Gebru Mersha and Mwangi Wa Githinji, Untying the Gordian Knot: The question of land reform in Ethiopia (Policy Paper 9, International Institute for Social Studies/United Nations Development Programme, The Hague, 2005), p. 8. If your style isn't in the list, you can start a free trial to access over 20 additional styles from the Perlego eReader. This is, perhaps, surprising given the clear implications of federalism for territory and citizenship. The implications have been massive internal displacements, the proliferation of ethnicity in every aspect of life, further disintegration due to the emergence of new ethnic groups, increasing rivalry between regional states, ethnic voting, and polarised cities. In doing so, the article links to important recent debates on land tenure in Africa. In March 2020, the Ministry of Health confirmed the first COVID-19 case in Ethiopia. 55786; Catherine Boone, Property and political order in Africa: Land rights and the structure of conflict (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2014). In the majority of sub-Saharan Africa, the dominant form of land tenure remains neo-customary, whereas in Ethiopia state ownership predominates. The Unfolding Conflict in Ethiopia - CRS Reports 55077; Tom Lavers, Land registration and gender equality in Ethiopia: How state-society relations influence the enforcement of institutional change, Journal of Agrarian Change 17, 1 (2017), pp. As such, policy implementation is not simply the impartial application of formal rules and laws by bureaucrats, but rather a negotiated process that may vary from the intentions of higher levels of government. However, an important flashpoint for the protests and a significant grievance concerned questions of land and territory under ethnic federalism, both in terms of the delineation of ethno-regional borders and the relative prioritization of land access for the indigenous population and outside investors. Although Ethiopia is not new to ethnic-based conflicts, their scale and intensity in the WebManagement of ethnic conflict in Ethiopia: The case of Amhara and Oromo ethnic groups Journal of Law and Conflict Resolution Authors: Zewiddu Teshome Moges Discover the (PDF) Management of ethnic conflict in Ethiopia: The case of Record 1e, Letter from the evicted farmers to Walta Information Centre, 14 October 2002; Record 1 f, Letter from the evicted farmers to the House of Peoples Representatives, 10 October 2002. Over the last decade, the pace of development and social change has quickened in all kinds of sectors and has strongly impacted all Ethiopian societies, including those in the peripheries who used to be overseen by means of military control without much concern on the part of the government for their economic integration. This ambiguity is partly due to the continuing influence of neo-customary tenure regimes, which in many places were not actually wiped out by state ownership, and, arguably, have become increasingly influential in recent years.6 However, ambiguity also results from the territorial implications of ethnic federalism introduced in the 1990s. Ethnic Conflict in Ethiopia Interview, respondents OR2; TK2, male Oromo elder and kebele vice-chairman, Turufe Kechema, 13 January 2010; TF5, female Oromo resident and head of kebele womens affairs, Turufe Kechema, 27 January 2010. Ethiopias Somali Regional State (SRS) is no exception to this trend. 5. In the meantime, Oromiya began land registration in 2005, including in Turufe. They burned the houses of the Kembata and stole from them.66, They were saying that the land belongs to us, that you are alien to the area and that there is a shortage of land The local [Oromo] families had land but the Oromo children had none. In doing so, the wereda significantly strengthened the occupiers position, providing legal documents to support their claims and, in all likelihood, extinguishing any hopes of return for the Kembata. Interview, respondents TM21; TM21, male Tigrayan resident, Turufe Kechema, 17 January 2010. Meanwhile ethnic groups and Boone, Property and constitutional order; Boone, Property and political order in Africa; Kyed and Buur, New sites of citizenship. When the TPLFs ambitions grew from liberating Tigray to seizing national power, the TPLF formed the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of ethno-nationalist parties to represent Ethiopias different ethnic groups, of which the TPLF was the leading member. Instead, ideas are likely to be adapted through processes of bricolagecombining one idea with othersor translationthe adaptation of an idea when taken from one context to another.15 As such, ideas that help shape land tenure institutions at one point in time may continue to have a life of their own within public and political debate, independent from the institutions that they helped to shape. The International Organization for 12 