Becoming Amhara: ethnic identity change as a quest for respect in Aari, Ethiopia

Abstract

Why do members of a southwest Ethiopian ethnic minority claim wanting to ‘stop being Aari’ and ‘become Amhara’? Since the mid-1990s, ethnic-based federalism has led many Ethiopians to identify more closely with ‘their’ ethnic group. This article presents a contrary case: building on two years of ethnographic fieldwork, I discuss Aari people’s quest to adopt the pan-Ethiopian identity of ‘Amhara’. I show that among Aari, a century of humiliation by northern Ethiopians has led to a profound sense of inferiority. The sense that all things ‘Aari’ are inferior makes it hard for people to connect to local culture and language as sources of pride and identity. In search of respect and self-esteem, Aari engage in linguistic, economic, and religious practices understood to affect ethnic identity change; by ‘becoming Amhara’ they hope to attain the recognition they were long denied. Contrary to what is widely assumed in present-day Ethiopia, this suggests that not all Ethiopians wish to make ‘their’ ethnicity the cornerstone of their identity. It also suggests that Amharization may be underway among other peripheral highlanders, sharing similar histories of humiliation and similar hopes for respect.