The Past of Ethiopia's Present: Unfolding Crises, Cyclical Violence, and Competing Nationalism

1 Etana H. Dinka, “The Past of Ethiopia’s Present: Unfolding Crises, Cyclical Violence, and Competing Nationalism,” Northeast African Studies, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2021, pp. 1–10. ISSN 0740-9133. © 2021 The Author(s). All rights reserved. In the early 2000s, Ethiopia emerged in the world press as Africa’s fastestgrowing economy. In December 2015, the World Bank reported Ethiopia had “achieved doubledigit growth” for twelve years in a row, “making it the fourth fastestgrowing [economy] in the world” and also recommended strategies to sustain the “miraculous achievements.”1 As a result, news about Ethiopia’s economic growth flooded global news outlets touting Ethiopia’s economic success. Beginning in the mid 2010s, scholars specializing in Ethiopian issues, including historians, began to recognize “the economic miracle,” analyzing the economic policies and political projects of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF).2 Although the economic success stories are indisputable, the overall strength of EPRDF’s Ethiopia, especially under its late leader Meles Zenawi, was not limited to economic progress. Gerard Prunier and Eloi Ficquet sum it up: