New Book
Dessalegn's latest book has been published and is available from amazon
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Abstract
This volume brings together a number of studies on rural Ethiopia written by the author in recent years and offered as a contribution to the emerging debate on agrarian change in the country. The broad time frame for the work is the last half-century of modern Ethiopia, from the 1950s to the beginning of the 2000s, a period which coincides politically with the country's three regimes, namely the imperial regime of Haile Sellassie, which was replaced by a military-Stalinist junta known as the Derg, and the present regime which came to power after overthrowing the latter. However, the work is not meant to be a chronological or comparative one, rather it is a work focusing on selected topics which I believe are important both in their own right as well as in terms of the broader theme in question . Over this half century much has changed in the country but much also remains the same. Similarly, while the three political regimes differ radically in a number of significant respects, they also have many things in common, particularly in their relations to the peasantry, their quest for a strong presence in the countryside, and, in some respects, in their approach to development management.
Rural Ethiopia is immensely diverse, specially in terms of natural resources, farming practices and livelihood systems, but at the same time, peasants all over share many things in common. Quite apart from the commonalities imposed by poverty and its consequences, their response to new opportunities and to the hegemonic pressures for change and accommodation has by and large been similar. One can thus speak of the common aspects of the agrarian system and institutions without ignoring the geographical and human contrasts, or the need to employ what Jeffrey Sachs calls “differential diagnosis”.
The Book is also available at createspace
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Recent Works
The following paper was recently completed
CUSTOMS IN CONFLICT: Land Tenure Issues among Pastoralists in Ethiopia
Abstract
The paper presents a broad review of land tenure issues among pastoral communities in the country. It is argued that the key element of pastoralism is that it combines mobility with efficient use of scarce resources. Since the arid and semi-arid areas of the country where pastoral populations live receive insufficient rain during the year, mobility is important to make use of resources in different ecosystems during different seasons.
Ethiopian pastoralism and its customary institutions have come under severe pressure due to a host of inter-related factors, including frequent drought, rangelands deterioration, population growth, expropriation of grazing land by government and investors, the expansion of crop cultivation, and internal social differentiation in which some people within the pastoral communities are spontaneously turning to farming and enclosing the land. But a significant factor of the crisis within pastoral communities is the cycle of conflict and violence. These conflicts are described under several categories showing their deleterious effect on customary institutions.
In the conclusion, the paper raises some issues for debate with regard to whether or not there is a need for formal legislation to define rights of access to pastoral land and whether or not the existing system of mobile herd management needs to be critically re-examined. It suggests that the future of pastoralism may lie in intensive livestock production which may make mobility unnecessary and may help reduce the cycle of violent conflict.
Click here to read the paper [pdf]
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WHY WE NEED A NATIONAL AGENCY FOR LAND AFFAIRS
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