Situated within the “material turn” in cultural and religious studies—a late 20th and early 21st century scholarly movement focused on understanding human reality as both socially embedded and physically embodied—Terje Østebø’s Islam, Ethnicity, and Conflict in Ethiopia: The Bale Insurgency, 1963-1970 offers a multifaceted and materialist religious and ethnic analysis of the Muslim-dominated Arsi-Oromo insurgency against the Ethiopian state in the southeastern Ethiopian province of Bale during the 1960s and 70s. Employing the concept of “peoplehood” or imagined belonging as his core methodological tool of analysis (chapter 1), Østebø observes that previous scholarship on the Bale Insurgency has viewed the uprising as either: (1) a peasant rebellion conditioned by economic exploitation and competing classes; or (2) an ethnic movement colored by ethno-nationalist sentiments. The unfortunate lack of attention given to religion, and its material interplay with ethnicity, within this scholarship constitutes a major oversight for Østebø, who views both as “integrative to the [understanding of this] insurgency [itself]” (3). As he argues: “Religion and ethnicity [like class and nationality] constitute foundational dimensions of peoplehood” (7, his emphasis); that is, they cannot be separated from the production of differing identities but must be paired alongside a multitude of additional factors that are part-and-parcel of the intercommunal dynamics of identity formation and conflict analysis themselves.
In the case of the Bale Insurgency, Østebø argues that such religious and ethnic dimensions are vital for understanding the identities of the varying peoplehoods that have constituted, and continue to constitute, the contested Ethiopian socio-political landscape—and that such dimensions must be understood considering the material conditions that have fostered, and continue to foster, such divergent Ethiopian identities. Critically, for Østebø, it is only in integrating such a materially religious and ethnicity-minded understanding of the Bale Insurgency with previous scholarship on class and ethno-nationalism that a critical understanding of the Muslim-dominated Arsi-Oromo rebellion can be properly produced: one in which religion and ethnicity are foundationally explanative.
The book can be said (in my reading) to be informally divided into four parts, and bookended by an introduction and conclusion (chapters 1 and 12). In part 1 (chapters 2-3), Østebø notes how the topography of the southeastern Ethiopian Province of Bale isolated it from the rest of the historical Christian Ethiopian Empire and thus defined it in relation to “established-yet-demarcated geographies of power and assumed center-periphery relations” (34). As such, he shows how the inhabitants of Bale assumed variegated identities among themselves (e.g., in terms of the Arsi Oromo clan system, highlanders versus lowlanders, etc.) and in relation to the broader Ethiopian state (specifically in terms of the demarcation between Islamaa and Amhara peoplehoods). Here, Østebø importantly links such topographically informed religious and ethnic identities to three historical stages of conquest and resistance in Bale: (1) the Amharic conquest of the province and early, local Arsi Oromo resistance (1881-1936); (2) Italian colonial rule and regional Muslim imperialist struggle (1936-1941); and (3) resumed Amharic administration and continued local Arsi Oromo defiance (1941-1963).
Part 2 (chapters 4-5) examines the causes and effects of the Bale Insurgency by looking at the rebellion’s different trajectories, triggering points, and struggles and successes from both an Ethiopian governmental and Arsi Oromo religious and ethnic perspective. Here, Østebø digs into the organizational structure and leadership of the Bale Insurgency, paying particular attention to the figures of Waqo Gutu, Hussein Bune, and Hajji Isaq Dhadh. As he conclusively demonstrates: “Whereas the violent reactions from the Ethiopian state were the main reason for the insurgency’s failure, the organizational weakness of the movement . . . was never able to build effective commando structures and coordinated leadership” (118).
Following this, in part 3 (chapters 6-7 and 10), Østebø refutes the aforementioned scholarship on the Bale Insurgency, notably arguing that it was neither a peasant rebellion nor an ethno-nationalist movement. With regard to the first claim, Østebø demonstrates how the imperial nature of the Ethiopian state in Bale neither mirrored the physical violence of, nor the land-based violence associated with, other parts of the Ethiopian Empire (e.g., in the Muslim Tigray-dominated north). Similarly, he shows how the Bale Insurgency was not strictly an ethno-nationalist movement as not all Oromo were invested in the success of the Bale rebellion, only a particular fraction of them: the Arsi Oromo.
Finally, part 4 (chapters 8-9), offers a focused breakdown of the impact of religion, ethnicity, and their dialectical interplay in relation to the Bale Insurgency, situating the rebellion within both the broader Amharization of the Ethiopian nation-state (and its construction) and wider Islamic resistance movements in the Horn of Africa.
While Østebø’s analysis rightly recognizes the “material underpinnings of ethnicity and religion” as important factors for understanding “embodied relations and emplaced realities” (317), and while he further seeks to fairly balance the often-bifurcated mind-body dualism within cultural and religious studies scholarship through a greater focus on the material, one might ask: To what degree was the historical production of Muslim Arsi Oromo peoplehood (upon which the insurgency was based) equally driven by changing ideological conceptions of what it meant to be a Muslim within the wider Islamic world? Interestingly, although Østebø contends that the primary ideological mover during the Bale Insurgency was secular pan-Arabism (as opposed to Salafism or Wahhabism, for instance), he leaves the qualifier of this phrase undefined and therefore monolithic. Are all secular pan-Arabic movements, then, to be understood as secular in a univocal way?
Despite this issue, Islam, Ethnicity, and Conflict in Ethiopia is nonetheless a highly informative book. It demonstrates both the importance of a multifaceted and materialist religious and ethnic analysis of conflict for the contemporary through the case study of the Bale Insurgency and provides a salient tool by which to examine the fluid nature of peoplehood and the sense of belonging that such an understanding is able to generate. Because of this, Østebø’s work is sure to provide an influential theoretical basis by which other like studies on religion, ethnicity, and conflict can be undertaken and performed.
Marcus Timothy Haworth is a graduate student in theology at the University of Notre Dame.
Marcus Timothy Haworth
Date Of Review:
March 20, 2024