Abiymania

Abiymania is the term recently coined to describe the personality cult that Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has cultivated to consolidate his power using the people of Ethiopia as a stepping stone.

To begin the conversation on Abiymania, it is important to compare the behaviors of some known cult leaders to Abiy’s actions to describe the personality cult observed herein. Below is a short video with information on famous cult leaders whose cults were covered in documentaries and docuseries so that you may understand the ideas presented here. Note that the speaker in the video is not the one writing this.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLoVHyuYVBY

There are different tactics Abiy has used to cultivate his personality cult. I will list them one by one. Keep in mind that the tactics I discuss are not an exhaustive list of the tactics Abiy has used to date.

To begin with, Abiy claims his political goal is to unify Ethiopians by erasing the politically permitted rights and freedoms of the many nationalities of Ethiopia, uniting them under one banner. He aims to break down Ethiopia’s many nations by removing their sense of self, individuality, and autonomy. This “unifying” project”  makes it easier for Abiy, and any other person who succeeds him under Abiy’s political structure, to better guide all Ethiopians on how to think, rationalize, act, understand, and even feel. This reach and hold on the Ethiopian population that the federal government has far exceeds the norm. To make matters worse, much like autocratic regimes around the world, Abiy wants to create an Ethiopian social media platform to further lead the people of Ethiopia towards a single narrative, one that is favorable to him. When the people give in to this idea, they do not see it as having given up everything for the cult leader. Instead, they believe the message proliferated by the cult and its leader.

Another hallmark of cults is the active cultivation of hatred towards any “other”. By any other, I mean anyone or any group that either does not agree with or even holds a neutral position towards the cult leader. In essence, this serves the purpose of keeping all cult members attached to the cult leader and away from those seeking to deprogram them (deprogram means removing the programming put in place by the cult leader). In the case of Abiy, there is a very clear inside and outside group. The inside group is anyone in league with Abiy and the outside group is anyone that does not support Abiy, with a particular emphasis on the people of Tigray, who Abiy sees as the largest threat to his hold on the Ethiopian people. Both sides have been very open about their disdain of the other side, but the group defending Abiy has particularly acted like they are a part of a cult in their reactions towards any criticism with regards to their beliefs, which by the way, is being perpetrated by the cult leader. Intensely indoctrinated people have accepted Abiy’s narrative of what is happening in Ethiopia and are satisfied even when Abiy limits discussion and information regarding the recent civil war and genocide. For example, the Ethiopian regime in November 2021 issued an official statement that forbade unofficial dissemination of information on military maneuvers, war front updates, and results via any medium. This restriction reinforced the official government narrative, and there was little public criticism of the further silencing of the press.

What outsiders would think is unbelievable as to Abiy’s easily refutable claims about the genocidal war, those intensely indoctrinated take what Abiy says as reality; in fact, it is just another day for them. Even if some Ethiopians are not strict believers of Abiy, they get caught up in the rhythm of the cult and know that if they think or say otherwise, they will be ostracized and/or persecuted.

I would like to move on to a third hallmark of cult leaders. Cult leaders have to appeal to their audiences, and they do so by using different tactics, one of which is self-deprecation. Abiy is well known for the many photo ops he has participated in showcasing him as a blue-collar worker. His followers and some uninformed observers might see these photo ops as humanizing and him being a man of the people, but that is obviously not the case. His time spent coordinating and participating in photo ops and his manufactured image are at odds with the time and commitment required to be a Prime Minister. This suggests that Abiy’s self-deprecation is more about helping him grow as a cult leader, as other cult leaders have done before him. Like past cult leaders, he made himself appear extremely humble, self-deprecating, as a means of strengthening his position as a leader only to start making extreme demands down the line.

The similarities between Abiy’s actions and those of past cult leaders do not end here. Past cult leaders have used high profile people to sell their story and vision. This is known as Ethos, when the one selling an idea (or even a product) uses a high-profile individual to make the public trust the speaker. There is a misconception that high profile individuals cannot fall into a cult, but that is simply not true as is illustrated by the many high-profile individuals who have been indoctrinated in the past.

