Social Movements and the Youth: the Ethiopian Experience

Abstract

There are considerable studies that examined the recurring occurrences of popular protests and social movements in Ethiopia. These studies shed light on how social movements were organized and sustained in the contexts of repressive regimes. There is a lacuna of research examining the pivotal role of movement actors providing leadership in movements that aim to sustain its organization and ensure the emergence of a democratic government structure by analyzing their roles in social movement organization, and the different mobilization tactics they utilize. Drawing on this gap, the article examines the role of different actors, mainly the educated youth within the country and in the diaspora, in forming and sustaining collective actions by focusing on two selected social movements. The article takes the 2015 Oromo protest and the 1960s students' movement as comparative cases to examine the role of youth in social movement organizations and their discursive practices in mobilizing the mass. As such, the underlying objective of this article is to provide insights into the role of the youth in framing and leading social movements that embraces the demand for human rights and democratic reform. The article bases its analysis of the 2015 Oromo protest on primary data collected as part of the author's PhD project concerning freedom of expression and social movements, while secondary sources of data are used to understand the 1960s students’ movement. The study findings depicted that the educated youth demonstrated a shared identity and common purpose in organizing and leading the selected social movements. The findings of the article further highlighted that youth-led social movements in repressive regimes tend to utilize violence as a final resort to bring about change.