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Land Reform in Revolutionary Ethiopia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Paul Brietzke
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Extract

The attention of the world was briefly focused on Ethiopia when Emperor Haile Selassie I, once considered the inviolable descendant of Solomon and Sheba, and the Elect of God, was deposed on 12 September 1974, and when two months later 60 public and military officials were executed without trial. The ‘creeping coup’ began in March 1974, and was undertaken by the military Co-ordinating Committee (commonly called the Dirgue, the Amharic word for ‘committee’) in the name of the peasants. Until the Nationalisation of Rural Lands Proclamation of 4 March 1975, however, the activities of the Dirgue were designed to secure an urban power base, and the peasants and the politics of numbers were tacitly irrelevant to a continuing paternal, factional, and urbanised political style. As the prologue to the Proclamation indicates, the Dirgue recognises the centrality of land reform to a broadly-based rural development:

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The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , December 1976 , pp. 637 - 660
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

page 637 note 1 Proclamation No. 31 of 1975, Negarit Gazeta Addis Ababa), Year 1934, No. 26.

page 638 note 1 Gill, Gerard, ‘The Agricultural Sector: introduction’, in Gill, (ed.), Readings on the Ethiopian Economy (Addis Ababa, 1974), p. 29Google Scholar. See also Bequele, Assefa and Chole, Eshetu, A Profile of the Ethiopian Economy (Addis Ababa, 1969), p. 28Google Scholar; and Cohen, John and Weintraub, Dov, Land and Peasants in Imperial Ethiopia (Assen, 1975), pp. 2–5Google Scholar.

page 638 note 2 Agriculture received only 10 per cent of total investment under the Third Five-Year Plan, 1968–73, and indeed averaged only 6 per cent throughout the 1960s. Gill, ‘Ethiopian Agriculture in Perspective’, loc. cit. pp. 47–51; and Cohen and Weintraub, op. cit. p. 8.

page 638 note 3 Cohen and Weintraub, op. cit. pp. 2–4.

page 638 note 4 T. J. Goering, ‘Some Thoughts on Future Strategies for Agricultural Development in Ethiopia’, in Gill (ed.), op. cit. p. 73.

page 639 note 1 Gilkes, Patrick, The Dying Lion:feudalism and modernization in Ethiopia (London, 1975), p. 84Google Scholar.

page 639 note 2 See Ellis, Gene, ‘The Feudal Paradigm as a Hindrance to Understanding Ethiopia’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), XIV, 2, 06 1976, p. 291Google Scholar; and Marina Ottaway, ‘Social Classes and Corporate Interests in the Ethiopian Revolution’, in ibid. XIV, 3, September 1976.

page 640 note 1 Gilkes, op. cit. pp. 101–2 and 170; Perham, Margery, The Government of Ethiopia (London, 1969 edn.), pp. 277–8Google Scholar; Hoben, Allan, ‘Social Anthropology and Development Planning – a Case-Study in Ethiopian Land Reform Policy’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, X, 4, 12 1972, p. 582Google Scholar; and Dunning, Harrison C., ‘Land Reform in Ethiopia: a case-study in non-development’, in U.C.L.A. Law Review (Los Angeles), XVIII, 2, 1970, p. 271Google Scholar.

page 640 note 2 See Moore, Barrington Jr, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy (Harmondsworth, 1973), pp. 98–9, 220–1, 257, 453, 480Google Scholar, and passim. Cf. also Lenski, Gerhard, Power and Privilege (New York, 1966), pp. 195–303Google Scholar; and Ellis, loc. cit. pp. 275–95.

page 640 note 3 Selassie, Alemante G., ‘Property Relationships in Ethiopia and their Implications for Development’, M.L.I. thesis, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1972, pp. 2, 7, and 32Google Scholar; and Ministry of Land Reform, ‘The Compilation of the General Land Tenure Survey Reports of Ten Non-Communal Provinces’, Addis Ababa, 1971, pp. 16 and 27.

page 641 note 1 Markakis, John, Ethiopia: anatomy of a traditional polity (Oxford, 1974), pp. 137 and 140Google Scholar; Dunning, loc. cit. p. 289; Alemante, op. cit. pp. 13–15; Cohen and Weintraub, op. cit. pp. 35 and 50–1; and Ellis, loc. cit. p. 282.

