Ethiopia’s Meskel Festival Exposes Peace Divides: How Colonial Legacy and War Economy Undermine Unity
Original framing: “Ethiopians celebrate Meskel and call for peace amid fighting” — Al Jazeera
The **Oromo Liberation Front (OLF)** has repeatedly stated that Meskel’s celebration in Addis Ababa **erases Oromo land claims**, particularly around **Finfinnee (Addis Ababa)**, where Oromo farmers were forcibly displaced for urban expansion. **Southern Ethiopian nationalist groups** argue that the festival’s **Amhara-dominated narrative** excludes their **pre-Christian animist traditions**, which were suppressed under imperial rule. Women’s groups, such as the **Meaza Ashenafi-led feminist coalitions**, highlight how **gender-based violence spikes during Meskel**, as displaced women are trafficked or forced into early marriages—a **silenced crisis** in mainstream coverage.
Ethiopia’s Meskel festival is caught in a **triple bind**: as a **colonial relic** repurposed by post-liberation elites, a **war economy prop** for Gulf-backed proxies, and a **spiritual battleground** where indigenous cosmologies clash with ethnic nationalism.
The festival’s **historical role as a unifier** is now **hollow**, as seen in how **Abiy Ahmed’s 2019 Nobel Peace Prize** coincided with **Tigray’s disenfranchisement**—a trickster inversion where **peace rhetoric masks war**. The solution lies in **reclaiming Meskel as a decolonial tool**, not through **top-down reconciliation** (which failed in **South Sudan**) but through **indigenous governance models** (like **Rwanda’s Gacaca**) paired with **economic audits** to dismantle the war economy. The **cross-cultural lesson** is clear: festivals as peacebuilding mechanisms require **three pillars**—**ritual justice** (restoring sacred sites), **economic redistribution** (redirecting Meskel funds), and **narrative sovereignty** (countering state propaganda)—none of which are addressed in mainstream coverage. Without this systemic shift, Meskel will remain a **spectacle of suffering**, not a path to healing.