Ethnic Federalism in a Dominant Party State: The Ethiopian Experience 1991-2000 Lovise Aalen r 2002: 2

Understanding the social and cultural context
Knowledge about the cultural context is important in order to avoid
misinterpretations of the informants and the information gathered and to
prevent unintended consequences of the research. Tronvoll (1998) emphasises
the challenges of doing political research in Ethiopia. If the informant expresses
the “wrong” political opinions, s/he can end up as a victim of torture and
imprisonment, and in the most extreme cases disappearances and deaths. Thus,
the researchers have to be extremely cautious not to expose the informants in a
politically negative manner. Discretion, impartiality and awareness of the
complex political landscape are therefore preconditions for carrying out
political research in Ethiopia.
Ethiopians generally do often search for a hidden agenda and political
implications in the questions addressed to them. Some explain this with the so-
called Ethiopian culture, where silence and scepticism are seen as valued
qualities (Levine 1974). Most probably it is not the Ethiopian culture per se
that makes people suspicious, but the tradition of repression, intelligence and
intervention by secret police and party cadres. Generally, Ethiopians feel that
political issues should be avoided because they are seen as dangerous. A
commonly cited Amhara proverb is “keep politics and electricity at a distance”
(Tronvoll and Pausewang, 2000:153). Politics, as electricity, can harm you if
you get too close to it. To make people talk openly about political issues was to
a large extent a learning-by-doing-process. Although the problem of scepticism
was impossible to avoid, I learnt that approaching the issues indirectly was a
useful method. During the interviews, I often started with general and
uncontroversial facts, and then proceeded to the sensitive issues at the end. In
one sense, I experienced that being a young, foreign and female student was a
disadvantage because I am the opposite of what Ethiopians traditionally see as
an authority figure. In a few cases, the interviewees, particularly men in higher
offices, treated me with less respect than what was favourable in order to
obtain the information I needed. But most of the time I experienced that being
young, female and a foreigner was an asset. I might be considered as less
threatening than male researchers because men are the ones who are
traditionally associated with the state and the government, and who deal with
“dangerous” politics in Ethiopia.
As a foreigner studying an unfamiliar context, it is important to be aware of
the fact that concepts, formulations, and terms could be understood differently
in different cultural contexts. In Ethiopia, the Amharic word mengist means
both “government” and “law” (Pausewang 1973 :69), which implies that there

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is no distinction between the abstract rule of law and the authority taking care
of it, the law is what the government decides. Unless special clarifications are
made, it is difficult to ask questions about confrontation of the government
actions with the law. This is particularly important to be aware of in my study
of Ethiopian federalism, because one of the aims is to explore the relationship
between the de jure federal model (the law) and its de facto implementation (the
actual government of the country).