Introduction to Part 1: The Contradictions of the Assimilating School under Haile Selassie (1941–1974)
p. 43-44
Texte intégral
1Between the establishment of the national school system in 1941 and the 1974 revolution that overthrew Haile Selassie, the official aims of education were to train the personnel needed for centralisation, to create a homogenous nation and to bring about “progress.” The Ethiopian state, its partner, the United States, and the Wolaita local education authority considered these aims from a variety of angles. The emperor aimed to build his autocracy by creating a loyal administrative staff. The United States wanted to train Ethiopian elites to defend its model of society in the context of the Cold War. The pioneer of education in Wolaita, Bogale Wallelu, sought to promote his marginalised region within the nation through education (Chapter 1). For their part, the members of Wolaita’s local society—the priests of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the local political elites, the Wolaita farmers, men and women—welcomed the new institution in different ways and for different reasons. The dynamics of education were shaped by local power relations: some wanted to retain their power, others wanted to escape marginalisation through social advancement (chapter 2).
2The teaching, particularly history, conveyed and tended to impose a conception of the nation established according to the criteria of belonging defined by northern Ethiopia: its language, its religion and its founding myths. Particular attention was paid to the cult of Haile Selassie’s personality as the embodiment of the nation and its future. There was a strong emphasis on dedication and a sense of duty in the context of a teleology of progress, represented by centralisation and capitalist industrial society (chapter 3). In the school environment, the pedagogical relationship, rituals and forms of socialisation generated a socialisation in tension, made up of contradictory messages. Pupils’ and teachers’ experiences of schooling were marked by discrepancies between a discourse of assimilation and practices of distinction between classes, nationalities and genders (chapter 4).
3As schools were at the interface between local and national spheres, the political effects of school education and socialisation could be understood in terms of both local power relations and national political movements. The generation educated in the 1940s and 1950s believed in the virtues of assimilation and were loyal to the regime. While the regime could still harbour aspirations for progress, the national space was seen as a resource for escaping marginalisation. The next generation, educated in the 1960s and 1970s, became increasingly anti-establishment. As the regime entered a phase of stagnation, the school network became a place where revolutionary ideas inspired by Marxism were disseminated, reaching the pupils of Wolaita. Placed at the heart of a contradiction between school discourse and the social realities of their region, these students conceived their protest activities at the junction of the local and national spheres (chapter 5).

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Educating the Nation in Ethiopia
State, Society and Identity in Wolaita (1941–1991)
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2024