Ethnic Federalism: A Means for Managing or a Triggering Factor for Ethnic Conflicts in Ethiopia. While the rationale for relocating the Kembata to SNNPR is not stated, the most likely explanation would appear to be the ideas underpinning ethnic federalism, namely that the Kembata belong first and foremost to that region and having been displaced from Turufe, the logical step is for them to return to their home region. Drivers of ethnic conflict in contemporary Ethiopia - Amazon Unfortunately, it has not yet been possible to conduct additional fieldwork. Web(PDF) Ethnic conflict in Ethiopia: Federalism as a cause and solution Ethnic conflict in Ethiopia: Federalism as a cause and solution DOI: 10.46652/rgn.v6i30.832 CC BY-NC-ND The proposals to relocate the Kembata to SNNPR also serve to illustrate some of the inherent tensions within the federal project. In most cases, they have ethnic overtones or involve ethnic groups. WebCitation styles for Inter-Ethnic Conflict in Ethiopia: The Case of Alle and Konso How to cite Inter-Ethnic Conflict in Ethiopia: The Case of Alle and Konso for your reference list or bibliography: select your referencing style from the list below and hit 'copy' to generate a citation. While the distinctions between these ideals are clear in principle, the reality of actual land tenure institutions is rather more ambiguous. Adding to the continuing tensions is the TPLF demand to regain parts of Western Tigray, which the Amharans currently hold and claim as their ancestral homeland. The picture is further complicated by Oromiya regional government attempts to re-establish the Gadaa institution. Conflict In effect, federalism implies that individuals are first and foremost citizens of ethnic regions, rather than of Ethiopia. 6775. See Boone, Property and political order in Africa, p. 38. ONRG, Oromia National Regional Government (ONRG) Proclamation to amend the proclamation nos. From a legal perspective, the 1975 nationalization eradicated any other form of tenure. For example, the Oromiya land proclamation states that any resident of the region has the right to land.32 Furthermore, when asked about the potential for ethnicity to influence land administration, the head of the federal Land Use Administration denied that there could be any ethnic differentiation in land rights: ethnicity should not influence policy, farmers are farmers.33 The only instance in which land administration explicitly distinguished between ethnic groups was the governments resettlement programme that relocated food insecure farmers from densely populated highlands to more sparsely populated lowlands, primarily in the west and south. The move comes after three days of violence in the town of Clearly then, the conflict cannot be solely attributed to ethnic federalism. Representatives of the displaced ethnic minority also provided extensive documentation relating to the appeals that they made to government officials and the governments attempts to resolve the dispute. Although almost exclusively I use the term neo-customary rather than customary in acknowledgement that customary tenure systems are the product of inherited traditions adapted by state and societal actors. Second, a territorial jurisdiction that is subject to the land tenure regime. Land tenure regimes are not just means of distributing resources but key mechanisms by which states relate to their societies and project authority into rural areas. Lavers, Agricultural investment in Ethiopia. While the EPRDF promoted and designed the federal system, its support for federalism has long been ambiguous and the government has resisted its full implementation. Record 3a, Letter from the Oromiya Bureau of Agriculture and Rural Development to the Oromiya Rural Land Administration Authority, date illegible. Interview, respondent TM17, male Kembata displaced from Turufe, Shashemene, 29 January 2010. Rapid population growth has meant diminishing landholdings, while critics argued that agricultural productivity was impeded by tenure insecurity.22 The governments response was to conduct land registration to enhance tenure security and investment incentives and prevent the sub-division of landholdings into unviable plots.23 In doing so, land policy has moved a step away from past universalistic principles; there are now very large numbers of landless people in rural areas who reached adulthood after the last land redistribution and have little hope of accessing land.24 Nonetheless, the idea of universal land access remains a key part of the debate. This article focuses specifically on this question of the land rights of non-indigenous minorities. The case study presented in this section is used to illustrate the relevance of these ideas and institutions for land administration and to highlight the ambiguous state responses to one particular land conflict. Background: Population Mobility