How multilingual policies can fail: Language politics among Ethiopian political parties

Because language has instrumental as well as symbolic values, the issue of language will
always have a political aspect (Smith 2008). Often, the choice of language and its use is con-
strued as one of the central traits to people’s definition of themselves. Besides, any given
state must decide or determine the language that it deems appropriate to carry out its de-
velopment and to generate, disseminate and enrich the knowledge necessary for such devel-
opment. However, the case grows problematic when it comes to Sub-Saharan Africa where
“every language carries a distinct and weighty baggage” of identity (Obeng & Purvis 1999).
The decision was not easy for different regimes in Ethiopia, home of more than 80 ethnic
groups (CSA 2008). The three consecutive regimes which have ruled the country for the last
75 years followed different paths in addressing this diversity management question. The
reframing of the country under ethnic federalism, which legislates Amharic as the work-
ing language of the federal government (hereafter WL) and guarantees the right of each
ethnic state to decide its own WL, is the recent attempt to respond to the same politics of
recognition. However, dissatisfied voices regarding the current language policy (hereafter
LP) can still be heard among political groups. Some see it as ‘not enough’ while others see
it as Balkanization. Despite a few research efforts and publications on the LPs of the consec-
utive governments of Ethiopia, there has been no research done on the alternative policies
and options available among the political parties or their relative value as LPs. Thus, the
grand objective of this study is to survey, analyze and evaluate the linguistic proposals of
Ethiopian political parties in government, education, and endangered languages.