Ethiopia

Ethiopia's ethnic federalism — a system designed to manage the country's 80+ ethnic groups — has instead weaponized ethnic identity, and the men caught in this system pay with their lives. The Tigray war produced atrocities — massacres, sexual violence, starvation — that created a generation of traumatized men in a country with essentially no mental health infrastructure. Amhara, Oromo, and Tigray men have each experienced violence from state forces and rival groups, creating a mutual victimhood that ethnic politics prevents from becoming mutual healing.

Khat, the stimulant plant chewed by millions of Ethiopian men daily, occupies a complex position in the masculine crisis. In the eastern Somali and Harari regions, khat sessions (chat) are male social rituals that facilitate business deals and community bonding. But chronic khat use is linked to psychosis, depression, and family breakdown, and the economic cost — men spending significant portions of their income on leaves — strains families to breaking point. The ancient Ethiopian Orthodox tradition provides moral framework but not psychological support: men confess to priests who prescribe prayer and fasting rather than therapy, and the concept of mental illness as a treatable condition rather than a spiritual affliction has barely penetrated most communities.