Glossary
- Aba Gadaa
– the political leader of the gadaa;
- Awraja
– an administrative unit in the Imperial era, roughly equivalent to a county;
- Bao-jia
– a system of local organisation and control in Imperial China and Taiwan;
- Birr
– the Ethiopian currency;
- Chat
– known as khat in Arabic, a mild stimulant and a major cash crop in Ethiopia;
- Chika shum
– a village headman who acted as intermediary between the landlord and peasants;
- Derg
– literally a committee (Amharic), the name given to the committee of junior military officers that overthrew Haile Selassie in 1974;
- Gadaa
– the customary age-grade system of social and political organisation in Oromo society;
- Garee
– development team (Afaan Oromo);
- Gebbar
– a tribute-paying peasant;
- Gim Gema
– a system of evaluation used by the TPLF and then extended to the civil service;
- Gott
– a sub-kebele administrative unit;
- Gult
– non-hereditary land held as a fief;
- Kebele
– a sub-wereda administrative unit;
- Kushet
– a sub-tabiya administrative unit;
- Neftegna
– literally a rifleman (Amharic), the name given to military leaders rewarded with land grants in southern Ethiopia as part of the Shewan-Amhara conquest;
- Qarree
– an Afaan Oromo term meaning an unmarried young woman, approximately 20–36;
- Qeerroo
– an Afaan Oromo term meaning an unmarried young man, approximately 20–36;
- Qubee
– the Afaan Oromo alphabet;
- Rist
– a descent-based land tenure system common in much of northern Ethiopia prior to the 1974 revolution;
- Tabiya
– a sub-wereda administration in Tigray, equivalent to the kebele in the rest of Ethiopia;
- Tehadso
– literally renewal, the purge of opposing factions and reorganisation of the EPRDF undertaken under Meles’ leadership in the early 2000s;
- Were
– a cell, a unit of party-state organisation;
- Wereda
– an administrative district;
- Weyane
– a revolt, refers to the revolt in south and east Tigray in 1943 sparked by tax reforms. The TPLF’s insurrection against the Derg was framed as a second Weyane.
Open access