page 641 note 2 Hoben, Allan, Land Tenure Among the Amhara of Ethiopia: the dynamics of cognatic descent (Chicago and London, 1973), pp. 5, 7–10, 22–13, 23–5, and 247Google Scholar; Dunning, loc. cit. p. 99; Cohen and Weintraub, op. cit. p. 14; and Ellis, loc. cit. p. 278.

page 642 note 1 Mandefro, Billilign, ‘Agricultural Communities and the Civil Code’, in Journal of Ethiopian Law (Addis Ababa), VI, 1969, pp. 156, 160, and 164Google Scholar; and Hoben, ‘Social Anthropology’, loc. cit.

page 642 note 2 Ibid. and Dunning loc. cit. p. 296.

page 642 note 3 Huffnagel, H. P. (ed.), Agriculture in Ethiopia (Rome, 1961), p. 114Google Scholar; and Cohen, John N., ‘Ethiopia After Haile Selassie: the government land factor’, in African Affairs (London), LXXII, 289, 10 1973, p. 373Google Scholar.

page 643 note 1 Schwab, Peter, Decision-Making in Ethiopia: a study of the political process (London, 1972), p. 78Google Scholar; and Markakis, op. cit. p. 344.

page 643 note 2 Markakis, op. cit. pp. 346 and 350.

page 643 note 3 Consolidated Laws of Ethiopia (Addis Ababa, 1972), Section 17, Subject 11.

page 644 note 1 Guillat, Taye, ‘The Tax in Lieu of Tithe and the New Agricultural Income Tax’, in Dialogue (Addis Ababa), II, I, 1968, pp. 17–21Google Scholar

page 644 note 2 Proclamation No. 255 of 1967, Negarit Gazeta, Year 27, No.

page 644 note 3 Schwab, op. cit. p. 63. Although Schwab is specifically referring to the failure of land measurement in Gojjam in 1962, his comment is equally applicable in the 1967 Proclamation – see Article I7D (b) – and, perhaps, the 1975 Proclamation.

page 644 note 4 Proclamation No. 165 of 1960, Negarit Gazeta Extraordinary, Article 1205.

page 646 note 1 Legum, Colin, Ethiopia: the fall of Haile Selassie's Empire (London, 1975), p. 74Google Scholar. See also Cohen and Weintraub, op. cit. p. 86.

page 646 note 2 James, R. W., Land Tenure and Policy in Tanzania (Dar es Salaam, 1971), pp. 227 and 233–4.Google Scholar

page 647 note 1 Articles 4 (1) and (3), 9, and 10 (1). The official Negarit Gazeta version of the Proclamation published on 28 April 1975 differs slightly here (and elsewhere) from the version found in ‘Rural Lands Declared Public Property’, in the Ethiopian Herald (Addis Ababa), 4 March 1975. pp. 1. 3, and 7.

page 648 note 1 No. 241 of 1966, Consolidated Laws of Ethiopia, Section 27, Subject 2.

page 649 note 1 Ottaway, Marina, ‘Land Reform and Peasant Associations: a preliminary analysis’, in Rural Africana (East Lansing), 28, Fall 1975Google Scholar; and Hoben, Allan, ‘Perspectives on Land Reform in Ethiopia: the political role of the peasantry’Google Scholar, in Ibid.

page 649 note 2 Articles 12–13 and 15.

page 649 note 3 Articles 10 (1) and (6), 17–18, and 27.

page 650 note 1 These complex issues are discussed by Ottaway, ‘Land Reform’, loc. cit. and Hoben, ‘Perspectives’, loc. cit.

page 650 note 2 Hoben, Ibid.

page 651 note 1 Gilkes, op. cit. pp. 101 and 137

page 651 note 2 Goering, T. J., ‘The New Technologies in Agriculture and Their Relationship to Economic Development’, Addis Ababa, 1972, pp. 3 and 5–6; Gene Ellis, ‘Agricultural Development in Ethiopia’, First U.S. Conference on Ethiopian Studies, East Lansing, 1973; and Ottaway, ‘Social Classes’, loc. cit.Google Scholar

page 651 note 3 Decree No. 52 of 1965, Negarit Gazeta Extraordinary.

