The books complement each other. Theory meets activism. The fear of belittlement of what seems to be normal, ethnic representation relates Hameso s argument in support of positive ethnicity to its Ethiopian other , the imperial central State. The issue was national liberation . As a catchword, African socialism is obviously out.
National liberation is associated with an older generation of activists.
To give guidance and sense to a politics that is going on anyhow in Ethiopia, ethnicity might indeed become a functional tool for a new generation of activists. However, the approach towards positive ethnicity includes an aggrandising element in its own right that reflects likewise the Ethiopian situation. This time from a subaltern perspective. The author puts ethnic merit on a scale that was hitherto completely outweighed by the cultural capital of empire . And any attempt to overcome this imbalance be it as peaceful as one can imagine is either skilfully or brutally counterweighted.