Everyday conceptions of the state in Ethiopia: corruption discourses, moral idioms and the ideals of mengist

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which ideas of state are constituted in North Ethiopia by focusing on corruption and development discourses found in local public domains as well as on religious metaphors and idioms which define the roles and obligations involved in governance. Specifically, I highlight the ways in which people draw on experiences of everyday life to formulate the normative basis of state authority and how this contributes to the production of an understanding that the state appears to be both above and separate from local politics and society. The study generates new insights into how local values, expressed through metaphors and idioms, serve to orient asymmetrical power relations between state and local people into a relationship (and mutual recognition) of responsibility and obligation. I argue that state formation can be fruitfully explored from a vantage point that explores specific configurations of divergent discursive practices, a process shaped by the ongoing contingencies of social relations, as well as the actions, expectations and hopes of the people involved in the process.

Cet article étudie les façons dont les idées concernant l’Etat sont constituées au Nord de l’Ethiopie et se concentre sur la corruption et le discours relatif au développement que l’on trouve dans le domaine public local ainsi que sur les métaphores religieuses et les locutions définissant les fonctions et obligations qu’implique la gouvernance. Je souligne en particulier comment la population s’appuie sur leurs expériences quotidiennes pour formuler la base normative de l’autorité d’Etat et en quoi cela contribue à laisser comprendre que l’Etat semble soit se situer au-dessus de la politique locale et de la société, soit en être séparé. L’étude donne de nouveaux aperçus sur la façon dont les valeurs locales, exprimées à travers des métaphores et locutions, contribuent à orienter des liens asymétriques de pouvoir entre l’Etat et la population locale dans une relation (et une reconnaissance mutuelle) de responsabilité et d’obligation. Je défends l’idée que l’exploration de la formation de l’Etat peut porter des fruits si l’observation implique l’exploration des configurations spécifiques de pratiques discursives divergentes, un processus formé par les éventualités persistantes des relations sociales, ainsi que les actions, attentes et espoirs de la population impliquée dans le processus.

Keywords:

• State
• mengist
• corruption
• development
• Ethiopia
• Africa

Mots clés:

• Etat
• mengiste
• corruption
• développement
• Ethiopie
• Afrique

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Graham Harrison and Julia Gallagher for reading and commenting on earlier drafts of this manuscript. I am also grateful for the feedback of the reviewers of Critical African Studies, as well as of participants in ‘Normative Politics in Africa’ workshop at Oxford (April 2018) and LSE (May 2018) where I presented earlier versions of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Daniel Mulugeta http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8999-2090

Notes

1 Kebele is the lowest administrative unit in Ethiopia and typically has a population of between 5000 and 10,000 people.

2 The concept of discourse as developed by Foucault is more than just language. Discourses, Foucault (1972, 49) maintains, are ‘practices that systematically form the objects of which they speak’. In this article, I use the concept of discourse to draw attention to the contingent mode of action and set of social practices that arise from situated agents, their experience and their beliefs and which are expressed in language.

3 The ideology of developmental state is part of the Ethiopian state’s identity and instrument of legitimation (de Waal 2015). Thus, development is a central theme in which narratives about the state are produced and contested. My purpose here is not to examine or offer a definitive account of developmental state, but to tease out aspects of the current obsession with development (and its entanglement with corruption and cultural idioms) as a lens to understand the production of state ideas. For discussions of developmental state in Ethiopia, see de Waal (2015), Lefort (2015) and Vaughan (2015).

4 The kebele domain is highly gendered sphere, reflecting the traditional patriarchal division of spheres in which women are associated with the private/household and men are associated with the public. A result women's views are not well represented in this article.

5 The fact that I am was a male native speaker of Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, which is also the language of the local community, combined with my knowledge of local customs granted me access to such male environments.

6 In Ethiopia, cooperative unions import agricultural inputs, mainly fertilizers, pesticides and different kinds of seeds, through a government agency called Agricultural Inputs Supplies Enterprise (AISE) and distribute them to smallholder farmers via local primary cooperatives that are explicitly controlled by kebele politicians (Spielman 2008).

7 Woreda (roughly meaning district) is the most central local administration unit in the bureaucratic hierarchy in Ethiopia. Each woreda is composed of several kebeles (roughly meaning neighbourhood).

8 Conversation, the first interlocutor, November 2014.

9 Conversation, the second interlocutor, November 2014.

10 Interview, woreda administrator, woreda town, November 2014.

11 Interview, woreda Agriculture Bureau head, woreda town, November 2014.

12 Interview, woreda Agriculture Bureau head, woreda town, November 2014.

13 Interview, model farmer, Degga, November 2014.

14 The Degga Water Users Association (WUA) is a cooperative entity established to represent the interests of the farmers’/water users in management of local irrigation unit in the Koga irrigation system.

15 Interview, Degga WUA head-cum-party chairman, Degga, November 2014.

16 Interview, woreda administrator, woreda town, November 2014.

17 Interview, kebele chairman, Degga, November 2014.

18 Interview, DA, Degga, November 2014.

19 Conversation, middle-aged farmer, Degga, October 2014.

20 Conversation, middle-aged farmer, Degga, November 2014.

21 Conversations with two middle-aged farmers, Degga, November 2014.

22 Interview, elderly farmer, Degga, October 2014.

23 Conversations with my acquaintance Ayele, Degga, November 2014.

24 Interview, elderly farmer, Degga, November 2014.

25 Interview, middle-aged farmer, Degga, November 2014.

26 Interview, elderly farmer, Degga, November 2014.

27 Interview, elderly farmer, Degga, November 2014.

28 Interview, middle-aged farmer, Degga, November 2014.

29 Interview, middle-aged farmer, Degga, November 2014.