A veteran Ethiopian politician’s discussion on nationalism was taken out of context

Earlier this month, popular Ethiopian politician Lencho Leta spoke to local media about his political journey. An edited video of his interview was shared with an overlay that said Lencho said his former political party rejected Ethiopian citizenship and continues to do so. However, this is misleading: in the interview, Lencho simply stated that there is no historical consensus on what constitutes nationalism in the multi-ethnic state of Ethiopia, but that there are signs that the situation is changing.

The post was published on Facebook on November 5, 2024, and has been shared more than 220 times.

It contains a TikTok video that is over six minutes long and shows Lencho being interviewed by a reporter outside.

“As OLF, we never wanted Ethiopian citizenship and we still don’t,” you are reading Amharic video subtitles.

Screenshot of the misleading post, taken on August 19, 2024

The video has been viewed over 16,500 times on TikTok (archived here).

Lencho was among the founding members of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), founded in 1973 and one of the oldest political organizations in Ethiopia (archived here). The OLF is a political organization fighting for the right to self-government of the Oromo people – the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia.

Lencho founded the Oromo Democratic Front (ODF) in 2013 after falling out with the OLF leadership (archived here). The ODF, which joined the ruling party of Oromia region in 2018, now wants to democratize what Lencho calls the “Ethiopian federation” rather than creating a separate Oromian republic.

“At that time [when the OLF was founded]we were deeply moved by what united Ethiopian nationalism. However, we have not agreed on what exactly constitutes Ethiopian nationality,” said Lencho at the beginning of the clip.

“We did not agree on the unity of Ethiopia or the nationality of Ethiopia. We did not derive our citizenship from Ethiopian citizenship. We were not part of it.”

He then talks about the Gojjam uprising, which happened in the late 1960s, and the Ethiopian feudal system (archived here).

At 3’40”, the reporter asks Lencho what motivated him and his colleagues to establish the OLF and whether their political goals have been achieved.

In response, he cites two “successes”, namely “the land reform policy implemented during the Derg regime and the multi-ethnic federalism established by the Ethiopian revolutionary government in 1991”.

Ethiopian nationality

There are conflicting views on Ethiopian nationality (here and here). For some, Ethiopian nationalism has helped create a united, independent nation regardless of ethnicity (documented here and here).

But opponents see it as a tool of manipulation where one ethnic group, the Amhara, historically imposed its identity on other Ethiopian tribes (held here).

Lencho has repeatedly called for a dialogue on Ethiopian citizenship to lead to equality among the country’s ethnic groups (saved here).

However, the clip does not show Lencho completely rejecting Ethiopian citizenship.

Edited video

AFP Fact Check used the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to perform a reverse image search of video keyframes.

The search led to a longer version of the video published on YouTube by Addis Maleda, a digital media organization on November 2, 2024 (archived here). The first video is over 27 minutes long.

In the first 25 minutes, Lencho discusses historical trends in Ethiopian politics since the 1960s in terms of governance and the rise of political movements, including the OLF and the Gojjam rebellion.

AFP Fact Check found that the TikTok clip contains sections of the original video.

From 22’40”, Lencho answers a journalist’s question about whether the OLF’s political goals have been achieved.

“Many goals have not been achieved. Only two important things have been achieved. The land reform policy that was implemented during the Derg regime and the various ethnic groups established by the interim government of Ethiopia in 1991,” he said.

“At that time we were very inspired by what united Ethiopian nationalism. However, we have not yet agreed on what exactly constitutes Ethiopian citizenship. We did not agree on the unity of Ethiopia or Ethiopian nationality. We did not derive our citizenship from Ethiopian citizenship. We were not part of it.”

The reporter asks Lencho: “What are your criteria for measuring that?”.

Lencho answers: “Ethiopian nationality did not include any aspects of our culture, language, and history. The values ​​of many nations have been ignored by Ethiopian nationalism, which promotes the isolation of one nation.”

“I believe that this is being corrected according to Ethiopian politics. Laws and policies of Ethiopia can help to improve the challenges of Ethiopian citizenship. “

Contrary to the claim, Lencho never mentions renouncing Ethiopian citizenship in the original video or Facebook clip.