significant event in the history of modern Ethiopia, Menelik II’s late 19th-century military conquest of the Ethiopian south. His piece simply glosses over this epochal event in Ethiopia’s recent history, without which the current conflict surrounding the Ethiopian state cannot be understood. Kaplan’s conclusion that Ethiopia is here to stay no matter what is magical thinking that is associated with the proponents of a centralized Ethiopian state.

Source: Ethiopian News July 22, 2021 08:15 UTC