The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam Centered Emerging Ontological Security In Ethiopia Its Implication To The Negotiations Of The Dam

This study argues that narratives justifying the construction of, and the aggressive mobilization of resources for, the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) are leading to the construction of a new state identity centered on the GERD. It is further argued that this emerging identity has implications to ontological security, and adds limitations to the possibility of compromises expected in the GERD negotiations. These arguments are made based on qualitative method of study by which an exploratory design is adopted. Various narratives of elites are collected from both primary and secondary sources like magazines, newspapers, mainstream media reports, and interviews with the researcher. The negotiations center on the filling and operations of the Dam, which is a game changer given the country’s failure to significantly use the Nile’s water although it contributes more than 85% of the Nile’s annual flow. Egypt (and in more recent years Sudan) view this as reversal of what they consider to be their ‘historic rights’, and as such resisting any water storage and utilization in Ethiopia, among others, by framing it as a security threat. Conversely newly structured ways of narratives are been constructed by the Ethiopian elites after the announcement of the GERD. These narratives have anticipated an emotional attachment that could construct Ethiopian state identity on the GERD that led to the consideration of 'absence of GERD as an ontological insecurity to Ethiopia'. The GERD under the elite’s narratives is seen as a uniting means of all nation nationalities by which all have become together for a common good. Even though the GERD is not the sole provider of Ethiopian biographic continuity, it is emerging to be among the few widely accepted anchors Ethiopian ontological security. The GERD negotiations are affected by the identity construction around the GERD since the negotiation team members are also likely emotionally attached view to GERD and there is relatively lower latitude to compromise by the public.

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