Lost futures? Educated youth precarity and protests in the Oromia region, Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, this article explores the connections between young people's livelihoods, education and visions of the future in Ethiopia. It engages with educated youth's narratives of precarity, dispossession, and ‘intimate exclusions,’ discussing how development has impacted rural livelihoods. Educated youth protests in the Oromia region reveal how shortages of farmland and education play crucial roles in the conflict about sovereignty and development. Qeerroo (Oromo youth) are particularly active in the protests because they are excluded from a rural future through land grabbing and population growth as well as from a modernist development future that unequally distributes the fruits of economic growth. By politicizing educated unemployment and landlessness and connecting them to neoliberal capitalism, this article analyses the intentions of the Ethiopian state to ‘save’ its youth through economic development while youths claim to ‘lose’ their futures to generate grassroots politics. The article also draws analytical attention to why there is a need to rethink concepts like development, waithood, and rural futures.

KEYWORDS:

• Youth protests
• waithood
• land-grabbing
• educated unemployment
• rural futures
• Ethiopia

Dedication

As this article went to press, singer and songwriter Hacaalu Hundessa was shot dead in Addis Ababa. Hacaalu's songs were the voice and soundtracks of the Oromo youth revolution, paying heed to Oromo people's freedom and rights. I dedicate this article for his youthful commitment to music activism. Rest in peace Hacaalu!

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge the financial support for fieldwork from the Institute for Comparative Research in Human Culture, Norway, and the Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Many thanks to the working group on ‘Learning for the Future—Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Knowledge Transmission in Africa and Beyond’ in Bayreuth University for hosting me during my sabbatical in winter 2017/18 and providing feedbacks as I drafted this article. I appreciate the useful comments and suggestions of three anonymous reviewers. I also thank members of the Research Centre on Young People's Environment, Society and Space (YESS), San Diego State University, for their comments. I am grateful to Rabbira Garba and Teketel Abebe for valuable discussions on Oromo history and worldviews. Any shortcomings are, however, mine.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 bachir gize mezgat

2 The music video can be accessed here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv3he6CGF3E

3 Yebelana yetemare wedko aywedkim

4 Kan barate maaltu fakkaata

5 Yetemare yigdelegn

6 Yetemare sew tesfa alew

7 Yetemare yet derese, or degree wenz ayashagerem

8 In Oromo culture, the term ‘beekumsaa’ which translates as ‘knowledge/wisdom/skill’ encompasses education and is an essential ‘virtue’ for a good life.