Paper short abstract:

In life trajectories and stories collected in Shashemene, Ethiopia, in 2008-09 past experiences of violence among middle aged persons appear to be subdued by processes caused by long lasting personal and structural relations. The context is the revolution of 1974, and subsequent violent periods.

Paper long abstract:

In 1973 I gathered data on the social and demographic structure of Shashemene town in southern Ethiopia. The revolution that overturned the regime of Haile Selassie began a year later. In 2008, 35 years later, I was able to return to Shashemene to gather data on the importance of the revolution and subsequent events on the life courses of men and women in the town.

The approach was two-dimensional: 1) to collect chronological data on life events, such as movement, livelihoods, couple formation and dissolution, and reproduction, from 1973 to 2008 (650 in all), and 2) to record life stories evoked by the simple question "tell us about your life" to a limited number of persons who had lived through the 1973-2008 period. In addition I gathered demographic data to make it possible to assess structural changes to Shashemene. The rationale behind the research design was to avoid foregrounding violent processes that might not be that prominent in a "spontaneous" story.

What I found was that early events, such as the revolution in 1974, were suppressed in relation to more recent events, such as the fall of the military regime in 1991. Further, that when middle aged persons were asked to talk about their lives, or tell about reasons for events, past experiences of violence were subdued by processes caused by long lasting personal and structural relations. There was furthermore a distinct class aspect in what was told.