Engagement” and Authorial Voice in Egypt’s, Sudan’s and Ethiopia’s Speeches at the Security Council on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in July 2021 – A Contrastive Study

The study aimed at investigating and contrasting the rhetorical styles of Mr. Sameh Shokry, Egypt’s Foreign Minister; Mrs. Mariam Al Mahadi, Sudan’s Foreign Minister and Mr. Seleshi Bekele, Ethiopia’s Minister of Water, Irrigation and Energy in their speeches at the Security Council in July 2021 on the contentious issue of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). It examined how the three politicians project their authorial voices, establish solidarity with the audience and engage with it and with the propositions advanced in their speeches. In this respect, the study conducted a contrastive qualitative and quantitative analysis of the three politicians’ speeches using Martin and White's (2005) Engagement sub-system proposed in their Appraisal System to highlight the functional impact of the Engagement lexico-grammatical resources in the speeches. The study concluded primarily that the three politicians depend on monoglossic resources to assert their authorial voices, what renders the speeches “undialogized.” Additionally, Sudan’s and Ethiopia’s speeches are rhetorically more forceful than Egypt’s speech, what refutes the underlying presumption in the study. Moreover, while Egypt’s Foreign Minister attempts to attract new supporters through his pattern of usage of the Engagement resources, Sudan’s and Ethiopia’s ministers depend on sharing undeniable facts and background information with the audience to foster solidarity with their supporters who already agree with them. Practically, the findings of the study offered insights to students at politics schools to develop their negotiation and persuasive skills.