By Samuel Getachew
Tuesday March 3, 2020
Oromo youth chant slogans in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Oct. 24, 2019.
Ethiopia has approved a policy to introduce four additional working languages alongside Amharic which has been the working language of the nation. Going forward Afan Oromo, the most widely spoken language in Ethiopia, Afar, Somali and Tigrigna have all been adopted as official languages of government.
The new policy is among a series of reforms being introduced by Ethiopia’s reformist leader prime minister Abiy Ahmed who received the Nobel Peace Prize last year. It’s also just a month ahead of a national legislative election. It comes as the Oromo-born Abiy, 43, who founded the Prosperity Party, sees his political honeymoon winding down, including in parts of Oromia and in the Tigray regions.
“Introducing additional working languages is a commendable action. In fact, it is long overdue,” says former political prisoner Befeqadu Z. Hailu, who is now at the helm of the Centre for Advancement of Rights and Democracy in Ethiopia.
According to the latest census, Afan Oromo speakers account for 34.4% of the population, while Somali and Tigre accounts for 6%. The share of Afar people is just 1.7%, the Sidama and Wolayita each have twice as many people.
“Amharic (has) played a big role in facilitating communications among Ethiopians. But in order to build a society that is integrated both politically and economically, introducing new working languages is very important,” said Abiy in a statement. “The new languages would play a big role in uniting the country and further improve cultural ties among Ethiopians.”
The language policy of Ethiopia adopted during the past two successive regimes of Ethiopia prioritized Amharic as the state’s sole official language. While there is no official reason for Amharic becoming the dominant official language of the federal government history shows it was reinforced during the era of Emperor Haile Selassie who made it the lone working language under the “andinet (unity)” law.
Critics have pointed out during the era of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, now Prosperity Party, while it allowed some regions to make a local language as their working language, there has been little change to reflect the diversity of the population at the national level. This has become increasingly important because of the increasing instability in the country along political and ethnic lines.
In the past year there have been numerous reports of people killed as a result of ethnic conflicts, resulting in the displacement of more than 1 million people, according to the IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix within the nation of approximately 110 million. Ethiopia is Africa’s second-most populous country with multi-ethnic groups spread in its nine autonomous states.
While acknowledging the impact of the new development some are doubtful Ethiopia has the budget to make it an instant reality.
“The addition of the new working languages is expected to reduce ethnic extremism and play a role in our state building endeavor. However, I do not think it is possible to achieve it in the near future. It might take more time considering the financial obligation the commitment requires”, a prominent member of the Prosperity Party said anonymously.
The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), once labelled as a terrorist group but is now an approved political party had a wait-and-see reaction.
“We still doubt the execution of the new policy and how is it going to be put into practice,” the party said in statement.