IDEOLOGICAL VIOLENCE TOWARDS THE ETHIOPIAN ORTHODOX TEWAHIDO CHURCH IN THE POST-1960s

Abstract

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church (EOTC) is one of the religious institutions in Ethiopia. EOTC has faced some challenges, which have created both physical and epistemic violence on it. This study analyses the two historical events that the EOTC and its believers faced with epistemic and physical violence. It argues that Ethiopian elites and intellectuals used ideologies and new experiences inappropriately to analyse the existed contexts in these two historical events, which in consequence created violence on the EOTC and its believers. Investigating these historical events that made violence on the EOTC is very important as the EOTC and the believers have been facing with violence so far. Through thematic analysis, this study concludes that considering the EOTC as the past feudal regimes’ tool that oppresses some ethnic groups in Ethiopia; and viewing the EOTC as an Amhara’s institution have been continuing. The study integrates how elite’s inappropriate use of ideologies or new experiences for analysing the existed contexts, which caused violence on EOTC and its believers.