Cult leaders have often offered a panacea to sell their ideas, and have used a scapegoat to explain away anything that does not fit or make sense in their narrative or contradicts the listeners experience. This serves several purposes: the panacea works to keep the people subservient to the cult leader and his message, and the scapegoat works to explain away anything that does not make sense to listeners and to keep the listeners away from those seeking to deprogram them. In the case of Abiy and his followers, the panacea is Abiy’s version of national unity, and the scapegoats are the people of Tigray.

Within cults, social proof, or the feedback that the people rely on from those around them to understand what is real, what to do, and how to react, is engineered and controlled by the cult in addition to being proliferated by the cult and the people taken in by them. It is a false social proof, but it is very powerful. The restriction of information is one way that the cult leader helps engineer that false social proof: keep people away from or make people hate any information that is against the cult, and the group will only behave as the cult leader would want. Those around the people taken in by the cult will have their social proof be according to the cult and those around them will find their social proof to be in line with the cult leader.

Abiy has been angry at those who question him and has refused to promote an open dialogue to discuss his policies and actions. This is in line with other cult leaders in the past who avoided answering questions about their claims through various tactics such as evasion or anger. If Abiy or his group ask you to do anything either directly or indirectly, you have the responsibility and should have the right to question his request and message before doing anything.

Abiy’s supporters have made it clear that leaving Abiy is like turning your back on God. Two examples come to mind. One is how an Abune (a Father) once said that he preferred to be conquered by satan than to be conquered by the Junta (referring to Tigrayan fighters) because he believed that Tigray fighters were the real enemy and were worse than satan. The second example is of a militia recruiter who implied that Tigrayan fighters are sinners while Ethiopia is a country of many faithful that should not be conquered by the Junta, again referring to Tigrayan fighters. In short, many Abiy supporters believe or try to proliferate the idea that going against Abiy is the same as going against God. Abiy is not God, and it is natural for people to have different opinions on different matters; people should not feel guilty for going against something that tries to revoke their very selves. In adding the religious aspect, Abiy’s cult is trying to make it as hard as possible for people to remove themselves from the cult. In addition, it is trying to enforce its ideas by trying to convince people that they must commit to the cult without question. Never mind the lack of logic in trying to unify people through war in the name of love of country and God.

Finally, I want to discuss a method Abiy used to gather so many effective cult followers. When he first came to power, he tried to look like someone who could meet the needs of all the country’s nations and nationalities. This, in addition to the message of democracy, love, tolerance, and forgiveness he was spreading, left many people mesmerized. He decided to travel both nationally and internationally to gather more followers. In traveling around the country and world, he could discern how devoted his followers were. In addition, the technique allowed him to connect to his followers emotionally. When he finished his tour, enough people felt that he had connected to them deeply on a human and emotional level. Those who felt an emotional pull towards him as he toured around the world felt that they had all the proof they needed to follow him. That emotional pull will be their validation, and no horror could possibly take that feeling of bliss away from them. And unfortunately, horrors did happen.

People need to be educated on what a cult is. It does not have to be only about satan worship or overt abuse to be a cult. People do not even have to live together to form a cult. Cults prey on our humanity, our need to belong and to love each other, our capacity for cognitive dissonance, our love of patterns, as well as our devotion to the greater good. Abiy and other cult leaders have been adept at manipulating these basic human needs and emotions to their ends. Remember that there is no such thing as love through hate, and that love will always triumph in the end. It is vital to be wary of this new cult since it has produced many horrors, and it is still gathering strength. Even if you disagree with me, keep in mind the tactics used by cult leaders because knowing those tactics could one day save your life in this cult or another.

Disclaimer: All views expressed in this article, or other articles posted at Omna Tigray, do not represent the official position of Omna Tigray.