page 652 note 1 1 See ‘Declaration on Economic Policy of Socialist Ethiopia’, Addis Ababa, 7 February 1975; and Jacoby, E., Man and Land (London, 1971), pp. 89–91.Google Scholar

page 652 note 2 See Chao-Tai, Hung, ‘The Political Process of Land Reform’, in Uphoff, Norman T. and Ilchman, Warren F. (eds.), The Political Economy of Development (Berkeley, 1972), p. 299.Google Scholar

page 653 note 1 ‘New Fears for Selassie as the Army Splits’, in The Observer (London), 27 April 1975, p. 8; Ottaway, David, ‘Ethiopian Leaders Held after Coup Attempt’, in The Guardian (London), 28 April 1975, p. 4Google Scholar; and John Harbeson, ‘Ethiopia: the state of the revolution’ and ‘Ethiopian Land Reform and Integrated Rural Development’, Addis Ababa, 1975.

page 654 note 1 See Ghai, Yash and McAuslan, J.P.W.B., Public Law and Political Change in Kenya: a study of the legal framework of government from colonial times to the present (Nairobi, 1970), pp. 159–60 and 172–3; Markakis, op. cit. p. 385; and Alemante, op. cit. p. 43.Google Scholar

page 654 note 2 Marx, Karl, ‘The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte’, in Selected Works of Marx and Engels, Vol. 1 (Moscow, 1969), pp. 478–9Google Scholar. See Uphoff, and Ilchman, , ‘Development in the Perspective of Political Development’, in Uphoff and Ilchman (eds.), op. cit. pp. 106 and 109; and Jacoby, op. cit. p. 108.Google Scholar

page 655 note 1 Myrdal, Gunnar, Asian Drama, Vol. 1 (London, 1968), p. 100.Google Scholar

page 655 note 2 Cohen and Weintraub, op. cit. pp. 44–5, citing Wetterhall's calculations.

page 656 note 1 Ottaway, ‘Land Reform’, loc. cit.; and Legum, op. cit. p. 71.

page 657 note 1 1 ‘Ethiopian Provincial Administrator Assassinated’, Reuters despatch (Paris), 25 September 1975, 11.20 G.M.T.; ‘Ethiopian Security Forces Kill 88 Persons’, Reuters despatch (London), 9 October 1975, 10.30 G.M.T.; Maeve Owen, ‘Feudal Duel’, in The Guardian (London), 22 December 1975, p. 17; John Aveyard, ‘Eritrean March a Disaster’, Ibid. 29 June 1976, p. 2; Legum, op. cit. pp. 74 and 77; and Hoben, ‘Perspectives’, loc. cit.

page 657 note 2 Levine, Donald N., Wax and Gold: tradition and innovation in Ethiopian culture (Chicago and London, 1965), p. 38.Google Scholar

page 657 note 3 Cf. Hoben, Land Tenure, op. cit. pp. 5, 7–10, 12–13, 23–5, and 237; and Thomson, Blair, Ethiopia: the country that cut off its head (London, 1975), p. 131.Google Scholar

page 658 note 1 Hoben, Land Tenure, op. cit. p. 229; Ellis, loc. cit.; and Alemante, op. cit. pp. 39–40.

page 658 note 2 Schwab, op. cit. p. 86.

page 659 note 1 See Cohen, John M., ‘Ethiopian Provincial Elites and the Process of Change’, in Journal of Ethiopian Studies (Addis Ababa), xi, 1973, p. 107Google Scholar; and Shack, William A., The Gurage: a people of the Ensete culture (London, 1966), pp. 163 and 165.Google Scholar

page 659 note 2 Quoted by Reo M. Christensen et al., Ideologies and Modem Politics (London, 1971), p. 152. Similarities between the land reform experience of Ethiopia and China are only superficial, and comparisons with the Tanzanian model – much admired by the Ethiopian modernising élite – are more fruitful. See Ibid.. pp. 153–4; Gray, Jack, ‘The Chinese Model’, in Nove, Alex and Nuti, D. M. (eds.), Socialist Economics (Harmondsworth, 1972), pp. 492–5Google Scholar; and James, op. cit. pp. 21 and 26.

page 659 note 3 Thomson, op. cit. pp. 153–4

page 660 note 1 James, op. cit. p. 169.

page 660 note 2 Jacoby, op. cit. p. 341.

page 660 note 3 Quoted by Uphoff and Ilchman (eds.), op. cit. p. 75.