As a country of many cultural groups, Ethiopia has never been successful at managing diversity. This explains much of Ethiopia’s state level responses to multicultural diversity for centuries, not decades as some would have us believe. Political elites ruling Ethiopia until the end of the Dergue regime principally allotted their resources and energy on Ethiopia’s national and territorial integrity and unity. Although Ethiopia’s monarchical rulers adopted a unitary state structure and deliberately kept down voices of cultural diversity, the Dergue regime hesitatingly attempted, in its own ways, to come to terms with it. Another chapter in Ethiopia’s history of managing diversity was set in motion under the TPLF-led EPRDF regime. Unlike the 1931, 1955, and 1987 constitutional responses to multiculturalism and nation building in Ethiopia, the 1995 constitution adopted under the EPRDF rule explicitly endorsed Ethiopia’s multiethnic, linguistic, religious, and cultural character. Interestingly, apart from the constitution, the ruling elites of the regime were largely obsessed with diversity to the extent that they ignored and/or deliberately downplayed national unity in Ethiopia. In other words, whilst Ethiopia apparently needs to strike the necessary balance between multicultural diversity and national unity, Ethiopia’s ruling political elites close mindedly struggled to maintain either of the two. Of these, the TPLF-led EPRDF regime not only recognized Ethiopia’s multicultural diversity but also instituted a system of federalism to the same end. Unfortunately, except for relatively addressing the “recognition” agenda of diversity in Ethiopia, the system of federalism pursued was by no means successful. To the contrary, for about three decades, Ethiopia had experienced single-party and federal government dominations; marked regional imbalances in political and economic spheres; significant interferences in the affairs of regional states; massive state elites-
led embezzlements; unrelenting interethnic violence; and others. The present report, therefore, generally explores these issues under two periods in Ethiopia’s political history, state-led responses to multiculturalism in Ethiopia until the end of the Dergue regime and under the TPLF-led EPRDF regime. In addition, the report highlights the general tendencies of PM Abiy’s current leadership and the Prosperity Party (PP) concerning multiculturalism in Ethiopia. The report concludes that unless lessons are learnt from the previous state-led mismanagement of diversity in Ethiopia, they are bound to be repeated. The current government must work hard to find a creative response to dealing with the old and the challenging question of maintaining critical balance between multicultural diversity and national unity in Ethiopia.