Ethiopia after Nobel, a public lecture

PM Abiy is the first Oromo to hold this office in a country where the political power has been under control of the amharas and tigrayans for centuries. Abiy is not the average oromo, however; he is the son of a Muslim father and an Orthodox Christian mother - and he holds a PhD in Peace Studies from Addis Abeba University. His reform initiatives have been many and radical, and they came quickly after he took office. What are these changes causing, and how are they perceived in the Ethiopian public debate? 

Dr. Asebe Regassa is currently with Addis Abeba Univeristy. Previoulsy, he took his MA in Indigenous Studies at Sesam, UiT, then proceeded to take his PhD in African Studies in Bayreuth, Germany, before taking a position with Dila University in Southern Ethiopia. There, he led the Insitute for indigenous Studies for many years until moving for a new poistion with the AAU.

Prof. Emerita Randi Rønning Balsvik is one of the most prominent scholars in African history in Norway, and certainly the one with most expertice on Ethiopan history. Her most important publication on Ethiopian history deals with modern political development and the impacts of student movents and the quest for freedom of expression.

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