85
New Generations, Old Challenges: Questioning Grassroots Development in the Horn of Africa
JOURNAL OF YOUTH RESEARCHES
Introduction
Home of the Nile Basin, the Great Rift Valley and the Red Sea, the HOA can be considered
as one of the most strategic corners in the world. The region owns one of the youngest
population; 65% of Ethiopia’s population ages below twenty-five (CIA World Factbook,
2012). The HOA is also asserted as the cradle of humankind and provocation of human
civilization, as proved by prevailing historical and cultural indicators like the Lucy. For
Gebrehiwot (2017), Ethiopia remains the undisputed origin of mankind. In addition to its
historical identity as the first adopter of Islam and Christianity outside the Middle East,
Ethiopia has also been identified as a symbol of anti-colonial resistance with a long-last-
ing impact on independence movements across Africa, Central America and beyond (Ge-
brekidan, 2018). The region is also known for medium and long-distance athletics.
On the other hand, HOA has been struggling with a range of challenges; instabilities, dis-
asters and slow development. The region has been subject to various conflicts triggered
inside, either from Ethiopian, Somalian or Eritrean side. In Ethiopia, post 1950’s marked
high level tensions relating to history and identity. The narratives of Greater Ethiopia,
Eritrean independence, the Tigran struggle and the Oromo struggle have been among
the prominent affairs in Ethiopian politics (Sorenson, 1992). The alleged ambitious for a
Greater Somalia, ethnic conflicts, and the issue of Al-Shabab have been prominent mat-
ters of dispute across Somalia. The region is also one of the most frequently famine-hit
regions.
Due mainly to the aforesaid natural and sociopolitical reasons, development in general
and rural development in particular has challenged the region. Indeed, there have been
tangible changes particularly accelerated by the global MDGs; however, development
claims have frequently been criticized for being dominantly economic and commonly
exaggerated by highly administrative and statistical narratives. To the most part, national
development reports are generally characterized by quantitative descriptions, unconvinc-
ing measurements and approximations as typical to positivist account of development
(Servaes, 2007 & 2002; Moemeka, 1994).
In this sense, both the changes in the lives of the people and the way of studying de-
velopment can be questioned. Postmodernists challenge scientific legitimacy of knowl-
edge deduced through positivist approaches (Keat & Urry, 1975; Asgedom, 2007). They
question positivist and modernist views for limiting the scope of scientific truth, and the
process of scientific knowledge production, through random selections, probabilities,
possibilities, and representation, and theory verification. In view of that, the methodolog-
ical view that ‘the majority is true’ has become an old-fashioned interpretation after all.
A positivist account of development, as mostly associated with a modernization para-
digm, disregards the human or social account of development. In this view, the indicator
is a measure of well-being, and development is exclusively based on material wealth. In
developing countries, improvements in welfare such as better health care, education and
housing for the poor have not been tolerably emphasized (Dang & Sui Pheng, 2015: 12).
