Contributions of Youth Centers to the Development of Young People in Ethiopia

There has been a global paradigm shift in conceptualizing how best young persons can be assisted from a conventional deficit-based approach of targeting youth to a more enabling approach of promoting their strengths and competencies. Establishment of youth centers was one such global initiative meant to catalyze positive youth development through supervised and youth-friendly services. In recognition of this, several youth centers have been established in Ethiopia in the last few decades. This research was thus conducted to examine contributions of these centers to the development of young people. Data were collected through questionnaire from a sample of 2,165 participants (service providers and service users) and observation of 94 youth centers drawn from all regions of the country. Findings indicated that the contributions of youth centers were generally minimal in terms of promoting overall positive youth development. Some evidence even showed that youth centers could serve as a platform for acquiring undesirable behaviors among the youth mainly because supervisory and follow up services were not evident. While expanding establishment of youth centers is indeed commendable to ensure access to the greater majority of youth, the need to improve service quality, however, is a priority concern for the relevant actors.

Pastoral Conflict, Emerging Trends and Environmental Stress in Nyangatom, Southern Ethiopia

This study examined the dynamics of conflict, emerging trends and relationship between inter-pastoral conflicts and environmental changes in Nyangatom, Southern Ethiopia. The study employed a qualitative approach and exploratory case study research design. The study revealed that inter-pastoral conflicts stem from multiple and compounding dynamics. The environmental change has escalated intense inter-pastoralists’ contestation and conflicts, including cross-border conflict, on the scarce and fast-depleting natural resources. Indeed, there is a causal link between inter-pastoral conflicts and environmental changes. In this regard, the environmental factor has uniquely affected the Nyangatom due to the drying of Kibish River and rapid invasion of Prosopis–Juliflora in their key grazing lands. In response to environmental stresses as part of the traditional copying mechanism, the Nyangatom cross border deep into South-Sudan to their ethnic kin of Toposa and into Kenya that usually causes frequent cross-border conflicts with Turkana pastoralists. Irrespective of discernible risk of conflicts, they used to migrate to Mursi and Surma territories that caused conflict. And yet, the Nyangatom has often engaged in frequent conflicts with Dasanach. The study suggests alternative livelihood options and an understanding of the complex conflict dynamics in view of the cause-effect relationships for future management of inter-pastoral and cross-border conflicts in the region.

Patriarchy in Buchi Emecheta’s The Slave Girl and Bessie Head’s A Question of Power: A Gynocentric Approach

African literature has been dominated by male African writers. However, there are a number of female African writers who contributed to the literary landscape of the continent significantly. In line with this, researches that deal with issues of gender in African literature are increasing (Fonchingong, 2006; Salami-Boukari, 2012; Stratton, 1994). In this study, I aim to expose patriarchal oppression in two selected post-colonial African novels. I ask “How do postcolonial African female writers expose gender oppression and patriarchy in their novels?” I ask how the female characters in the selected novels resist patriarchal dominance and oppression. I seek to uncover any thematic patterns and/or overlaps that would emerge across the selected novels. To achieve this, I analyze two feminist Anglophone African novels by female writers of the continent, namely ‘The Slave Girl’ and ‘A Question of Power’. Gynocentrism is used as an approach to achieve this purpose. The analyses of the novels make it feel that patriarchy is used as a tool to stabilize the discrimination of the feminine gender. The heroines in both novels are found to be patriarchal women with some attempt to reverse the gender order. The major female characters in the novels stand against the intersectional discrimination of the feminine from the male personhood, religion, as well as colonial culture. These discussions about patriarchy revive the vitality of African feminist novels to the present readers.

