A Critical Discourse Analysis of Narratives on the beginning of the ‘Tigray ’ war

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to analyze the narratives on the beginning of the "Tigray" war, or the northern Ethiopian war. The paper argues that there are always two sides to every story, and those about the beginning of the Tigray war were no exception. To that end, the purpose of this article is to unpack the various narratives surrounding the start of the Tigray war and to reveal the ideologies hidden behind these narratives. The article employed a qualitative critical discourse and narrative analysis, and the data were collected from several media outlets. The information includes news stories, interviews, future stories, expert analysis, documentaries, and official briefings from both sides of the conflict. The findings show that the TPLF and the federal government used competing narratives regarding the beginning of the war. Mainly, there are two dominant narratives: the first bullet view and the buildup view. Both reports were loaded with propaganda and framed in a "them-and-us" manner. Thus, both parties accuse each other of starting the war and causing devastating destruction.