and Internal Displacement in Ethiopia. After political reforms in 2018 in Ethiopia, persistent Source: author, based on categories developed in Boone, Property and political order in Africa. There is a direct contradiction between the universalistic principles of the land policy, which accords all Ethiopian farmers equal land rights, and the territorial implications of ethnic federalism that suggest lesser rights for non-indigenous ethnic minorities. While this proposal failed to respect the displaced populations rights to their previous land, it was broadly in line with the principles of the land policy, namely that the Kembataan ethnic minority residing in Oromiyahad the right to replacement land in that region. Interview, respondents TK5; TM4, male Oromo resident, Turufe Kechema, 28 January 2010. However, a few Tigrayan farmers also obtained land by paying Oromo who had seized land.59 A few evicted Kembata moved to Kembata zone, in SNNPR, though most settled on the outskirts of Shashemene. -----19 2.4.1 The contested Amhara ethnicity -----20 2.6 The National Question and Ethnic Policy in Ethiopia: Nevertheless, several respondents from different ethnic groups argued that ethno-nationalist ideas promoted by both the EPRDF and the OLF polarized the community, contributing to an expectation that ethnic groups should return to their own ethnic regions: Federalism exacerbated the problem. Around 202,202 IDPs were displaced in October 2019 due to several flood incidences in Afar, Oromia, SNNPR and Somali regions. Asnake Kefale, Federal restructuring in Ethiopia: Renegotiating identity and borders along the OromoSomali ethnic frontiers, Development and Change 41, 4 (2010), pp. How to cite Inter-Ethnic Conflict in Ethiopia: The Case of Alle and Konso for your reference list or bibliography: select your referencing style from the list below and hit 'copy' to generate a citation. Old tensions such as the contestation of the Oromia-Somali regional border which first flared up in 2017 continue to persist, while new conflicts have also emerged. 6582, 69. While highly influential, state ownership is not the only body of law with implications for land administration. Though part of the same linguistic family, the Kembata nevertheless have a distinct ethnic identity to the Sidama, while they have no linguistic or other ties with the Bench, the dominant ethnic group in Bench-Maji. So they devised a plan to get the land for their children.67. Management of ethnic conflict in Ethiopia: The case of Amhara While the land policy might be clear about the rights of non-indigenous ethnic minorities, the states response to the eviction of the Kembata is ambiguous, to say the least, and appears to draw on a more extreme interpretation of ethnic federalism, in addition to the land policy. Since arriving in the country, the desert locusts have bred and produced millions of hoppers, placing additional strain on food security and livelihoods. Agricultural production is dominated by smallholder farmers, most of whom hold approximately 0.53 hectares of land.48 Turufe is part of the territory claimed by the Weyrera clan from the Arssi Oromo ethnic group. This case study demonstrates the continuing relevance of these three ideas and laws in land debates in Ethiopia, the use of these ideas by protagonists as means of justifying land claims, and the ambiguous state response to the conflict, which appears to go well beyond the provisions of the land policy. Your comment will be reviewed and published at the journal's discretion. Liz Alden Wily, The law is to blame: The vulnerable status of common property rights in Sub-Saharan Africa, Development and Change 42, 3 (2011), pp. When there is a transfer of power, if there is instability there may be a window of opportunity. While there is some truth in this, the protests generated such unprecedented support as a result of a confluence of a wider range of issues, including fragmentation within the ruling party, frustration at the absence of democracy, the perceived domination of the TPLF within the EPRDF and the lack of popular legitimacy and corruption in the EPRDF.96 Clearly, given the focus of protests on the Addis Ababa Masterplan and the status of Wolkayit wereda, the territorial implications of ethnic federalism are also among the central grievances. We advocate for effective and principled humanitarian action by all, for all. Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. Meanwhile, some of the first non-Oromo arrived during the Imperial conquest in the late nineteenth century. These elders are given training on government policy and issued with identity cards.44 Only if one party to a dispute is dissatisfied with the outcome does a case proceed to the courts or higher levels of government administration for adjudication. Africa Confidential, Oromia erupts, Africa Confidential, 18 March 2016,