Contingency, Absurdity and Human Conflict in Sartre’s Philosophy

This article is centered on two of Sartre’s literary works: “Nausea” and “No Exit” along with his dialectical theory of the ‘Look’ in Being and Nothingness. I believe that these three texts represent not three distinct perspectives but rather different sets of approach to the same problem i.e. the phenomenon of human relationship. It is with this point in mind that I develop the following interrelated claims. First, even though Sartre intended to bring a new language and mode of articulation in his later works, the fundamental features of his philosophy remained the same. Thus, issues that are foundational to his early writing including the self/other relationship, the for-itself as project, the contingent reality of the world, the resistance of the in-itself/ materiality all figure high in his later writings as well. Second, as opposed to any social philosophy which accepts the possibility of a harmonious relation between human beings Sartre perceived the essence of human relations not as mitesein (‘being-with’), but rather as conflict. I submit that the source of Sartre’s problem lies in his very model of social relations given that his social ontology does not allow him to incorporate what Maurice Marleau-Ponty calls the "inter-world". This paper is also informed with the belief that although Sartre the intellectual and the creative artist are closely joined together, essentially, the novelist is much more assuring than the philosopher. Thus, even when he is not writing a literary composition proper he displays a unique talent of putting his philosophical ideas in artistic and dramatic terms. I use Sartre’s phenomenological description of the dialectic of the "look" (Le Regard) to demonstrate this point. The final section of the paper is devoted to a critical examination of Sartre’s philosophical positions developed in the works discussed above.

The Link between Leadership Style, Organizational Change Perceptions and Job Satisfaction at the Ethiopian Electric Utility

This study explored the relationship between leadership style, employees’ change perception, and job satisfaction at the Ethiopian Electric Utility. A correlation research design was used to conduct the study. The sample was composed of 40 leaders and 270 employees selected using proportionate stratified random sampling. Data were gathered using three standardized questionnaires merged into one and analyzed using both descriptive statistics such as mean, SD, and inferential statistics like Pearson product-moment correlation, an independent t-test, and MANOVA. Finally, the findings unveiled significant and positive correlations between transformational leadership style and organizational change perceptions and between transactional leadership style and intrinsic and extrinsic job satisfaction. There was also a negative correlation between organizational change and employees’ job satisfaction. Furthermore, the transformational leadership style has emerged as the strongest predictor of employees’ change perception. It was concluded that leaders at the organization ought to improve their leadership style to improve the existing employees’ perception of change and their job satisfaction. Additional policy implications are also forwarded in the study.

Predictors of Irregular International Migration among Youth in Jimma Zone, South West Ethiopia

This article deals with irregular international migration among the youth in south-west Ethiopia, which is one of the major issues that grabbed the attention of the international community in recent years. The article draws on a study which aimed at determining major predictors of irregular migration intention among youth in Jimma Zone, Southwest Ethiopia. Irregular migration and human trafficking are serious challenges that people face in Ethiopia in general and in Jimma Zone in particular. Concurrent cross-sectional mixed method study design was deployed, and a total of 347 respondents participated in a quantitative survey and 33 and 6 took part in five Focus Group Discussions and in-depth interviews respectively. The study was conducted in three selected woredas/districts of Jimma Zone between March and April 2018. Variables such as age, political unrest, unreliable information from social media, social networks, the desire for life enhancement, and readiness for taking risk are found to be good predictors or reasons of irregular migration. Age has strong negative correlation (r=-0.73) with irregular migration intention. Personal readiness has very strong (r=0.96) and positive correlation with irregular migration intention. In conclusion, youth in particular and community in general in Jimma Zone favor irregular migration to home situation and prefer to try out other life as livelihood strategy.

Towards the Mid-Late Holocene Environment of Mochena Borago Rock Shelter, Wolayta, South Ethiopia

With the objective of understanding the mid-late Holocene subsistence pattern and the local ecology, archaeobotanical investigation was conducted on soil samples collected from 29 contexts from the rock shelter site of Mochena Borago. The samples were collected by the French Archaeological Mission in 2000 and 2001 field seasons. Flotation was carried out using bucket and 2.0 mm mesh size sieve. Recovered botanical remains were classified based on size and grain morphology. Seed analysis was conducted at 5-20x magnification. A total of 112 seeds and fruit stones were identified which include 55 Sapindaceae cf. Deinbollia type (dune soap-berry), 33 Myrtaceae cf. Syzigium guineense type (sometimes called waterberry), 9 Plectranthus edulis (Wolayta dinich/potato), 7 Euphorbiaceae Croton sp. (rushfoil), 2 Cordia cf. africana (wanza in Amharic), 1 Ebenaceae cf. Diospyros (commonly known as ebony trees), 1 Olea europea ssp. africana (Olive Oil). Plectranthus edulis is an indigenous crop for the study area and Cordia cf. africana and Olea europea ssp. africana are reported for the first time in archaeological context of the whole region of Ethiopia. The study provided data on the ancient economy and ecology of the site in a region where archaeobotanical research is limited.

