This study proposes to explore the connection between ethnicity, heritage management and conflict in Ethiopia. Ethnic federalism was established in Ethiopia the early 1990s as an attempt to deal with historic hegemony of certain groups and marginalisation of others. It provided a framework for the multiethnic state to fit the global rhetoric on ethnic equality. Ethiopian ethic federation conceptualises the nation as nations, nationalities and peoples with equal rights to self-determination.

The focus on ethnicity and diversity has triggered new interest in heritage of the diverse ethnic groups comprising Ethiopia of today. The federal government has appropriated heritage of different groups by drawing on the past and by encouraging celebration of what has been labeled as ‘authentic’ cultural expressions. Festivities associated with specific ethnic groups have been encouraged, reinvented and appropriated, such as e.g. the Oromo irricha ritual or the Chumbalala celebration of the Sidama.

Despite the attempts at nation building and the official rhetoric of ‘unity in diversity’, Ethiopia has recently experiencing outbreaks of ethnic conflict. Research has shown that the federal arrangement has in fact intensified ethnic conflict (Abbink 2006).

This project proposes a closer look at the complex processes and different ways in which social groups create, convey and experience their cultures and the ways in which social groups interact and experience tensions often mobilised by regimes in the processes of identity formation, inclusion and exclusion. The proposed study has a potential to shed light at the unexplored complexities and triggers of conflict in this part of the Horn of Africa.