Value Conflict as the Root Cause of Displacement in Ethiopia: Appropriating Interculturality in the Study of Internal Displacement
Author : Fasil Merawi
Abstract :
Being induced by both natural and manmade, political, economic, cultural and a host of other factors, internal displacement emerged as a major humanitarian and developmental challenge in the Ethiopian context. In efforts to address the impact of internal displacement there is only a focus on rehabilitation and physical displacement, failing to analyze that value conflict and the failure to evolve a common narrative among cultures are the major causes for internal displacement. Such a scenario presents a platform for revisiting philosophical categories of ‘the same’ and ‘the Other’ which are causes for value conflicts among cultures. Throughout history cultures evolved conceptual schemes in order to delineate the place of one’s culture and alien cultures in the emblem of human existence. Here ‘the same’ refers to one’s own culture that is qualitatively and primordially refined, whereas ‘the other’ refers to what is ontologically excluded from the realm of human discourse and everyday relations. One crucial element that needs to be explored with regard to internal displacement is the prospect of intercultural dialogue among different cultures. Such a quest helps to identify analogous structural patterns that could promote dialogue among different cultures and also exposes ethnocentric and centric tendencies that inhibit intercultural communication and hence cause value conflicts.
Keywords :
Otherness, dialogue, interculturality
