There has been a lot of chatter among the intelligentsia lately that Ethiopia is on her way to being Balkanized and will in time succumb to the same fate that befell Yugoslavia in 1992. But there is no need to look towards Europe to understand what is taking place in Ethiopia, a more apt comparison and a key to unraveling the ethnic strife that is developing back home is found by analyzing the history of South Africa during the era of apartheid.
“Afrikaners were able to dominate the vast majority of South Africans by segregating society based on skin color. Promising to keep “white” people apart from “blacks” and “coloured” people—apartheid literally means “hoods apart”—the racist National Party, under the guidance of Daniel François Malan, created Bantustans (homelands) in order to ghettoize the nation based on ethnicity.
What is missed by most people these days about the system of apartheid is that it was designed to divide “black” people as much as it was meant to keep “blacks” and “whites” apart. By creating homelands for each tribe, the National Party shattered 95% of South Africans along ethnic lines and then instigated violence between communities. Instead of uniting to take on their common oppressors, the Zulus, Xhosa, Sotho and the rest of South Africa’s tribes frequently clashed with each other. A fraction of society lorded over the rest by...continued...
Read full article at: https://ethiopians4cm.org/bantustanization-of-ethiopia/