Islam, Ethnicity, and Conflict in Ethiopia
The Bale Insurgency, 1963-1970

Discussing an armed insurgency in Ethiopia (1963-1970), this study offers a new perspective for understanding relations between religion and ethnicity.

Terje Østebø (Author)

9781108813563, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 June 2022

384 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.517 kg

'Østebø presents an important study that goes beyond old exclusivist conceptual binaries in examining the relations between religion and ethnicity. The book is a valuable addition to the library of studies working to understand the nature of identity and conflict in the modern and contemporary world.' John O. Voll, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Focusing on the role of religion and ethnicity in times of conflict, Terje Østebø investigates the Muslim-dominated insurgency against the Ethiopian state in the 1960s, shedding new light on this understudied case in order to contribute to a deeper understanding of religion, inter-religious relations, ethnicity, and ethno-nationalism in the Horn of Africa. Islam, Ethnicity and Conflict in Ethiopia develops new theoretical perspectives on the interrelations between ethnic and religious identities, considering ethnic and religious groups as mutually exclusive categories by applying the term peoplehood as an analytical tool, one that allows for more flexible perspectives. Exploring the interplay of imagination and lived, affective reality, and inspired by the 'materiality turn' in cultural- and religious studies, Østebø argues for an integrated approach which recognizes and explores embodiment and emplacement as intrinsic to formations of ethnic and religious identities.

Introduction
1. Islaama peoplehood and landscapes of bale
2. Conquest and resistance
3. Bale at war
4. The insurgency: fighters and fragmentation
5. Peasant insurgency without peasants
6. Land tenure and the land-clan connection
7. Christianity, nation, and Amhara peoplehood
8. Translocal dynamics: the Bale insurgency in the context of the horn
9. Islaama vs. Amhara and the making of local antagonism
10. The Bale insurgency, Islaama, and Oromo ethno-nationalism
Conclusions.

Subject Areas: Ethnic studies [JFSL], Religious issues & debates [HRAM], Religion: general [HRA], African history [HBJH]