POLITICAL RELIGION IN TIGRAY When Politics Takes on Sacred Form: A Comprehensive Analysis Tracing the Sacralization of Political Identity from the Birth of TPLF to Contemporary Conflicts

In this paper, I will try to explore and examine the concept of political religion in Tigray, Ethiopia, from the birth of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) in 1975 up to the bitter wars in 2020-2022. Guided by the concept of political religion as interpreted and defined by Voegelin, Gentile, and other prominent theorists, among many others, I will explore and examine how the TPLF, which began as a revolutionary political movement based on a Marxist-Leninist ideology, came to be a political entity whose ideology, symbols, culture, and relationship with members and the people of Tigray, in general, came to resemble a religious form. On this I have identified five main manifestations of political religion in Tigray: the tendency to consider party documents, flag, anthem and Emblem as sacred beyond criticism, the development of a culture of martyrdom whereby political sacrifice is granted religious significance, the tendency to sanctify leaders to the point of considering them moral authorities, the development of a clear moral binary whereby the enemy is viewed as evil, and the tendency to consider doubts and criticisms as acts of betrayal or sin. These are discussed in detail. I will also look at the psychological factors by which political religion has been able to take root in Tigray. Some of the factors include identity fusion, transmission of collective trauma, and cognitive dissonance reduction. In using the period from 2020 to 2026, I will look at how political religion has continued to affect political actions and hinder democratic culture in Tigray by looking at the Tigray war, factionalism in TPLF, the Western Tigray and Raya territory controversy, and the relationship with Eritrea.