Earlier this month, distinguished Ethiopian politician Lencho Leta spoke to native media about his political journey. An edited video of his interview was shared with a textual content overlay claiming that Lencho mentioned his former political occasion had all the time renounced Ethiopian nationalism and continued to take action. Nevertheless, that is deceptive: within the interview, Lencho merely mentioned there was no consensus traditionally about what constituted nationalism within the multi-ethnic state of Ethiopia, however that there have been indicators the state of affairs was altering.
The put up was printed on Fb on November 5, 2024, and has been shared greater than 220 instances.
It accommodates a TikTok video greater than six minutes in size and reveals Lencho being interviewed by a journalist outdoor.
“As OLF, we have now by no means needed Ethiopian nationalism and we nonetheless do not right now,” reads the video’s Amharic caption.
Screenshot of the deceptive put up, taken on August 19, 2024
The video was considered greater than 16,500 instances on TikTok (archived right here).
Lencho was among the many founding members of Oromo Liberation Entrance (OLF), established in 1973 and one of many oldest political actions in Ethiopia (archived right here). OLF is a political organisation that advocates for the fitting to self-determination of Oromo folks – Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group.
Lencho co-founded the Oromo Democratic Entrance (ODF) in 2013 after a fallout with OLF management (archived right here). The ODF, which merged with the ruling occasion of the Oromia area in 2018, now desires to democratise what Lencho calls the “Ethiopian federation” relatively than create a separate Oromian republic.
“At the moment [when the OLF was founded], we have been extremely motivated by what constituted Ethiopian nationalism. But, we have now not agreed on what actually constitutes Ethiopian nationalism,” Lencho says at first of the clip.
“We didn’t agree on the unity of Ethiopia or Ethiopian nationalism. We didn’t discover our id in Ethiopian nationalism. We weren’t a part of it.”
He then talks in regards to the Gojjam rebellion, which occurred in late 1960, and the Ethiopian feudal system (archived right here).
At 3’40”, the journalist asks Lencho what motivated him and his colleagues to ascertain the OLF and whether or not their political objectives have been achieved.
In response, he mentions two “successes”, these being “the land reform coverage that was carried out in the course of the Derg regime and the multi-ethnic federalism that was formulated by the Ethiopian transitional authorities in 1991”.
Ethiopian nationalism
There are contending views on Ethiopian nationalism (right here and right here). For some, Ethiopian nationalism helped type a unified, sovereign nation-state no matter ethnicity (archived right here and right here).
However opponents see it as an instrument of manipulation by which a single ethnic group, the Amharas, traditionally imposed their id on Ethiopia’s different ethnic teams (archived right here).
Lencho has referred to as on a number of events for Ethiopian nationalism to be negotiated in order that it might probably result in equality between the nation’s ethnic teams (archived right here).
Nevertheless, the clip doesn’t present Lencho renouncing Ethiopian nationalism outright.
Edited video
AFP Truth Verify used the video verification device InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse picture searches on keyframes from the video.
The search led to an extended model of the video printed on YouTube by Addis Maleda, a digital information organisation on November 2, 2024 (archived right here). The unique video is greater than 27 minutes lengthy.
Within the first 25 minutes, Lencho discusses historic developments in Ethiopian politics from the Sixties within the feudal context and the rise of political actions, together with the OLF and the Gojjam rebellion.
AFP Truth Verify established that the TikTok clip comprised sections from the unique video.
From 22’40”, Lencho responds to the journalist’s query about whether or not OLF’s political goals have been achieved.
“A lot of the goals haven’t been met. There have been solely two necessary issues achieved. The land reform coverage that was carried out in the course of the Derg regime and the multi-ethnic federalism that was formulated by the Ethiopian transitional authorities in 1991,” he says.
“At the moment we have been extremely motivated by what constituted Ethiopian nationalism. But, we have now not agreed on what actually constitutes Ethiopian nationalism. We didn’t agree on the unity of Ethiopia nor Ethiopian nationalism. We didn’t discover our id in Ethiopian nationalism. We weren’t a part of it.”
The journalist asks Lencho: “What have been your criterias to measure that?”.
Lencho responds: “Ethiopian nationalism didn’t incorporate any components of our tradition, language, and historical past. Multi-ethnic values have been disregarded by Ethiopian nationalism, which promotes the id of a single ethnic group.”
“I imagine that is being corrected within the present Ethiopian political context. Ethiopian legal guidelines and insurance policies may also help enhance Ethiopian nationalism challenges.”
Opposite to the declare, Lencho by no means mentions renouncing Ethiopian nationalism both within the authentic video or within the Fb clip.
