Music and politics form intertwined relationships in many societies. These relationships become more pronounced in societies, such as Ethiopia, where formal lines of public expression are constrained. This chapter therefore investigated the content of songs during three successive governments in the country. Textual analysis was used to determine the prevailing themes in 14 selected songs and a musical play. The analysis shows that corruption, drought, and the need for change were dominant during the imperial era, whereas the focus in the Derg era was on the brutality of the regime, drought, and an endless war. Corruption, poor governance, and ethnic politics were the themes during the EPRDF era. The songs analyzed show that the ills of Ethiopian society persist just as the musicians continue to expose them and call for social healing and national unity.
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Ethiopia has experienced three successive regime changes over the past several decades signified by the reigns of imperial rule, the Derg and the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). As different as these administrations have been in terms of policy drives and ideological orientation, some similarities between these are also observed. One such example is a consistent intolerance to dissenting voices. As formal lines of public expression of dissent have been constrained or denied, Ethiopians have used music to voice discontent, which is otherwise impossible through other public channels of communication (Lulseged, 1994).
During the imperial era, a notion existed that “A king cannot be accused; sky cannot be tilled.” As a result, people were not free to say anything considered unflattering much less to criticize the emperor. During the Derg’s authoritarian regime, expression of discontent in any form was silenced as well. In fact, “speak out and you will pay the ultimate price” was the motto of the time. Due to that policy, people who dared to criticize the government or promoted contrarian views opposed the dominant ideology of the day were either killed or imprisoned. Be’alu Girma, one of Ethiopia’s prominent journalists and authors, was one of the victims of this brutal policy. Ethiopia’s situation during this period resembled that of Uganda under Idi Amin’s terrifying reign. Despite a constitutional provision granting freedom of expression, Ugandans who attempted to exercise their constitutional rights were persecuted by the regime. Amin famously and openly declared that “There is freedom of speech, but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech” (Amin, n.d.).
While EPRDF asserts that it has become a victim of its own accomplishments, critics, however, argue that deep-rooted nepotism, corruption and intolerance of dissenting voices caused the current unrest in Ethiopia. Critics further argue that the government is preoccupied with the task of ensuring economic growth at the expense of genuine political reforms. The glimmer of hope that flourished before the contested 2005 election has been eroded as democratic values declined (Beyene, 2011). Due to the difficulty surrounding the quest for expressing dissent, people have resorted to alternative platforms to voice their discontents and grievances against the status quo.
One such alternative platform is music. Using expressions with rich and complex meanings, artists criticize the government of the day while encouraging the people to focus on issues of importance. For instance, some of the recently released albums and singles (Tedi Afro, Wondi Mak, Natty Man, etc.) have identified and targeted issues (such as politicization of ethnic identity) they believe endanger national unity.
One might wonder: why a study on music and politics in Ethiopia? Music is at the heart of political discourse in many societies. Music’s vital role as an instrument of political communication is evident in a predominantly oral society like Ethiopia, where music plays an important role in expressing discontent and exposing injustice (Lulseged, 1994). It became an effective tool for expressing dissenting voices, as other forms of communication such as the media have been under the monopoly of successive governments (Beyene, 2011). Music helps artists attract listeners’ attention to issues that are crucial but remain unseen or ignored by policy makers and some sections of the public. Serving that purpose, music, just like news media, can be used as an agenda setter. The study of the relationship between music and politics in Ethiopia provides insights into the patterns and trends of injustice and social evils across different time periods and hence various regimes. Such insights, in turn, will help to understand emerging and recurring challenges affecting the country and society at large.
The main purpose of this study is to investigate the political messages conveyed through songs during Ethiopia’s three recent successive governments: the Imperial era, the Derg and EPRDF. As the empirical evidence below will demonstrate, that various generations of artists use music to articulate what they have seen as injustice in different forms. The analysis will answer questions such as: What are the trends and patterns of political messages embedded and expressed in different songs from the three successive political periods in the country? What are the contents of these songs? Using textual analysis, this chapter seeks to shed light on these perspectives.