Human Rights and Human Dignity: A Case Against Separating the Conjoined Twins

Doris Schroeder asserts that the received view according to which human rights are derived from the inherent dignity of the human person must be rejected. She appeals to separate these conjoined twins (human dignity and human rights) by offering three knockdown arguments respectively captioned as “the justification paradox”, “Kantian cul-de-sac” and “hazard by association”. This paper submits a case for preserving the conjoined twins, both by refuting Schroeder’s arguments and at the same time proposing a positive appraisal of human dignity as foundational to human rights. The distributive account of a foundation, on which Schroeder’s arguments are premised, requires that a normative foundation must underpin every single human rights claim. Human rights claims, as diverse as they are, admit plurality of normative foundations (understood in the distributive sense) and human dignity directly underpins only a subset of the most basic human rights. There is another sense in which human dignity can be conceived as foundational to human rights, precisely as the general moral standing of human beings as holders of the bundle of moral human rights. Foundation as moral standing is consistent with the view that not every human rights-claim has its normative foundation in human dignity; thus, Schroeder is mistaken in thinking that failing to be a foundation in the distributive sense defeats the accepted view that human rights derive from human dignity.

International Kinship Care Arrangement: Ethiopian Children Applying for Australian Orphan Relative Visa

The study is about international kinship care arrangements in Ethiopia, focusing on Ethiopian children who applied for an Australian Orphan Relative Visa. A qualitative case study research method was used. Study participants were nine children between the ages of 13-17 years and nine parents/guardians of those children. Other participants were five experts from the Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs, and Federal First Instance Court. In-depth interviews were conducted using semi-structured interview guides. Additional data were also derived from observations and document reviews. Thematic data analysis was used. Data from all sources were triangulated and categorized under the themes that emerged from the data. This study identified two categories of children: those who cannot get proper care either due to the loss of parents or due to incapacity of parents to take care of them, and those children who use international kinship arrangement as a mechanism to access a better life in Australia. Children expressed their expectations to get a better education, employment, material benefits, and living conditions after placement abroad. They also expressed concerns about how well relatives abroad will treat them. The findings further revealed that the Ministry of Women, Children, and Youth Affairs was not appropriately documenting pre-placement and post-placement information. Since international kinship care is different from international adoption in its nature, there was a lack of clarity on the legal protection that should be given to children, which puts them in a precarious socio-legal situation. This study can be used as a starting point to understand and consider international kinship care arrangements as one important alternative child care option.

The Economics of Khat Trade and its Dynamic Institutions: The Ethiopian Context since the 1980s

Studies about khat have shown a remarkable progress in recent times, both in terms of quality and quantity. However, their focus to a large extent is on the chemistry and pharmacology of the plant; and more so on its impact on the consumers’ health. The trading systems, the logic of the khat markets, the networks and the structures that kept the khat industry vibrant skipped the attention of researches. This study deals with the institutional evolution, performance and constraints of those institutions and structures governing khat trade in Ethiopia since the 1980s. A qualitative research method has been employed in this study. Yet, due to the complexity of the subject under study, I have to operate eclectically in my choice of data gathering instruments and analysis. Eclectically, in this context, refers to the application of divergent but complimentary methods of gathering, analysis and interpretation of data. Oral data for this study have been garnered primarily through key informant interviews and Focus Group Discussions (FGD).Oral data required for this study have been collected for over four years shuttling to both study sites in the east and southern Ethiopia on various field trips. Relevant secondary literatures dealing with khat have also been consulted. Findings from this research helped to document the evolution of some key features in the way the khat business is being run and the various work processes that consistently animated the trade. Attempts have also been made to shade some light on the institutional evolution of the trading system and the role of the state in khat trade in Ethiopia. I argue in this paper that decentralization and autonomy are the hallmarks of the prominent khat trading systems in Ethiopia.